Article

RELC Journal

Competence and Performance 41(2) 101122

The Author(s) 2010

in Language Teaching Reprints and permission: sagepub.

co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0033688210372953
rel.sagepub.com

Jack C. Richards
Regional Language Centre, Singapore

Abstract
In order to plan for the professional development of English language teachers, we need to have
a comprehensive understanding of what competence and expertise in language teaching consists
of. What essential skills, knowledge, values, attitudes and goals do language teachers need, and
how can these be acquired? This paper seeks to explore these questions by examining ten core
dimensions of skill and expertise in language teaching. These are: language proficiency, content
knowledge, teaching skills, contextual knowledge, language teacher identity, learner-focussed
teaching, specialized cognitive skills, theorizing from practice, joining a community of practice,
and professionalism. Each construct will be examined, its contribution to teacher competence
and performance illustrated, and implications discussed for the development of English language
teachers and teacher education programmes.

Keywords
language teaching, teacher development, teacher education, teaching skills, expertise

Introduction

What is it that language teachers need to know and do to be effective classroom practi-
tioners and language teaching professionals? How is this knowledge and practice
acquired? And how does it change over time? The issue of language teachers knowl-
edge and skill base is fundamental to our understanding of effective teaching and to
approaches to language teacher education. In this paper I want to explore the knowl-
edge, beliefs and skills that language teachers make use of in their practice. My focus is
on the understandings and practices of those teachers who would generally be regarded
by their peers as exemplary language teaching professionals. We all recognize those
teachers when we work with them. But what distinguishes the way they understand and
approach their work? In trying to answer this question I will focus on ten core dimen-
sions of language teaching expertise and practice. They are not in any hierarchical rela-
tionship and there is some overlap among them but they help lay out some of the basic

Corresponding author:
Jack C. Richards, Regional Language Centre, Singapore.
[email: [email protected]]
102 RELC Journal 41(2)

territory and will hopefully help conceptualize the nature of competence, expertise and
professionalism in language teaching.
But first a word of caution. The nature of what we mean by effectiveness in teaching
is not always easy to define because conceptions of good teaching differ from culture to
culture (Tsui, 2009). In some cultures a good teacher is one who controls and directs
learners and who maintains a respectful distance between the teacher and the learners.
Learners are the more or less passive recipients of the teachers expertise. Teaching is
viewed as a teacher-controlled and directed process. In other cultures the teacher may be
viewed more as a facilitator. The ability to form close interpersonal relations with stu-
dents is highly valued and there is a strong emphasis on individual learner creativity and
independent learning. Students may even be encouraged to question and challenge what
the teacher says. These different understandings of good teaching are reflected in the
following teacher comments:

When I present a reading text to the class, the students expect me to go through it word by word
and explain every point of vocabulary or grammar. They would be uncomfortable if I left it for
them to work it out on their own or if I asked them just to try to understand the main ideas.
(Egyptian EFL teacher).

If a student doesnt succeed, it is my fault for not presenting the materials clearly enough. If a
student doesnt understand something I must find a way to present it more clearly. (Taiwanese
EFL teacher).

If I do group work or open-ended communicative activities, the students and other colleagues
will feel that Im not really teaching them. They will feel that I didnt have anything really
planned for the lesson and that Im just filling in time. (Japanese EFL teacher).

The way a person teaches and his or her view of what good teaching is will therefore
reflect his or her cultural background and personal history, the context in which he or she
is working, and the kind of students in his or her class. For this reason teaching is some-
times said to be situated and can only be understood within a particular context. This is
reflected in a comment by an Australian student studying Chinese in China and reacting
to the Chinese approach to teaching:

The trouble with Chinese teachers is that theyve never done any real teacher-training courses
so they dont know how to teach. All they do is follow the book. They never give us any
opportunity to talk. How the world do they expect us to learn?

Compare this with the comments of a Chinese student studying in Australia:

Australian teachers are very friendly but they cant teach very well. I never know where theyre
going theres no system and I just get lost. Also, theyre often very badly trained and dont
have a thorough grasp of their subject. (Brick, 1991: 153).

Notwithstanding the reality of culturally determined understandings of good teaching, I

will focus in what follows on those dimensions of teacher knowledge and skill that seem
Richards 103

to be at the core of expert teacher competence and performance in language teaching, at

least from the perspective of a western orientation and understanding of teaching.

1.The Language Proficiency Factor

Most of the worlds English teachers are not native-speakers of English and it is not
necessary to have a native-like command of a language in order to teach it well
(Canagarajah, 1999). Some of the best language classes I have observed have been taught
by teachers for whom English was a foreign or second language. Conversely, some of the
worst classes I have observed have been taught by native-speakers. So the issue is, how
much of a language does one need to know to be able to teach it effectively, and how does
proficiency in a language interact with other aspects of teaching? (Bailey, 2006; Kamhi-
Stein, 2009).
To answer the first question we need to start by considering the language-specific
competencies that a language teacher needs in order to teach effectively. These include
the ability to do the following kinds of things:

1. To comprehend texts accurately.

2. To provide good language models.
3. To maintain use of the target language in the classroom.
4. To maintain fluent use of the target.
5. To give explanations and instructions in the target language.
6. To provide examples of words and grammatical structures and give accurate
explanations (e.g. of vocabulary and language points).
7. To use appropriate classroom language.
8. To select target-language resources (e.g. newspapers, magazines, internet websites).
9. To monitor his or her own speech and writing for accuracy.
10. To give correct feedback on learner language.
11. To provide input at an appropriate level of difficulty.
12. To provide language-enrichment experiences for learners.

