Instructional Strategies and the Application of Competency-based and Standards-based Approaches in EFL Classrooms in Morocco

This article is a reflection on the teaching practices of English as a foreign language classroom at the secondary school in Morocco. Our observation is that the practices of the majority of teachers do not adhere to the principles of the competency and Standards based approaches that are recommended by the ministerial pedagogical guidelines. These principles are based on the heritage of socio-constructivism and cognitivism. In this perspective, this contribution, which is part of the general context of research in foreign language didactics and that of socio-constructivism and competency-based training in particular, and which attaches great importance to the "field", proposes to observe the practices of teachers of English as a foreign language in the qualifying secondary cycle and to report on the extent to which the new pedagogical orientations are present in classrooms at the present time, The aim is to assess the distance that remains to be covered in order to put into practice a teaching and learning that is truly in line with the spirit of the competency-based approach and standards based approach and, therefore, with the new theories of learning sciences.