The discourse community of football

"Football's just a branch of science", so sang the theme tune of 'Jossy's Giants', but in a broad sense it could also lend a hand to the study of humanities.

Brian Moore's head

For some time, it has occurred to me that school pupils should be actively encouraged to study football as part of their English lessons. Football's rich lexicon has a lot to offer in terms of boosting an impressionable child's vocabulary. Indeed I recall being able to understand almost all of what Brian Moore and Barry Davies used to tell me whilst still at primary school - everything but the latter's evident dislike for my team. I understood that St James' Park's East Stand was designed with a cantilever roof, and I knew what that meant. European football coverage delivered the concept of aggregate scores as well as away goals, although I never did understand why commentators would insist that away goals counted double (they don't).

Clive Allen complaining

My introduction to watching football live, in a football ground was in the very early '80s. The concept of separating opposing fans inside the ground had been introduced and quickly I gained an understanding of the word segregation, meanwhile even the technical term for the humble goal net support structure also entered my vocabulary. Whilst playing for Crystal Palace in 1980, Clive Allen's sublime free-kick rebounded out of the goal and back into play. The referee, thinking the ball had struck the post, waved play on and during the protests, Clive can be clearly be seen screaming about the ball hitting the stanchion.

The scope for encouraging learning through football isn't restricted to just the development of English language skills but I think it's an example of how football can be used in education by leveraging a child's enthusiasm for something exciting, fun and not traditionally associated with learning. By bringing the world of football to the classroom, just think, subconsciously a child of eight or nine can begin to gain a healthy exposure to other words such as:

association, substitute, infringement, equalise, advantage, misconduct, caution, ricochet, erratic, disciplinary, suspension, abandoned, concession

As 'Half Man Half Biscuit' once said, "Apart from on commentary, where else on earth can you hear the word aplomb being used?"