Abstract
This study attempted to characterize qualities of an effective English language teacher (EELT) as perceived by Iranian
English language teachers and learners. For this purpose, a tailor-made questionnaire was administered to 59 English
language teachers and 215 learners of English at universities, high schools and language institutes in Iran. The results
indicated significant differences between teachers’ and learners’ views on some characteristics of EELTs. Teachers
seemed to agree more strongly than students that an EELT should assign homework and integrate group activities into
the classroom. Other areas of significant difference in opinions included preparing the lesson well, using lesson plans
and assessing what students have learned reasonably. Students, on the contrary, agreed more than teachers that teaching
English in Persian (first language of the learners) was one of the prominent characteristics of an EELT. The qualitative
analysis indicated that teachers perceived the features like mastery of the target language, good knowledge of pedagogy
and the use of particular techniques and methods as well as a good personality to make an EELT, whereas, learners
gave more weight to characteristics relating to a teacher’s personality and the way he behaves toward his students.
Keywords: Teacher characteristics, Effective teacher, English language teacher; English language learner
1. Introduction
Good and qualified teachers are essential for efficient functioning of educational systems and for enhancing the quality
of learning. Research supports this notion that a good teacher and actions to be taken on his part in the classroom play a
vital role in provoking effective and efficient learning on the part of the students (Markley, 2004). Teachers also have a
fundamental role in their learners’ academic achievement and their quality can highly influence student outcomes
(Campbell, Kyriakides, Muijsc & Robinsona, 2004; Lasley II, Siedentop & Yinger, 2006; Rockoff, 2004).
English language teachers are by no means an exception and their key role in effective language learning cannot be
overlooked. Special attention must be paid to this link between teachers and learners in countries like Iran where
language learning happens mainly in formal classroom settings (Kariminia & Salehizadeh, 2007), and teachers, as the
main source of language input to students, affect their learning directly.
Although effective teachers in general may share some characteristics, there are certain qualities that differ among them
depending on the subject matter they teach. Some researchers believe that it is the nature of the subject matter that
makes language teachers different from teachers of other fields (Hammadou & Bernhar, 1987). Some others even go
beyond this and claim that diverse subject matters are not the only distinction between teachers of various subjects
(Borg, 2006). Rather a teacher’s beliefs, perceptions and assumptions about teaching and teacher efficacy affect the way
he/she understands and organizes instruction (Chacón, 2005). It is also important to study the perceptions of learners
about learning and teaching. Their beliefs about language learning seem to have obvious relevance to understanding
their expectations of the course, their commitment to the class as well as providing them with the opportunity to be
successful and satisfied with their language learning program (Horwitz, 1988). Moreover, investigation of the student
beliefs about different behaviors in the language classroom is useful in informing teachers about different types of
learners that need to be catered for (Cotterall, 1999).
According to Noora (2008), the culture of teaching in Iran is primarily teacher-centered; and accordingly, there are
limited opportunities for learners to have their say about their expectations of a good and effective teacher. Studying
characteristics of an effective English language teacher from the learners’ point of view in such a context is worthwhile
in that it is in fact a kind of needs analysis intended to help teachers improve the quality of their teaching in an attempt
to meet their students’ needs. To the best knowledge of the authors, no previous study has been conducted on the
characteristics of an effective English language teacher in Iran neither from the perspective of teachers nor from that of
learners. It was therefore the aim of this study to investigate the characteristics of an EELT as perceived by Iranian
teachers and learners of English in order to find out if there are any differences between the perspectives they have on
Englishthe issue in question. While this study is genuinely exploratory in the Iranian context, it is expected to contribute to our
better understanding of the issue by confirming or rejecting findings of other researchers in other parts of the world.
