TESOL Matters Vol. 11 No. 4   (September/October/November 2001)

The TESOL P-12 ESL teacher standards are nearing completion after a year and a half of development, including public review of two drafts. Although no major changes have taken place in their structure since the last report on the project (TM, Vol. 10, No. 2, June/July 2000), many modifications have been made to clarify them.

The initial five domains remain:

1. language
2. culture
3. instruction
4. assessment
5. professionalism

The standards within the domains, written with performance indicators, are described on a 3-point scale: Approaching Standard, Meets Standard, and Exceeds Standard. It is expected that a teacher who exceeds the standard would be ready to apply for National Board for Professional Teacher Standards Certification under "English as a New Language." The next step for the project is to receive TESOL Board approval, and then the standards will be submitted to the National Council on the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in October. Documents for the implementation of the standards are now being developed.

The first domain, language, consists of two standards. The first deals with preservice teachers' understanding of language as a system. Candidates need to understand the components of language and the ways in which the languages and dialects of their students may vary. Candidates also need to be able to identify the ways in which written and spoken language differ and to apply this understanding to help ESOL students from diverse language backgrounds acquire and use English for academic and social purposes. The second standard deals with preservice teachers' understanding of and ability to apply concepts related to the process of language acquisition. Candidates need to be able to create an interactive, comprehensible, language-rich learning environment to foster first and second language development among their ESOL students. Candidates need to understand the role of personal and affective variables in language learning and establish secure, motivating classrooms in which ESOL students take risks and use language productively to extend their conceptual knowledge as well as their language and literacy skills.

Culture, the second domain, encompasses the major concepts, theories, and research related to the nature, structure, and role of culture, cultural identity, and migration/immigration. Standards in this domain address teacher candidates' knowledge, understanding, and use of these elements in constructing learning environments that support ESOL students' language and literacy development and content-area achievement. Performance indicators in this domain address such topics as the additive nature of culture, values, beliefs and expectations, cultural relativism, the impact of prejudice and racism, family structure and roles, communication systems, and learning styles. Also addressed is the expectation that teacher candidates will continually expand their knowledge of culture and apply that knowledge to enhance ESOL students' learning.

In the third domain, instruction, teacher candidates need to demonstrate that they: (a) establish positive, supportive learning environments; (b) incorporate their students' cultures into their lesson design; (c) present themselves as appropriate models of English; (d) promote student-centered activities and communication among students; (e) teach the four skills -- reading, writing, speaking, and listening -- in context, and in collaboration with content teachers when possible; and (f) select materials from a wide variety of resources, electronic and otherwise. Candidates are also asked to understand and give special attention to student proficiency level, learning style, economic background, amount of formal schooling, and students with special needs (including gifted and talented). Teachers need to be able to present materials in global (top-down) ways while also giving balanced attention to specific (bottom-up) details, such as grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

Assessment forms the fourth domain and has three standards that include issues of assessment for ESL, language proficiency assessment, and classroom-based assessment for ESL. Within these standards, teacher candidates need to understand the various purposes for assessment, the differences between authentic and performance-based assessment, and traditional forms (multiple choice, true/false). They need to be able to use various types of assessment to determine growth and progress in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and understand how these skills are integrated. They also need to understand and use their knowledge of the interdependent nature of teaching and assessment as they promote and measure student learning.

The fifth domain is professionalism, which consists of three standards broadly defined as professional attributes of ESL teacher candidates. The standards address candidates' knowledge of the history of the ESL teaching field, their service as professional resources to non-ESL colleagues, their advocacy for language minority students and their families, and their collaboration with all school staff to improve learning for ESOL students.

Together, these five domains provide the foundational knowledge and skills that new teachers need to be successful teachers of English to speakers of other languages.

Acknowledgments

The Task Force would like to acknowledge the helpful input it has received from the members of TESOL, but especially its board Liaison Nancy Cloud, and its NCATE Liaison Denise Murray. Most especially, the Task Force would like to thank Molly Kirby, former staff liaison, for all of her support and dedication to this project and to TESOL.