Feature Articles

The Uniqueness of EFL Teachers: Perceptions of Japanese Learners

JOSEPH J. LEE
Georgia State University
Building on the work of Borg (2006), this article reports on a study of Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners perceptions of some of the unique characteristics of EFL teachers that distinguish them from teachers of other subjects. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire to which 163 collegelevel EFL students in Japan responded. Their responses were analyzed to identify the characteristics that are exclusive to the province of EFL teachers. The results of the study indicate that these learners perceive EFL teachers to be unique along four central dimensions: the complex nature of the subject matter, the content of teaching, teaching approach, and teacher personality. The findings also suggest that the particularity of the sociocultural and educational context may ultimately influence how EFL teachers and their work are conceptualized by learners in crucial ways. I conclude by arguing that if language teacher education is to provide a more nuanced explanation of the uniqueness of EFL teachers and teaching that may be meaningful and relevant to teachers and students working within particular contexts, the voices of all stakeholders involved in EFL education need to be included in the dialogue on what it means to be an EFL teacher. doi: 10.5054/tj.2010.214881

One of the key questions that educational researchers investigate

involves understanding what it means to be a teacher. Researchers in general education have identified several universal teacher characteristics that transcend various disciplines (Brophy & Good, 1986; Dunkin & Biddle, 1974; Murray, 1991). These include knowing the subject matter, being able to explain the subject matter in a clear manner, and using concrete examples to explain concepts.
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Although educational researchers agree that these characteristics are relatively consistent across different subjects, there is little agreement regarding discipline-specific teacher characteristics (Bell, 2005). To a large extent, however, teachers are characterized by the subject they teach and the common practices they share in teaching that subject (Borg, 2006). Though some teacher characteristics may be discipline independent, various disciplines within the teaching profession must have suppositions of what it means to be teachers of those particular subjects and that distinguish them from colleagues in different disciplines. As Borg contends, in preparing future language teachers, language teacher education presumes to have an understanding of what specifically it means to be a language teacher (p. 3). However, what are these distinctive characteristics? Are they immutable across various sociocultural milieus? According to Borg, the construct of a language teacher is not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, and contextual factors may ultimately determine how this construct is conceptualized. For that reason, understanding what it means to be a language teacher in particular teaching and learning contexts is of central concern for language teacher education. Though limited, the research available on foreign language (FL) teacher characteristics has focused primarily on how practicing and prospective FL teachers characterize themselves. Most existing studies have not included the voices of one of the biggest stakeholders in English language teaching (ELT)the learners (but see Brosh, 1996; Park & Lee, 2006). Tarone and Allwright (2005) remind us, however, that the word teach is not an intransitive verb; it is not an activity one does by oneself. One has to teach something to someone (pp. 1718, emphasis in original). Consequently, there is a critical need to better understand how specific groups of language learners in particular institutional and sociocultural contexts characterize English language teachers (Borg, 2006). Building on the work of Borg (2006), this study investigates language learners perceptions of the uniqueness of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. Specifically, the study seeks to understand the distinguishing characteristics of EFL teachers as perceived by a particular group of college EFL learners in Japan. I begin by providing a bit of background information regarding ELT
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in Japan and reviewing relevant literature that informs this study. I then present the methodological procedure used in conducting the research. This is followed by the findings and a discussion of the major themes that materialized from the research.

