Characteristics of Iranian EFL Teachers from Perspectives of Learners and Teachers

This study investigated the characteristics of effective Iranian high school EFL teachers from students’ and teachers’ perspectives. For this purpose, ۳o high school students and ۳۰ EFL teachers teaching at various Iranian high schools participated in the study. Data was collected qualitatively and quantitatively. Thirty Iranian high school students and ۳۰ EFL teachers were interviewed and also responded to the Effective EFL Teachers Questionnaire. The content analysis of the interview data indicated a number of themes emphasized mutually by the two groups; among them being knowledgeable followed by being competent at teaching and conveying knowledge were the most frequent themes. Further interview findings uncovered some themes stated exclusively by learners and some others exclusively by teachers. The descriptive statistics also revealed that the ۱۲ subscales of the questionnaire were ranked mostly in the same order of importance by both groups, and the Mann-Whitney U test outcomes evinced significant differences regarding the perspectives of the learners and teachers only for four subscales of the questionnaire. Finally, based on the results, it was concluded that, compared to the teachers, the learners held a more restricted conceptualization of the qualities of successful EFL teachers. Accordingly, pedagogical implications were suggested in the English language teaching and learning context of Iran

Keywords:

Department of English language teaching , Science and Art University , Yazd , Iran