Student Voices: Korean Perceptions of Ideal English Teachers

Globalization and the demands of the neoliberal market regime have continued to place a premium on practical English-language skills for the success of the Korean economy. In a time when clientoriented service is emphasized there has been a relative lack of research into the preferences of Korean students as to what individual traits they prefer and find important in an English teacher. Korean university students from three universities were surveyed (n=654) as to their preference for fifteen traits and a profile emerged of the ideal English teacher characteristics. The characteristics rated as most important were, in order, teaching skill, personality, education, and teaching experience. The firstand third-most demanded traits on a survey of Korean job postings for English teachers, nationality and gender, were rated along with race and ethnicity as unimportant. Preference for teachers who speak Korean decreased with age and with TOEIC score. Further work should consider teacher traits in the light of teacher effectiveness and performance, as well as whether hiring criteria should be revised to reflect student preferences better