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A plethora of researchers have attempted to examine the characteristics of a good and effective teacher in order to enhance the process of teaching foreign languages. In line with those explorations, this study aims at performing a comparison between Slovak pre-service EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers' and Slovak in-service EFL teachers...
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... Furthermore, the current practices and the nature of the teacher education programme present significant challenges to pre-service teachers regarding their teaching methodologies (Olawale, 2021). In this context, it is evident that the quality of pre-service teachers is contingent upon effective and wellimplemented teaching practices (Olawale, 2023;Rastislav, 2020). Consequently, the curriculum and Language in Education Policy in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3) advocate for the utilisation of the mother tongue (home language). ...
Despite the recent attention given to multicultural and bilingual teaching, several studies indicate that teacher education programmes in South African higher education institutions continue to instruct pre-service Mathematics teachers in Foundation Phase predominantly in English. This poses difficulties for learners when they start teaching in schools. Thus, this study examines the strategies employed by Mathematics teacher educators (university lecturers) in preparing Mathematics student teachers (teacher trainees) for mother-tongue-based bilingual teaching in the Foundation Phase. Underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm, this study employed a qualitative research approach and a case study design. Twelve participants from two public universities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa were purposively selected for this study. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, formal observation, and document review, and the collected data were analysed thematically. The research findings revealed that, although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to training Mathematics student teachers for bilingual teaching, the major strategies employed by Mathematics educators include organising collaborative lesson planning sessions, incorporating technology and multimedia into lesson planning, providing resources and materials in the mother tongue, and code-switching. Based on its findings, the study concludes that using these approaches can equip student teachers with the essential language skills and cultural awareness needed to provide their students with a fair and inclusive Mathematics learning environment, which, in turn, helps Mathematics student teachers become effective educators for bilingual learners.
... Notes. The number of studies across categories does not sum to 59 as some studies included multiple stakeholders example, in the studies, GLTs were associated with communicative language teaching (CLT) (Alimorad & Tajgozari, 2016;Metruk, 2020), scaffolding of students' learning (Mansor et al., 2012), contextualization and emotionalization (Pishghadam et al., 2016), facilitation (Khodadady, 2012), learner-focused teaching (Mohamadi & Malekshahi, 2018), and clear explanation (Barnes & Lock, 2010, 2013Listyani, 2019;Mudra, 2018). These characteristics show a preference for constructivist and transformative approach to language teaching and learning (Alimorad & Tajgozari, 2016;Metruk, 2020). ...
... The number of studies across categories does not sum to 59 as some studies included multiple stakeholders example, in the studies, GLTs were associated with communicative language teaching (CLT) (Alimorad & Tajgozari, 2016;Metruk, 2020), scaffolding of students' learning (Mansor et al., 2012), contextualization and emotionalization (Pishghadam et al., 2016), facilitation (Khodadady, 2012), learner-focused teaching (Mohamadi & Malekshahi, 2018), and clear explanation (Barnes & Lock, 2010, 2013Listyani, 2019;Mudra, 2018). These characteristics show a preference for constructivist and transformative approach to language teaching and learning (Alimorad & Tajgozari, 2016;Metruk, 2020). ...
... Among the characteristics mentioned in the "Findings" section, it is worth emphasizing the importance of Fig. 6 A model of good language teacher (GLT) characteristics teacher engagement in critical reflection so that teachers can remain effective in the rapidly changing landscape of language education (Farrell, 2013(Farrell, , 2015Medgyes, 2020;Prodromou, 2020). As for knowledge, LTE programs should ensure that teachers are well-versed in constructivist and transformative pedagogical approaches such as communicative language teaching and learner-focused teaching (Alimorad & Tajgozari, 2016;Metruk, 2020). Professional development initiatives should also focus on enhancing teachers' cultural competence and adaptability, preparing them to work effectively in diverse educational contexts (Evans, 2017). ...
