Trainee Teachers' Knowledge about Language. Occasional Papers, 33.

A survey of teacher trainees at the University of Southampton (England) investigated trainee knowledge level of English grammar and of language use around the world. Responses of English and modern language teacher trainees (n=19), non-language teacher trainees (n=35), and in some cases, undergraduates from the general student population (n=238) were compared. Questions elicited knowledge of language-related terms (e.g., "mother tongue, dialect, paraphrase"), grammatical forms (e.g., "passive verb, adjective, adverb, infinitive"), grammatical functions, (e.g., "subject, predicate, direct object"), spelling, pronunciation, plurality, English in comparison with other languages, language names and distribution, and language interrelationships. Attitudes about accent, dialect, and standard usage were also explored, and information on where/how the students had received their linguistic knowledge was requested. Results are summarized here. It is concluded that overall, for teachers preparing for a multilingual society about to enter a much closer association with continental Europe, greater linguistic knowledge is needed and should be included in preservice teacher education. The questionnaire is appended. (MSE)