Good Language Teachers: Divergent Perspectives between University Language Teachers and learners

Teachers assume several key roles in the language classroom: as educators transmitting knowledge, as facilitators assisting students with their learning, and as motivators inspiring students to achieve their language goals, to name a few. As any one teacher is unlikely to possess the full range of characteristics suggested in the literature, it seems important to explore what individual class groups of learners believe are the characteristics most beneficial to their language learning. In addition, how about these language learning group teachers’ perspectives? Do language learners and their teachers hold similar views? Are there any discrepancies in their viewpoints? If so, would these discrepancies affect learning effectiveness? These are some questions this research project aims to answer. 9 language teachers and their class groups (a total of 10 groups, 287 students) from a language university in southern Taiwan participated in this study. Questionnaire results from student questionnaire were collated with data from their language teachers to discover points of agreement and divergence. The result shows that both language learners and their teachers believe in the importance of good command of L2. However, language learners care more about their relationship with the teachers (e.g., whether they are treated fairly, with respect), whereas language teachers believe that their professional teaching knowledge and the ability to update and reflect most important. This gap in the viewpoints may cause unmet expectations which ultimately affect learning effectiveness. This research ends with some practical suggestions for language teachers in the classroom.


Introduction
Current literature has listed several characteristics that good language teachers should possess.For instance, Chen (2010), Chen et al. (2012) suggested that caring for students, making classes interesting and being in charge in the classroom essential, while Harmer (2008) suggests that good language teachers should have sufficient knowledge of the language and be able to effectively explain the use of the language to their students.Sufficient knowledge of the language was also emphasized in the study by Arikan and his colleagues (2008) in Turkey.In addition, studies from Grundy et al. (2005), Mullock (2003), andHay Mcber (2000) all suggest the importance of teachers' ability to understand students' needs and be able to bring inspiration to motivate student.There is no doubt that teachers play a key role in the language classroom, not only as someone who transmits knowledge, but also as someone who inspires and motives students to learn and achieve their language learning goals.
Anecdotal evidence heard during my own teaching experience within the higher education environment points to students believing their teachers play a crucial role in their language learning experience.
However, students' ideas vary widely about the characteristics "good" language teachers should possess.Some students believe that teachers shall possess excellent English language skills, while others respond more favorably to teachers who are humorous and friendly.Some may expect teachers to be strict and teach them sufficient English test taking skills in order to pass certified English exams while others expect teachers to be just like their friends.As any one teacher is unlikely to possess the full range of characteristics to fulfill students' expectations, it seems important to explore what the majority of college students' believe are characteristics most beneficial to their language learning experience.Understanding students' perceptions could lead to addressing issues surrounding such perceptions.
And what of teachers' own perceptions of good language teachers?Chang (2012) conducted a preliminary study on TESOL teachers' perspectives on "good" language teachers.Even though only two teachers participated in the study, they actually have very divergent views on the characteristics of good language teachers.This paves the groundwork of the need to explore this issue in a larger scale and expand the research participants to both language teachers and their class groups.When the divide in perceptions is wide, teachers' best efforts to teach according to the ways they themselves deem vital may yield little results.Thus, students' learning effectiveness might suffer.In Chang's (2016) later work, discrepancy between 2 language teachers and their class groups on the characteristics of good language teachers was indeed identified.The study supported the notion that the quandary in a language classroom would occur when a significant gap exists between teachers' perceptions of good language teaching and students' perceptions of what makes a good language teacher (Chang, 2016, p. 2).However, Chang's study (2016) focused only on 2 class groups and their teachers.Current study expanded on this earlier study and gathered data 9 class groups and their teachers, in an attempt to better uncover college teachers' and students' perceptions of the characteristics good language teachers should possess.
To sum up, this study has several key purposes:


To investigate university language class groups' perceptions of what makes a language teacher a "good" one.


To investigate university language teachers' perceptions what makes a language teacher a "good" one.


To identify any gaps between university language class groups' and language teachers' perceptions of what makes a language teacher a "good" one.
In order to achieve the above purposes, following research questions are proposed: 1.
From university class groups' perspective, what are the important characteristics of "good" language teachers?2.
From university language teachers' perspective, what are some important characteristics of "good" language teachers?

3.
Are there any gaps between teachers' and learners' perceptions of the characteristics "good" language teacher should possess?