This chapter systematically reviews empirical studies on good language teachers (GLTs) published in peer-reviewed journals between 2010 and 2020. The review seeks to examine the primary research aims, methodologies, profiles of participating teachers, and their teaching contexts and synthesizes relevant key findings from the GLT literature. To fulfill these aims, a comprehensive search of Scopus and Web of Science databases was conducted, yielding 62 studies that met the inclusion and quality assessment criteria. The review shows that the main research aims were to explore stakeholders’ perceptions of GLT characteristics, factors related to teacher effectiveness, and the development and assessment of teacher expertise. Interestingly, studies employed a balanced mix of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. Based on the findings, the chapter proposes a model of language teacher expertise comprising three core domains, namely attributes, knowledge, and contextual adaptability, to underscore the multifaceted nature of language teacher expertise and highlight the importance of both intrinsic qualities and situational factors. The chapter concludes by suggesting a holistic approach for language teacher education programs, outlining the limitations of the review, and making recommendations for future GLT research.
... have the highest rate/value (53%). This finding agrees with Metruk's (2020) study in which the top feature relates to TL; the author refers to it as being able to present content in a meaningful way, and it was rated as an essential quality of a good and effective teacher. In this study, the TL dimension is also related to the way teachers start their lessons, the teaching strategies used in class, and the diverse methodology. ...
Investigating perceptions of an effective university English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher has been an ongoing topic in the last few years. However, those studies have focused only on teachers' perceptions, not students' perceptions, from the Latin American context and mainly based on Likert scales questionnaires. This study aims to determine university students' perceptions of what they distinguish as effective EFL university teachers. Based on the CEMEDEPU questionnaire, a new instrument called Effective EFL University Teacher (EEFLUT) of 71 items was created and applied to students from an Ecuadorian public university (N=716). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted using AMOS 21 software to evaluate three models. The third model was chosen as the most accurate amid its great performance. This model has three main dimensions (Personal Qualities, Teaching-Learning Methodology, and Assessment Methodology). The reliability of the instrument was evaluated with the KR-20, which showed that two out of three dimensions presented high reliability of >.900. The findings demonstrate that the students value Personal Qualities (PQ) as the most relevant feature of an effective EFL university teacher above the Teaching-Learning Methodology and Assessment Methodology. These results reflect the importance of the participants attribute to the teacher's personal qualities as one of the components of their satisfaction in learning language. Resumen En los últimos años, se han realizado numerosos estudios encaminados a entender qué es un profesor de inglés como lengua extranjera eficaz. Sin embargo, estos estudios se han centrado únicamente en las percepciones de los mismos profesores, no las de los estudiantes, en el contexto latinoamericano y se han realizado principalmente con cuestionarios de escala Likert. Este estudio tiene como objetivo determinar las percepciones de los estudiantes universitarios sobre lo que ellos distinguen como profesores universitarios de EFL eficaces. Con base en el cuestionario CEMEDEPU, se creó un nuevo instrumento llamado Effective EFL University Teacher (EEFLUT) de 71 ítems y se aplicó a estudiantes de una universidad pública ecuatoriana (N=716). Se realizó un análisis factorial confirmatorio utilizando el software AMOS 21 para evaluar tres modelos. El tercer modelo fue elegido como el más preciso en medio de su gran desempeño. Este modelo tiene tres dimensiones principales (Cualidades personales, Metodología de enseñanza-aprendizaje y Metodología de evaluación). La confiabilidad del instrumento se evaluó con el KR-20, que mostró que dos de las tres dimensiones presentaron una confiabilidad alta de >.900. Los resultados demuestran que los estudiantes valoran las Cualidades Personales (CP) como la característica más relevante de un profesor universitario de inglés como lengua extranjera eficaz, por encima de la Metodología de Enseñanza-Aprendizaje y la Metodología de Evaluación. Estos resultados reflejan la importancia que los participantes atribuyen a las cualidades personales del profesor como uno de los componentes de su satisfacción en el aprendizaje de la lengua.
