Professional and communication competencies of the English teachers working in public high schools

This study aims to identify the level of perception of the English teachers working in general high schools concerning their professional and communication competencies and the level of using them and investigate their perceptions by certain variables. Being a survey, this study also seeks to find out the effect of demographic variables on the teachers? perception of their level of professional and communication competencies.The population of the study consisted of the 404 English teachers working in general high schools within provincial Ankara in the educational term 2007-2008. 163 English teachers was chosen for the sample from each district (stratum), using stratified sampling.The data were collected through an instrument developed by the present researcher. The instrument was of three parts. Part one included items about demographic information about the participants; part two had items about professional competencies concerning English language proficiency and instruction in the levels of acquisition and practice, as well as an open-ended item about the individual and organizational factor(s) hampering the actualization of the competencies; part three had items about the communication competencies.As a result of the study, it was found that the teachers had a ?high? level of perception as to their professional competencies in the levels of acquisition and practice. Further, the participants stated that the most important three drawbacks preventing them from using their competencies properly were ?lack of time / having too many classes a week,? ?insufficient knowledge of their subject matter,? and ?not having enough time for practice? respectively. On the other hand, it was found that the teachers had a level of perception very close to ?high? as to their communication competencies. However, it was discovered that the participants had a lower level of perception regarding their communication competencies than they had for their professional competencies. It was also ascertained that the level of perception concerning professional competencies did not vary according to gender, department of graduation, length of service, and participation in in-service training activities, while it varied according to education level.