Competency-Based Teacher Education for English as a Foreign Language: Theory, Research, and Practice

223 Pages·2021·5.638 MB·

by  Amber Yayin Wang (editor)

Competency-Based Teacher
Education for English as a
Foreign Language
Providing a series of chapters, written by teacher educators in three continents,
this edited volume explores the concepts, challenges, possibilities, and imple-
mentations of competency-based instruction for developing English competen-
cies in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. Recent trends in education
have emphasized the need to develop competencies that connect learning with
real-life performances. This need has brought about a massive increase in the
number of studies and scholarly works devoted to research into competency-
based education. However, for teachers and learners of EFL, it is challenging to
develop competencies for using a language that does not seem to connect with
their real-life scenarios. The chapters apply the concept of competency-based
instruction in different EFL contexts and are structured around three themes:
1 Theory: current thoughts on theories of competency-based education
2 Research: empirical research on competency-based teacher education
3 Practice: integrating competency-based instruction into teacher education
This book offers examples of competency-based EFL teacher education through
both research and practical applications. In addition to the innovation in com-
petency approaches, the inclusion of language learning in virtual environments
offers a valuable resource for scholars, educators, researchers, and all those con-
cerned with current and future education.
Amber Yayin Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at
National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan. She has worked on many
national projects in English language teacher education for years and published
research related to language learning, English teacher education, and TPACK.
Routledge Research in Language Education
The Routledge Research in Language Education series provides a platform for
established and emerging scholars to present their latest research and discuss
key issues in Language Education. This series welcomes books on all areas of
language teaching and learning, including but not limited to language educa-
tion policy and politics, multilingualism, literacy, L1, L2 or foreign language
acquisition, curriculum, classroom practice, pedagogy, teaching materials, and
language teacher education and development. Books in the series are not limited
to the discussion of the teaching and learning of English only.
Books in the series include:
Being and Becoming a TESOL Teacher Educator
Research and Practice
Edited by Rui Yuan and Icy Lee
Education for Sustainable Development in Foreign Language Learning
Content-Based Instruction in College-Level Curricula
Edited by María J. de la Fuente
Competency-Based Teacher Education for English as a Foreign Language
Theory, Research, and Practice
Edited by Amber Yayin Wang
Globalization and English Education in Taiwan
Curriculum, Perceptions, and Pedagogies
I-Chung Ke
Advocacy for Social and Linguistic Justice in TESOL
Nurturing Inclusivity, Equity, and Social Responsibility in English Language
Teaching
Edited by Christine E. Poteau and Carter A. Winkle
For more information about the series, please visit www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Language-Education/book-series/RRLE
Competency-Based Teacher
Education for English as a
Foreign Language
Theory, Research, and Practice
Edited by Amber Yayin Wang
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Amber Yayin Wang; individual
chapters, the contributors
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editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wang, Amber Yayin, editor. 
Title: Competency-based teacher education for English as a foreign
language: theory, research, and practice/edited by Amber Yayin
Wang. 
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge research in language education | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021025343 (print) | LCCN 2021025344
(ebook) | ISBN 9781032080727 (hardback) | ISBN
9781032080741 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003212805 (ebook) 
Subjects: LCSH: English teachers—Training of—Taiwan. | English
language—Study and teaching—Taiwan. | English language—Study
and teaching—Foreign speakers. 
Classification: LCC PE1068.T3 C66 2022 (print) | LCC PE1068.T3
(ebook) | DDC 428.0071—dc23 
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021025343
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021025344
ISBN: 978-1-032-08072-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-08074-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21280-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003212805
Typeset in Galliard
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
Acknowledgments ix
List of abbreviations xi
Contributors xiii
Introduction 1
AMBER YAYIN WANG
SECTION I
Theory
1 Competency-based education: A literature review and
its practical considerations for EFL teacher education 9
AMBER YAYIN WANG AND TZYY-YUH MAA
2 Competency-based teacher education and sociocultural
theory: Exploring connections 26
