Students’ Perceptions of Effective EFL Teachers in a University in Vietnam

Abstract

Teachers are a vital element in education development as effective teachers are a central resource for the success of an educational organization. Effective teachers generally help to improve students’ learning behaviors and academic performance, and thus attention needs to be given to examining teacher effectiveness as a key to guaranteed education quality. As students are the first and direct stakeholders, students should have the most influential voice in what is regarded as effective teaching. This descriptive study investigated the characteristics of effective English teachers as perceived by 89 students of English as a foreign language (EFL) at a public university in the South of Vietnam with a self-report questionnaire consisting of four aspects: English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, organization and communication skills and socio-affective skills. Overall, the students indicated positive perception towards the required characteristics of an effective English teacher. Two additional aspects of characteristics were identified including professionalism and personality traits. The results of this study can help teachers to become aware of important aspects of teaching qualities from students' points of view in order to improve themselves to meet standards for an effective EFL teacher.