ENGLISH TEACHING IN JAPAN

Similar to other Asian EFL contexts, such as China (Burnaby & Sun, 1989) and South Korea (Li, 1998), English education in Japan was focused traditionally on developing students grammar, reading, and writing skills while oral communication skills were given little or no attention (Butler & Iino, 2005; Honna & Takeshita, 2005; Mantero & Iwai, 2005). More recently, however, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT; 2002, 2003) has initiated changes in its efforts to reform English education at all levels in Japan. MEXTs current goal for English education is to develop Japanese citizens who will be competently functional in English in international settings (MEXT, 2003). At the tertiary level, the primary purpose of English education is to prepare graduates who will be capable of communicating in English with speakers of other languages for work purposes (MEXT, 2003). As long as colleges and universities strive to reach this goal, they are able to establish their own standards for instruction. Additionally, in its efforts to enhance tertiary students communicative abilities, MEXT has urged Japanese college EFL teachers to use English more frequently as the medium of instruction (Honna & Takeshita, 2005). In spite of MEXTs efforts, numerous factors (e.g., incongruent goals between tertiary institutions and MEXT, realities of current educational institutions) have impeded significant educational reformation.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Although specialists in second language teaching methodologies have offered broad characteristics of effective language teachers (e.g., H. D. Brown, 2001; Hammadou & Bernhardt, 1987), and undoubtedly these broad treatments of language teacher characteristics have been valuable in providing teachers with
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guiding principles, these assumptions have been mostly devoid of empirical evidence. Therefore, in order to examine and evaluate these claims, a growing body of research has specifically investigated the characteristics of FL teachers (e.g., Bell, 2005; Borg, 2006; Brosh, 1996; Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Mullock, 2003; Park & Lee, 2006). These studies have attempted to explore behaviors and characteristics of language teachers because of the uniqueness of their work (Borg, 2006; Hammadou & Bernhardt, 1987). Although the majority of the studies examined what a good or effective language teacher is, and not the distinctive characteristics of language teachers that make them unique, they do provide empirical evidence into ways in which language teachers characteristics have been conceptualized (Borg, 2006, p. 6). They show that language teachers share characteristics with their counterparts in other teaching domains; however, and more important, they demonstrate that there are characteristics unique to the domain of language teaching. Through a survey, Bell (2005) identified characteristics of effective FL teachers as perceived by tertiary FL teachers in the United States. She found that teachers of various FLs (e.g., Spanish, French, German) showed a strong consensus on the types of knowledge and behaviors that language teachers need to possess and display. Among these were enthusiasm for the target language and culture, competence in the target language, extensive knowledge about language, and use of group work to encourage a greater degree of learner involvement. Bell concludes that although some of these characteristics are shared by teachers of different disciplines, certain characteristics are indeed specific to the sphere of language teachers, such as issues related to error correction, focus on form, and culture. Similarly, Mullock (2003) investigated preservice ESOL teachers perceptions of what constitutes effective English language teachers. Even though some of the findings support conclusions about effective teachers in general, such as knowing the subject and being skilled in teaching methods (S. Brown & McIntyre, 1999), Mullock explains that specific aspects are uniquely situated in the province of language teachers, including issues of language proficiency and cross-cultural knowledge and skills.
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Unlike Bell (2005) and Mullock (2003), whose studies encompass the perceptions of only practicing and prospective language teachers, Brosh (1996) and Park and Lee (2006) investigated the characteristics of effective EFL teachers as perceived by high school EFL teachers as well as students in Israel and South Korea, respectively. Both of these studies showed that teachers and students held knowledge and command of the target language, clarity of instruction, building students motivation, and treating students fairly as some of the most important characteristics that EFL teachers need to possess. Even though teachers and students did not necessarily disagree on most of these characteristics, they differed in the degree of importance they placed on various characteristics. Teachers gave higher priority to some characteristics (e.g., motivation) whereas students emphasized others (e.g., fairness). Despite these differences in the level of importance given to various features, teachers and students alike, unsurprisingly, acknowledged that motivation and fairness are important characteristics of effective EFL teachers. Taken together, these studies reflect the perceived characteristics of effective language teachers in a general sense. Unsurprisingly, these characteristics (e.g., knowledge of the subject, clarity of instruction, enthusiastic behavior, fairness) are not all that different from those that teachers of any subject should posses and exemplify (Borg, 2006). It is important to note that the objectives of these studies were to identify characteristics believed to be effective rather than those that are unique to FL teachers. Hammadou and Bernhardt (1987), however, point out that being a foreign language teacher is in many ways unique within the profession of teaching because the content and the process for learning the content are the same. In other words, in foreign language teaching the medium is the message (p. 302). Although in FL contexts where the teacher and students share the same first language (L1), they can clearly resort back to their L1. This uniqueness is echoed by Grossman and Shulman (1994) in reference to the nature of the subject of English: The inherent complexity of the subject, with its separate domains and subcomponents, may also offer teachers greater autonomy in developing curriculum (p. 4). These authors acknowledge that being a language teacher is in many ways quite distinctive, and they
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underscore the relevant issues in understanding the particularities of language teachers. In an attempt to categorize domain-specific characteristics of EFL teachers, Borg (2006) investigated the beliefs of pre- and inservice nonnative-English-speaking EFL teachers in various European countries. A particularly interesting dimension of this study is the inclusion of the perceptions of four subject specialists, one each in chemistry, mathematics, science, and history. Findings suggest that certain distinctive characteristics are particularly located in the sphere of language teachers, but as Borg rightly points out, the characteristics of language teachers cannot be considered in isolation from the characteristics of language teaching. Therefore, in outlining 11 distinctive characteristics of EFL teachers as perceived by pre- and in-service EFL teachers and subject specialists, Borg integrates the teacher with the teaching. The findings point to the dynamic nature and practical relevance of language, the scope and complexity of language teaching, and the diversity of approaches aimed at creating conditions for maximizing student engagement in communication. The need to maximize student involvement in a language in which they are not yet fully competent seems also to compel EFL teachers to be more tolerant and accepting of learners linguistic errors. Similarly, in language teaching, the teacherstudent relationship is closer and more relaxed because, according to Borg, there is more interaction between teachers and students and the topics and tasks are often personally relevant to the lives of students. Furthermore, Borgs findings suggest that unlike with other subject teachers, there is a wide range of recognized qualifications for EFL teachers, some as short as 4 weeks in length, and often the status of languages and language teachers is lower than other subjects and subject teachers. Finally, Borg states that there are more adult EFL learners than those in other subjects, and commercial interests often drive the language teaching profession. In sum, studies in this line of inquiry indicate that there are indeed characteristics that are distinctive to FL teachers, and these particularities make them different from teachers of other subjects. Additionally, the studies demonstrate that there are differences in how FL teachers are characterized that are dependent on the setting
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in which teaching and learning occur (Brosh, 1996; Mullock, 2003; Park & Lee, 2006). In their call for a reconceptualization of the knowledge base of language teacher education, Freeman and Johnson (1998) argue that this knowledge base needs to address the diverse social, cultural, and political contexts of teaching and learning. They contend that research on the knowledge base of teaching in language teacher education (as well as in general education) shows how the educational context in which teachers learn and teach determines in profound ways how they and others (e.g., students, parents, administrators) define who they are and what they do (Johnson, 2006). As Prabhu (1990) contends, a teachers actions and behaviors in the classroom are mediated by his or her sense of plausibility of teaching (p. 172, emphasis in original) in the particular socioeducational environment. The sociocultural norms and values underscored by the educational cultures and institutional milieus seem to shape the normality of teachers beliefs and behaviors in their specific situations (Johnson, 2006). Accordingly, the differences found among the various studies indicate how the ways that FL teachers are characterized are context specific. Although many characteristics may converge among the various educational circumstances, there seem to be some undeniably divergent characteristics as well. As Borg (2006) posits, the concept of the language teacher is not a monolithic phenomenon amenable to globally meaningful definition (p. 26); rather, it is a pluralistic experience, entrenched and constructed in multiple ways within and across diverse settings. Furthermore, with the exception of Brosh (1996) and Park and Lee (2006), most of the studies on FL teacher characteristics are based on Eurocentric norms (Borg, 2006), reflecting Western notions of what it means to be an FL teacher. As such, there is a critical need to investigate how FL teachers are characterized in other locations in order to identify both context-independent and context-dependent attributes (Borg, 2006; Mullock, 2003). The research presented in this study aims to identify those characteristics situated in the domain of FL teachers, and to distinguish them from teachers of other subjects, in one particular setting.
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METHODS
Context The study was conducted at a national college of technology in southwestern Japan (henceforth, JNCT), a specialized 5-year school that admits students after junior high school (or Grade 9 in the U.S. system). Education at JNCT progresses from a general education program for Grades 1012 (high school level) to more specialized training for college-level students, ultimately leading to an associates degree in electrical, mechanical, industrial, or civil engineering. Unlike students at other institution of higher learning in Japan, first-year college students1 at JNCT do not have options for their FL requirements; rather, they are required to study English and German for 1 year. In addition, second-year college students are required to take one FL of their choice. Similar to students in many other colleges and universities in Japan, however, most second-year college students at JNCT take English because of their familiarity with the language and the likelihood that they will use it for instrumental purposes in the future. At the end of each academic year, JNCT students take a standardized English proficiency test, the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). This is one of the most widely taken English proficiency tests not only in Japan but worldwide, recognized by various international institutions, corporations, and government agencies. The test measures examinees English reading and listening skills, with the primary purpose of assessing the abilities of nonnative-English-speaking examinees use of English for everyday work activities. Because many corporations in Japan require TOEIC scores of new employees (Gilfert, 1996), JNCT students take this test to apply for jobs at such corporations. At the time of the research, the Englishteaching staff consisted entirely of native speakers of Japanese, although there was one part-time native English speaker from a local private language school who taught a few speaking classes.
College students refers to JNCT students who are above Grade 12, or in their fourth or fifth year at this institution, equivalent to first- and second-year college students in traditional colleges and universities.
1