Learning how to carry out these aspects of a lesson fluently and comprehensively in
English is an important dimension of teacher-learning for those whose mother tongue
is not English. There is a threshold proficiency level the teacher needs to have reached
in the target language in order to be able to teach effectively in English. A teacher who
has not reached this level of proficiency will be more dependent on teaching resources
(e.g. textbooks) and less likely to be able to engage in improvisational teaching
(Medgyes, 2001).
For teachers who are native speakers of English, other discourse skills will also need
to be acquired skills that enable the teacher to manage classroom discourse so that it
provides maximum opportunities for language learning. These discourse skills relate to
the following dimensions of teaching:

a. To be able to monitor ones language use in order to provide suitable learning

input.
b. To avoid unnecessary colloquialisms and idiomatic usage.
104 RELC Journal 41(2)

c. To provide a model of spoken English appropriate for students learning English

as an international language.
d. To provide language input at an appropriate level for learners.

However apart from the contribution to teaching skills that language proficiency makes,
research has also shown that a language teachers confidence is also dependent upon his
or her own level of language proficiency, so a teacher who perceives herself to be weak
in the target language will have reduced confidence in her teaching ability and an inad-
equate sense of professional legitimacy (Seidlhofer, 1999). This may be why research
into teachers views of their needs for professional development generally identifies the
need for further language training as a high priority (Lavender, 2002).
A variety of approaches have been proposed to address the language proficiency of
non-native speaking English teachers. Many link the language component to the meth-
odology component, so that teachers practice the language skills needed to implement
particular classroom teaching strategies (Cullen, 1994; Snow, Kahmi-Stein and Brinton,
2006). In this way language proficiency is linked to classroom teaching and to carrying
out specific instructional tasks. Cullen (2002) uses lesson transcripts to help teachers
develop a command of classroom language. However in general, insufficient attention
has been given to the issue of language proficiency in many TESOL teacher-preparation
programmes.

2.The Role of Content Knowledge

A recurring issue in second language teacher-education concerns what the content
knowledge or subject matter of language teaching is, and consequently the question of
what it is that we think teachers need to know in order to reach their full potential as
language teachers. This is the content knowledge dilemma, and it has provided a ripe
field for debate and discussion since SLTE emerged as a discipline. Here I am distin-
guishing knowledge from skill, since while there is little disagreement concerning the
practical skills language teachers need to master, there is much less agreement concern-
ing what the formal or academic subject matter of language teaching is. Content knowl-
edge refers to what teachers need to know about what they teach (including what they
know about language teaching itself), and constitutes knowledge that would not be
shared with teachers of other subject areas.
Traditionally the content knowledge of language teaching has been drawn from the
discipline of applied linguistics, which emerged in the 1960s at about the same time
that language teaching was being revitalized with the emergence of new methodologies
such as audiolingualism and situational language teaching (Richards and Rodgers, 2001).
Applied linguistics generated the body of specialized academic knowledge and theory
that provided the foundation of new approaches to language teaching, and this knowl-
edge base was represented in the curricula of MA programmes which began to be offered
from this time. Typically it consisted of courses in language analysis, learning theory,
methodology, and sometimes a teaching practicum, but the practical skills of language
teaching were often undervalued. The debate over the relation between theory and prac-
tice has been with us ever since.
Richards 105

Some of the confusion that often appears in debate over the theory-versus practice
issue is due to a failure to distinguish between disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical
content knowledge. Disciplinary knowledge refers to a circumscribed body of knowl-
edge that is considered by the language teaching profession to be essential to gaining
membership of the profession. Such knowledge is acquired by special training, and pos-
sessing knowledge of this kind leads to professional recognition and status. It is impor-
tant to stress here that disciplinary knowledge is part of professional education and does
not translate into practical skills. When language teaching emerged as an academic dis-
cipline in the 1960s this disciplinary knowledge was largely drawn from the field of
linguistics, but today it encompasses a much broader range of content. For example, it
could include: the history of language teaching methods, second language acquisition,
sociolinguistics, phonology and syntax, discourse analysis, theories of language, critical
applied linguistics and so on.
Pedagogical content knowledge on the other hand refers to knowledge that provides
a basis for language teaching. It is knowledge which is drawn from the study of language
teaching and language learning itself and which can be applied in different ways to the
resolution of practical issues in language teaching. It could include course work in areas
such as curriculum planning, assessment, reflective teaching, classroom management,
teaching children, teaching the four skills and so on. The Teacher Knowledge Test devel-
oped by Cambridge ESOL is an example of a recent attempt to provide a basis in relevant
pedagogical content knowledge for entry-level teachers.
The language teaching literature often divides clearly into texts addressing either dis-
ciplinary knowledge or pedagogical content knowledge. So for example, we can com-
pare a book such as Ortegas Understanding Second Language Acquisition (Ortega,
2008), with Lightbown and Spadas (2006) How Languages are Learned. Ortegas excel-
lent book, like many tomes on second language acquisition, contributes to disciplinary
knowledge, throws valuable light on such issues as the critical period hypothesis, lan-
guage transfer, cognition and language learning, aptitude, and so on but does not deal
with practical application. Lightbown and Spadas book on the otherhand contributes to
pedagogical content knowledge since it is a part of a series designed to resolve practical
issues in language teaching. Although it covers some of the same topics that are included
in Ortegas book, the focus is not so much on research issues involved in investigating a
phenomenon but practical implications of research. Similarly a book such as Hallidays
An Introduction to Functional Grammar (Halliday, 2004) as with similar books dealing
with models of language analysis, belongs to the domain of disciplinary knowledge,
while Parrotts Grammar For English Language Teachers (2000) belongs to that of
pedagogical content knowledge.
A sound grounding in relevant pedagogical content knowledge should prepare teach-
ers to be able to do things such as the following:

1. Understand learners needs.

2. Diagnose learners learning problems.
3. Plan suitable instructional goals for lessons.
4. Select and design learning tasks.
5. Evaluate students learning.
106 RELC Journal 41(2)

6. Design and adapt tests.

7. Evaluate and choose published materials.
8. Adapt commercial materials.
9. Make use of authentic materials.
10. Make appropriate use of technology.
11. Evaluate their own lessons.

