Accountable professional practice

in ELT
Frank Farmer

Professionalism is widely thought to be desirable in ELT, and at the same time

institutions are taking seriously the need to evaluate their teachers. This article
presents a general approach to professionalism focused on the accountability of
the professional to the client based on TESOLs (2000) classification of adult
ELT within eight general service areas.
Both TESOLs attempt to ascribe Indicators, Measures and Performance
Standards to those areas of service and recent attempts to form professional
bodies in ELT are shown to be unable to provide effective protection of clients
interests. Nevertheless, the TESOL approach to defining a full ELT service
can be modified to adopt a clients perspective, leading to a proposal for a more
complete and accountable professional ELT service.
The analysis presented here will be of interest to all ELT practitioners seeking
to understand the professional context of their own practice and how it may
be evaluated.

The nature of
accountable
professionalism

Freidson (2001) subtitles his book on professionalism On the practice

of knowledge. His main idea is that there are three ways of organizing,
controlling and rewarding labour, namely free markets, bureaucracy, and
professionalism, and his concise working definition of professionalism is
. . . a set of institutions which permit the members of an occupation to
make a living while controlling their own work (ibid.: 12).
Freidson is particularly relevant because he is sympathetic to the
professions and believes that the suggestion that they operate monopolies
against the public interest is unjustified. He points out (ibid.: 214) that
professions gain their protected status by successful persuasion, not
by buying it or capturing it at the point of a gun. Nevertheless, it is
undeniable that there is a sense in which professions do have an
occupational monopoly. Freidsons view (ibid.: 198) is that the monopoly
of professionalism is not over real property, wealth, political power, or even
knowledge, but rather over the practice of a defined body of intellectualised
knowledge and skill, a discipline (italics in original). I take this to mean
that the knowledge held by professions is not secret: the science they use
is available to all. But knowing how to apply that knowledge to solving
problems does require skill of a different order, and that is the special
province of the professions. As Dingwall and Fenn (1987: 61) put it; the

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The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.

judgement of the professional stabilises the unpredictable into a basis

sufficiently reliable for human action. The test is not just whether the
knowledge is true, but rather whether it works and how well it works. If
someone else can do the job better, the professionals claims are nullified,
and in that way the public are protected from spurious claims to knowledge.
Dingwall and Fenn (ibid.: 51) suggest that such creative tension between
different occupations accompanied by litigation is indeed the only
workable public safeguard licensing professional monopolies. They
further point out (ibid.: 55) that there is an informational asymmetry in all
professional activities, as only the profession is able to judge the quality of
practitioners work, so that disputes between professionals and clients
must be settled in court using expert witnesses to clarify the issues.
ELT professionals are not normally sued for professional negligence,
and that perhaps reflects a vagueness about what they promise to do
for their clients. We may now examine approaches to ELT which have
some of the characteristics of accountable professionalism.

Sterns model of
language teaching

Stern (1983: 44) proposes a three layer model of language teaching. The top
layer, which is the part that puts theory into practice, is the one which
contains classroom methodologies and the organizational setting for
these. This grouping is of interest because it treats teaching acts and the
institutions in which they take place together, which is surely how student
clients really experience education. The top layer is supported by what he
calls an intermediate layer of knowledge which may be subsumed under
the general heading of educational linguistics. Educational linguistics has
its own specialist disciplines: learning, language, and teaching. These
are in turn informed by the core disciplines which form the foundation,
the bottom layer of Sterns model: history of language teaching,
linguistics, sociology sociolinguistics and anthropology, psychology and
psycholinguistics, and educational theory.
An attractive feature of this model is the way it packages knowledge. So
much has been written about the learning of languages that it is a nearly
impossible design problem to devise a teaching approach that takes into
account all that is known about the subject, and in addition constantly
updates that approach in the light of the flood of new information. Thus,
the bottom layer disciplines do not have to worry too much about the
impact their work may have on intermediate layer disciplines. That is for
the educational linguists to work out. Similarly, educational linguists do
not have to do basic research, and can take a multidisciplinary approach to
providing the information in a form usable by the top layer, the educators
who actually deliver the educational service to the student client.
But here lies the problem. What is the nature of the top layer of Sterns
model? If it is not more of the same, a scholarly re-combining of the work
of the educational linguists, maybe it is a service industry like any other,
requiring attention to the parameters set by a quality assurance
programme, or perhaps it could be an accountable professional service.
This is an important question. It affects what kind of people we hire to
deliver the service, how we train them, what we ask of them and how
we evaluate their work.
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161

