STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF EFL TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY

This qualitative research report explored the nature of students'' perceptions regarding EFL teachers'' professional identity at a Mexican University School of Languages. It employed a qualitative approach. In order to collect data the informants were interviewed one by one using a semi-structured interview format. Hence six categories and sub-categories emerged from the collected data: 1) Teacher as a career (negative and positive aspects) 2) Society''s expectations of an EFL teacher 3) Teacher''s main roles 4) Tasks 5) teacher''s personality and 6) the impact of being a role model in students’ learning. Thus by means of these categories an understanding of students’ perceptions regarding EFL teachers'' professional identity was achieved. It was revelaved that there exist certain negative aspects in the EFL profession for example getting a job may be difficult the job may not be well paid and EFL teachers are not highly regarded. However nothing is compared with the self-satisfaction that being an EFL teacher may bring during someone’s entire working life.