The role of pedagogical content knowledge is demonstrated in a study by Angela Tang

(cited in Richards, 1998), in which she compared two groups of English teachers in Hong
Kong one with training in literature and one without such training and how they
would exploit literary texts in their teaching. Some of the differences between these two
groups of teachers are seen in the following summary of the research findings:

Literature majors Non-literature majors

Saw ways of dealing with any difficulties the Worried about how to deal with the difficulties
texts posed. the texts posed.
Saw a wide variety of teaching possibilities Planned to use the texts mainly for reading
with the texts. comprehension.
Addressed literary aspects of the texts. Did not address literary aspects of the texts.
A variety of strategies were used to help Mainly used questions to check comprehensions
students explore the meanings of the texts. of the texts.

So we see here that possessing relevant content knowledge made a substantial differ-
ence to how teachers planned their lessons. Teachers with relevant content knowledge
should consequentially be able to make better and more appropriate decisions about teach-
ing and learning and to arrive at more appropriate solutions to problems than a teacher
without such knowledge. However the central issue of what constitutes appropriate disci-
plinary knowledge and what is appropriate pedagogical content knowledge, remains an
unresolved issue, and studies that have sought to investigate the impact of content knowl-
edge on teachers practices have produced very mixed results (Bartels, 2005).
A further important component of professional knowledge in todays classrooms has
been termed technological pedagogical content knowledge, or TPCK (Mishra and
Koehler, 2006) that is, the ability to incorporate and integrate technology into teach-
ing. Reinders (2009: 231) points out that depending on the teachers level of techno-
logical expertise, this could involve being able to first, use a certain technology;
second, being able to create materials and activities using that technology: and third,
being able to teach with technology. The use of technology in teaching becomes more
important in present times because teachers also have to be able to keep up with the
technological knowledge of their students. Young learners today have more access to
information and more tools available to them to manage their own learning. Reinders
(2009: 236) suggests that the challenge for teachers will be more one of helping learn-
ers develop the skills to deal successfully with the increased control and independence
that technology demands.
Becoming a language teacher also involves learning to talk the talk, that is,
acquiring the specialized discourse that we use among ourselves and that helps
Richards 107

define the subject matter of our profession. This means becoming familiar with
several hundred specialized terms such as learner-centredness, learner autonomy,
self-access, alternative assessment, blended learning, task-based instruction,
phoneme, Common European Framework that we use on a daily basis in talking
about our teaching. Being able to use the appropriate discourse (and of course,
understand what it means) is one criteria for membership of the language teaching
profession.

3.Teaching Skills
The initial challenge for novice teachers is to acquire the basic classroom skills needed
to present and navigate their lessons. Teaching from this perspective is an act of perfor-
mance, and for a teacher to be able to carry him or herself through the lesson he/she has
to have a repertoire of techniques and routines at his/her fingertips. These include rou-
tines and procedures for:

1. Opening the lesson.

2. Introducing and explaining tasks.
3. Setting up learning arrangements.
4. Checking students understanding.
5. Guiding student practice.
6. Monitoring students language use.
7. Making transitions from one task to another.
8. Ending the lesson.

What we normally mean by the term teacher training refers to instruction in basic
classroom skills such as these, often linked to a specific teaching context. Training
involves the development of a repertoire of teaching skills, acquired through observing
experienced teachers and often through practice-teaching in a controlled setting using
activities such as micro-teaching or peer-teaching. Good teaching from a training per-
spective is viewed as the mastery of a set of skills or competencies. Experiencing teach-
ing in a variety of different situations, with different kinds of learners and teaching
different kinds of content is how a repertoire of basic teaching skills is acquired. Over
time, experience is said to lead to the development of routines that enable these kinds of
skills to be performed fluently, automatically and with less conscious thought and atten-
tion, enabling the teachers attention to focus on other dimensions of the lesson (Tsui,
2009; Borg, 2006).
This view of the process of teaching has been extended through research on teacher
cognition (Borg, 2006, 2009). Concepts such as teacher decision-making introduce a
cognitive dimension to the notion of skills, since each skill involves the teacher in
engaging in sophisticated processes of observation, reflection, and assessment and mak-
ing on-line decisions about which course of action to take from a range of alternatives
that are available. These interactive decisions often prompt teachers to change course
during a lesson, based on critical incidents and other unanticipated aspects of the
lesson.
108 RELC Journal 41(2)

As teachers accumulate experience and knowledge there is thus a move towards a

degree of flexibility in teaching and the development of what is sometimes called impro-
visational teaching. Thus research reviewed by Borg and others describes some of the
following characteristics of expert teachers:

1. They have a wide repertoire of routines and strategies that they can call upon.
2. They are willing to depart from established procedures and use their own solu-
tions and are more willing to improvise.
3. They learn to automatize the routines associated with managing the class; this
skill leaves them free to focus on content.
4. They improvise more than novice teachers they make greater use of interactive-
decision making as a source of their improvisational performance.
5. They have more carefully developed schemata of teaching on which to base their
practical classroom decisions.
6. They pay more attention to language issues than novice teachers (who worry
more about classroom management).
7. They are able to anticipate problems and have procedures available to deal with
them.
8. They carry out needed phases more efficiently, spending less time on them.
9. They relate things that happen to the bigger picture, seeing them not in the con-
text of a particular lesson.
10. They distinguish between significant and unimportant issues that arise.

