1. He makes his course interesting. V

2. He teaches good pronunciation.

3. He explains clearly.

4. He speaks good English.

5. He shows the same interest in all his students. V

6. He makes all the students participate. V

7. He shows great patience. V

8. He insists on the spoken language.

9. He makes his pupils work.

10. He uses an audio-lingual method.

Interestingly, the main point of the study – to see if the audio-lingual method was popular – only comes tenth. Students were more concerned that classes should be interesting and three of the top ten qualities (5, 6 and 7) are concerned with the relationship between the teacher and student. We can speculate that these qualities would emerge whatever subject was being taught.

The students were also asked to list any additional qualities they thought were important. The most popular were:

• He shows sympathy for his pupils. V

• He is fair to all his students (whether good or bad at English) V

• He inspires confidence. V

In a less formal study by J. Harmer both teachers and students were asked what they thought ‘makes a good teacher’. The two areas that most of the people mentioned were the teacher’s rapport (mutual understanding, accord) with the students and the teacher’s personality. People wanted a teacher who was ‘fun’ or one who ‘understands children’. But many people also mentioned the need for teachers to motivate students through enjoyable and interesting classes; and quite a few wanted their teachers to be ‘well prepared’ and to be teachers they could have confidence in.

Neither Girard’s students nor the small survey by Harmer mentioned above prove anything about good teachers; other methodologists have failed to provide us with a definite answer either. But we can make some generalisations with confidence:

1. In the first place the teacher’s personality matters a lot (and yet this is the most difficult area to quantify or to train for). But beyond that it is clear that:

2. Teachers need to do everything possible to create a good rapport with their students. Partly this happens a) by providing interesting and motivating classes. b) Partly this comes from such things as treating all the students the same (one of the secondary school students questioned said ‘a good teacher is …someone who asks the people who don’t always put their hands up’) and acting upon their hopes and aspirations. Most of all it depends on paying more attention to the students than to the teacher!

3. Lastly teachers clearly need to be able to show that they know their subject – or in the words of an experienced teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL), ‘If you don’t know what you’re talking about they soon see through you!’ They should be able to give clear instructions and as far as possible have answers to the students’ questions.

4. Success

Success or lack of it plays a vital part in the motivational drive of a student. Both complete failure and complete success could be de-motivating. It will be the teacher’s job to set goals and tasks at which most of his students can be successful – or rather tasks, which he could realistically expect his students to be able to achieve. To give students very high challenge activities (high, because the level of difficulty for the students is extreme) where this is not appropriate may have a negative effect on motivation. It will also be the case that low challenge activities are equally de-motivating. If the students can achieve all the tasks with no difficulty at all they may lose the motivation that they have when faced with the right level of challenge.

NB: Much of the teacher’s work in the classroom concerns getting the level of challenge right: this involves the type of tasks set, the speed expected from the student, etc.

Ultimately the students’ success or failure is in their own hands, but the teacher can influence the course of events in the students’ favour.