Characteristics of effective EFL teachers from the perspective of Turkish EFL learners

Abstract

EFL teachers' characteristics may undergo alterations due to several factors including the teachers' personality and the methods that they pursue. The present paper is aimed to investigate the perceptions of young learners about the characteristics of effective English language teachers. In this respect, 100 students were delivered the Turkish version of an inventory that was developed by Yu-Hsin (1999). It consisted of three different parts of regarding personal, professional and pedagogical qualities. The results indicated that an effective teacher was expected to be friendly, to have accurate pronunciation and to have effective classroom management skills. Moreover, the participants indicated that they expected EFL teachers to be enthusiastic about technological developments, while visual materials clearly helped them feel relaxed during the lectures. Since the overall results indicated the importance of both pedagogical and of personal qualities that help a professional to become an effective teacher, anyone who aims at becoming an effective EFL teacher should be fully aware of them.