Good Language Teachers
For language learners to achieve a desirable learning outcome, language teachers play a crucial role in the classroom."Good" teachers, or in some literature defined as "effective teaching practices" (Tavakoli & Baniasad-Azad, 2017), is the basis of a successful language learning experience.However, defining good language teachers can be a complex matter since it is not something that can be comprehensively dealt with easily.Borg (2006) conducted a classic research, in which he identifies certain characteristics of good language teachers that are distinctive from teachers of other subjects.
The teacher research participants in his study point out that language teachers are unique from teachers of other subjects, due to the nature of the subject (language is more practical and relevant to life), contents of the teaching (wide scope and complexity), teacherlearner relationship (more communication), teachers' characteristics (creativity, enthusiasm are essential), and so on (p.24).
Particular on teachers ' characteristics, Harmer (2008, p. 23) also elaborates that good language teachers should "have interesting things to say in class or they should be passionate and enthusiastic in their teaching".In addition to personal characteristics, Ur (2012) also points out the importance of professional development.In her book, Ur (ibid.)touched upon the issue by stating that a good language teacher should continue engaging themselves in personal reflection, collaborative discussion with colleague's and value student feedback Empirically, several research studies were conducted to further explore this issue.Tavakoli and Baniasad-Axad (2017) in Turkey, examining teachers' conceptions of effective teaching and their teaching practices using a mixed-method approach.The study concluded that student-focused (e.g., creating positive or friendly, relaxed atmosphere, using various teaching strategies to gain students' Other than exploring good language teachers' characteristics from teachers' points of views, some researchers explore this issue from language learners' perspectives.For instance, Prodromou (1991) asks his language learner research participants to write an essay on their expectations of good language teachers.Some examples discussed in the paper are friendly, educated, and having a close relationship to students.Similar ideas were expressed in Barnes and Lock's (2010) study in South Korea, which examines South Korean university students' beliefs about the attributes of effective foreign language teachers.Their study identified that having a good rapport with the students (e.g., using student names, making over efforts to help students), showing enthusiasm and preparation in their teaching, and professional delivery (teaching) techniques are essential.All in all, these different sources of literature point to a clear fact that there is no simple answer to define good language teachers.Good language teachers can be viewed from various angles and "very different people make good teachers for very different reasons" (Prodromou, 1991, p. 3).
To synthesize the characteristics mentioned in the literature discussed above, most characteristics mentioned by these researchers can be categorized into the following main areas (Chang, 2012(Chang, , 2016)) While some studies focus on exploring these characteristics from language learners' points of views and some from language teachers' points of views, it may be valuable to explore this issue from both parties.Very few research study focus on exploring the gaps between teachers' viewpoints and the learners.This study is an attempt to achieve this goal.

Research Design and Instrument
This research adopts a mixed method research designcollecting both quantitative questionnaire data and qualitative interview data.The data of this research was collected at a private language university in southern Taiwan.A questionnaire (see Appendix 1) with 34 Likert scale items was distributed to 9 Published by SCHOLINK INC.
class groups, approximately 300 college students to garner these students' perceptions about the characteristics good language teachers possess which they deem vital.Also, 30 questionnaires were distributed to language teachers, out of which 10 valid questionnaires were returned.This sample pool is a convenience sample since the researcher was working at this research site during the research study and had access to groups of students that suited the selection criteria of this research study.
All the Likert scale items in the questionnaire derived from the literature discussed in the literature section (see section 2.1) These 34 items are categorized into 5 main categories: A In addition to these 34 Likert scale items, 3 more questions were included in this questionnaire.
Questions No. 35 asks the respondents to write a statement about good language teachers that were not mentioned in the questionnaire.Question No. 36 asks the respondents to choose one item that they think is the most characteristic of good language teachers while question No. 37 asks them to elaborate on the reasons of their choice.All the items in various categories are mixed in the questionnaire without any apparent order.The pilot version of the questionnaire was given to some freshman students taking English courses at the university in November, 2015.The Cronbach's alpha was checked for the consistency and reliability of the closed-ended items.Any value under .80 was removed and the remaining items in the current questionnaire all reach .85.Any unclear instructions or wordings were revised in the final version of the questionnaire.
The second phase of the data collection is conducting semi-structured interviews of selected participants who expressed willingness to participate in interviews in the questionnaires.3 language teachers and 1 student participated in the semi-structured interviews.This process helped me clarify some issues in the questionnaires and further explore their perspectives on the characteristics of good language teachers.

