University English Teachers’ Teaching Competencies in China: A Literature Review

Abstract

University English teachers in China comprise English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers for English-major students and College English (CE) teachers for non-English-major students in China. Teaching competencies of university English teachers have powerful effects on student learning and generally have several dimensions. However, there exist different taxonomies for the dimensions of teaching competencies. The purposes of this literature review are to first explore how researchers have defined teaching competency, secondly explore core dimensions of teaching competencies for the three teacher categories: university teachers, EFL teachers, and CE teachers, and finally investigate the differences in the core dimensions of teaching competencies between EFL teachers and CE teachers. Based on the core dimensions of each teacher category in the literature, the study concluded different three-dimension models of teaching competencies for university teachers, EFL teachers, and CE teachers. It found that CE teachers need to have an additional teaching competency in content knowledge related to their students’ disciplines besides all the required competencies for EFL teachers. EFL teachers are recommended to develop their competency in English language knowledge to meet English majors’ higher and intensive language needs. However, for CE teachers, although they don’t have to be as knowledgeable as EFL teachers in the English language, it would be more challenging for them since they are supposed to gain knowledge of students’ discipline which they might not have learned before.