So while learning to teach from the perspective of skill development can be thought of as
the mastery of specific teaching competencies, at the same time these reflect complex
levels of thinking and decision-making, and it is these cognitive processes that also need
to be the focus of teacher training. From the perspective of teacher cognition, teaching is
not simply the application of knowledge and of learned skills. It is viewed as a much
more complex cognitively-driven process affected by the classroom context, the teach-
ers general and specific instructional goals, the teachers beliefs and values, the learners
motivations and reactions to the lesson, and the teachers management of critical
moments during a lesson.

4. Contextual Knowledge
A key factor in understanding any teaching situation is the social and physical context the
rules, facilities, values, expectations, and personal backgrounds, which act as resources,
constraints, and direct influences on teaching and learning (Posner, 1985: 2).

Sociocultural perspectives on learning emphasize that learning is situated, i.e. takes

place in specific settings or contexts that shape how learning takes place. Language
teachers teach in many different contexts and in order to function in those contexts need
to acquire the appropriate contextual knowledge that will enable, for example, an
Australian teacher to learn how to be an effective teacher in China or vice versa, or a
Singapore teacher how to be an effective EFL teacher in Japan. Different contexts for
Richards 109

teaching create different potentials for learning that the teacher must come to understand.
For example, a teacher might be teaching in a campus-based ESL programme, in a local
public school, in a community college, or a private language institute. Depending on the
context, the learners may be children, teenagers or adults and may represent a variety of
different social, economic, cultural and educational backgrounds. Different teaching
contexts hence present different notions of the process of language teaching (Zeichner
and Grant, 1981). Teacher-learning thus involves developing not only the skills of teach-
ing but also the norms of practice expected of teachers in a school, both inside and out-
side the classroom. Teaching involves understanding the dynamics and relationships
within the classroom and the rules and behaviors specific to a particular setting. Schools
have their own ways of doing things. In some schools, textbooks are the core of the cur-
riculum and teachers follow a prescribed curriculum. In others, teachers work from
course guidelines and implement them as they see fit. In some institutions there is a
strong sense of professional commitment and teachers are encouraged to co-operate with
each other. In others teachers work in relative isolation. This is reflected in many differ-
ent aspects of the way the school functions as we see in the following comments of stu-
dent teachers on the schools in which they are carrying out their practice teaching:

I love the school where I am working. The teachers I have met seem real friendly and helpful
and my c-operating teacher goes out of her way to make me feel comfortable in her class.
(Judy).

The teachers in the school where I am teaching seem to have little contact with each other.
There are a lot of part-time teachers who just teach their classes and disappear. I get a sense that
there is not a strong feeling of collegiality among the teachers in the school. (Robert).

The teacher I am working with is very strict about everything. Seems like the school has lots of
procedures teachers have to follow and I have to do things exactly the way they like to do them.
(Andrew).

My first few weeks went really well, then I had to work in a different class and I found the
students very difficult to work with. They didnt seem to be interested in learning. (Anna).

Hence the notion of context here is a broad one, since it includes issues such as the
schools goals and mission, its management style and school culture its physical resources,
including classroom facilities, media, and other technological resources, the curriculum
and course offerings, the role of textbooks and tests, as well as the characteristics of teaches
and learners in the school. Some of these factors have to do with structural influences (i.e.
those to do with life in the classroom and the school in general), while others belong to the
domain of personal influences, (i.e. they come from other persons the teacher interacts
with while at the school, including the learners, other teachers in the school, and in some
cases the learners parents). As Miller (2009: 10) comments:

Knowing the school, the possibilities of the classroom space, the students, their neighbourhoods,
the resources, the curriculum and policy, the supervising teacher these are all critical elements
110 RELC Journal 41(2)

that affect what teachers can do, and how they negotiate and construct identity moment to
moment.

Teaching in a school thus involves understanding the specific values, norms of prac-
tice and patterns of social participation of that school. This will include understanding
such things as the role of the prescribed curricula, the school culture, the routines of
the classroom, the schools procedures for lesson planning, and learning how to inter-
act with students, school authorities and colleagues. It involves induction to a com-
munity of practice, Lave and Wengers (1991) concept for learning that takes place
within organizational settings, which is socially constituted and which involves par-
ticipants with a common interest collaborating to develop new knowledge and skills.
In the school, teacher-learning takes place through classroom experiences and is con-
tingent upon relationships with mentors, fellow novice teachers and interaction with
experienced teachers in the school. The teachers teacher-education course constitutes
the start of the teachers professional development, subsequent learning taking place in
the particular context provided by the school. Learning to teach within a specific teach-
ing context is therefore a process of socialization. Learning to teach involves becom-
ing socialized into a professional culture with its own goals, shared values and norms
of conduct. This hidden curriculum is often more powerful than the schools pre-
scribed curriculum.