1.1. General characteristics of an effective teacher
What makes a teacher effective has been a subject of prime importance to many scholars concerned with education. In
1957, secondary-school principals in New York were asked to nominate effective teachers of academic subjects. The
most frequently mentioned qualities were: subject-matter mastery, motivation, dedication, co-operation, sense of
humour, creativity, efficiency, control, discipline, standards, promptness with reports, methods and generosity with
personal time for students (Calabria, 1960). Effectiveness in teaching was reported to be directly related to mastery of
subject matter in the selected teaching field. In addition, a long apprenticeship of teaching in one's academic field was
thought to be a necessary pre-requisite for effectiveness.
Feldman (1976) analyzed seventy two studies on characteristics reported by college students as associated with ideal
teachers and as important for effective teaching. Across this large body of research, he found the following
characteristics to be consistently associated with superior college teachers or teaching: stimulating interest of the
learners; being clear and understandable; being knowledgeable in subject matter; being prepared and organized for the
course and being enthusiastic about the subject matter and teaching. Friendliness, helpfulness, and openness to others'
opinions were traits that students said they preferred in teachers especially when they freely described their ideal or best
teacher.
In a later study, Feldman (1988) reviewed thirty one other studies in each of which students and faculty had specified
the instructional characteristics they considered particularly important to good teaching and effective instruction.
Students placed more importance than faculty on teachers being interesting, having good elocutionary skills, and being
available and helpful. They also emphasized the outcomes of instruction more than faculty did. Faculty placed more
importance than did students on teachers being intellectually challenging, motivating students and setting high standards
for them, and encouraging self-initiated learning.
1.2. Characteristics of an effective language teacher
Some clues can be gleaned from previous research about the qualities of a good and effective language teacher. Pettis
(1997) identified three main characteristics for a professionally competent teacher. According to her, an effective
teacher must firstly be principled and knowledgeable in addition to being skillful. Secondly, professional needs and
interests of an effective language teacher must change over time and develop during his/her teaching. Thirdly, a teacher
must be personally committed to his/her professional development.
In an attempt to understand what it means to be a foreign language teacher and in what sense they are different from
other teachers, Borg (2006) examined the definitions of over 200 practicing and prospective English language teachers
from a variety of contexts about the distinction between language teachers and those of other fields. His analysis also
included the opinions of mathematics, history, science and chemistry teachers on the extent to which characteristics
claimed to be distinctive of language teachers applied to their own subjects. His participants believed that subject matter
and the medium were the same in language teaching and that there was no clear distinction between them as in other
subjects. Moreover, language teachers inducted learners into ways of thinking and being which reflect those of the
target culture. In terms of content, language teaching was regarded to be more complex and varied than other subjects.
In terms of methodology, in the afore-mentioned study, the methods, the activities and the material used by or available
to English language teachers were reported to be different from those in the other subjects. It was also found that
English language teaching methodology was more progressive than that of other subjects, and consequently, English
language teachers needed to be more up-to-date to cope with advanced and progressive nature of language teaching
methodology. English language teachers were also supposed to have closer, more relaxed, and generally more positive
relationships with learners in comparison to other teachers. One further source of distinction between English language
teachers and teachers of other fields was that the former’s language proficiency and command of the language was
usually compared to that of native speakers of the target language (Borg, 2006). However, it is not clearly stated if this
final point is a merit or a demerit for language teachers.
Effective language teachers have been described in the literature as having not only a profound competence in the target
language but a set of personal qualities like sensitivity, warmth and tolerance (Vadillio, 1999). In an investigation of the
characteristics of good language teachers, Brosh (1996) found the desirable characteristics of an effective language
teacher to be: having knowledge and command of the target language; being able to organize, explain, and clarify, as
well as to arouse and sustain interest and motivation among students; being fair to students by showing neither
favoritism nor prejudice; and being available to students. Both language teachers and learners counted command of the
target language and teaching comprehensibility as the most important characteristics to be possessed by an effective
foreign language teacher. Moreover, the teachers gave more weight to items related to developing motivation and
research orientation, whereas the students counted items relating to treating students fairly and making lessons
interesting more important as compared with the teachers’ ideas on these very issuesResearch has recently been conducted on the development of standards in Foreign Language Teacher Preparation in
Croatia (Kalebic, 2005). As a result, possession of fourteen competences was reported to be needed by would-be
language teachers. Those characteristics reported to be highly valuable for a beginning language teacher were: linguistic
and communicative competence; communication and presentation skills; ability to motivate learners for learning; ability
to choose appropriate teaching strategies; ability to deal with unpredictable situations and to maintain discipline; ability
to plan the lesson; ability to organize learning activities; ability of pedagogical action; ability to create friendly
atmosphere in the classroom; ability to respond to learner abilities and needs (flexibility); knowledge about teaching
strategies; knowledge about the culture and literature in of the target language; ability to assess learner language
knowledge/competence; and knowledge of methods and theoretical concepts in English language teaching (Kalebic,
2005).