ELT as a service
industry

A service industry approach to ELT supposes a market-led service,

where clients may insist on identifiable actions leading to measurable
results. Thus, government and institutions can expect evidence that
investment is producing results and student clients can expect an
education that can be selected for price and quality, like any other
product. In some senses this is an attractive approach to ELT and it is the
view presented in TESOL (2000) where Quality Indicators, Measures and
Performance Standards for adult ESOL teaching programmes are given
under the following headings:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Features of the
TESOL approach

Program Structure, Administration and Planning

Curriculum
Instruction
Recruitment, Intake and Orientation
Retention and Transition
Assessment and Learner Gains
Staffing, Professional Development and Staff Evaluation
Support Services

This document is interesting in four important ways.

Firstly, many of these functions are not normally considered part of
teaching, and are delegated to our institutions or to senior administrative
or teaching staff. But according to Ramsden (1992: 5) The aim of teaching
is simple: it is to make student learning possible. If we follow this line,
perhaps EFL/ESL teachers should be competent to deliver all of these
services. Stern (op. cit.: 21) in his exploration of the fundamental concepts
of language teaching says that it is his intention to: . . . interpret language
teaching widely so as to include all the activities intended to bring about
language learning. Interestingly, Freidson (op. cit.: 1713) regards
engineers as having weak claims to professionalism because of the
incomplete and dependent nature of their service, so that completeness of
service may taken as an indicator of professionalism. But taking the wider
view of a language teaching service has important implications for the
evaluation of that service. Teachers are often defensive about administrative
demands to accept new responsibilities and submit to new evaluations, and
with good reason. However, if teachers themselves can define their service
more exactly, evaluate themselves, and offer a clear statement of their
competences, there is every reason to believe that teachers will benefit.
This has been the experience of other professions, who enjoy status and
respect in society and considerable personal job satisfaction as well as
receiving salaries compatible with their responsibilities.
Secondly, not all the Quality Indicators listed, and perhaps even less the
most significant ones, are amenable to the specification of Measures
and Performance Standards. For example, the suggestions given on
Instruction (TESOL 2000: Appendix A1) show that out of thirteen Quality
Indicators, only one can be measured and ascribed a Performance
Standard. This must call into question how far this approach can guarantee
the quality of service to the student client.
Thirdly, there is a need for knowledge, skill, and judgement in writing the
performance standards which a teaching programme should meet. If the

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appropriate knowledge skill and judgement exists only in the community

of ELT, there is scope for a lack of objectivity as well as a possible failure to
attend the real or perceived needs of the student client.
And fourthly, it is not clear how far performance standards written by ELT
specialists can be said to inform or facilitate decision-making or service
evaluation by either institutional or student clients.

Outcomes of the
TESOL approach

On this analysis, then, TESOL (2000) shows that as a service ELT has
proved somewhat difficult to tie down to measurable performance
standards. Clients, both institutions and students, have to take on trust
much of the service providers good intentions and competence, much
as we do when we consult a doctor, a lawyer, or an architect.
Nevertheless, we should not be in too much of a hurry to dismiss it out
of hand. It has done a valuable service in reminding us that giving classes
is a tiny part of language education, one item out of eight in this case. And
if the approach has not been too fruitful in the definition of classroom
practice, it has proved quite helpful in other areas of the service.
Assessment and Learner Gains, for instance, seems to be an area
particularly well suited to measures and performance standards, with
nine measurable performance standards identified for three quality
indicators (ibid.: A1).
In addition, in the current climate, we cannot afford to ignore legitimate
demands for accountability. Evaluation bids fair to be the greatest growth
industry in education . . . since the invention of printing (Candlin 1998:
xiv).The authors of the TESOL document are fourteen teachers and
coordinators of language programmes in the USA, with a coordinator and
a representative of the US Department of Education, and it is encouraging
that they are trying to respond in a realistic way to the pressure for
measurable performance.
Finally, it is interesting that no pretence is made at responding to market
demands. Professionals are responsible for defining client needs, and
this is the view that seems to be taken by the panel of expert authors of
this document. Freidson (op. cit.: 122) states: Professionals claim
independence of judgement and freedom of action rather than faithful
service . . . due to devotion to higher values. Professionals may even violate
their clients wishes.
Walker (2001) investigated the wishes of TESOL clients in New Zealand
and identified the ESOL teacher as the most important issue for clients.
He offers a tentative suggestion for TESOL managers on the role of
the ESOL teacher (ibid.: 194):
In addition to teaching qualifications and skills, effective ESOL teachers
may need to possess a service orientation. TESOL managers may wish to
specify personal attributes consistent with both service orientation and
the counsellor/coach/mentor role in their criteria for hiring new teachers
and developing existing staff. Teaching methodologies may need to be
reviewed with respect to flexibility. Time might be well spent on
preliminary client orientation to the preferred methodology of the
institution. Consideration might also be given to restructuring teaching
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163