5.The Language Teachers Identity

One of the things a person has to learn when he or she becomes a language teacher is
what it means to be a language teacher. A sociocultural perspective on teacher-learning
posits a central aspect of this process as the reshaping of identity and identities within
the social interaction of the classroom. Identity refers to the differing social and cul-
tural roles teacher-learners enact through their interactions with their students during
the process of learning. These roles are not static but emerge through the social pro-
cesses of the classroom. Identity may be shaped by many factors, including personal
biography, culture, working conditions, age, gender, and the school and classroom
culture. The concept of identity thus reflects how individuals see themselves and how
they enact their roles within different settings. In a teacher education programme a
teacher-learners identity is remade through the acquisition of new modes of discourse
and new roles in the course room. Teacher-learning thus involves not only discovering
more about the skills and knowledge of language teaching but also what it means to be
a language teacher.
In a training course or campus-based teacher education programme the student-
teachers identity emerges through the acquisition of new modes of discourse as well as
new roles in the campus classroom. Once the student teacher starts teaching his or her
identity is further reshaped as the role of teacher is gradually assumed.
This transition is not always easy and can create stress and anxiety. For many ESL
teachers their identity may partly reflect their wish to empower immigrants, refugees and
others for whom English is a way out of their current circumstances (Cooke and Simpson,
2008), as these comments suggest.
Richards 111

When I went into the class first to observe my cooperating teacher I was so shocked at the
reality of the differences in ethnic backgrounds of all the students and wondered how I would
manage this and what my role was as a teacher of English. When I started to teach the class and
got to know them better I realized my role would not only be to teach them how to speak
English but also how to navigate the culture outside the classroom because now they were in a
new country (USA). I realized that I would take on another role as that of cultural ambassador
as I explained more and more about the US to them during and even after class. Eventually, I
had them all over to my house. (Eva).

Since I have been in teaching practice and inside teaching a real class with real ESL students I
no longer feel an outsider in this profession even though I am a non-native speaker of English.
Now that I have had a chance to prove myself as a teacher in front of these students and shown
them that I know many different techniques as well as my skills using English (yes, and even if
I still have a bit of an accent), they have begun to accept me as their teacher and I am beginning
to feel more like a teacher of English. (Momoko).

Native-speaker and non-native-speaker teacher learners may bring different identities to

teacher learning and to teaching. Those untrained native-speakers teaching EFL overseas
face a different identity issue: they are sometimes credited with an identity they are not
really entitled to (the native-speaker as expert syndrome), finding that they have a sta-
tus and credibility which they would not normally achieve in their own country. In lan-
guage institutes, students may express a preference to study with native-speaker teachers,
despite the fact that such teachers may be less qualified and less experienced that non-
native-speaker teachers. For non-native speaking teachers studying in SLTE programmes,
identity issues may lead some to feel disadvantaged compared to native-speaker teachers
in the same course. While in their own country they were perceived as experienced and
highly competent professionals, they now find themselves at a disadvantage and may
experience feelings of anxiety and inadequacy. They may have a sense of inadequate
language proficiency and their unfamiliarity with the learning styles found in British or
North-American university course rooms may hinder their participation in some class-
room activities.

6. Learner-focussed Teaching
While teaching can be viewed as a type of teacher performance, the goal of teaching is
to facilitate student learning. The extent to which the focus of a lesson is teacher-
focussed rather than learner-focussed is reflected in the following aspects of the
lesson:

1. The amount of talking the teacher does during the lesson.

2. The extent to which input from learners directs the shape and direction of the
lesson.
3. The extent to which the teachers primary preoccupation during the lesson is with
such things as classroom management, control, and order.
4. The extent to which the lesson reflects the teachers lesson plan.
112 RELC Journal 41(2)

Some teachers however achieve a more learner-focussed approach to teaching in their

lessons and this is reflected in characteristics like these:

1. The degree of engagement learners have with the lesson.

2. The extent to which learners responses shape the lesson.
3. The quantity of student participation and interaction that occurs.
4. The learning outcomes the lesson produced.
5. The ability to present subject-matter from a learners perspective.
6. How the teacher is able to reshape the lesson based on learner feedback.
7. How the lesson reflects learners needs and preferences.
8. How the lesson connects with the learners life experiences.
9. How the teacher responds to learners difficulties.

We see these different perspectives on lessons in how two teachers responded to the
question, What constitutes an effective language lesson from your perspective?

Teacher A:

Its important to me that I achieve the goals I set for the lesson and dont skip things I planned
to cover. I need to feel I did a good job on covering the different stages of the lesson the
presentation phase, the practice stage, and the free production stage for example.

Teacher B:

To me the most important thing is that the students enjoyed themselves and had useful practice.
And that the lesson was at the right level for them not too easy or too difficult so that they felt
it was really worthwhile coming to class today.

Or in the two teachers view of their teaching philosophy:

Teacher A:

I believe the best lesson is a well-planned lesson. I find it much easier to teach when I have a
detailed plan to follow. I find that I am more likely to use the time efficiently in the classroom
if I know exactly what I will do and what I expect students to do during the lesson.

Teacher B:

I believe every child in my class has got the capacity to learn, even if he or she is not aware of
it. Every learner is a winner. I try to encourage each student to discover what he or she is good
at and to help them be successful at it.

It is natural when one first starts teaching to be preoccupied with ones own performance as a
teacher, to try to communicate a sense of confidence, competence and skill, and to try to create
lessons that reflect purpose, order, and planning. It is a period when things are being tried out
Richards 113

and tested, when the teachers role and identity is being developed, and when many new chal-
lenges have to be overcome. Hence studies of teachers in their first year of teaching have
revealed a transition from a survival and mastery stage where the teachers performance is a
central concern, to a later stage where teachers become more focussed on their students learn-
ing and the impact of their teaching on learning (Farrell, 2009). The challenge is to make sure
that such a transition occurs and that ones initial teaching experiences do not lead to a style of
teaching that sticks, one that provides a comfort zone for the teacher but that fails to provide
learners with the opportunity to achieve their full potential as learners (Benson, 2001).
Learner-centredness as a characteristic of expert teachers is seen in some of the
research Borg reviews (Borg, 2006), where the characteristics of expert teachers
include:

1. They are familiar with typical student behaviours.

2. They use their knowledge of learners to make predictions about what might hap-
pen in the classroom.
3. They build their lessons around students difficulties.
4. They maintain active student involvement.

