The Central Characteristics of Successful ESL/EFL Teachers

Abstract

Achieving optimal success in teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires teachers to demonstrate varying essential characteristics that consist of several underlying and interacting constructs. The purpose of this article is to orient the reader and succinctly identify the key variables that lead ESL/EFL teachers to distinctive success. It clearly delineates the characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers embedded within five central dimensions, along with their underlying structures. It also provides common taxonomies of successful EFL teachers’ attributes without burdening the reader with unnecessary detail concerning the many other validated attributes associated with ESL/EFL teachers’ salient attributions of success. To this end, this discussion contributes to a theoretical understanding of the development of successful ESL/EFL teachers and to improved knowledge of the key characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers.