Effective Teachers of Academic Writing in an EFL Context: Students and Teachers Beliefs

Abstract

In the field on EFL academic writing, the teacher plays a pivotal role in the success of the learning process. This research aimed at investigating the characteristics that constitute an effective academic writing instructor, as perceived by EFL Arab students and their instructors. Questionnaires and follow-up interviews were used to discover the beliefs of students and instructors regarding the characteristics of effective academic writing instructors at AUS, in the UAE. Although the small number of instructor respondents did not allow for comparing and contrasting the beliefs of the students with their instructors, it was clear from the findings that there are some variations in the way students and their instructors perceive effective teachers of academic writing. Both students and instructors valued characteristics such as teacher friendliness, patience, and helpfulness, but to varying degrees. However, the students and instructors had different beliefs about characteristics related to teaching. Moreover, two-proportion tests revealed that the response selection tendency of the students was affected by two variables: gender and high school curriculum.