Senior (2006) suggests that a central aspect of learner-focussed teaching is creating a

classroom that functions as a community of learners.

It is sometimes forgotten that language classes operate as communities, each with its own
collection of shared understandings that have been built up over time. The overall character of
each language class is created, developed, and maintained by everyone in the room (Senior,
2006: 200).

Effective teachers use different strategies to develop a sense of community among their
learners, including using group-based activities, by addressing common student interests
and concerns, by regularly changing seating arrangements so that students experience
working with different classmates, by using humour and other ways of creating a warm
and friendly classroom atmosphere, and by recognizing that students have both social as
well as learning needs in the classroom.
The ability to personalize ones teaching is also an important aspect of learner-focussed
teaching. By personalizing teaching I mean centering ones teaching wherever possible on
ones students and their lives, concerns, goals and interests. This can be achieved by link-
ing the content of lessons to the students lives and by involving students in developing or
choosing the content of lessons (Dyornyei, 2001). For example in teaching narratives,
while the textbook might provide examples of what narratives are and describe their lin-
guistic and textual features, sharing personal stories among themselves can be a powerful
way of promoting genuine communication among students. In sharing accounts of their
childhoods and discussing significant events or experiences in their lives, students will be
prompted to practice and develop their communicative resources by asking questions,
asking for clarification, responding with their experiences and so on.
Students can also be involved in generating lesson content. For example they can
work in groups to choose suitable topics for essay-writing. Instead of using examples
114 RELC Journal 41(2)

from the textbook to present a lesson on idioms, students might compile lists of idioms
they have encountered out of class and bring these to class for discussion. Learner-
centredness in teaching thus reflects the view that language teaching is an educational
endeavour which should seek to empower learners by enabling them to assume an
informed and self-directive role in the pursuance of their language-related life goals
(Tudor, 1995: xii).

7. Pedagogical Reasoning Skills

An important component of current conceptualizations of SLTE is a focus on teacher
cognition. This encompasses the mental lives of teachers, how these are formed, what
they consist of, and how teachers beliefs, thoughts and thinking processes shape their
understanding of teaching and their classroom practices. Borg (2006, 1) comments:

A key factor driving the increase in research in teacher cognition, not just in language education,
but in education more generally, has been the recognition that teachers are active, thinking
decision-makers who play a central role in shaping classroom events. Coupled with insights
from the field of psychology which have shown how knowledge and beliefs exert a strong
influence on teacher action, this recognition has suggested that understanding teacher cognition
is central to the process of understanding teaching.

An interest in teacher-cognition entered SLTE from the field of general education, and
brought with it a similar focus on teacher decision-making, on teachers theories of
teaching, teachers representations of subject matter, and the problem-solving and impro-
visational skills employed by teachers with different levels of teaching experience during
teaching. Constructs such as teachers practical knowledge, pedagogic content knowl-
edge, and personal theories of teaching are now established components of our under-
standing of teacher cognition (Golombek, 2009).
A central aspect of teacher cognition is the role of the teachers pedagogical reasoning
skills, the specialized kind of thinking that teachers posses and make use of in planning
and conducting their lessons. Here is an example of how teachers use these skills. I
recently gave an expert teacher the following challenge.

A teacher has just called in sick. You are going to teach her 50 minute spoken English class,
lower intermediate level, in 5 minutes. Your only teaching aid is an empty glass. What will your
lesson look like?

The teacher thought about it for less than a minute and then elaborated her idea for the
lesson.

1. I would start by showing the glass and ask students to form groups and brainstorm for five
minutes to come up with the names of as many different kinds of containers as possible. They
would then group them according to their functions. For example things that contain food,
things that are used to carry things, things that are used to store things in and so on. I would
model how they should do this and suggest the kind of language they could use. (10 minutes).
Richards 115

2. Students would present their findings to the class to see who had come up with the longest
list. (10 minutes).

3. For a change of pace and to practice functional language I would do some dialog work,
practicing asking to borrow a container from a neighbour. First I would model the kind of
exchange I want them to practice. Then students would plan their dialog following this outline:

a) Apologize for bothering your neighbour.

b) Explain what you want and why you need it.
c) Your neighbour offers to lend you what you want.
d) Thank your neighbour and promise to return it on the weekend.

Students would then perform their dialogues.

This is a good example of a teachers pedagogical reasoning skills. These are the special
skills that enable English teachers to do the following:

1. To analyse potential lesson content (e.g. a piece of realia, as in the example

above, a text, an advertisement, a poem, a photo etc) and identify ways in which
it could be used as a teaching resource.
2. To identify specific linguistic goals (e.g. in the area of speaking, vocabulary,
reading, writing etc) that could be developed from the chosen content.
3. To anticipate any problems that might occur and ways of resolving them.
4. To make appropriate decisions about time, sequencing, and grouping arrangements.

Shulman (1987) described this ability as a process of transformation in which the teacher
turns the subject matter of instruction into forms that are pedagogically powerful and that
are appropriate to the level and ability of the students. Experienced teachers use these
skills every day when they plan their lessons, when they decide how to adapt lessons
from their course book, and when they search the internet and other sources for materials
and content that they can use in their classes. It is one of the most fundamental dimen-
sions of teaching, one that is acquired through experience, through accessing content
knowledge, and through knowing what learners need to know and how to help them
acquire it. While experience is crucial in developing pedagogical reasoning skills, work-
ing with more experienced teachers through shared planning, team teaching, observa-
tion, and other forms of collaboration can also play an important role in helping less
experienced teachers understand the thinking processes employed by other more experi-
enced teachers.