programmes by reducing formal class time and substituting drop-in

sessions when clients can access teachers on an individual basis.
I have quoted this recommendation at length because it represents
a client-orientated approach that is at the same time calling for a more
professional role from teachers and a more complete service with the
teacher as the prime service provider.
Aspects of the client-led service approach, then, are worthy of further
consideration, but it is evident that it necessarily leaves many important
elements of the service without effective systems of quality control. If a
client-orientated service industry approach as suggested in TESOL (2000)
seems inadequate, perhaps a professional approach will be more helpful.

Towards accountable
professionalism
in ELT

ELT has in place internationally validated courses of preparation for

teachers, such as the Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults
(DELTA) and the In-service Certificate in English Language Teaching
(ICELT), both validated through Cambridge ESOL. There have been
initiatives towards professionalism by setting entry standards for
practitioners, so that professional ELT becomes the service that accredited
teacher education may define (Haddock undated; Murphy-ODwyer 2002).
It has an extensive knowledge base, and research continues to contribute to
it. And as ELT practice is traditionally theory driven, there are mechanisms
for change that are not entirely controlled by the administrative needs of
employers.
Perhaps the implications of this are best appreciated by comparing
professional systems with those currently guiding ELT practice. In current
ELT orthodoxy, the service given depends on the education of the teachers,
which in turn depends on what has been researched. Figure 1 shows the
chain of cause and effect in the systems:
This figure shows a marked difference in the role of theory in the two
systems. Good practice in a professional system is good because it works,
and does not depend on whether or not a satisfactory theoretical
explanation exists. The growth of professional bodies depends on the
existence of good practice. First it is necessary to define the ELT service,
thinking about what practitioners must know and what they must be
competent to do, having a clear view of their service from the clients point
of view and a clear conception of who their clients are. These are not
traditionally the concerns of ELT literature, yet they underlie all attempts to
educate ELT professionals and to evaluate their work. It may be concluded
that any attempt to form a professional body in ELT in the present state
of knowledge would tend to freeze practice in current orthodoxy rather
than address client needs.

An academic
approach

If we take a strictly academic approach, we are unlikely to develop

a suitable knowledge base. The large and growing literature on ELT is
substantially unstructured, so that practitioners may be reading basic
research in the hope that something may turn up which might improve their
practice. Or they may be reading about classroom activities based on some
new theoretical principle or technology without an overview of how these
have been tested and evaluated. Perhaps we have not as a group been

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figure 1
Cause and effect in ELT
compared with
established professions

sufficiently interested in who may be helped or harmed by a teaching

procedure, how much and under what circumstances. This is evidently
a matter which can be investigated by large scale trials which could be carried
out much in the way that clinical trials of drugs are carried out in medicine.
No doubt one reason for such trials not being carried out is that basic research
has not yet defined the variables to the extent needed for controlled tests to be
made, but it is also known that large scale trials are rather expensive. At any
rate, this kind of knowledge is notably lacking. I think this suggests a much
stronger role for what Stern (1983: 44) calls educational linguistics. Macaro
(2003: 251) complains about a lack of focus in research, and educational
linguists may be in a much better position than ELT practitioners to both
indicate where research effort may best be directed and to assimilate
existing research in a form in which it may influence practice.

