Standards for ESL/EFL Teachers of Adults

Book excerpt: Standards for ESL/EFL Teachers of Adults offers performance indicators, vignettes, and evaluation tools for instructors. These clearly organized components will help instructors identify the qualities and practices to pursue in their teaching. The standards in this book address planning, instructing, and assessing as the basis for effective teaching. These three core standards lead to five additional standards that focus on both the instructor and the instruction: identity and context, language proficiency, learning, content, and commitment and professionalism. Collectively, these eight standards represent the foundation of what professional teachers of adult ESL and EFL learners should know and be able to do. The eight standards are organized in a useful and concrete format. Each is introduced with a brief description followed by theoretical justification, numbered performance indicators, vignettes of real-life settings using the performance indicators, and a forum for further thought and discussion. The standards can be applied to most settings with adult ESL or EFL learners and can benefit educators and administrators in teacher-training programs, in educational programs, and in achieving professional development both personally and institution-wide.