From Luigi: Proficiency levels for teachers

[Cedric Lefebvre]

Cedric: the following has been written by Luigi, and he's asked to put it here on Subtle.

Level of proficiency needed for teachers to teach English in different settings.

 

I have been appointed, as a native language English speaker, to be a member of  the “Board of Selection”  for prospective Italian teachers  to be  selected and be granted ESL teaching assignments.

 The Italian government has put out a “competition” (concorso, is the Italian term) for prospective teachers to be granted full time positions in the Elementary, Middle and or High School level.

Throughout Italy over 50,000 participants have registered for approximately 350 teaching assignments. In my city alone there will be 500 candidates to be assessed for 15 teaching positions.

 Having accepted this role my immediate thoughts are how should nonnative English proficiency be assessed for such candidates. Certainly they are not native speakers of English, some will have a University degree, others will have a Magistrale (teacher training preparation degree) .

Some are certainly excellent teachers in certain subjects, Italian, History, Math, Science etc. all will certainly be prepared for pedagogical and methodological questions, (all very theoretical of course) all will have to possibly be prepared to teach some classes in English.

My role is only to judge English proficiency.

 What should be the minimum level of proficiency required for teachers to teach across different settings, should an elementary school nonnative English teacher be expected to be as proficient as a Nonnative English High school teacher. How to judge and assess what language level a teacher will feel secure that their general proficiency will be suitable.

I have been searching the web but haven't found much useful information, this seems to be a very neglected area.

 All of this has nothing and everything to do with "The Silent Way", I’m  Looking forward to reading your comments, providing me guidance and experience that you may have experienced and willing to share with me.

Please share this on the Subtle site.

Thanks

Luigi

[Cedric Lefebvre]

Hi Luigi!

This didn't inspire me any immediate thought as I was reading it - I guess it's extremely far from my experience and teaching reality. But since I'm here (I've just added your message to the forum as requested), I'd say it might make sense to be demanding when it comes to pronunciation. It's so fundamental, and it's possible that someone with better pronunciation will be able to do a better job at teaching it, because it's something that must have mattered to them at some point. Of course it's also easy to question that... When I teach English my students most of the time get a much better accent than mine, so I can't say there's a serious correlation.

Hopefully others will be better suited to answer this.

[Luigi Magnano]

Hi Cedric

 

Thanks for your comments. Yes of course pronunciation is fundamental. The situation as I see it , the government has posted teaching positions throughout the country.

Therefore, candidates with scholastic preparation in pedagogy and methodology theory may apply. Much of what they know will be memorized

 

 Candidates for the positions of ESL are to be screened by qualified native language speakers.

Native language speakers must produce University documentation, linguistic credentials and  justified working experience.

 

I’m sure you are aware that in many countries’ teachers of ESL do not possess a    C1 or C2 certificate.   In the past years I have come across classrooms where teachers of ESL did not come even close to an A2 level.

 

Question: should a teacher at A2 level be given a teaching position as an ESL teacher at the elementary level? What CEFR level should a nonnative teacher have to teach a FL at the Elementary, Middle or Secondary school level.

 

Remember these will be state paid positions and in this country when someone is hired, they will never be fired.

 

Just a  bit of info for you. My friend called me last night to congratulate me on this position, and stated with a smile, Luigi , don't be too strict with these candidates, otherwise we will have no English teachers at all in our community.

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[Cedric Lefebvre]

I see... 

I need to say, I have a terrible mental resistance when it comes to trying to picture things through the weird CEFR perspective. I don't believe its levels represent a sensical progression in a language, so I really suggest that we try to express proficiency levels using this diagram: https://silentway.online/2021/12/29/a-framework-for-students-progress/

And that being said, it's quite clear to me that I could be of some help, as a teacher, if I'm level 2 in a language and I have to teach complete beginners. But level 3 is obviously much better, and I won't be able to teach anything good to more advanced students if I'm not level 4 myself.

Cédric 

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