Is Language Teaching a Profession?

lability of opportunities for education and training, however, thousands of individuals around the world who have no formal education and training in TESOL practice as ESOL teachers. In fact, at some language schools in different parts of the world, the only employment criterion is fluency in English. Not only do their employees lack TESOL qualifications, they have no teaching qualifications at all.

In addition, qualifications are considered irrelevant in many countries. In some countries,

unless you are a citizen of that country, you cannot gain permanent employment. In others, you cannot gain employment unless you are a native speaker of English. Here is a letter that was recently published in TESOL Matters from a teacher in Italy.

I am an Italian EFL teacher, hold a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics, and am working towards a doctorate in TESOL. I have been involved with English language teaching methodology ever since I was fifteen and managed to pursue my chosen career in the face of my parents’ opposition. … I know scores of native English teachers with no teaching or postgraduate qualifications under their belt who work as tutors throughout Italy. [However] as a non-native English teacher, I am barred from teach

ing in state universities. … Is a British (or American) graduate in psychology a better teacher of English than a non-native (highly) qualified instructor? Isn’t that discrimination? (A Nava, Milan, Italy. TESOL Matters)

So, is education and training even necessary? As we see from the letter above, many people who teach English around the world have no specific training as language educators. In fact, there are many who have no training whatsoever. Does this matter? At some time or other, you’ve probably heard comments such as the following:

“Some of my best teachers had no formal qualifications.”

And “I once had a teacher with a Ph.D. in education. He was hopeless as a teacher.”

The fact that some individuals without formal training happen to be ‘natural’ teachers, and the fact that some highly trained people aren’t particularly good in the classroom isn’t a good enough reason to argue that education and training aren’t necessary. Requiring someone with a natural gift or talent to undergo training is not going to turn them into ‘bad’ teachers. Not so long ago, a top surgeon, who performed some of the most delicate operations possible under current medical technology, was found to be a fraud, with no medical training or qualifications whatsoever. He is currently serving a prison term.

Given the imperative for education and training, the question arises - What types of knowledge and skill are relevant for language educators? In considering this question, we can draw a broad distinction between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.

Procedural knowledge can be subdivided into discipline-specific and general knowledge. For language teachers, declarative knowledge includes all of the things we know about language. The following are examples of declarative knowledge.

“When making the 3rd person declarative statements in the simple present, put an ‘s’ on the end of regular verbs.”

“The passive voice is used when we want to emphasise a process rather than the performer of an action”.

Discipline specific procedural knowledge refers to skills that are specific to language

teaching, for example, how to introduce new grammatical items such as how to teach gerunds and infinitives. General procedural knowledge refers to skills that all teachers should possess regardless of the subject they teach. Such skills would include how to manage group work, how to deal with discipline problems, and how to improve the motivation of students. (The procedural / declarative distinction also hold for students. Last semester, I had a student who performed flawlessly in a lesson reviewing the use of adjectives ending in ‘ing’ to describe persons, actions and things, and the used of adjectives ending in ‘-ed’ to describe feelings and attitudes. At the end of the lesson, I asked him how he liked the class. “Oh,” he replied, “I am boring when we practice this -ing stuff!)

Standards of practice and certification

The second defining characteristic of a profession has to do with standards of practice and certification. In TESOL, standards of practice and certification vary widely. Most countries have some form of certification for teachers, although this is rarely TESOL specific. Further, in most countries where some form of teaching certification is required, this process is controlled by governments and educational bureaucracies, not by professional teaching associations.

In terms of institutional accreditation, the situation also varies widely. In numerous countries, there is no professional or governmental control over language schools. In such countries, nothing can stop individuals who see language as a marketable commodity from opening their own schools, hiring and underpaying unqualified te