Four ways personal language autobiographies can transform the English teaching of Generation Alpha

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Gilbert, Francis. 2025. Four ways personal language autobiographies can transform the English teaching of Generation Alpha. In: Lorna Smith, ed. Secondary English for Generation Alpha: Humane Pedagogy for Local, National and International Contexts. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 119-130. ISBN 9781032765990 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

One of the most powerful and effective learning activities in the English classroom used to be a form of autobiography called a Personal Language Autobiography (PLA). Its holistic, contextual approach, seeking to draw out a pupil’s experiences of language, has been discarded in favour of more mechanical ways of teaching language and grammar. This chapter outlines four ways the PLA can transform the teaching of English for Generation Alpha, arguing that the PLA transforms students into experts in their own language use; provides a great tool for teaching grammar; nurtures students’ critical and creative writing skills; and it is a powerful teacher-education resource.

Item Type:

Book Section

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003479215

Additional Information:

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Secondary English for Generation Alpha: Humane Pedagogy for Local, National and International Contexts on 13 June 2025, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Secondary-English-for-Generation-Alpha-Humane-Pedagogy-for-Local-National-and-International-Contexts/Smith/p/book/9781032765990. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way."

Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the support and ideas of Dr Maggie Pitfield, Goldsmiths, who assisted with me with thinking through many of the key concepts in this article, and reading early drafts.

Keywords:

personal language histories, funds of knowledge, teacher education, dialect

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Educational Studies

Dates: