Resumen

CHACON, Carmen. Initial education and communicative competence: perceptions from a group of english teachers. Educere [online]. 2006, vol.10, n.32, pp.121-130. ISSN 1316-4910.

The main aim of this descriptive study is to investigate the degree of satisfaction and perception of the initial education of a group of 100 Elementary School English teachers. To achieve that, quantitative and qualitative methods were combined allowing information triangulation to be able to answer the aims of the research. A survey was carried out and the outcome was data that was useful to guide the semi-structured interviews carried out with a 20-teacher sample. 85% of the people interviewed stand out among the findings as being dissatisfied in relation to the education received through their major. On the other hand, it was also found that according to the participants, their major’s curricular design was more oriented to the pedagogic axis emphasizing theory separate from practice. The obtained results contribute with useful elements for the orientation of English teachers education’s curricular design. As well, the findings show the urgent need of contextualizing theory and practice when educating efficient and capable English teachers, who are able to handle the “uncertainty” of their practice.

Palabras clave : teacher; teaching and learning; English; teachers’ education; communicative competence.