Author: Issina Nazerke Temirkabylovna

Co-author: Assanova Dariya Nurtasovna

Karagandy State University named after E.A.Buketov, Kazakhstan.

 

PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF EFL and ESP TEACHER

Abstract

Reviews of the work of several researchers dedicated to the professional competence of an English teacher are presented in the article. Also, aspects, components and indicators of pedagogical and professional competence are classified. The problems encountered by teachers during the teaching English for special purposes were discussed, and on the basis of these problems, the objectives of their methodological competence were set forth.

Key words: professional competence, teacher of English as foreign language, teacher of English for specific purposes, professional development.

 

I. Введение. It is hopeless to increase the efficiency of training and education of students and upgrade the education system of the country without a high professional skills and great responsibility of teachers. Forming of professional-methodical skills of the foreign language teacher is achieved through mastering the basics of the methodology of teaching in the university and constant self-improvement.

At the current stage of the progress of the methodology of teaching foreign languages in connection with the analysis of professional pedagogical activity, the competence approach is becoming very important. This is due to the change in the priority approach of the educational process - from the receptive-reproductive method of instruction to the person-oriented, developing, cognitive-activity orientation. "The competence approach is a set of general principles for determining the goals of education, selecting the content of education, organizing the educational process and evaluating educational outcomes" [1]. The main goal of the competence approach is not to transfer as much knowledge as possible, but to evolve the ability to use the obtained knowledge and skills, also to get them independently.  At present, the competent person is rather not an expert with encyclopedic knowledge, but a specialist who is able to adapt his knowledge to the realities of life and who is able not only to stand in conflict conditions, but also to resolve problems.  

The term "professional competence" began to be actively used in the 90s of the last century, and the concept itself  becomes the issue of a specific, comprehensive study of many researchers dealing with the problems of pedagogical activity (N.V. Kuzmina, A. Markov, T.I. Rudnev , G. N. Steinov, and others). Under the professional competence of a teacher is known the set of professional and personal qualities crucial for fruitful pedagogical activity.

Professionally competent can be called a teacher who at an adequately high level accomplishes pedagogical activity and communication, achieves consistently high results in teaching and educating students.

IІ. Постановка задачи. The advancement of professional competence is the development of creative personality, the making of receptivity to pedagogical innovations, and the ability to adapt in a changing pedagogical environment. Formation of professional and pedagogical competence is the ultimate goal of teaching students of pedagogical universities. The basis of the criteria for the effectiveness of the educational process in the university is the level of the formation of the professional competencies of the future teacher [2]. V.A. Slastenin believes that the concept of professional competence of the teacher expresses the unity of his theoretical and practical readiness for the implementation of pedagogical activity and characterizes his professionalism. He notes that the content of training a teacher of a particular profession is presented in the qualification characteristic that is the normative model of the teacher's competence that reflects the scientifically substantiated composition of professional knowledge and skills [3].

The study of professional competence involved many researchers:           Yu.K. Babansky, B.G. Ananiev, T.I. Shamova and others. In the works of these researchers, such aspects of pedagogical competence are disclosed:

• managerial aspect: how the teacher analyzes, plans, organizes, controls, regulates the learning process of the relationship with the students;

• the psychological aspect: how the personality of the teacher affects students, how the teacher takes into account the individual abilities of the students;

• the pedagogical aspect: with the help of what forms and methods the teacher conducts the instruction of schoolchildren. [4]

The main indicators of the professional competence of a foreign language teacher include the need to develop communicative and interpersonal communication among students, the components of which are linguistic, thematic, sociocultural, educational and cognitive competence. In “Proposals for the certification of teachers of a foreign language”, compiled by E.N. Solovova with the participation of V.V. Safonova, K.S. Makhmuryan, it is proposed to assess the professional competence of a foreign language teacher on the basis of the following basic parameters:

• communicative competence

• professional competence

• general cultural competence [5].

Communicative competence includes language, speech and sociocultural competence. Professional competence consists of skills: in planning, organizational skills, skills in providing control and evaluation, analytical, research and professional-communicative skills; Competencies: psychological, pedagogical and philological; as well as personal characteristics. It should be noted that the general cultural competence is represented in various indicators of communicative and professional competencies.

Methodists I.L. Kolesnikova and M.V. Tomashevich presented the competencies included in the structure of professional and pedagogical competence in the form of interacting components: general pedagogical competence (includes psychological, pedagogical and methodological) - general cultural - communicative competence.