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Participants The participants in this study were first-year college students at JNCT. Although the study would have been more extensive with the inclusion of other college students at this school (i.e., sophomores), these students were inaccessible at the time of the study due to several factors, such as preparing for graduation and searching for employment. Initially, 174 first-year college students participated. However, 11 were excluded for a number of reasons, including returning blank or incomplete forms and ambiguous item choice selection (e.g., circling more than one choice per item). The final number of participants was 163 (142 males and 21 females). At the time of the study, all were 18 or 19 years old. They were in the second semester of their first year of college. Prior to the study, they had completed a minimum of 6 years of formal English education at the secondary school level and at least one semester of college-level English. Including Japanese (their L1) and English, most students reported that they had some knowledge of other languages as well. Instrument The participants completed a self-report paper questionnaire about the characteristics of EFL teachers as presented in the literature. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. Part 1 comprised two sections. The first section had 22 closed-response items that examined how participants perceived EFL teachers to be distinctive compared to teachers of other subjects. In the survey, however, the term EFL teachers was replaced with English language teachers because students might not have been familiar with the abbreviation EFL. Although the focus was on the distinctive characteristics of EFL teachers, the second section of Part 1 included eight items about the characteristics of English language teaching (replaced with teaching English in the survey) because, as Borg (2006) contends, characteristics of language teachers . . . cannot be considered in isolation of the characteristics of language teaching (p. 4, emphasis in original). The 30 closed-response items were developed from the categories Borg identifies as being distinguishing characteristics of FL teachers and teaching, and from categories presented elsewhere in the literature. The participants rated each closed-response item on a 6-point Likert scale in terms of
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perceived agreement: 6 (strongly agree), 5 (agree), 4 (partly agree), 3 (partly disagree), 2 (disagree), and 1 (strongly disagree). Neutral choices were not made available because it has been reported that Japanese have a tendency to avoid choosing extreme answers (Reid, 1990), which, according to Stebbins (1995), indicates their unwillingness to express [their] personal opinions rather than a lack of preference (p. 111). The thinking was that by having options for degrees of agreement or disagreement, participants might not feel obliged to choose extreme answers and would clearly indicate positive or negative preferences. Part 2 consisted of one open-ended item. It was intended to give space for participants to provide additional qualitative information about EFL teachers that might have been neglected in the closedresponse section, but might cover important characteristics of Japanese EFL teachers. Part 3 comprised questions regarding the participants biographical information (e.g., age, gender, years of studying English). To minimize misinterpretations and misunderstandings, the directions and questionnaire items were available in both English and Japanese. Finally, the internal consistency reliability of the instrument was checked. Cronbachs alpha of the scale was .87, indicating a high level of reliability. Procedure In order to collect the data, a request for participation was sent via e-mail to several EFL teachers in Japan who were familiar to me in a professional capacity. Among those who responded, only one teacher agreed to participate; the others kindly declined due to demanding schedules and other institutional obligations. The questionnaire was sent to the one Japanese EFL teacher at JNCT, who assisted me in distributing and collecting the questionnaire. The participants were recruited through the support of the teacher and other EFL instructors at JNCT. The teacher informed the students that in order to participate they would need to complete a questionnaire. Students were asked to complete the survey in class and return the questionnaire before leaving class. Asking students to complete the survey in class ensured a maximum rate of return. The teacher informed the students that participating in this study was voluntary and that they were not required to write their names.
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Additionally, the teacher explained that they could skip any item they did not feel comfortable answering, and if they did not wish to take part in this study, they could simply return the blank survey. All of this was conducted in Japanese, the students L1. Completing the survey took approximately 1520 minutes. As mentioned earlier, the returned questionnaires that were blank, incomplete, or ambiguous were excluded from the study. Among the responses to the questionnaire included for analysis, none of the participants skipped any of the items.

