Language Proficiency Of Teachers Research Articles

THE SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONALLY ORIENTED ENGLISH SPEAKING

An important component of foreign language communicative competence of teachers who implement subject-language integrated learning (CLIL) is their professionally oriented competence in speaking, which, as evidenced by experience in teaching foreign languages in Ukraine and the world, needs improvement.The relevant research analysis also indicates the actuality of developing CLIL teachers’ linguistic competence. The research aims at substantiating a sequence of activities for the development of professionally oriented speaking skills of CLIL teachers. It has been established that the requirements for the level of language proficiency of teachers are not the same in different educational contexts and are determined in the range from level B1 to C2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference. The sequence of activities has been developed within the electronic refresher course for teachers. The necessity to ensure the development of professionally oriented speaking competence of subject teachers through formal education and self-education, in particular, via an electronic course has been substantiated. E. Gierlinger’s L4C model has been analysed and recognized as the basis for the development of exercises and tasks for the e-course lesson “Language” within the topic “CLIL in the classroom”. The structure of the sequence of exercises and tasks, their types and kinds have been determined. We consider it expedient to distinguish two groups of exercises in the sequence structure: 1) to improve general speaking skills and abilities; 2) to improve professionally-oriented speaking skills. The sequence includes receptive non-communicative, reproductive semi-communicative exercises for substitution of elements into speech patterns, transformation and additions, expansion and completion of speech patterns, answers to questions, productive semi-communicative exercises for combining speech patterns into supra-phrase dialogic units monologues and dialogues) and communicative tasks. Examples of these exercises and tasks have been given. Exercises and tasks of the sequence have been discussed with colleagues, piloted in classes on methods of teaching foreign languages, and approved by experts. A conclusion has been made about the need to increase the motivation of teachers to self-education to teach subjects in a foreign language. The prospect of further research lies in peer evaluation of the course content and piloting the course on the MOODLE platform.

A Review of the Issues and Challenges to the English Language Reform at Malaysian Primary Education

This paper examines the scenery of English language curriculum reform in the Malaysian primary education system. It starts by unveiling the status of English language since Malaysia achieved its independence from the British colony. It provides an overall representation of the alternate government decision positioning English language in the Malaysian education system. It then reviews the initiatives and realities of each English language curriculum reform. In particular, the Integrated Curriculum for Primary School (ICPS) which was launched in 1982, the New Primary School Standards-Based Curriculum for English language education (SBELC), introduced in 2011, and the recent amalgamation of Common European Framework of Languages (CEFR) in Malaysia Education Roadmap (2015-2025) were duly discussed. This study was undertaken through a review of relevant articles published between 1987 and 2019 in order to determine the issues and difficulties teachers encountered during the English language curriculum reform and implementation process. This paper highlights the impeding factors which led to the inconsistency between the intended national curriculum and actual classroom realities such as language proficiency of teachers, insufficient support, and guidance for the teachers to cope with the reforms and centralised education structure. The emerging paradoxical challenges that teachers experienced throughout both language policy and curriculum reforms have aggravated the implementation of the curriculum, which consequently is deemed for immediate attention and to the extent for an additional transformation.

Classroom interaction in EMI high schools: Do teachers who are native speakers of English make a difference?

English Medium Instruction (EMI) in secondary education has increasingly become a focus of research. One dimension of this research has been on whole-class interaction patterns of teachers and students, interaction having been established as important for learning in both second language (L2) contexts and in content subjects such as science. Previous EMI studies have reported teacher dominance of the interaction and low levels of student participation. A possible explanation has been that research hitherto has investigated mostly local EMI teachers who have been reported to lack the linguistic proficiency to engage in ‘unscripted’ interaction. To explore this we investigated the interaction patterns of 15 secondary science teachers in EMI high school programs in China, for whom English was their first and most proficient language in order to eliminate the teacher language proficiency issue. Our findings show that interaction was similarly teacher dominated and students’ responses were of low linguistic complexity. Suggestions for further research to identify the reason for low student participation are given, together with some implications for EMI teacher professional development.

On the International Cooperation of Baotou Vocational and Technical Colleges

Economic Globalization makes the internationalization of higher vocational education an inevitable trend. However, there are some problems with the international cooperation of Baotou’s higher vocational schools. This paper analyzes the effective modes of the international cooperation of the Higher Vocational Colleges in Baotou from the perspective of the foreign language proficiency of teachers and students, the construction of teaching staff, the cooperation between schools and enterprises, the investment of funds, the renewal of ideas, and the Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools.