... A critical factor in this process, beyond the efforts of the language learners themselves, is the quality of language teachers. Teacher quality, including knowledge of learning and learners, pedagogical techniques, and classroom methodologies, significantly influences learners' success (Al-Muslim & Ismail, 2020;Rastislav, 2020;Sakkir et al., 2021, Kashef, et al 2023. While some language institute managers and policymakers continue to believe that exceptional teachers are inherently gifted, recent research challenges this notion. ...
The use of Concept Checking Questions (CCQs) has gained increasing attention in English Language Teaching (ELT) as a practical tool for assessing students' comprehension. This technique helps teachers to identify learners who may be struggling and determine whether additional practice is needed. However, the full scope of CCQs' effects on various language skills, systems, and learner motivation has yet to be thoroughly investigated. To address this gap, the present study explored the effect of CCQs on two language systems, namely vocabulary and grammar, as well as motivation of Iranian EFL learners. Accordingly, a total of 36 EFL learners from a private language institute in Iran participated in the study. Using a quasi-experimental design, the learners were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The findings from independent samples t-tests showed that students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their peers in vocabulary and grammar development. Additionally, a chi-square test indicated a strong relationship between the use of CCQs and increased motivation among the learners. The study's implications are discussed in light of these findings.
... R. Metruk (2020) determined with the help of interviews performed at the Slovak University the differences in the ideal EFL teacher perceptions by the pre-service teachers (students) and in-service teachers (instructors). ...
The article considers the results of a survey of technical and humanitarian specialty students in one of the non-linguistic universities in Ukraine with the following goal: to determine how the systems for assessing grammatical phenomena differ/coincide among students whose specialties are different in nature – technical and humanitarian: engineering specialties (electrical engineering and radio-electronic) 60 students; humanitarian specialties (psychology and sociology) 26 students. Such a selection will further indicate the differences in methodological approaches when presenting grammatical material to students of both technical and humanitarian specialties. The chosen grammatical topic is “Degrees of comparison of English adjectives.” The examples, used in the survey, occur in a text corpus of one of the areas of scientific and technical discourse – “Electrical Engineering”. The text corpus was compiled on the basis of articles taken from UK and US scientific journals on this field of technology. The presence of a text corpus made it possible to compile a frequency list of adjectives that were used in the texts not only in accordance with grammatical rules, but also in violation of the rules explained in classical English grammar books. The methods applied in the article were as follows: statistical, quantitative, contextual, expert assessment methods. The performed survey showed which elements in training methodology should be used for students both engineering and humanitarian to understand and accumulate the grammatical information.
... good teachers also listen to their students and motivate them. Consistent with these results, students and teachers studied by Metruk (2020) believed that good teachers have good communication skills, provide the lessons in a compressive and meaningful way, arouse student motivation, establish positive relationships with students, help them inside and outside the classroom, and have a good command of the language they speak. Stronge (2007) argues that effective teachers establish two-way communication with students by encouraging social interaction and self-disclosure, listening to and helping out with their problems, and knowing their students individually. ...
This study synthesizes the primary qualitative research findings on the views of students, teachers, school administrators, and parents about the characteristics of a good or effective teacher in the Turkish context. Therefore, a meta-summary method of qualitative research synthesis was employed to aggregate knowledge from the primary qualitative studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2022 in Turkey. Thirty-one research reports meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. All these reports were assessed based on a set of quality assessment criteria for qualitative studies. Then, the qualitative findings were extracted from the primary research reports, edited, grouped, and abstracted, and the frequency effect sizes were computed for each conceptualized statement of findings. The analyses yielded 42 abstracted statements regarding good teacher characteristics with frequency effect sizes of 19.4-80% clustered under three dimensions, namely personal characteristics, professional characteristics, and characteristics related to teacher-student relationships. The personal characteristics underlined the key personality traits of teachers and their skills. Their professional characteristics were addressed under professional attitudes and professional skills. The findings also highlighted practical measures or characteristics to consider for healthy teacher-student relationships. The study concludes by discussing major findings, limitations, and implications for education and future research.