RESULTS
On completion of the data collection, descriptive and frequency analyses were conducted to describe the characteristics perceived by participants to be specific to the domain of EFL teachers and teaching. In addition, because some participants provided qualitative responses, the data from the open-ended section were coded and analyzed to identify and categorize emerging themes. The findings are described with the focus of identifying the characteristics of EFL teachers that distinguish them from teachers of other subjects. Table 1 presents the results from the first section of Part 1 of the survey: JNCT students perceptions of the characteristics of EFL teachers that distinguish them from other subject teachers. As shown in the table, JNCT students perceived that English language teachers have a more difficult job because they have to explain things to learners in English (M 5 4.65), similar to Hammadou and Bernhardts (1987) contention. The participants rated this item the highest among all of the characteristics. The participants also agreed with the statements English language teachers have more positive attitudes (M 5 4.58) and English language teachers show more enthusiasm (M 5 4.56) compared to teachers of other subjects, which Borg (2006) found to be essential traits for language teachers. There was also agreement that English language teachers encourage more student involvement (M 5 4.48) and English language teachers encourage more speaking in class (M 5 4.48), supporting Borg (2006) and Park and Lees (2006) findings. This does not suggest that Japanese EFL teachers do not lecture or apply traditional approaches. In fact, the participants only partly agreed
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TABLE 1. Means, Standard Deviations (SD), and Ranks of Distinctive Characteristics of EFL Teachers (N 5 163)
Item 13. have a more difficult job because they have to explain things to learners in English 18. have more positive attitudes 7. show more enthusiasm 15. encourage more student involvement 3. encourage more speaking in class 19. use less traditional lecture-style approach 16. have a better sense of humor 5. are more creative 6. are more flexible 10. have a closer relationship with students 14. use English which creates a greater distance between teachers and students 1. use more progressive teaching methodology 11. spend more time preparing for lessons 2. tolerate more of learners mistakes 12. help learners gain skills which have more practical relevance to real life 9. have lower status 20. teach learners to use learning strategies and skills more 21. encourage learners to express their needs and preferences for learning more 4. use more authentic activities 17. are more motivating 8. are better trained 22. know and understand students strengths and weaknesses more Mean* 4.65 4.58 4.56 4.48 4.48 3.82 3.72 3.69 3.56 3.55 3.53 3.50 3.47 3.47 3.42 3.42 3.40 3.36 3.33 3.24 3.17 2.79 SD 0.79 0.88 1.03 0.84 0.90 1.33 1.41 1.35 1.19 1.31 1.44 1.43 1.16 1.29 1.28 1.36 1.36 1.20 1.43 1.30 1.35 1.10 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