EFL teachers’ perceived language proficiency and teaching effectiveness

The importance of language teachers possessing high level of language proficiency has been extensively studied. On the other hand, studies related to teaching effectiveness (TE) have yet to define the concept of teaching effectiveness, and studies to relate teacher language proficiency (TLP) and TE, especially in Indonesian context are found to be scarce. In addition, the lack of both clear guidelines on how to assess TLP and current and official data of TLP in Indonesia only exacerbate this matter. Thus, the objective of this study was to find the relation between TLP and TE in the context of a language school in Bandung and the perception of its teachers on the role of TLP in the effectiveness of their teaching process. Using a mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design, the result of the data collection was then cross tabulated and analysed using Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact test. It was found that there was a strong positive relation between TLP and the two aspects of TE: managing the classroom, and understanding and communicating lesson content, but no relation between language proficiency and assessing students and giving feedback. This was further confirmed in the qualitative stage that teachers with lower language proficiency could also deliver lesson content, and assess students albeit with a lower degree of flexibility compared to their more proficient counterparts. This means that the relation between TLP and TE was complex and not straightforward, and that the mastery of one does not always entail the mastery of the other.

Perceived versus Measured Teaching Effectiveness: Does Teacher Proficiency Matter?

The impact of the non-native speaker’s (NNS) language proficiency on their personal teaching performance has often been an issue in TESOL teacher education programmes. To explore this issue a study was conducted to investigate the link between language teachers’ language proficiency and their teaching effectiveness. Classes taught by eight NNS teachers teaching the same or similar content were observed. Teaching effectiveness and teacher language proficiency were measured both through self-ratings and by independent raters. Teachers were compared in terms of such criteria as the quantity and quality of input provided, the amount and accuracy of metalanguage used, the extent and quality of feedback offered as well as classroom management skills. The results suggest that while language proficiency contributes to teaching effectiveness, other aspects of teaching are unrelated to a teacher’s command of their second language (L2).

French as a Second Language Teacher Candidates’ Language Proficiency and Confidence: Exploring the Influences of a Home-stay Practicum Experience

Teacher language proficiency and confidence influences students’ classroom experiences. With the view to supporting French as a second language teacher candidates’ language development, 15 teacher candidates participated in a home-stay practicum experience within a French milieu. This study sought to explore teacher candidates’ self-concept of proficiency and their confidence pre and post-experience. Both qualitative and quantitative findings show an increase in perceived proficiency and confidence.

Connecting Language Proficiency to (Self-Reported) Teaching Ability: A Review and Analysis of Research

This article provides a review and analysis of current research examining the connection between teacher language proficiency and their self-reported beliefs about their pedagogical abilities. Generally speaking, (English) language teachers require an advanced level of proficiency in order to be successful language teachers, but pedagogical skills are also necessary for effective instruction. However, examining the relationship between language proficiency and pedagogical skills is not straightforward given the nature of language teaching in which language is both the content and medium of instruction, issues with defining language proficiency (for teaching), and disagreement regarding effective teaching skills in different social contexts. One approach has been to focus on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about their abilities to enact specific classroom tasks in certain contexts and potential relationships with teachers’ reported language proficiency. The analysis provided in this article highlights how these constructs have been measured in the literature and if/how they are connected to one another across different studies. Overall, teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding their pedagogical abilities do correlate with language proficiency, but results are at times weak and/or inconclusive with inconsistent results across studies and contexts.

English and Language Teacher Education in Malaysia: An Exploration of the Influences on and Experiences of Pre-Service Teachers

In multilingual Malaysia, the place of English has been debated at various times since independence in 1957. An initiative to address concerns about levels of English language proficiency in the country through teaching Science and Mathematics in English was launched in the early 21st century. For some teachers, a trans-national component was introduced in the language teacher education programme and this in part was an investment in raising the language proficiency of teachers. This article draws on interview data with two pre-service teachers who spent two years in New Zealand and identifies common themes regarding their views on English and on the contribution of the trans-national education experience to their English language learning while abroad. Although English was viewed positively, and proficiency and motivation did not present obvious barriers to developing social networks with target language speakers, the data indicates that personal language learning goals may not have been met; it is important to note that other goals were, however, achieved. As a result, this article suggests that more explicit attention to language learning in the language teacher education programme may have facilitated English language proficiency development.

