The Sociocultural Factors Influencing Chilean EFL Teachers to Sit for Language Proficiency Examinations

This study aimed to understand some of the relevant sociocultural factors influencing five Chilean teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to sit for an international language proficiency examination in 2019. Some major findings involved the perception of language proficiency certifications as an external imposition that affected teachers’ working stability, career prospects, and income. The participants also proposed a potential link between language proficiency levels and the pedagogical activities teachers could do in the classroom. However, there was a tendency towards perceiving other factors (i.e., interpersonal factors) as more significant constituents of their roles and identities as EFL teachers in Chile, which is somehow in agreement with what was proposed by other authors in the field. The conclusions of this study support previous investigations questioning the relevance given to language proficiency examinations in EFL contexts, and how such relevance can have an impact on teachers’ professional lives.