*6 (strongly agree), 5 (agree), 4 (partly agree), 3 (partly disagree), 2 (disagree), 1 (strongly disagree)

with the statement English language teachers use less traditional lecture-style approach (M 5 3.82), suggesting that Japanese EFL teachers may still use this approach, but may do so less frequently than other subject teachers. Similarly, there was less agreement that English language teachers use more progressive teaching methodology (M 5 3.50) or English language teachers use more authentic activities (M 5 3.33). Moreover, unlike Borgs finding, there was less agreement with the statements English language
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teachers use English which creates a greater distance between teachers and students (M 5 3.53) and English language teachers have a closer relationship with students (M 5 3.55). There were also other characteristics with which JNCT students did not show strong agreement. They were less in agreement with some of the personal characteristics described by Borg (2006) as being distinctive of FL teachers. There seemed to be less agreement with the following statements: English language teachers have a better sense of humor (M 5 3.72), English language teachers are more creative (M 5 3.69), English language teachers are more flexible (M 5 3.56), and English language teachers are more motivating (M 5 3.24). These findings support Brosh (1996) and Park and Lee (2006), who also found that students in their studies generally did not place as much importance on these features of effective EFL teachers. Additionally, there was less agreement with English language teachers teach learners to use learning strategies and skills more (M 5 3.40), English language teachers help learners gain skills which have more practical relevance to real life (M 5 3.42), and English language teachers have lower status (M 5 3.42) compared to other subject teachers. Finally, JNCT students disagreed that English language teachers know and understand students strengths and weaknesses more (M 5 2.79). In fact, this characteristic ranks the lowest among those listed in Table 1. Because teachers cannot be characterized in isolation from the subject matter they teach, I now turn to the data from the second section of the survey. Table 2 presents the results of JNCT students perceptions of the distinctive characteristics of ELT. The items that they generally agreed and disagreed with may not necessarily suggest how ELT is thought of in Japan, but rather what is involved in ELT or, perhaps, what it should reflect. In other words, it may be difficult to ascertain, based on the data, whether the participants actually perceived some of these characteristics to be the reality of ELT in Japan or the ideal conditions that they may prefer. As shown in Table 2, the participants agreed that teaching English involves teaching the cultures of English-speaking countries (M 5 4.61), supporting Borgs (2006) and Mullocks (2003) findings. This item was the highest rated finding in this
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TABLE 2. Means, Standard Deviations (SD), and Ranks of Distinctive Characteristics of English Language Teaching (N 5 163)
Item 24. involves teaching the cultures of Englishspeaking countries 25. involves developing learners communication skills 29. is difficult because teachers and learners work in a nonnative language 23. involves more than teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing 28. is difficult because mastering English takes a long time 27. is more difficult than teaching other subjects 30. is difficult because nonnative English teachers abilities are compared to that of native speakers 26. means correcting every mistake learners make Mean* 4.61 4.57 4.55 4.47 3.98 3.87 3.72 3.18 SD 0.93 0.88 0.82 0.91 1.17 1.20 1.30 1.21 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

*6 (strongly agree), 5 (agree), 4 (partly agree), 3 (partly disagree), 2 (disagree), 1 (strongly disagree)