8.Theorizing from Practice

Mastery of teaching skills and the specialized thinking skills expert teachers make use of
are essential aspects of teacher development. But teacher-learning also involves develop-
ing a deeper understanding of what teaching is, of developing ideas, concepts, theories
and principles based on our experience of teaching (Borg, 2006). The development of a
personal system of knowledge, beliefs and understandings drawn from our practical
116 RELC Journal 41(2)

experience of teaching is known as the theorizing of practice. The belief system and
understanding we build up in this way helps us make sense of our experience and also
serves as the source of the practical actions we take in the classroom. To better under-
stand the concept of theorizing of practice it will be useful to contrast two ways of think-
ing about the relationship between theory and practice. The first is the application of
theory. This involves making connections between the concepts, information and theo-
ries from our teacher education courses and our classroom practices; it involves putting
theories into practice. So after studying the principles of task-based instruction or col-
laborative learning for example, we might try to find ways of applying these principles
in our teaching.
The theorizing of practice on the other hand involves reflecting on our practices in
order to better understand the nature of language teaching and learning and to arrive at
explanations or hypotheses about them. The information we make use of is the experi-
ence of teaching, observations of how our learners learn or fail to learn, and our reflec-
tions on things that happen during our lessons. The theorizing that results from these
reflections may take several different forms. It may lead to explanations as to why
things happen in the way they do, to generalizations about the nature of things, to
principles that can form the basis of subsequent actions and to the development of a
personal teaching philosophy (Richards, 1998). The following examples taken from
teachers narratives and journals illustrate teachers beginning to theorize from
practice:

Arriving at Explanations and Generalizations

Children are much better language learners than adults because they are not worried about
making mistakes and are much more prepared to take risks.

When we begin learning a language its better to follow the natural way, using imitation. But
when you are more advanced then you need to know more about the grammar.

The essential thing in language learning is knowing how to say what you want to say but not
why you have to say it in a particular way.

Learners learn more when they work in groups because they can learn from each other and they
get more opportunities to talk than when the teacher is conducting the class.

Error correction works best when you ask students to monitor their own language, rather than
having them depend on the teacher all the time.

Developing Principles and a Teaching Philosophy

A further stage in theorizing from practice is when teachers formulate principles that they
refer to when planning and evaluating their teaching and to the personal philosophy
which guides their decision-making (Bailey, 1996). Here is an example of a teacher
describing some of the beliefs and principles she brings to her teaching:
Richards 117

I think its important to be positive as a personality. I think the teacher has to be a positive
person. I think you have to show a tremendous amount of patience. And I think if you have a
good attitude you can project this to the students and hopefully establish a relaxed atmosphere
in your classroom so that the students wont dread to come to class but have a good class. I feel
that its important to have a lesson plan of some sort. Because you need to know what you want
to teach and how you are going to go from the beginning to the end. And also taking into
consideration the students, what there ability is, what their background is and so on. I have been
in situations where I did not understand what was being taught or what was being said, and how
frustrating it is and so when I approach it I say: how can I make it the easiest way for them to
understand what they need to learn?

This teachers philosophy emphasizes the teachers attitude and the need to create a sup-
portive environment for learning in the classroom. She stresses the need for lesson plan-
ning, but her justification for lesson planning is based on helping the students rather than
helping the teacher. Other examples of principles which teachers have described in jour-
nals and conversations include:

1. Follow the learners interest to maintain students involvement.

2. Always teach to the whole class not just to the best students.
3. Seek ways to encourage independent student learning.
4. Make learning fun.
5. Build take-away value in every lesson.
6. Address learners mental processing capacities.
7. Facilitate learner responsibility or autonomy.

Activities in which teachers articulate their theories, beliefs and principles are an impor-
tant component of professional development and journal-writing, narratives, discussion
and critical reflection can all be used for this purpose. The theorizing that results from
these procedures often provides the basis for interpreting and evaluating ones own
teaching as well as the teaching of others.

9. Membership of a Community of Practice

Language teaching is sometimes considered a solitary and private activity, something
we do within the confines of our own classrooms. But this is a narrow and self-centred
view of teaching that fails to capitalize on the potential for learning and growth that
comes from participating in a community of teachers having shared goals, values and
interests. The school or the teaching context becomes a learning community and its
members constitute a community of practice. A community of practice has two
characteristics:

1. It involves a group of people who have common interests and who relate and
interact to achieve shared goals.
2. It focuses on exploring and resolving issues related to the workplace practices
that members of the community take part in.
118 RELC Journal 41(2)

In our work as language teachers this often takes the form of collaboration with other
teachers in order to better understand the nature of the teaching and learning that goes on
in our classrooms, to share knowledge and skills, to bring about changes in practice when
necessary, and to capitalize on the potentials that team work and group collaboration can
bring about. Membership of a community of practice in a school provides opportunities
for teachers to work and learn together through participation in group-oriented activities
with shared goals and responsibilities, involving joint problem solving. Collegiality cre-
ates new roles for teachers, such as team leader, teacher trainer, mentor, or critical friend
(Richards and Farrell, 2005).This collaboration can take a number of different forms
(Johnston, 2009). For example:

Collaboration with fellow teachers. This often involves a focus on teaching issues and
concerns, such as use of the textbook, development of tests, and course planning.

Collaboration with university colleagues. This may involve collaborative research or

inquiry into issues of shared interest, such as exploring aspects of second language
acquisition or learning strategies.

