Teachers’ Beliefs in Balancing Linguistic Competence and Teaching Performance in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

Linguistic competence and teaching performance among English teachers in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms have been at the center of linguists’ discussion, both theoretical and applied in the 21st century. This study attempts to examine the importance of balancing linguistic competence and teaching performance in learning and teaching of English classrooms. Moreover, this study aims at exploring the different ways of linguistic competence and teaching performance defined by linguists. It also investigates how differing interpretations of these two concepts influence learning and teaching in foreign language classrooms. Following the idea above, an online survey was conducted to discover the EFL teachers’ beliefs about linguistic competence and teaching performance in EFL teaching practices. The result indicated that most of them have a clear idea toward the concept of linguistic competencies and teaching performance and believed that it is important for EFL teachers to have a good command of linguistic competence in order to help them perform better in their teaching practices/performances. Therefore, linguistic competencies and teaching performance should be placed equally.