ANA CRISTINA BIONDO SALOMÃO AND PATRÍCIA FABIANA BEDRAN
3 Integrating language teacher identity into competency-based
language teacher education 39
ERIC K. KU AND YEU-TING LIU
SECTION II
Research
4 Undergraduate EFL majors’ agency in ELT lesson designs 59
CHIN-WEN CHIEN
vi Contents
5 Revamping pre-service English reading instruction:
The reading specialist training at an education university
in Taiwan 76
YA-CHEN CHIEN
6 Developing competency-based teacher education with
school-university partnerships: A case in Taiwan 93
AMBER YAYIN WANG
7 Developing teachers’ competencies through intercultural
telecollaboration 112
MARTINE DERIVRY-PLARD, PALOMA CASTRO-PRIETO,
ANA CRISTINA BIONDO SALOMÃO, AND SA-HUI FAN
SECTION III
Practice
8 Impact of different intercultural telecollaborative
environments on Taiwanese ELF learner’s communicative
competencies 127
SA-HUI FAN AND MARTINE DERIVRY-PLARD
9 Preparing pre-service EFL teachers to design issue-centered
English instruction 142
I-AN CHEN
10 Integrating global competence into elementary school
pre-service teacher education of English language in Taiwan 156
YILIN CHEN AND RAE PING LIN
11 Developing competency-based teacher training through
mind mapping for interdisciplinary school-based curricula 168
AI CHUN YEN AND JEFFREY GAMBLE
12 The use of telecollaboration for the development of
intercultural competences in CLIL teacher education 187
PALOMA CASTRO-PRIETO
Index 201
List of figures
1.1 Numbers of selected studies in years 2010–2020 15
1.2 Numbers of selected studies in different areas 16
4.1 Conceptual framework 61
4.2 Ana’s and Ben’s lesson plan 70
6.1 Overview of procedure 100
10.1 PISA: Four dimensions of global competence 160
11.1 Five-stage GREAT-cycle framework 173
11.2 Project timeline 174
11.3 Sample mind map (with central theme, main topics,
and sub-topics) 177
List of tables
4.1 Participants’ self-evaluation 69
4.2 Participants’ peer-evaluation 70
5.1 The end of course feedback on reading instruction 83
5.2 Reading assessments administered 84
6.1 Summary of participants 99
6.2 Background of student teachers 100
6.3 Summary of data collection and analysis 102
6.4 Example objectives of the CBTE courses 103
6.5 A sample CBTE course in the stages of the UbD 103
6.6 The learning cycle in the CBTE design 104
6.7 A comparison on teacher knowledge before and after
the CBTE courses 104
6.8 Pupil feedback on the practice teaching lessons 105
8.1 Comparison of the two telecollaborations 130
9.1 Phases of course curriculum development 145
9.2 Course desired learning outcomes 145
9.3 Performance task guides 147
9.4 Guiding questions for teacher reflection 148
9.5 Course curriculum map 148
10.1 Learning objectives and learning activities 163
10.2 An example of a lesson design 165
11.1 Core competencies by dimension 170
11.2 Paired samples statistics for core competencies
by dimension 179
11.3 Paired samples T-test results for core competencies
(microteaching) 179
12.1 Excerpts from a pre-service teacher’s reflections during
the whole process 196
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of many individ-
uals. On behalf of all authors, I would like to express our gratitude toward all of
those who have provided the opportunity for the publication of this manuscript.
We want to thank Routledge for publishing this book, especially Bruce
Roberts, Katie Peace, and Kendrick Loo from Taylor & Francis and anonymous
reviewers. Katie provided suggestions and support during the process of the
proposal review. Her positive attitude, valuable time, and kind assistance are
highly appreciated. Kendrick walked us through the process of preparing all
the necessary documents. We thank him for his patient and prompt responses.
The three anonymous reviewers helped us clarify confusion and encouraged us
in many ways.
Special thanks go to those who have helped improve the clarity of the book.
Many professors in the field of English language teaching and learning at differ-
ent universities served as anonymous reviewers to provide positive and construc-
tive comments. We appreciate their precious time and valuable perspectives. In
the revision process, we thank Dr. Massoud Moslehpour and Dr. Stacie Moore
for their editing suggestions. During the long process of preparing the man-
uscripts, many other people spent extra time helping with details, including
contacting reviewers, formatting, checking references, and other administra-
tive assistance. They are, in alphabetical order, Hsiang-Ling Huang, Shu-Fang
Hsieh, Ling-Ling Hsu, Yun-Hui Kuo, Liang-Ying Lu, and Yi-Cheng Lu.
We are grateful to the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan for supporting
teacher educators in forming professional teacher groups. Without the profes-
sional teacher group funding by the MOE from 2019–2020, the authors of this
book would not have had the chance to discuss and exchange ideas about EFL
teacher education, and this book would not have been possible. We are grateful
for this valuable support.
Thanks also to all authors of this book for sharing their valuable experiences
and observations. All the authors supported the ideas of sharing what we had
experimented with and managed to write, revise, and re-revise their chapters
despite their tight schedules. It has been my pleasure to work with all the authors
in this book.