This paper discusses suggested requirements for a competency-based English teacher training program on the high school or college level. The author argues that an English teacher needs to demonstrate a basic knowledge of the subject matter in three areas: the structure and history of the English language, rhetorical theory and practice, and literature and criticism. Equally important measures of competence, however, are the kinds of actions he performs in teaching, the skills he possesses as a teacher, and the strategies he uses in organizing these skills. The author outlines a model specifying what some of these competencies in subject matter, acts, skills, and strategies might be. He also suggests that teaching competencies should include certain values, attitudes, and experiences that are not as measurable as the other competencies, but that are no less necessary for competence to be achieved. Once definitions of these competencies are made, it is argued, an exciting, rigorous, and intellectually stimulating teacher training program can be established. (Author/DI)