category. Participants also agreed that teaching English involves developing learners communication skills (M 5 4.57). Similar to Borg, JNCT students also perceived that teaching English involves more than teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing (M 5 4.47). In terms of error correction, participants generally did not agree that teaching English means correcting every mistake learners make (M 5 3.18). The participants seemed to agree only partly that teaching English is difficult because mastering English takes a long time (M 5 3.98), and there was even less agreement that teaching English is more difficult than teaching other subjects (M 5 3.87). In JNCT students perceptions of the distinctive characteristics of EFL teachers (Table 1), the highest rated item was the statement English language teachers have a more difficult job because they have to explain things to learners in English (M 5 4.65). This notion is further supported with their relatively high agreement that teaching English is difficult because teachers and learners work in a nonnative language (M 5 4.55). Finally, unlike a finding by Borg (2006), there was less agreement with teaching English is
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difficult because nonnative English teachers abilities are compared to that of native speakers (M 5 3.72). In the open-ended section of the questionnaire, 46 participants provided qualitative data on their perceptions of the characteristics of EFL teachers. However, most of these were one- or two-word phrases, and only a few students offered complete sentences. Even though participants were not explicitly instructed to respond in English or Japanese, nearly all of those who supplied written statements did so in English. This may be the reason for the limited responses in this section of the questionnaire. Some of the responses were too general, referring to the overall assessment of EFL teachers (e.g., good, very fine,, smart, very bad). Still others appeared to be related to teachers general appearance (e.g., stylish, very neatly) and not necessarily to their characteristics. Some were not interpretable at all (e.g., sevral color, source, subtle). Among the 31 responses that were specific, 22 included comments about EFL teachers personalities. They described teachers as being positive, cheerful, eager, and displaying an excess of enthusiasm, passion, and vitality. Although most of these were positive, two students wrote that EFL teachers were negative and stubborn. Overall, these comments support the quantitative data, illustrating the perception that EFL teachers tend to have a more positive attitude and show more enthusiasm. Five students also mentioned that EFL teachers were fun, too funny, and showed humour. One student in particular stated that English teacher is humour and makes everyone happy feeling, although, as shown in Table 1, students were less in agreement with this characteristic overall. Two students touched on teaching approach. One student commented, They [EFL teachers] teach only to read English or take a examination. Finally, three students seemed to point to the teacherstudent relationship when they referred to EFL teachers as being friendly, sociable, and casual, although this was not supported in the quantitative data.

DISCUSSION
Although many characteristics of EFL teachers may not seem to be discipline specific, the participants in this study reported that there
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are, indeed, specific characteristics of EFL teachers that distinguish them and their work from their counterparts in other teaching domains. The emerging themes encompass some of the uniqueness of EFL teachers and ELT speculated on by Hammadou and Bernhardt (1987) and Grossman and Shulman (1994), and described by Borg (2006): the interrelatedness of content and medium, the interactive nature of language teaching, and the content of language teaching. Additionally, the participants in the study reported EFL teachers as exemplifying some of the teacher personalities presented by H. D. Brown (2001, p. 430). Table 3 summarizes the distinctive characteristics of EFL teachers and their work that emerged in this study: the nature of the subject matter, the content of teaching, teaching approach, and teacher personality. The Nature of the Subject Matter As mentioned earlier, Hammadou and Bernhardt (1987) contend that FL teaching is unique and difficult because it is the only subject in which the content of the subject and medium of instruction are one and the same. This creates challenges for English language teachers and students alike, particularly in EFL contexts where the
TABLE 3. Summary of Distinctive Characteristics of EFL Teachers Perceived by Japanese EFL College Students
Theme The nature of the subject matter Description In English language teaching, the content and medium of instruction are the same, and it involves teachers and students operating in a language in which students are not yet competent. EFL teachers teach beyond the four skills and grammar; they also develop learners communication and cultural knowledge and skills. EFL teachers maximize student involvement by encouraging more speaking in class and through judicious correction of student errors. Displaying positive attitudes and enthusiasm is crucial for EFL teachers.
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The content of teaching

