Student Voice on the Personal Qualities of the Effective English Language Teacher: A Collective Case Study

Abstract

Personal qualities of the effective English language teacher illustrated by English language experts still surprisingly churned out average English language proficiency in a majority of tertiary Malaysian students. Thus, this qualitative collective case study aimed at finding out how far student voice agreed with expert opinion through the in-depth responses of three primary school pupils, three secondary school students and three undergraduate trainee teachers representative of above average, average and below average English language proficiency, on how each of them described the personal qualities of the effective English language teacher. In this regard, student voice was analysed using triangulation based not only on the same topics discussed, but also on the review of literature. Interestingly, the findings disclosed that student voice still had something extra to contribute in determining the personal qualities of the effective English language teacher, with a touch of irony and constructive criticism on how such qualities of English language teachers/lecturers could still further improve so as to be more effective in the eyes of learners.