A client service
approach

TESOL (2000) prescribes a wide range of services to the client, and

perhaps these should be regarded as the responsibilities of ELT
professionals rather than of institutions. We have noted the requirement
for the completeness of a professional service, and we have seen that from
the clients point of view their teacher is the main, if not the sole service
provider. Perhaps the administrative procedures we are inclined to detest
are really at the heart of our professionalism, provided they are ours and not
imposed from outside. It is an additional burden to learn how to do the
Accountable professional practice in ELT

165

administration, but it is not too demanding and has the advantage of giving
the professional a complete view of their work. Indeed, if we make
a medical analogy, where ELT institutions function like a hospital whose
administrators have assumed the role of doctors and employ only nurses
to attend the patients, the service cannot in any meaningful sense be
professional.
Once mastered, the administrative role of the professional may be
supervisory and the work delegated. Goode (1969: 284) suggests that
it is compatible with professionalism to delegate the dirty work to less
qualified staff. Professional teachers, accepting full responsibility for the
service to the client, may delegate much of the administration to their
schools under their supervision.
Although professionalism as I have defined it is focused on service, it is
a special kind of service, quite unlike ordinary service industries (Dingwall
and Fenn 1987: 61). What distinguishes professional from service industry
approaches to the clients needs is that the professional undertakes to help
define those needs, so that the client is not alone in making decisions that
are outside their competence. The danger of having an education driven
service, as may currently be the norm in ELT, is that the client gets what
practitioners have been trained to do rather than what they need. And in the
model of professionalism advocated here, needs have priority even though
the skill, knowledge or facilities required may not be as complete as we
would like at any given time or place.

Professional ELT
service statements

Established professions offer plain language statements of what they

promise to do for their clients, and TESOL (2000) has attempted
a complete catalogue of ELT services. The suggestion for an ELT
professional service that follows is based on the service presented in
TESOL (2000) adapted to ensure that learning support is written into the
system as fully as possible.
Program structure, administration and planning
Providing programmes with a mission statement, philosophy, and goals,
with input from internal and external stakeholders.
Providing effective administration and accountability in all programmes.
Providing effective evaluation of programmes and planning for future
needs.
Curriculum
Setting goals, objectives, outcomes, approaches, methods, materials,
technological resources and evaluation measures that are appropriate for
clients needs and goals.
Evaluating and revising the curriculum.
Instruction
Promoting active client participation in the learning process.
Taking account of diverse client needs and cultural backgrounds.

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Focusing on the functional use of language.

Integrating the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening).
Taking account of different clients learning styles.
Developing authentic communication skills.
Preparing clients for formal and informal assessment situations.
Recruitment, intake, and orientation
Identifying and recruiting client learners to meet needs.
Evaluating recruitment procedures.
Planning recruitment programmes.
Evaluating clients needs, goals, and language proficiency level.
Retention and transition
Encouraging clients to stay in the system or transfer to other programmes
in accordance with their goals and needs.
Assessment and learner gains
Assessing clients skills and goals for placement into the programme,
documentation of progress within the programme, and exit from the
programme.
Collecting and reporting data on educational gains and outcomes.
Providing appropriate facilities, equipment and conditions for assessment
activities.
Identifying clients needs and goals as individuals, family members,
community participants, workers, and lifelong learners.
Assessing clients language proficiency level in the areas of listening,
speaking, reading and writing.
Using an appropriate variety of reliable and valid instruments for
assessment.
Obtaining information through needs assessment to aid in developing
curricula, materials, skills assessments, and teaching approaches that
are relevant to clients lives.
Explaining and sharing assessment results with clients.
Documenting clients progress towards attainment of other goals.
Helping clients identify their short and long term goals.
Helping clients demonstrate skill level improvements in listening,
speaking, reading and writing.
Helping clients demonstrate progress towards their short and long
term goals.
Helping clients demonstrate progress in non-linguistic areas identified as
important toward their goals.
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167