... Table 2, the highest scores were attached to the attributes of "Be flexible with grading" (1.70), "Avoid direct criticism of students when they make errors" (1.61), and "Let students have some control over the learning process" (1.60). The second item is in line with other studies Metruk (2020) and Demiroz & Yesilyurt (2015); they reported that their participants prefer to have a teacher who provides them with positive feedback. In this study, the participants want their professors to be cautious and empathetic in addressing students when they have an observation to make when students make errors. ...
... In contrast, the teacher's appearance was the least ranked in the same study, which differs from the present research results. In the same line, "Treat students fairly and equally" was ranked last in this study, which does not coincide with a study by Metruk (2020) in which the participants placed this quality as the third most important. These results could be due to the type of samples. ...
... The results, in this case, reveal that the participants considered the strategies and practices of teaching, classroom organization, planning, and preparation as the most relevant feature. When analyzing in an overall way, three previous findings support our findings Demiroz & Yesilyurt (2015), Metruk (2020), andMetruk (2021). In all these cases, the way teachers present their content and teach this foreign subject was relevant and ranked the highest compared to other dimensions. ...
Studying EFL teacher effectiveness has been a constant issue in the last decade. These investigations focused on teachers’ and education administrators’ perceptions. Most of them were conducted in countries different from Latin America. This research aimed to create a profile of university students’ perceptions concerning the qualities of an effective EFL teacher. For doing so, a quantitative approach was used involving the application of the Effective English Language Teacher (EELT) questionnaire of Roya Zamani & Ahangari (2016) to learners from a public university (N=324). The findings revealed that the participants value pedagogical knowledge as the most relevant dimension of an effective EFL university teacher above organization and communication skills, socio-affective skills, and English proficiency. According to the surveyed student population, the three main relevant features of an effective EFL university teacher are being flexible with grading (1.70), having a good sense of humor (1.65), and avoiding direct criticism of students when they make errors (1.61). The article concludes by outlining some recommendations.
... Communication skills were also desired by both male and female Slovakian EFL university students (Metruk, 2021). Slovakian pre-service teachers and secondary teachers (Metruk, 2020) and Iranian pre-Service and In-Service teachers (Tajeddin & Alemi, 2019) also valued communication skills as well as Moroccan students (Benzehaf, 2018). Thai university students studying science-related majors stated that native pronunciation is preferred (Chen, 2012); and additionally, Thai university students studying general English from a variety of majors (Wichadee, 2010) as well as teachers of Thai engineering students (Meksophawannagul, 2015) thought effective teachers should have good communication skills. ...
This study investigated students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the characteristics of effective English language teachers in the Thai cultural context. A survey comprising 68 Likert-scale items was administered to students (n = 124) and teachers (n = 11) in the intensive English program (IEP) of a Thai university. The survey measured the participants’ perception of the characteristics of effective teachers in seven areas: general characteristics, affective variables, knowledge about students, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, knowledge about classroom management, and professional development. A comparison of the responses showed a statistically significant difference between the median responses of teachers and students in three areas: affective variables, knowledge of students, and professional development. In all three areas, students ascribed a higher level of importance. These findings have implications for teachers, who may underestimate the value that their students place on the personal and affective aspects of education and on professional development.
... Research into context-and culture-specific attributes of effective FL teaching and teachers was carried out by Barnes and Lock (2013), Park and Lee (2006), who undertook a quantitative investigation of attributes of effective language teachers in Korea. Comparative studies of English as a FL teachers' and students' perceptions of effective teaching come from the context of Iran, Slovakia (Metruk, 2020;Moradi and Sabeti, 2014;Tajeddin and Alemi, 2019). Research into characteristics of effective FL teachers in the USA was undertaken by Bell (2005), Brown (2009), to name just a few. ...
