Students’ willingness to attend EFL classes with respect to teachers’ credibility, stroke, and success: A cross-cultural study of Iranian and Iraqi students’ perceptions

Abstract

We investigated the home culture effect with respect to students' perceptions about themselves and their instructors. This study was concerned with the cross-cultural analysis of Iranian and Iraqi students' perceptions of teacher success, credibility, and stroke variables. Willingness to Attend Classes (WTAC) was evaluated. Two-hundred-seventy-six Iranian and 150 Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students participated in the study. Results of the multi-group modeling showed measurement invariance, both metric and scalar, across the groups. Afterwards, descriptive statistics indicated that both groups held high perceptions of their own WTAC and their teachers' stroke, effectiveness, and credibility. Next, correlational results indicated that the sub-components of perceived teacher credibility, stroke, and success variables were significantly and positively associated with Iranian and Iraqi students' WTAC. These outputs were approved in the SEM results, and the hypothesized relations between the variables were approved; perceived teacher stroke, success, and credibility factors were positive significant predictors of Iranian and Iraqi students' WTAC. On the whole, these findings provided empirical backing for the theoretically-rich claim that students' home culture background significantly predicts the way their belief systems are shaped and reshaped. Hence, teacher educators should be concerned with training teachers who not only effectively teach language to the students but also fulfill students' expectations of a successful teacher who is able to provide culturally-appropriate quality communication in the classroom and build a relationship of trust between him/herself and the students with the ultimate aim of enhancing studentrelated academic outcomes.Keywords Cross-cultural analysis . Teacher credibility . Teacher success . Teacher stroke . Students' willingness to attend classes . English as a foreign language

A Functional Review of Research on Clarity, Immediacy, and Credibility of Teachers and Their Impacts on Motivation and Engagement of Students

“…In summary, the review of related literature on this strand of research shows a number of shortcomings that need to be resolved. First, despite the fact that interpersonal communication behaviors are equally important in the academic arena, only teacher immediacy has been sufficiently scrutinized (Dixson et al, 2017;Derakhshan, 2021), and other variables such as teacher care, confirmation, and stroke have been kept at the margins (Hsu, 2012;Pishghadam et al, 2021). This provides a good impetus for running analogous studies on the less researched variables of this area in relation to the demographic variables (age, gender, proficiency, etc.)…”

“…Instead, even the identity of a teacher is co-constructed by the interactions that he/she has with his/her pupils and colleagues let alone other aspects (Beijaard et al, 2004). Many studies provided evidence for this mutual relationship and pinpointed that engagement, achievement, wellbeing, motivation, success, hope, and so forth of students are correlated with the interpersonal communication behaviors of teachers (Frymier et al, 2019;Derakhshan, 2021;Pishghadam et al, 2021).…”

“…This line of research has been examined by different scholars from different parts of the world. Research indicates that this construct affects the motivation and learning of students (Johnson and Miller, 2002;Teven, 2007;Gray et al, 2011), affective and cognitive learning (Pogue and AhYun, 2006), class attendance (Pishghadam et al, 2021), and engagement (Derakhshan, 2021). Concerning the motivation and engagement of students, numerous studies have been conducted to explore and define the terms and propose comprehensive models (Dörnyei, 2009;Gardner, 2010;Dörnyei and Ushioda, 2011).…”

“…Undoubtedly, teachers are one of the most important stakeholders in all educational milieus who can vastly determine the rate and quality of achievement and communication ability of students, especially in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context, in which students largely rely on their teachers for their learning and development (Pishghadam et al, 2019(Pishghadam et al, , 2021. Hence, the classroom decisions that teachers make put a huge impact on the achievement and perception of students (Danielson, 2002).…”

Examining the Role of Teachers’ Stroking Behaviors in EFL Learners’ Active/Passive Motivation and Teacher Success

“…It is commonly believed that the teachers are the most important actors on the education scene (Pishghadam et al, 2021), and their professional success determines to a large degree the ultimate success of both students and the education system as a whole (Mercer and Dörnyei, 2020). This argument is well-captured in the title of Coombe's (2020) recent article on the qualities of successful TESOL teachers, entitled as "Quality Education Begins with Teachers: What Are the Qualities That Make a TESOL Teacher Great?"…”