This section introduces current issues and debates relating to the nature and development of professionalism in the language teaching profession, including the emergence and diversification of qualifications and standards. It also focuses on two groups of language teaching professionals who over the last decade or so have increasingly become a focus of interest and research in second language teacher education.

Leung, in Chapter 5, takes up the question of what constitutes professionalism in SLTE. He distinguishes between sponsored professionalism, laid out by regulatory bodies and professional associations to promote professional action and motivate educational reform, and independent professionalism, developed through socially and politically sensitive awareness of professionalism on the part of teachers themselves. He argues that SLTE programs should aim to offer teachers ways to find a balance between these two forms of professionalism.

Following Leung’s discussion of professionalism, in Chapter 6 Barduhn and Johnson discuss the key issue of certification and professional qualifications. They distinguish between the notions of certification and licensing and overview the current status and nature of programs aimed at professional preparation. They consider what the range of current certification programs, which they note ranges from certificate to PhD level, offer and discuss strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for improvement.

Chapter 7, by Katz and Snow, overviews current approaches and practices in the development of standards and the standards movement. The use of standards is increasing both as a strategy for enhancing teacher development and as away of generating benchmarks for learner performance. While they see the need for SLTE programs to be concerned with both, they also lay out criticisms that have been leveled against the standards movement and caution against the uncritical adoption of standards that may constrain rather than enhance effective teaching.

Freeman, McBee Orzulak, and Morrissey examine the state of assessment in language teacher education in Chapter 8. Here they also describe how the focus of assessment has evolved as understanding of the nature of language teaching and teacher learning has developed and review the complex issues involved in assessing both teacher knowledge and teacher practice.