Teaching approach

Teacher personality

38

teachers and learners may both be operating in a nonnative language. Teachers often present and explain information in a language in which the students have yet to reach a certain level of competency (Hammadou & Bernhardt, 1987), thus making the work of both groups difficult. This is unlike the situation for teachers of other subjects (e.g., math, science). Although teachers of other subjects teach the language or discourses of their particular fields, the medium of instruction is not in an FL; rather, the language used for instruction is in most cases the learners L1. Therefore, there is a clear boundary between the content of the subject and the medium of instruction, which makes the teaching of these subjects fundamentally different than ELT. Furthermore, as Borg (2006) posits, the nature of the subject of English is more dynamic than other subjects and has more practical relevance to real life (p. 24). This may certainly be true in many English language learning and teaching contexts; however, it was less true for the participants in this study, students at a technical college in Japan. One explanation may be that because the goal of JNCT students, in general, is to become engineers in one of the subfields of engineering, the science and engineering courses they take may be perceived to have more practical relevance to their future careers than English. In most countries where English is not the language of education or commerce, English is used mostly in the classroom and learners interaction with speakers of the target language is rare. The lack of opportunities for students in EFL contexts to use English in their daily experiences may make it difficult for students, at least these JNCT students, to perceive the relevance of learning English to their immediate lives. The Content of Teaching In line with some of the tenets of the communicative approach to language teaching, Japans new policy on English education emphasizes developing learners practical communication abilities and cultural awareness (Butler & Iino, 2005; Mantero & Iwai, 2005), though clearly grammar instruction still plays an important role in a communicative curriculum (Ellis, 2006). Furthermore, as language teacher educators such as H. D. Brown (2001), Kumaravadivelu (1994), Murphy (2001), and Omaggio (1993) have argued, language
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and culture are inseparable because whenever you teach a language, you also teach a complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking and acting (H. D. Brown, 2001, p. 64). The Japanese EFL learners in this study appeared to subscribe to this philosophy of language learning and teaching. Perhaps part of their perceptions (that ELT involves teaching beyond the four skills and developing learners communicative and cultural knowledge and skills) may be attributed to Japanese EFL teachers changing philosophy about the nature of ELT. In addition, as is discussed in the next section, the participants seemed to believe that Japanese EFL teachers encourage more student involvement and speaking in the classroom. These perceptions may suggest that Japanese EFL teachers conceptualization of the nature of language teaching may be shifting toward a more genuinely communicative orientation. Another possible explanation for the students perception of these characteristics as distinctive of ELT in Japan may be due to the TOEIC. As explained earlier, the students at JNCT take the TOEIC upon completion of each academic year. The test not only measures examinees reading skills, but also assesses their listening skills in everyday conversations and language. Because teachers beliefs and pedagogical practices are crucially influenced by the practical educational needs of the students they teach, the need for EFL teachers at JNCT to prepare learners to perform well on this particular test may necessitate the broadening of the scope of the instructional content. This may include developing not only students grammatical and literacy knowledge, but also their oral communication skills and cultural knowledge. This points to a situation unlike that of teachers of other subjects. Certainly, college teachers of other subjects teach learners to operate in the discourses of their particular fields, but they do not need to develop learners linguistic competence in the grammar, reading, writing, speaking, listening, and culture of a new language. All of this suggests that the distinctiveness of the content of ELT distinguishes EFL teachers from teachers of other subjects. Teaching Approach Another characteristic that the participants seemed to perceive as being specific to EFL teachers is teachers maximizing student
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involvement by encouraging more speaking in class and through judicious correction of students linguistic errors. The high value participants placed on this characteristic might be another indication that Japanese EFL teachers are implementing a more communicative approach in the teaching of English. A communicative approach to language teaching involves encouraging learners to interact and communicate in the target language. From this perspective, encouraging student speaking and maximizing student involvement in the classroom are paramount. Teaching language through a communicative approach also involves leaning strongly toward message orientation with language usage offering a supportive role (H. D. Brown, 2001, p. 269). Teachers applying a communicative approach need to be judicious with correcting student language errors in order to allow learners to develop fluency in the language. Teachers of other subjects in Japan may not need to apply this approach because they do not teach an FL and, therefore, may still approach teaching through a more traditional transmission model of instruction. It can be argued that teachers who teach in students L1 also may apply a communicative approach in the teaching of the language. However, one of the differences between a communicative orientation to teaching an L1 and teaching an FL is the fact that teaching an FL through this approach involves attempting to encourage students to communicate in a language in which they have yet to develop high levels of competence and fluency. The one-way teaching approach, which many teachers of other subjects might use, places limitations on student involvement. It may also involve overt correction of students content errors, rather than linguistic errors, when learners provide incorrect answers. In contrast, a communicative orientation to ELT maximizes active student involvement in the classroom by encouraging more student speaking and avoiding overcorrection of student language errors. As such, these features, at least for this studys participants, may be regarded as characteristics specific of EFL teachers. Teacher Personality Although not all of the distinctive personality characteristics that Borg (2006) identified in his study are found here, the JNCT
The Uniqueness of EFL Teachers 41

