Assessing Teachers' Language Proficiency

Abstract

The question of what language skills and competence are required of teachers, in order to be able to deliver lesson content appropriately and effectively, has been the subject of considerable debate given the growing numbers of non‐native teaching professionals employed in contexts where the medium of instruction is not their mother tongue. On the one hand, there is a view that a teacher should be native‐like or have complete control of the language that is the medium of instruction, the object of instruction, or both; on the other hand, it is argued that teacher language proficiency standards should be defined in relation to the particular context of instruction and in light of what is realistic given available training resources. The chapter demonstrates how these competing views play out by reviewing a variety of models for assessing the language proficiency of teachers as operationalized in the USA, the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Brazil, and elsewhere. The models range from those that characterize the teacher proficiency construct in general linguistic terms to others that conceive of it as context specific, and as hence requiring performance‐based tasks and assessment criteria that mirror the target language use domain in very particular ways; for example, by requiring the test candidate to assume the role of the teacher when undertaking test tasks, or by assessing the teacher in the actual classroom situation. Contexts considered include higher education, with its demand for international teaching assistants capable of delivering high‐level subject content in a manner that is intelligible and acceptable to students, and school foreign language classrooms, where metalinguistic knowledge or knowledge about the target language can be considered part of the assessment construct. The chapter also considers issues of policy surrounding the delivery of teacher language tests or assessments and their impact on educational systems.

Exploring EFL teachers’ English language proficiency: Lessons from Indonesia

“…Third, the addition of 4000 word levels allows the test to better reveal gaps in lexical knowledge than in the earlier versions of the test. As indicated by Renandya et al (2018) and Elder and Kim (2013), to have a more comprehensive and reliable results of EFL teachers' English proficiency, the design of the future test should also consider the assessment of not only the teachers' general proficiency in English but also their pedagogical language proficiency. Researchers could also investigate what variables affect EFL teachers' language attrition in non-English speaking countries, other than low levels of input and use of the target language.…”

A Study of the Use of the TOEFL iBT® Test Speaking and Listening Scores for International Teaching Assistant Screening

“…The curriculum for the teaching component of the ITA 5501 course focused on the types of language forms that instructors need to lead a class. Elder and Kim (), in defining the construct of teacher language proficiency, noted that teachers need to be able to do things involving classroom management and giving instructions, that involve “language forms and discourse strategies that may not be routinely used in everyday communication” (p. 2). These types of “teacher” language forms are a specific focus of the ITA 5501 curriculum.…”

“…However, there also seems to be a language threshold below which teaching competence cannot compensate for an instructor's lack of oral English proficiency (Bailey, ; Elder, ; Elder & Kim, ; Halleck & Moder, ). Similar to how Chalhoub‐Deville and Deville () argued that there is a minimum threshold of English proficiency that students need to have to be able to perform in an English‐medium academic context, there also seems to be a minimum threshold of English proficiency for instructors.…”

Vol. 19 Supplementary: 20th Anniversary Special Issue

“…In terms of the first assumption, these external exams are not perfect at judging a person's competency in English. These external tests have served different purposes (e.g., Elder & Kim, 2014). In terms of the second assumption, it is not always true that proficient people can become good English teachers (e.g., Burke, 2015;Elder and Kim, 2014).…”