Jim Anderson MA PGCE PhD
Before coming to Goldsmiths, Jim worked for many years as a Languages teacher in two London comprehensive schools. Although a specialist in French and German, he also supported bilingual students both in learning English as an additional language and in first language development. In the 1980s he coordinated innovative cross-curricular projects in 'language awareness' aimed at promoting critical understanding of language and positive attitudes towards the learning of all languages. He also worked for ten years as a school mentor in the Goldsmiths partnership scheme.
Since coming to Goldsmiths, Jim has taught on the Standard Secondary PGCE Languages course (French, German and Spanish). However, he has also led the introduction and development of the Flexible Secondary PGCE Languages course (Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi and Urdu) launched in 2002. This innovative course won a European Award for Languages as well as a special prize from the TDA for initial teacher education in 2007. Jim also lectures on the MA course module on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and supervises students pursuing higher degrees in this area.
Research interests
Drawing on his experience as coordinator of the Flexible PGCE, Jim’s recent research has explored pedagogies relevant to the background and needs of the wide range of learners involved in studying Languages across mainstream and complementary sectors. From 2004-2007 Jim directed a project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, to create curriculum guides for Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi, Tamil and Urdu, published by CILT, the National Centre for Languages in 2007. Building on this work he has just completed a study examining the importance of creativity in the Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi and Tamil classroom, a project also funded by Nuffield. A further area of interest is the significance of new media for bilingual learners and the need for expanded notions of literacy which take greater account of linguistic and cultural diversity and of the nature of multimodal communication.
Selected publications
Anderson, J. and Chung, Y-C. (2011) Finding a voice: arts based creativity in the community languages classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14:5, 551-569.
Anderson, J. (2011) Reshaping pedagogies for a plurilingual agenda. In Language Learning Journal, 39(2): 135-147.
Anderson, J. (2009) Relevance of CLIL in developing pedagogies for minority language teaching. In Marsh, D., Meehisto, P., Wolff, D., Aliaga, R., Asiakinen, T., Frigols-Martin, M. J., Hughes, S., Lange, G. (eds) CLIL Practice: Perspectives from the Field, pp. 124-132, CCN: University of Jyväskylä (Finland).
Anderson, J. (2008) Towards integrated second language teaching pedagogy for foreign and community/heritage languages in multilingual Britain. In Language Learning Journal, 36:1, 79-89.
Anderson, J. (2008) Pre- and in-service professional development of teachers of community/heritage languages in the UK: insider perspectives. Language and Education, 22:4, 283-297.
Anderson, J., Gregory, E. Kenner, C. (2008) The National Languages Strategy in the UK: are minority languages still on the margins? In C. Helot and A-M. de Mejia (eds) Integrated perspectives towards bilingual education: bridging the gap between prestigious bilingualism and the bilingualism of minorities. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp.183-202.
Anderson, J. and Obied, V. (2011) Languages, literacies and learning: from monocultural to intercultural perspectives. NALDIC Quarterly, 8:3, 16-26.
Anderson, J. and Chung, Y-C. (Forthcoming) Community languages, the arts and transformative pedagogy: developing active citizenship for the 21st century. Citizenship Teaching and Learning …