And finally, Park and Lee (2006) investigated the characteristics of effective English teachers as perceived by teachers
and students in high schools in Korea, with a self-report questionnaire consisting of three categories: English proficiency,
pedagogical knowledge, and socio-affective skills. Their findings indicated that on the whole the teacher’s perceptions of
characteristics important for an English language teacher to possess differed significantly form those of the students in all
three categories, with the teachers ranking English proficiency the highest and the students ranking pedagogical
knowledge the first.
Although most of the research conducted on the qualities of a good teacher (a small sample of which was reported above)
has mainly focused on teachers' perceptions only and although there has been little work of comparative nature where the
views of both teachers and learners have been compared, knowing about what other stake-holders (including learners,
parents and authorities) expect from teachers will greatly contribute to effective fulfillment of teachers' duties. No doubt,
learners are the most important individuals for teachers to cater for (since without learners, there will be no teachers), and
understanding their expectations as who a good teacher is will of course help teachers to rethink the techniques they use
for teaching, especially if learners' views show teachers that each learner is a unique person with his/her unique likes,
dislikes, preferences and learning styles. As such, the ideas and opinions of learners will help teachers to better live up to
the expectations of the most important stake-holders in a teaching-learning process (Sadeghi and Babai, 2009). This paper,
accordingly, furthers our understanding of the teacher-student relationships by investigating characteristics of an effective
English language teacher from the perspective of both teachers and learners.
2. Method
2.1 Participants
Participants of this study who were selected as a convenience sample were divided into two main groups of English
language teachers and learners and each group consisted of three subgroups. The teachers group consisted of 11
university professors teaching English Language and Literature and English Language Teaching at different Iranian
universities, 18 High school English teachers and 30 teachers of English working at language institutes.
The learners group was also combination of 99 university students majoring in English Language and literature, 89
pre-university students and 27 English learners from language institutes.
English was the foreign language for all the participants. The major characteristics of the participants are illustrated in
the Table 1.
2.2 Instrument
A paper and pencil questionnaire comprising two sections (44 items based on Likert Scale and 6 open-ended questions)
was developed by the authors after a thorough review of the literature about qualities of an EELT. The questionnaire
was developed in English and Persian and both versions were revised 4 times with the help of colleagues and peers
before being used in a pilot study to investigate how different items functioned and to find out whether there was a need
to revise, add or drop any items. With comments received after pilot testing, two items were added to each section. The
final version of the questionnaire which was administered along with a covering letter was made up of two sections.
The first part of the questionnaire included 46 statements about the characteristics of an EELT (the internal consistency
index of which was calculated to be 0.94 using Cronbach’s Alpha), and the participants were asked to express their
agreement or disagreement based on a five-point (strongly disagree, disagree, no idea, agree, strongly agree) Likert
Scale. They were asked to select the choice which best represented their reaction to the statement. The second part
consisted of 8 open-ended questions to be answered by the participants. The questionnaire appears in full in the
appendix.
2.3 Data collection and procedure
The authors contacted English language professors/teachers teaching at Urmia University, two high schools in Adjabshir
(a city in East Azarbayjan province, Iran) and three language institutes namely Iran Language Institute (ILI), Jahad
Daneshgahi and Shokouh Language Institute in Urmia and administered the questionnaire to each of them in person. The
questionnaire was also sent by email to 550 other teachers including all academic members of English language