Summary of the descriptive background information

1: Teachers / non-teachers

Almost all European respondents (97.4%) were, or had been, language teachers. Only in Southern Europe was that figure slightly lower: ‘only’ about 91% of them were language teachers. On average, about 15% of the respondents reported that they taught another subject; in most cases, they, however, also taught a language. Only 12 of the total of 855 European respondents reported they had not taught anything in their career. Teachers who were (or had been) teaching both a language and another subject were relatively more frequent among our central European respondents (20%), followed by Western and Southern Europeans, whereas it was less common in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and in the Baltic region.

2: Languages that the respondents taught

English was by far the most often taught language: 74% of our respondents who identified themselves as language teachers taught or had taught it as a foreign language, and a sizable number of them had also taught it as a second and/or first language. German and French came second but clearly behind English: some 15 – 16% of the respondents had taught these two languages as a foreign language, and some also as a first or second language. The respondents also included a fair number of teachers of Swedish, Russian, Spanish and Finnish. It was possible that there was some confusion among the respondents as to what ‘foreign’ and ‘second’ language meant and from whose perspective (the teacher’s or the learners’) a language is taught as a first language – a problem which surveys in the future may need to address.

3: Qualifications of the respondents

On average, more than half of the respondents were fully qualified to teach languages in the sense that they had both a language degree and that they had teacher training. On the other hand, this also means that almost half of them were only partially qualified for language teaching as far as formal qualifications are concerned. One fifth (21%) had a language degree only and about 10% had either only teacher training (without a language degree) or some other type of qualification. Some regional and national differences could be observed but the small number of respondents per country prevents generalisations.

4: Types of student that the respondents worked with

About half (52%) of the European respondents worked with adults in universities and other types of higher education (such as polytechnics). Although quite a few of them may also have worked with other target groups, adults in higher education formed clearly the biggest group across almost all regions, particularly among the Western, Central and Southern European respondents.

The second most frequent group of students that our respondents worked with was the 16 – 18 year olds – students in upper secondary education (about 30%). Working with lower secondary students (11 – 15 year olds). These were followed by ‘adults in work and adults in evening classes’ (about 20%), ‘adults in vocational education’ 13%, and, finally, Young children under 10 years of age’ with 9% of respondents.

About 55% or 467 of the 855 European respondents reported that they work exclusively with one type of student. This was most common in the Northern and Western Europe (67% and 62%), and least common in the Baltic, Eastern and Southern European countries (33 – 39%).

5: Roles or professions of the respondents

The great majority, almost 83% of the respondents working in Europe were engaged in language teaching, half of them as language teachers only, and another half combining teaching with one or several other professions and roles. A third of the respondents were engaged in teacher training and a quarter in professional language testing as members of testing and examining organisations. Less than a fifth were involved in textbook or other materials design, and about 10% were also heads of their institutions or study programmes.