'You expect them to talk to you in a way that's like... well... proper': Secondary School English Teachers' Conceptualisations of Language in the Classroom

This thesis reports the findings of a sociolinguistic investigation into six secondary school English teachers’ conceptualisations of language in the classroom. It focuses on the struggle teachers face around how to view themselves and language in their classroom, and the effect this has on their role as English teachers. By conducting a thematic analysis of six interviews with secondary school English teachers in north-west Leeds, I explore the co-construction of five key themes in my dataset: ‘in/correct or im/proper English’, ‘in/appropriate language’, ‘the conflation of written and spoken grammar’, ‘students’ language as deficient’, and ‘teachers as models’. I conduct interactional analyses of key extracts to explore how these themes were constitutive not just of participants’ talk about English language, but also the role of the English language teacher. By tracing the themes’ origins and contextualising them in the post-2010 educational policy landscape, I argue that, when combined, the themes in my dataset effect an oversimplified model/template for teaching students English language.