EFL/ESL Teachers’ General Language Proficiency and Learners’ Engagement

In view of the considerable and growing number of non-native EFL/ESL teachers across the globe, which has been reported to surpass that of native English teachers (NETs), much controversy has been aroused globally, especially in the Asian context, over issues concerning the language proficiency of these Non-Native English Teachers (NNETs). Further commotion was fueled after the revelation of some of NNETs’ unsatisfactory linguistic competence and/or knowledge in research and official language proficiency tests for teachers. This has led many to challenge whether NNETs are qualified as EFL/ESL teachers. Equally contentious in the literature are the formats, content, rationale, and difficulty of teacher language proficiency assessment. The focus of the present study, however, steers to a slightly new direction supported by the philosophy of greater practicality and usefulness for practitioners in ELT. This article reports on a qualitative study that delves into the relationship between teachers’ general language proficiency (hereinafter referred to as TGLP) and their teaching effectiveness operationalized by learners’ engagement. Classroom observations (of both NETs and NNETs), post-observation interviews with teachers and students, as well as interviews with highly proficient tertiary-level EFL students were conducted. The preliminary findings reveal that teachers’ general linguistic competence plays an important role in ELT classrooms but once a proficiency threshold is met, higher language standards play a lesser role compared with other factors in contributing to teaching effectiveness. This article ends with implications for stakeholders in ELT as well as practical suggestions for further (quantitative) studies based on the present findings.

Developing classroom language assessment benchmarks for Japanese teachers of English as a foreign language

IntroductionSince the Japanese government has called for English to be taught through English (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2003), there has been increasing interest in English language classrooms in upper secondary schools. The government has proposed English proficiency scores that Japanese teachers of English should attain, but has not yet specified clearly what English language use should be like in the classroom.Case descriptionThis case study describes the theoretical aspect of the development of a benchmark assessment for use in English language classrooms with Japanese teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study first defines teacher language proficiency, the use of the foreign language in the classroom, with particular attention to teacher language awareness (Andrews, 2007) as a bridging mechanism between pedagogical content knowledge and the foreign language proficiency of Japanese teachers of EFL. This definition of teacher language proficiency is further elaborated in terms of the legitimate use of benchmark assessments in English language classrooms in Japan with a thorough literature review of L2 benchmark assessments in other parts of the world.Discussion and EvaluationThe present case study examines the ideal assessor conditions after thorough review on assessor bias from the language testing/assessment research, while the development of assessment benchmarks for use in Japan is discussed based on a high-stakes benchmark assessment for teachers of EFL in Hong Kong. The proposed benchmarks acknowledge the complexity of classroom English use, thus employing four different scale types to accommodate the multifaceted characteristics of teacher language proficiency.ConclusionsThe current case study concludes with the exploration of tasks remaining for the future development of our benchmark assessments for use in ongoing professional development.

English in Cameroon: Issues of Teacher Language Proficiency

Over the last three decades, the standards of English in Cameroon as well as the performance of students in theEnglish language at the General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination have been on a steady decline. Whilemany Cameroonians keep making their way into the English language teaching industry as a result of the rapidexpansion of English as a global lingua franca, the quality of language input administered to learners seems to leavemuch to desire. Thus, although a number of studies have attributed the continuous downward spiralling of standardsto a variety of reasons, this study set out to investigate the extent to which teachers of English as a second language(ESL) in Cameroon master the language they teach, as a demonstration that the teacher is one of the major problemsto be addressed. Our main objectives were to test teachers’ language skills. Employing the Homogeneous PurposiveSampling Technique, a total of 40 ESL teachers in Tiko and Buea Sub-divisions of the South West Region ofCameroon were investigated using questionnaires and interviews. Of the 40, 36 showed difficulties with spelling, 33with punctuation, 30 with pronunciation, 28 with capitalization, 27 with sentence construction, and five withagreement.

English-for-Teaching: rethinking teacher proficiency in the classroom

The expansion of English teaching in state education systems places increasing demands on English language teachers and how they are trained. A major thrust of these efforts has focused on improving teachers’ English language proficiency. This expectation is manifested in policy and pedagogical directives that teachers ‘teach English in English’. We argue for a reconceptualization of teacher language proficiency, not as general English proficiency but as a specialized subset of language skills required to prepare and teach lessons. This concept of English-for-Teaching as a bounded form of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for the classroom builds on what teachers know about teaching, while introducing and confirming specific classroom language. This article describes how the construct was developed and then describes sample classroom tasks and the language needed to enact them in three major areas: managing the classroom, understanding and communicating lesson content, and assessing students and giving feedback.

