Abstract
There is no standard via which to measure the ‘qualified’ English language teacher in a way that is
meaningful to institutions seeking to employ teaching staff. This is significant given that candidates
may differ markedly in their language competence, knowledge about language, methodological skills
and ability to explain and justify their praxis and operate in intercultural spaces. In this article, we
propose a framework, based on Bourdieu’s (1986) ‘forms of capital’, with a view to helping
stakeholders articulate and evaluate teachers’ skills. To demonstrate how this framework might be
used, we apply it to two English language teacher qualifications that have wide professional currency:
CELTA courses and Masters degrees in ELT/Applied Linguistics.