Integrating language teacher identity into competency-based language teacher education

As teacher education programs worldwide are experiencing a revival of the competency-based approach, scholars have criticized competency-based approaches for oversimplifying teacher development. Simultaneously, language teacher identity (LTI) has been recognized as inseparable from the teacher developmental process in language teacher education. How do language teacher educators reconcile the tension between emphasizing the development of skills and behavior (i.e., competencies) versus the development of the self (i.e., identity)? In this chapter, we argue that the issue is not a matter of choosing one approach over the other because both are important for the development of a successful teacher. In this light, the role of LTI should be further explored in competency-based language teacher education (CBLTE) programs. We call for the need for competency-based frameworks to integrate identities as part of the effort to improve CBLTE.