Collaboration with others in the school. This may involve working with administra-
tors or supervisors on issues of concern to the school.

An example of how this kind of collaboration can happen is with the Lesson Study
Approach that has been widely implemented in Japan (Lewis and Tsuchida, 2003). As
reported by Johnson (2009), teams of teachers co-plan a lesson that focuses on a particu-
lar piece of content or unit of study. Throughout the planning process, they draw on
outside resources, including textbooks, research, teaching theories, and engage in
extended conversations while focussing on student learning and the development of spe-
cific outcomes. Once the plan has been developed, one member of the team volunteers to
teach it, while the others observe. (Sometimes outsiders are also invited to observe).
After the lesson, the group discuss their findings in a colloquium or panel discussion.
Typically the teachers who planned the lesson focus on their rationale for how they
planned the lesson and their evaluation of how it went, particularly focussing on student
learning. The planning group then re-convene to review the lesson, revise it, and a differ-
ent teacher then teaches it to a different class.
The cycle culminates in the team publishing a report that includes lesson plans,
observed student behavior, teacher reflections, and a summary of the group discussions.
These are then made available to others.
Many forms of professional development can help foster the sense of a community of
practice, such as reading groups, action research, team teaching, peer observation and
peer coaching, however this may require a change in mindset for some teachers who do
not see themselves as members of a team. For others, however, collaboration can be seen
as a source of strength that can have valuable personal as well as practical benefits.
Making the transition from seeing oneself as a self-contained independent individual to
seeing oneself as a member of a community of practice is an important component of the
shaping of teacher identity and an important milestone in professional development.
Richards 119

10. Professionalism
English language teaching is not something that anyone who can speak English can do.
It is a profession, which means that English teaching is seen as a career in a field of edu-
cational specialization, it requires a specialized knowledge base obtained through both
academic study and practical experience, and it is a field of work where membership is
based on entry requirements and standards. The professionalism of English teaching is
seen in the growth industry devoted to providing language teachers with professional
training and qualifications, in continuous attempts to develop standards for English lan-
guage teaching and for English language teachers, to the proliferation of professional
journals and teacher magazines, conferences and professional organizations, to require-
ments for English teachers to demonstrate their level of proficiency in English as a com-
ponent of certification, to the demand for professional qualifications for native-speaker
teachers, and to the greater level of sophisticated knowledge of language teaching
required of English teachers. Becoming an English language teacher means becoming
part of a worldwide community of professionals with shared goals, values, discourse,
and practices but one with a self-critical view of its own practices and a commitment to
a transformative approach to its own role.
There are two different dimensions to professionalism (Leung, 2009). The first can be
called institutionally prescribed professionalism a managerial approach to profession-
alism that represents the views of ministries of education, teaching organizations, regula-
tory bodies, school principals and so on that specify what teachers are expected to know
and what quality teaching practices consist of. There are likely to be procedures for
achieving accountability and processes in place to maintain quality teaching. Such speci-
fications are likely to differ from country to country. This aspect of professionalism
involves becoming familiar with the standards the profession sets for membership and a
desire to attain those standards. Such standards involve acquiring the qualifications the
profession recognizes as evidence of professional competence, as well as demonstrating
a commitment to attaining high standards in our work, whether it be as classroom teach-
ers, supervisors, administrators, or teacher trainers.
The second dimension to professionalism is what Leung calls independent profes-
sionalism, which refers to teachers own views of teaching and the processes by which
teachers engage in reflection on their own values, beliefs, and practices. A key to long-
term professional development is the ability to be able to reflect consciously and system-
atically on ones teaching experiences. Reflection means asking questions like the
following about ones teaching:

1. What kind of teacher am I?

2. What am I trying to achieve for myself and for my learners?
3. What are my strengths and limitations as a language teacher?
4. How do my students and colleagues view me?
5. How and why do I teach the way I do?
6. How have I developed as a teacher since I started teaching?
7. What are the gaps in my knowledge?
8. What role do I play in my school and is my role fulfilling?
120 RELC Journal 41(2)

9. What is my philosophy of teaching and how does it influence my teaching?

10. What is my relationship with my colleagues and how productive is it?
11. How can I mentor less experienced teachers?

There are many ways in which teachers can engage in a critical and reflective review of
their own practices throughout their teaching career (see Richards and Lockhart, 1994;
Richards and Farrell, 2005), e.g. through analysing critical incidents, teacher support
groups, journal writing, discussion groups, action research and portfolios. Reflection
involves both looking back at teaching experiences as well as looking forward and set-
ting goals for new or changed directions. Dewey (1933) suggested three attributes that
can facilitate the processes of reflective thinking: open-mindedness, responsibility, and
wholeheartedness. Open-mindedness is a desire to listen to more than one side of an
issue and to give attention to alternative views. Responsibility means careful consider-
ation of the consequences to which an action leads. And wholeheartedness implies over-
coming fears and uncertainties to allow critical evaluation of ones practice in order to
make meaningful change.

Conclusions
In this paper in trying to describe the nature of competence and performance in language
teaching I have attempted to realize a somewhat ambitious agenda. And any attempt to
characterize the nature of quality, expertise, professionalism or effectiveness in language
teaching is liable to the charge of different kinds of bias, since such an attempt is bound to
reflect understandings that are shaped by culture, by context, by individual belief and
preference as well as by limitations in our present state of knowledge. These limitations
however should not prevent us from reflecting on the beliefs and assumptions that shape
the way we understand the nature of teacher knowledge and teacher development for lan-
guage teachers. For when we do so we are in a better position to assess what the goals of
language teacher education are, as well as the means by which we seek to achieve them.

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