Some Aspects of Students’ Viewpoints on Foreign Language Teacher’s Professional Competencies

Abstract

The article deals with future foreign language teachers' viewpoints on teacher's professional competencies as one of the influential factors on the development of their moral attitudes. The objective was set to determine the respondents' viewpoints on their professional linguistic, professional pedagogical, intercultural and general competencies and to determine the possible correlations between the respondents' viewpoints on teacher's competencies and moral values, comprising the content of the cognitive-meaningful component of moral attitude.

The research revealed that the majority of the respondents think that foreign language teachers should firstly acquire professional linguistic competence, secondly - professional pedagogic, thirdly - intercultural competence and fourthly - the teacher's general competence. The research revealed the strongest correlations between the respondents' views on professional pedagogic and general competencies and the components of moral attitude, the most significant being with the general competence. The respondents' viewpoints on teacher's competencies can have the greatest impact on the cognitive-meaningful component of moral attitude. Numerous correlations between the respondents' viewpoints on general and professional pedagogic competencies of teacher's profession and the acknowledgment and meaningfulness of the significance of moral values were established. The conclusion was made that the respondents' viewpoints on general competence are likely to be most influential on the development of future foreign language teachers' moral attitudes. Therefore, foreign language teaching process should be more focused on fostering general competence, thus providing more favorable possibilities for the development of future teachers' moral attitudes.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.18.421