The Study of the Characteristics of Successful English Language Teachers from the View Point of the English Language Students of Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch

Abstract

A number of researchers have identified the characteristics of effective teachers both inside (Bernhardt & Hammadou, 1987; Lafayette, 1993; Mollica & Nuessel, 1996; Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Schulz, 2000; Vélez-Rendón, 2002) and outside (Demmon-Berger, 1986; Lowman, 1996; Witcher et al., 2001; Koutsoulis, 2003) the domain of foreign language education. These characteristics consist of several underlying constructs including subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and socio/affective skills. During the present paper, our goal was to study the characteristics of effective English teachers perceived by college students of Islamic Azad University, Hamedan branch in Iran. A number of 200 subjects randomly selected from among other 400 students were given a questionnaire of 50 questions on a 1 to 5 Likert Scale. Results show that students held different perceptions to effective teaching. The high achievement students reported different characteristics from the low achievement students in pedagogical knowledge and socio-affective skills, whereas the male students demonstrated different characteristics from the female students in socio-affective skills. The findings provide implications to knowledge-based teacher education for current and prospective English teachers.