participants seemed to perceive two of them to be distinctive characteristics of EFL teachers: positive attitudes and enthusiasm. Having positive attitudes and showing enthusiasm correlate highly with increased rapport between students and teachers, and appear to promote productive learning, because these behaviors seem to maintain student attention, encourage active student participation, and keep students engaged in the learning process (Murray, 1991; Prabhu, 1990). These attributes are also in line with findings in general education (Murray, 1991; Perry, 1985; Perry & Penner, 1990), which at first glance suggests that they are not particular to EFL teachers. Upon closer examination, however, there may be an explanation as to why this studys participants perceived these characteristics to be more distinctive of EFL teachers. In a study by Murray and Renaud (1995), a key finding was that arts and humanities instructors value rapport with students more than their counterparts in the social sciences or natural sciences. Because the Japanese participants of the current study were technical college students and most of the courses that they took were science courses, English is one of the few nonscience courses they took. Arts and humanities teachers generally value rapport with students, so this may be an explanation for the participants perceptions that these characteristics distinguished EFL teachers from their other teachers. On the one hand, positive attitudes and enthusiasm may not necessarily be exclusive to EFL teachers, but they may relate to arts and humanities in general. On the other hand, as pointed out by Hammadou and Bernhardt (1987), the complex nature of the subject of FL teaching may compel EFL teachers to display more of such characteristics than other arts and humanities teachers. This is not to suggest that other subject teachers do not display enthusiastic behaviors or positive attitudes. The point is that, as many of the participants in Borgs (2006) study highlight, these characteristics may be essential for EFL teachers in order to sustain learner motivation and interest in learning English in an EFL context, where exposure to the language is largely limited to the classroom. However, unlike Borgs (2006) study, in this study EFL teachers were not strongly characterized as being more creative, flexible, or humorous than teachers of other subjects. There was less agreement
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among the participants that EFL teachers were humorous, but this inclination may be more of an individual trait than a subjectdependent characteristic. In other words, some Japanese EFL teachers who taught the students might have been humorous, as the qualitative data suggests, whereas others may not have been. Humor, therefore, may not necessarily be indicative of Japanese EFL teachers in general, but rather of individual teachers. In terms of flexibility and creativity, the participants appeared to be in less agreement as well. As mentioned earlier, JNCT students are required to take the TOEIC upon completion of each academic year. The test and its implications for the students futures may ultimately compel Japanese EFL teachers to teach to the test, leaving little room for creativity and flexibility in the curriculum. In addition, because the institution that these students attended is a college of technology, science teachers who may be using state-ofthe-art technology and having students engage in hands-on experiments may be perceived as more creative and flexible than their EFL counterparts. In many ways, in order to conduct experiments, one needs to be creative with the implementation of the experiments and flexible with the results. For these students, connecting the theories of science that they were learning with actual practical applications of those theories may have seemed more creative and flexible than learning a language for which they might not have seen immediate application. Although the studys participants generally perceived EFL teachers as being not necessarily more creative, flexible, and humorous than other teachers, they did seem to perceive that their EFL teachers displayed certain subject-dependent personality characteristics positive attitudes and enthusiasmthat distinguished them from other teachers.

CONCLUSION
This study investigated the distinctive characteristics of EFL teachers as perceived by a particular group of Japanese college EFL students. The participants in the study perceived EFL teachers and teaching to be unique along four central dimensions:
1. The nature of the subject matter is complex in that the medium and content of instruction are the same.
The Uniqueness of EFL Teachers 43

2. The content of EFL teaching includes developing not only students linguistic skills but also their communication and cultural knowledge and skills. 3. A good approach to EFL teaching involves maximizing student involvement through encouragement and judicious error correction. 4. Displaying positive attitudes toward and enthusiasm for learners and the subject is crucial.

Additionally, the study shows that even though there are identifiable characteristics of EFL teachers that may cut across different contexts, being an EFL teacher is essentially a socially situated construct that is dependent on particular sociocultural and educational milieus in which teachers carry out their work. Before concluding, some limitations of the study need to be addressed. First, the data for the study only included first-year college students at this institution. Future research could investigate how teachers and students at various grade levels and different institutions characterize EFL teachers in order to compare the similarities and differences among the different groups. Furthermore, student responses to the open-ended section of the questionnaire were mostly in English and very superficial. Further research could explicitly state to participants to respond to this section in their L1, thus potentially allowing researchers to gather deeper and more substantial responses. Finally, the quantitative nature of this study has limitations. Continuing lines of inquiry in this area could use qualitative or mixed methods to get thicker and richer descriptions and understanding of why students and teachers in various locations perceive certain characteristics, but not others, to be exclusive to the province of EFL teachers. Despite these limitations, by bringing students into the dialogue, this study offers greater insights into the discussion on what makes EFL teachers and teaching unique. As the study suggests, EFL teachers and teaching are perceived as being unique in various ways, but contextual factors may ultimately affect and shape the ways in which teachers and their work are conceptualized in crucial ways (Johnson, 2006). For language teacher education to portray more complete, complex, and inclusive images of what it means to be an EFL teacher, the voices of all stakeholders involved in EFL education must be included in the dialogue. By doing this, language teacher education can gain a better understanding of how EFL teachers are conceptualized and, more important, provide a
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more nuanced explanation of the uniqueness of EFL teachers and teaching that may be meaningful and relevant to teachers and students situated within particular socioeducational contexts.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2009 TESOL Convention, in Denver, Colorado. I would like to thank John Murphy and Sara Weigle, at Georgia State University, for their guidance and feedback; the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback; Akiko Kondo for her assistance in collecting the data; and the students for participating in the study. Any remaining errors are entirely my own.

THE AUTHOR
Joseph J. Lee is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University. His research interests include L2 teacher education, genre analysis, classroom discourse, and L2 pedagogy.

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