Helping clients attain their personal short and long term goals within
time frames compatible with client and programme expectations.
Staffing, professional development, and staff evaluation
Recruiting, hiring and inducting suitably qualified administrative,
instructional and support staff.
Developing a professional development plan based on staff needs and
developments in ESOL, with suitable follow up.
Training in assessment procedures and in the interpretation and use of
assessment results.
Maintaining an up to date resource library of materials on teaching
methods and previous course syllabi.
Evaluating administrative, instructional, and support staff.
Giving clients the opportunity to evaluate programme staff anonymously.
Support services
Providing access to a variety of services related to barriers to learning
directly or through referrals to other agencies.
Identifying learner disabilities and providing appropriate services directly
or through referrals to other agencies.
The statements above come entirely from TESOL (2000), but much
shortened and adapted to focus more on the client than on the programme.
Expressed in this way, the service is comparable with that offered by other
professions in documents such the Royal Institute of British Architects
Plan of Work (RIBA undated). One aspect of this type of document is that
the service offered is complete and stands alone, and is not dependent on
other professions or services. The client may select a full or partial service,
and negotiate the appropriate fee, but the professional may refuse to
provide a partial service that they consider prejudicial to their clients
interests or that may leave the professional vulnerable to claims of
professional negligence.
A further characteristic of this formulation is that it does not seek to limit
the professionals liability by setting conditions in small print. The
requirement is that each part of the service should be delivered as well as
possible within the current limits of knowledge. This differs considerably
from a service industry approach, as the standard of the service is not set
by the provider, but by the client. In the case of an unsatisfactory outcome,
the courts will determine whether or not there was something that the
professional should or should not have done to protect their clients
interests.
If there are similarities between this reformulation of the standards set by
TESOL (2000) and the service offered by other professions, there are
also marked differences. The proposed ELT service statements are much
more detailed and include aspects such as staffing and development that

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are usually dealt with separately in established professions that already

enjoy a monopoly of title and practice. But without a professional body and
no immediate prospect of establishing an effective one, the only workable
option is to be openly accountable to the client on these matters too.

Conclusions

The professionalism advocated here is nothing more than the effective

management of the clients learning, led by professionals claiming
appropriate knowledge and competence, and accountable to clients. No
other system allows the delivery of a service of comparable quality
combined with an effective system of accountability. Perhaps the
advantages of a professional approach to ELT can be outlined as
follows:
n Service to the client
n Reduction in the impact of peripheral considerations such as the
teachers personality
n Accountable practice with no passing the blame for poor service between
providers
n Management of incremental change based on proven improvement in
client service outcomes
n Accommodation of career development within the professional system
n Consolidation of teacher education
n Valid systems of service evaluation
n Clear directions for practice oriented research
n Valid criteria for recognition of teacher excellence
n Administrative procedures focused on client service rather than
accountability to the teachers employers.
Final revised version received August 2004

References
Candlin, C. 1998. General Editors preface in P.
Rea-Dickens and K. P. Germaine (eds.). Managing
Evaluation and Innovation In Language Teaching.
Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman.
Dingwall, R. and P. Fenn. 1987. A respectable
profession? Sociological and economic perspectives
on the regulation of professional services.
International Review of Law and Economics 7: 5164.
Freidson, E. 2001. Professionalism, the Third Logic: on
the Practice of Knowledge. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Goode, W. J. 1969. The theoretical limits of
professionalization in A. Etzione (ed.). The SemiProfessions and their Organization. New York: The
Free Press.
Haddock, D. undated. TESOLANZ Professional
Standards Project: core competencies profile.
Available at http://www.tesolanz.org.nz/
Competency.htm (last accessed 26/05/04).
Macaro, E. 2003. Teaching and Learning a Second
Language. London: Continuum.

Murphy-ODwyer, L. 2002. The proposed key

standards and guidelines for the recognition of
pre-career ELT courses in Ireland. Available at
http://www.acels.ie (last accessed 26/05/04).
Ramsden, P. 1992. Learning to Teach in Higher
Education. London: Routledge.
RIBA. undated. Contracts and appointments.
Available at http://www.riba.org/go/RIBA/
Member/Practice_306.html (last accessed
26/05/04).
Stern, H. H. 1983. Fundamental Concepts of Language
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
TESOL. 2000. Program Standards for Adult
Education ESOL Programs. Alexandria Va.: TESOL.
Walker, J. 2001. Client views of TESOL service:
expectations and perceptions. International Journal
of Educational Management 15/4: 18796.
The author
Frank Farmer has been a lecturer at the Universidad
de Quintana Roo, Mexico, since 1996. He holds
the COTE qualification in language teaching,

Accountable professional practice in ELT

169

is an oral examiner for Cambridge ESOL, and has

a Master of Education degree in Educational
Technology and ELT from the University of
Manchester. He is also an architect registered in the
United Kingdom. His research interests include

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Frank Farmer

professionalism in ELT, the use of technology in

language education, and self-access.
Email: frank@correo.uqroo.mx