Language awareness and communication as part of teacher education at the University of Pretoria, South Africa

Teacher language proficiency is central to learner success – where a teacher is not proficient in the medium of instruction the likelihood of a learner experiencing success is minimal. Within the South African context the majority of teachers (and learners) are not home language speakers of English and thus ensuring teacher proficiency to teach through the medium of instruction is vital. Success in the classroom depends on the teacher’s discourse and interactive skills, and requires effective communication skills and a high level of language proficiency. Teachers need to be aware of the importance of language in their classrooms, regardless of which subject or learning area they teach. To address the issue of teacher language proficiency, the University of Pretoria requires all students in the BEd programme to complete a one year module dealing with teacher language awareness. This module, entitled “Language across the Curriculum’ (JTK 200), is for some students teachers the only exposure to teacher English language awareness. It is, indeed, questionable if a single year module can address the entire scope of teacher language awareness. This article focuses on the issues surrounding teacher English language proficiency and the design of the theoretical aspects demonstrated through community engagement projects as constituted in the current JTK 200 module. This article addresses issues of course design and development with regards to teacher language proficiency, what has been learned thus far and how this will be incorporated into future offerings of the course. Keywords: teacher training, language across the curriculum, medium of instruction, community engagement, teacher language proficiency, course design.

Grammar Error Strike Hard: Language Proficiency Testing of Hong Kong Teachers and the Four "Noes"

This article first reviews important issues of language, power, and testing. It then examines in critical fashion a particular instance of the use of language testing by the Hong Kong government, namely, the Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (LPAT). Treating the LPAT developments as a form of narrative rather than debate, it presents analysis through a context-events-problem-solution-evaluation discourse sequence that perpetuates nonresolution. This procedure permits ongoing reference to and evaluation of the political, educational, and language setting, the schizophrenic position of English, government language policy documentation, the test itself, and media coverage of the results. It indicates the detrimental effects of the LPAT for test-takers, for learning, and for the community at large, advancing and justifying some alternatives and explaining why such lines of resistance lie beyond the purview of most teacher victims. It concludes that the LPAT examination should be heeded both as an early sign of increasingly illiberal political tendencies and as a warning example of bad educational practice. Key words: Hong Kong, language and power, discourse of crisis, falling standards, teacher language proficiency; benchmarking, teacher education

Assessing the language proficiency of teachers: are there any border controls?

Assessing the language proficiency of teachers: are there any border controls?

Assessing the language proficiency of teachers: are there any border controls?

This article takes up some of the issues identified by Douglas (2000) as problematic for Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) testing, making reference to a number of performance-based instruments designed to assess the language proficiency of teachers or intending teachers. The instruments referred to include proficiency tests for teachers of Italian as a foreign language in Australia (Elder, 1994) and for trainee teachers using a foreign language (in this case English) as medium for teaching school subjects such as mathematics and science in Australian secondary schools (Elder, 1993b; Viete, 1998). The first problem addressed in the article has to do with specificity: how does one define the domain of teacher proficiency and is it distinguishable from other areas of professional competence or, indeed, from what is often referred to as ‘general’ language proficiency? The second problem has to do with the vexed issue of authenticity: what constitutes appropriate task design on a teacher-specific instrument and to what extent can ‘teacher-like’ language be elicited from candidates in the very artificial environment of a test? The third issue pertains to the role of nonlanguage factors (such as strategic competence or teaching skills) which may affect a candidate’s response to any appropriately contextualized test-task and whether these factors can or should be assessed independently of the purely linguistic qualities of the test performance. All of these problems are about blurred boundaries, between and within real world domains of language use, between the test and the nontest situation, and between the components of ability or knowledge measured by the test. It is argued that these blurred boundaries are an indication of the indeterminacy of LSP, as currently conceptualized, as an approach to test development.

The unified validity of the Four Skills Exam: applying Messick's framework

In the USA, 17 states use Spanish-language proficiency tests to ensure that bilingual education teachers are able to deliver academic instruction in Spanish to school-age students. However, little is known about the tests’ validity. In this study the unified validity of the Four Skills Exam (FSE), used in New Mexico for nearly 18 years, was evaluated using Messick’s framework (1989). Through this analysis, the FSE was found to lack an adequate degree of validity due to questionable psychometric properties and factors external to the test. Messick’s framework offers bilingual educators a comprehensive blueprint for assessing the validity of these tests. The review of the FSE also elucidates pitfalls in bilingual education teacher language proficiency testing which other states should avoid.

Conclusions from the British FLES Experiment

ABSTRACT This article questions the validity of many of the conclusions of the ten‐year experiment with teaching French in the primary schools in England and Wales contained in the report, Primary French in the Balance. The answers to the original questions posed by the Schools Council in 1964 are frequently based on fairly restricted opinion which either conflicts with other opinion or with the actual data in the report. Certain parallels are drawn between this report and the ‘Pennsylvania Project’ of several years ago in such areas as the correlations between pupils' fluency and the teacher's language proficiency.