The language skills of teachers: an essential asset to be assessed

Last December, the Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC) released a report highlighting the correlation between the language skills of primary and secondary teachers and the effectiveness of their teaching. It appears that excellence in this profession requires advanced skills in this area.

Regardless of the language in which the courses are given, language skills remain a priority within the teaching profession. The recent report of CMEC confirms this, by virtue of the results of research forming part of a long-term project. The latter aims to design tools for assessing the linguistic skills required from potential teachers trained abroad, in a language other than French or English.

The report produced by CMEC, funded by the Government of Canada's Foreign Credential Recognition Program, presents a rigorous review of the literature on the primacy of language in teaching and learning as well as a framework language proficiency levels for the teaching profession, in both official Canadian languages.

This is how the 110-page document provides a comprehensive picture of the situation and illustrates why the language skills of teachers are so important. With regard to the teaching of French, the report addresses the different contexts for the transmission of knowledge (French as a first language and French in a Francophone minority setting) as well as the challenges attributable to the teaching of this language. In addition, the language used in class (types, linguistic forms and language modalities) is specified. Likewise, the various roles of teachers are categorized, so as to understand, among other things, the issues associated with teacher-instructors, evaluators, managers and communicators. The pedagogical language of these is also demystified.

Based on the observations of the study, some teaching strategies are proposed and described. For example, the report demonstrates the relevance of setting educational objectives, using preliminary texts, planning direct and reciprocal teaching, and then promoting problem solving and metacognitive strategies. The art of having effective class discussions is also discussed in a section of the report.

To view the report, visit this link: Let's Talk Excellence: Language skills for effective teaching (PDF).