Competency‐Based ESL: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back?

While competency‐based education has become widely accepted as the state‐of‐the‐art approach to adult ESL, there has been little published discussion of its theoretical assumptions or social implications. This article examines eight key descriptors of competency‐based education in light of critiques from the fields of curriculum theory, adult basic education, and second language acquisition theory. The results of an informal survey of teacher attitudes toward competency‐based adult education in ESL are incorporated. The article situates the competency‐based approach in its historical context as part of a tradition of socializing immigrants for specific roles in the existing socioeconomic order. It suggests that the systems demands of this approach (for accountability and “social utility”) may impose constraints that get in the way of such pedagogical considerations as student‐centered learning. The article concludes by stressing the need for further debate and analysis, rather than uncritical acceptance, of competency‐based systems.