... Taken together, both students and teachers demonstrated a considerable degree of convergence on many aspects of effective teaching which is in line with the findings of other researchers (e.g. Metruk, 2020). However, as shown earlier, in-service teachers' views on the effectiveness attributes significantly differed from pre-service teachers on many of the central statements, which signal their professional maturation involving more complicated construction of an effective FL teacher's image, development of a more complex set of cognitions in teachers. ...
The paper set out to explore pre-and in-service foreign language teachers’ perceptions of attributes of effective teachers in Ukraine within a framework developed by the authors of the study to unravel the construct of effective language teaching. Two groups of pre-service (n=105) and in-service (n=127) teachers were recruited using a snowball sampling technique. The independent samples t-test and MANOVA statistical procedures were utilised to analyse and compare data generated from a self-report questionnaire. The findings indicated that the highest value was assigned to the performance category of teacher effectiveness, followed by the prerequisite category, including teacher competence, with the lowest value attached to the output category. A considerable degree of convergence was observed in students’ and teachers’ views on many attributes of teacher effectiveness. Both groups endorsed such attributes as clear teaching, target language proficiency, knowledge of language pedagogy, active engagement of learners, downplaying the importance of learners’ test scores. Nevertheless, a statistically significant difference was detected between the perceptions of the two groups of subjects. The students accentuated teachers’ personality and rapport domains, as well as motivating instruction. They also endorsed traditional approaches to language teaching in giving preference to form-focused instruction. Conversely, the teachers associated effective teaching with competence, careful planning and ongoing professional development. Teachers gave precedence to current methodological approaches in favouring meaning-focused instruction. A conclusion was drawn that teachers form more sophisticated cognitions of effective teaching in the process of professional maturation, thus implying the necessity for closer attention to the development of prospective teachers’ cognitions in teacher education programmes.
... As an important agenda, language teacher professional quality has gained in popularity in LTE research [8][9][10], particularly along with some updated teaching methods including communicative language teaching (CLT), and more recently task-based language teaching (TBLT) and content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Some scholars have paid special attention to the quality of expert or effective EFL teachers [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Research into teacher excellence has been conducted to interpret and improve their professional experiences and beliefs [16], thus providing an effective reference for more inexperienced teachers [17], especially those working in underprivileged rural areas. ...
... In the interactive process, EFL teachers, as agentic and developing persons [70,76], were able to shape and develop their professional quality [10]. To a large degree, teacher quality shaped and was shaped in the contexts in which they lived, echoing the ecological turn in the field of foreign language teacher education [10,71,72], Furthermore, prior studies were inclined to adopt qualitative [12,17] or quantitative [14,16] research design to explore teachers' professional quality, but this study focused on EFL teachers in rural areas and uncovered the global and dimensional profiles of their professional quality using mixed research methods. Thus, it might be a timely addition to the literature. ...
While there has been much research into teachers' professional quality in general education , scant attention has been paid to the professional quality of EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers, especially those working in adverse areas, for their sustainable career trajectories. Drawing on Wu's framework of EFL teachers' professional quality, this study adopted a mixed-method study design to investigate the professional quality of experienced EFL teachers in China's rural areas. A questionnaire was administered online to 367 Chinese EFL teachers from 15 high schools in the northeast part of China. Follow-up interviews were then conducted with four volunteers. The results of the exploratory factor analysis produced a two-module structure of teachers' professional quality, addressing teacher beliefs and English language pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for their sustainable career development. The teacher belief module addresses beliefs about language teacher learning and development as well as beliefs about foreign language teaching and learning. The English language PCK module includes two subscales: English teaching capacity and English knowledge and skills. Descriptive analysis showed that these participants had high levels of professional quality. Possible explanations for the interpretations of EFL teachers' professional quality are provided from the qualitative data. Based on the above findings, the paper offers some implications for sustaining EFL teacher development in the future.