Research Participants
The research participants were 9 EFL teachers a university in southern Taiwan, with the English classes they were teaching (10 class groups, approximately 300 students) during the time of the data collection.
All these English teachers were teaching 1-2 general integrative-skills English courses during the time of the study (each course is either 4 or 6 hours per week).Most of these teachers have been teaching these courses for at least 2 years and are experienced in teaching university students English.They are all from Taiwan and speak fluent English.As for the student participants, they are the students at a university gathering together for a compulsory 5-hr integrated skills English class.287 valid questionnaires were received from students (a total of 9 class groups).The raw data was entered into SPSS for statistical analysis.The questionnaire respondent had to evaluate 34 Likert scale items (regarding good language teachers) with the ratings from 1 (not important) to 4 (very important).
The Cronbach alpha internal consistency of these multi-item statements was checked and reached the satisfactory level (alpha = .936).Table 1 below shows the descriptive data of these Likert scale items.
From these students' points of views, the following 5 statements are the most important ones: 1. Statement No. 5 (Mean 3.76) -A good language teacher should be fair to every student.Out of these 6 statements, the top 2 statements both belong to the category of teacher-student relationship.It is apparent that from these language learners' points of views, teachers' being fair and respectful is what they believe vital to their learning experience.Then, 2 other statements are related to professional knowledge on L2language teachers should know the language they are teaching (e.g., grammar, vocabulary) well.skills are not as important as their fair, respectful relationship with students and also their outstanding L2 skills.
Questionnaire question No. 36 asked the respondents to choose one statement that they find the most important.As Table 2 below indicates, the following 3 statements receive the most votes: No. 27 (10%) -A good language teacher should teach language adapted to students' language proficiency levels.
No. 13 (8.4 %) -A good language teacher should understand students' needs, strengths and weaknesses.
Statement No. 27 and 13 both belong to the category of "professional knowledge on teaching skills" while statement No. 16 is related to the teacher's personality.This result seems a bit contradictory with the Likert scale items results, which indicate that the lowest three mean score items are belong to the category of professional knowledge on teaching skills.10 valid questionnaires were received from language teachers.The raw data was also entered into SPSS for statistical analysis.The Cronbach alpha internal consistency of these multi-item statements was checked and reached the satisfactory level (alpha = .915).Table 3 below shows the descriptive data of these Likert scale items.From these language teachers' points of views, the following 4 statements are the most important ones: 1.
Statement No. 27 (Mean 3.70) -A good language teacher should teach language adapted to students' language proficiency levels.

2.
Statement No. 2 (Mean 3.70) -A good language teacher should treat students with courtesy and respect.

3.
Statement No. 6 (Mean 3.60) -A good language teacher should have the persistent urge to upgrade herself/himself.

4.
Statement No. 3 (Mean 3.60) -A good language teacher should have a thorough knowledge of the language (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, etc.) As the results indicate, only statements from the category of "personality" are not listed here.The above four statements each is from the category of "professional knowledge on teaching skills", "teacher-learner relationship", "reflection/update the knowledge", and "professional knowledge on L2".
This seem to illustrate that these language teachers from various aspects of "good" language teachers equally important.

Question: Are there any gaps between teachers' and students' perceptions of the characteristics "good" language teacher should possess?
Based on the questionnaire findings, the following points of agreement and divergence were discovered:

Points of Agreement
One category that both language teachers and learners find important is having a good command on L2, i.e. having a thorough knowledge of the language (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, etc.).This does not come as a surprise since only being equipped with sufficient professional knowledge on L2 then qualify this person being able to teaching this language to others.
In addition, there is one statement that both language teachers and learners deem vital -A good language teacher should treat students with courtesy and respect.This goes to explain that all human beings having the need to be respected and nobody would like to see this general rule to be violated in the classroom.However, exactly what kind of behavior is considered disrespectful?This could pose as an area of conflict in the classroom.

