Constructing an evaluation system for the core competencies of ESP teachers in China

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a great initiative to promote the concept of “New Liberal Arts“ in China, which emphasizes integrating different disciplines into the traditional liberal arts. Against this background, the core competencies of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teachers in colleges and universities must integrate subject intelligence, interdisciplinary coordination, and humanistic accomplishment to gear to the fast progress of social development. This study constructs an evaluation system for the core competencies of ESP teachers, including a first-level index to evaluate teachers' core competencies from five dimensions: discipline, innovation, information, morale, and collaboration. Then a survey to test the validity and credibility of the system was conducted with a questionnaire as a tool, consisting of 119 ESP teachers and other teaching practitioners relevant to the ESP area as participants. The survey results show that the index body can reliably reflect the situation of each observation point and has strong validity. Accordingly, the study proposes the implementation strategy of an evaluation index system combining process evaluation and phased evaluation, internal evaluation, external evaluation, quantitative evaluation, and qualitative evaluation from the multi-faceted, multi-layer, and multi-dimensional perspective.