Higher Secondary Students’ Perspective of a Good English Language Teacher: A Conceptual Study in Bangladeshi Context

Abstract

Success is the most venerable thing to any professional in their respected profession and hence knowing the pros and cons of a profession, most significantly what is desired by your target group matters immensely. Talking about teaching, more specifically in the ELT profession, that statement also passes as a common trait of this profession as well. A good English language teacher (GELT) certainly has some traits both personal and professional which are also duly acknowledged and understood by their students; they are the direct receiver of the teacher’s provided inputs. Hence this study was initiated to investigate the perspective of the students of a good English language teacher. Higher secondary level students were chosen for the study as they are considered as the group who will be able to give a good insight to the matter as they are standing at the doorway of higher education. Total 120 students of higher secondary level of Safiuddin Sarker Academy School and College were chosen as the target group for the study. And the instrumentations designed for this study were survey questionnaire (Likert scale statement) and students’ written report to collect the required data. After collecting and analyzing the data, this study, despite some obstacles, did succeed in meeting its objective of finding the most desired quality of a GELT by the higher secondary level students of Bangladesh. It has found both personal and professional qualities, namely having a pleasant and friendly personality with great student motivating capability, being an expert of English grammar and literature with a strong command over Spoken English, having a great sense of humour and wit, sound knowledge of ELT approaches and methods, strong classroom control and an impartial judgment of the students’ achievement as the most desired qualities of a GELT by their students. However, it has also found some bad qualities of the practicing teachers like intolerant of students’ mistake, being not punctual, losing temper, speaking fast, making speaking and pronunciation mistakes and inefficient time management etc. which an aspiring GELT should try to avoid at all costs. Hence this study considers its outcomes very important and to some significant extent helpful and valuable for the aspiring English language teachers, ELT practitioner and policy makers and researchers.