Points of Divergence
Published by SCHOLINK INC.
From the students' perspectives, language teachers being fair, respectful, patient, and showing courteous are vital.They also expect teachers to understand their needs, strength and weaknesses.
These are statements related to teacher-learner relationship.This shows that students care about their learning experience from personal experiences.They focus more on their feelings.On the other hand, they do not focus too much know teachers' professional teaching knowledge, particularly whether the teachers upgrade or reflect their teaching or not.This could be due to the fact that students' own feelings are the most straight-forward evidence they could follow in order to determine someone is a good teacher or not.The idea of a "good" teaching technique or whether the teacher aims to improve or update is too abstract for them.Hence, they only focus on what they personally knowhow they feel in the classroom.
On the other hand, teachers generally value the importance of their professional teaching knowledge and their ability to upgrade and reflect.For instance, good language teachers should be able to use the appropriate teaching methods according to their students' language proficiency, and they should also have the persistent urge to upgrade themselves.This point was further emphasized by follow-up interviews with the language teachers.As they explained: "The most important thing of a good language teacher is to have sufficient professional knowledge in how to properly teacher students.Teachers should not always use one traditional approach to teach".
(Teacher May, interview date: 06/06/2017) "Other than gaining trust from the students, teachers should have sufficient knowledge in how to teach students effectively and how to motivate them properly in the classroom".
(Teacher Abby, interview date: 06/28/2017) Both questionnaire data an interview data suggested that teachers value the importance of professional teaching proficiency.In terms of personality, unlike what students believe that being patient is vital, language teachers deem having passion in their teaching is essential.Again, this is probably due to passion is too abstract for language students to detect, while teachers view that having passion motivates them to teach better in their classroom.

Overall Discussion
To synthesize all the research data, the following section present the main findings: A. Students define a "good" language teacher mainly from their feelings in the classroom (being treated fairly or with respect, etc.).
It is clear that from students' perspectives, they value something they are more familiar with in the classroom, i.e., something they can personally feel.They can clearly judge whether they are being respected or treated fairly or not, whereas they may not be so confident to judge teachers' professional Published by SCHOLINK INC.
teaching knowledge.
B. Teachers define a "good" language teacher mainly from their professional teaching knowledge and the ability to reflect/update.
On the other hand, from language teachers' perspectives, they view that their professional teaching knowledge is the basic credentials they have as language teachers.Without it, they may not feel qualified at all as language teachers.Hence, this is something they pay more attention to mostly.
C. Both language teachers and students believe having a good command of L2 is vital.
Both students and language teachers value the importance of a good command in the target language as a language teacher.Having a good mastery of L2 vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. is agreed by both language teachers and students as something that is essential.
To conclude, this study suggests to language teachers that their perspectives of effective language teaching may not fit with their students' expectations.It is important to address this gap and educate their students on the potential differences.In addition, students focus a lot on the importance of being respected and treated fairly.Language teachers should show how this is achieved from various examples in the classroom to gain students' trust, thus enhance learning effectiveness.

Conclusion
This study aims to explore characteristics of a "good" language teacher.As any one teacher is unlikely to possess the full range of characteristics suggested in the literature (e.g., motivate students properly, a good lesson planner, understand students' strength and weakness, reflect and improve regularly, join professional community, etc.), it seems important to explore what individual class groups of learners believe are the characteristics most beneficial to their language learning.In addition, how about these language learning group teachers' perspectives?Are there any gaps between language learners' perspectives and their teachers?To this end, 9 language teachers and their class groups (a total of 10 groups, 287 students) from a language university in southern Taiwan participated in this study.
Questionnaire results from student questionnaire were collated with data from their language teachers to discover points of agreement and divergence.The result shows that both language learners and their teachers believe in the importance of good command of L2.Having a sufficient knowledge in the target languagegrammar, vocabulary, pronunciation to name a few is essential without any questions.These findings are in collaboration with the results from the study of Arikan and his colleagues (2008) in Turkey.

From various college class groups' perspective, what are the important characteristics of "good" language teachers?
Students from various departments are divided into various English classes (Levels 1-7) relative to their English proficiency level.Level 1 classes comprise students with the lowest English proficiency level Published by SCHOLINK INC.

good language teacher should use particular methods and techniques in teaching.
Incidentally, all these three statements are from the category of professional knowledge on teaching skills.It appears that from students' viewpoints, teachers' professional knowledge on their teaching Published by SCHOLINK INC.

Table 2 . Student Participants' Descriptive Data of Questionnaire Question No. 36
Question: From college teachers' perspective, what are some important characteristics of "good" language teachers?

Table 3 . Teacher Participants' Descriptive Data of Likert Scale Items
Questionnaire question No. 36 asked the respondents to choose one statement that they find the most important.As Table4below indicates, only one statement (No. 8 -A

good language teacher should have passion in language teaching) stands
out -33.3 % language teachers chose this statement.This statement is under the category of teachers' "personality".The result from this question combined with the Likert scale items results indicate that language teachers deem the five categories regarding "good" language teachers' discussed in the literature review section are all vital.

Table 4 . Teacher Participants' Descriptive Data of Questionnaire Question No. 36
-Published by SCHOLINK INC.27.A good language teacher should teach language adapted to students' language proficiency levels.一位好的語言教師應該根據學生的程度去進行教學。