Under the general cultural competence is understood, as a rule, broad general humanitarian training of the teacher, his outlook, the general level of culture and education. The communicative competence is understood as the ability and willingness to carry out interpersonal and intercultural communication with foreign native speakers. "Communicative competence is not a personal characteristic of a person; its formation is manifested in the process of communication "[6, p. 79]. The degree of communicative competence is determined by the level of knowledge and skills in the main types of speech activity.

Psychological and pedagogical competence is related to the knowledge of the teacher in the field of psychology and pedagogy, as well as the ability to apply this knowledge in his pedagogical practice.

Methodical competence is defined as the ability to teach a foreign language with regard to the goals (practical, educational, developmental) and conditions, as well as taking into account the age, level of training and individual characteristics of students. The authors interpret the methodological competence as an ability, proceeding from the following definition: "abilities represent a high level of development of general and special knowledge, skills that ensure the successful fulfillment of various activities by a person" [6, p. 81].

Having become acquainted with the numerous interpretations of the concept of "professional-pedagogical competence",  we can conclude that "professional competence is the ability and readiness for activity based on knowledge, including moral, ethical, cognitive-creative, information-communicative and technological components" [7] .

Thus, the concept of "professional competence" at the present stage of the education system development is multifaceted and constantly supplemented by new components. The teacher is now mastering a new practice-transforming competence, the volume and quality of the research component in pedagogical work is increasing, which is associated with a change in the content and approaches to pedagogical activity [8, p. 74].

III. Результаты. The era of  globalization has led to significant changes in the structure of the training of future specialists. The development of high technologies, close scientific and technical ties require new approaches to the formation of a complex of competencies, including, in particular, communicative and sociocultural ones in the framework of native and at least one or two foreign languages. In this regard, the need for fluency in a professional foreign language is growing every day.

Currently, the teaching of a foreign language for special purposes is being built with the aim of forming a professional communicative competence in another language. The main distinguishing feature of ESP (English for specific purposes) teaching at the university is that the course is based on concrete professionally relevant goals and objectives for students. This is expressed in appropriate selection and organization of the material, as well as development certain skills and abilities necessary for the future professional activity.

There are a number of problems in implementing the concept of teaching a foreign language for special purposes. To begin with, in the process of teaching, the teacher is faced with the fact that the requirements for a teacher in the field of language proficiency and teaching methods are complemented by competencies in the future professional activities of students. This problem is two-sided: the vast majority of students, for obvious reasons, do not yet have the professional knowledge obtained in their native language in the classes on major subjects, and, naturally, do not speak the corresponding vocabulary in English, respectively, expect from the lessons not so much acquisition of language knowledge (however, many of them overestimate their level of language proficiency), but rather the receipt of professionally relevant information. It is no coincidence that the most promising now is the interdisciplinary construction of a foreign language course, in the teaching materials of which various subjects of the specialty are reflected. The idea, of course, is correct. The concept of ESP (English for special purposes) is familiar to all teachers,

but the question arises as to who should and can correctly select the relevant professional topics and relevant texts. Naturally, teachers-philologists are engaged in this, in ideal cases, with the involvement of specialists from profiling chairs. Faced with these problems, teachers are forced to study special literature and teaching materials in native and English. So what competencies should an ESP teacher have?

The specifics of ESP training require the teacher to have methodological competence with the aim:

- development of the training course depending on the goal;

- use of the basic knowledge of the learner in a foreign language as the basis for the acquisition of professionally significant knowledge and skills;

- orientation of the content of the study course on a specific professional area (business, economics, jurisprudence, management);

- adjustments to the course program depending on the changing conditions of training [9, p.43].

Thus, the communicative competence of the ESP teacher in addition to the basic skills of teaching a general foreign language, requires knowledge of the subject and specific vocabulary of  this profession. In this regard, the ESP teacher should not only meet the general requirements of  the English teacher, such as professionalism, to know the goals, objectives and interests of students, and the ability to develop new teaching materials and use modern teaching technologies. He should be prepared to:

- show interest in the professional field of students;

- have basic professional knowledge;

- determine priorities in the choice of types of proposed activity;

- get acquainted with the complex of skills necessary to implement 

 professional  activity;

- be aware of the need for cooperation with teachers profiling chair;

- determine the volumes of learned linguistic speech material;

IV. Выводы . Thus, the proposed structure of the professional competence of the ESP teacher, consisting of an interconnected communicative, methodical and sociocultural competencies, seems to us as the most appropriate one. In our opinion, these types of competence form the style of pedagogical activity of the ESP teacher and ensure his professional development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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