1. Introduction

After twenty-eight years in the classroom I feel reasonably confident saying that students are far more consistent in what they value in their language teachers than we, as a profession, often like to admit Perhaps because their priorities do not always sit comfortably alongside inspection frameworks, policy BS, or whatever pedagogical fashion happens to be doing the rounds this term…

In my experience, and I say this having taught across different countries, systems and policy cycles that arrived with great noise and left quietly through the back door, students are not primarily concerned with whether we are methodologically fashionable, digitally fluent, or capable of delivering a textbook-perfect observed lesson at 9am on a wet Monday morning. What they care about, often desperately, is whether learning in our classroom feels emotionally survivable, cognitively manageable, and worth the effort on days when motivation is fragile and confidence even more so… and those days, sadly, come around in my experience more often than we sometimes admit.

Unfortunately, this is not always the order in which we are trained to think about teaching, is it…

2. What students value (ranked, explained, and grounded in research)

1. Empathy and emotional support — ranked as number one

In my opinion, and very much in line with what the research has been telling us for decades now, empathy sits firmly at the top because language learning without emotional safety simply does not function, however elegante our schemes of work may look on paper.

Students value teachers who are patient, non-judgemental, emotionally predictable, and who create classrooms where making mistakes does not feel like a personal failure played out in public, lesson after lesson. Research on affect in language learning, from Arnold’s early work through to Dewaele and Mercer’s studies on teacher empathy, shows that anxiety and fear of negative evaluation significantly reduce willingness to communicate, participation, and risk-taking – in other words the prerequisites for any significant language learning to happen! On the other hand, Rebecca Oxford’s work on learner well-being reinforces the idea that emotional variables are not decorative extras but structural foundations.

In my experience, when this emotional safety is missing, students rarely kick off or complain loudly; instead, they withdraw quietly, comply politely, and disappear cognitively,,, which is far easier to miss and far harder to reverse.

2. Ability to motivate and inspire — ranked as number two

Motivation comes a very close second because, sadly, language learning is a long game with few immediate rewards, and in my experience without sustained encouragement many learners simply decide that the effort required is not worth the emotional cost involved, especially in exam-driven contexts.

Research on L2 motivation, particularly by Dörnyei, shows that teacher behaviour — not just task design — plays a decisive role in sustaining learner effort over time. Guilloteaux and Dörnyei demonstrated that motivational teaching practices are linked to higher levels of engagement, while Lamb’s more recent work shows how teacher encouragement can keep learners going even when intrinsic interest is fragile and the syllabus feels relentless.

In my opinion, students are rarely demotivated by difficulty itself; they are demotivated by the creeping sense that effort leads nowhere,, and teachers who keep belief alive — often quietly, without fireworks — make an enormous difference here, even if nobody applauds them for it!!

3. Clarity of explanation and instructional clarity — ranked as number three

Clarity sits in the middle of the ranking because confusion is both cognitively and emotionally exhausting, and students place far more value than we sometimes realise on teachers who help them feel oriented rather than overwhelmed.

Hattie’s synthesis of classroom research consistently identifies teacher clarity as a strong predictor of achievement, while Borg and Macaro remind us that clarity in language teaching is not about dumbing things down but about sequencing, scaffolding, and making form–meaning relationships visible. Students want to know what they are learning, why they are learning it, and what success looks like today, not at some vague point in the future.

Personally, I have always been less impressed by how eloquently I explain something and far more interested in whether anyone can actually tell me what they are supposed to be learning and why, a shift that has saved me from many self-inflicted illusions,, and a few awkward lessons too.

4. Strong subject knowledge (language and pedagogy) — ranked as number four

Subject knowledge, while absolutely essential in my opinion, tends to be experienced indirectly by learners, which explains why students value it but rarely place it at the very top of their rankings.

Research on teacher language awareness, particularly by Andrews and Mullock, shows that deep subject knowledge improves modelling, explanations, and responsiveness to learner questions, while Borg’s work on teacher cognition reinforces the idea that what teachers know shapes what they notice and how they respond in real time.

In my experience, students assume competence as a baseline; they notice subject knowledge most when it is missing, when explanations wobbles, examples feel shaky, or questions are dodged a little too quickly… when expertise is strong, it quietly underpins clarity, confidence, and trust without demanding centre stage.

5. Adaptability and responsiveness to learner needs — ranked as number five

Adaptability appears last not because it is unimportant — tutt’altro! — but because students often experience it implicitly rather than as a named quality.

Research on differentiation and learner-centred instruction, from Tomlinson through to more recent work by Papi and Hiver, shows that responsiveness to learner needs supports motivation, autonomy, and sustained engagement. From a learner’s point of view, however, adaptability often blends into perceptions of fairness and care rather than being recognised as a technical skill.

In my experience, students simply say that a teacher “understands” or “explains again if we don’t get it”, without any awareness of the pedagogical decision-making involved,, and that very invisibility is precisely why adaptability, though crucial, tends to sit lower in student rankings.

3. Summary table: what students value most (research-informed)

Quality valued by students	What this looks like in practice (student perspective)	Key research sources
Empathy & emotional support	Feeling safe to speak, make mistakes, and participate without fear of ridicule or judgement.	Dewaele & Mercer (2018); Arnold (1999); Oxford (2016)
Ability to motivate and inspire	Belief in improvement, encouragement to persist, and teacher enthusiasm sustaining effort over time.	Dörnyei (2001); Guilloteaux & Dörnyei (2008); Lamb (2020)
Clarity of explanation & instruction	Clear explanations, structured lessons, transparent goals, and reduced confusion.	Hattie (2009); Borg (2006); Macaro (2008)
Strong subject knowledge	Accurate modelling, confident explanations, and meaningful responses to questions.	Andrews (2007); Borg (2015); Mullock (2006)
Adaptability to learner needs	Adjusting pace, difficulty, feedback, and support in response to learners.	Tomlinson (2014); Papi & Hiver (2020)

4. Why the ranking looks the way it does

I strongly believe that the ranking above reflects the sequence of emotional and cognitive thresholds learners must cross in order to remain engaged in language learning. If students do not feel emotionally safe, they disengage. If they do not feel encouraged, they stop trying. If they do not feel oriented, they become frustrated. Wherever I have taught, be it in challenging inner-city area schools or posh private schools in rich neighbourhoods, only once these conditions were met did subject expertise and adaptability become fully visible and impactful from the learner’s perspective… simple, really, though not always easy.

So this ranking is not a claim about what matters most in teaching in some abstract, absolute sense, but about what students experience first and depend on most in order to keep going,, which is a rather different question altogether.

5. Conclusion

After nearly three decades of teaching, observing, mentoring, and occasionally getting it wrong in public, I am increasingly convinced that what students value most in us aligns remarkably well with what research tells us facilitates language acquisition, even if this alignment is not always reflected in accountability systems or professional discourse.

Students are not asking us to be entertainers, influencers, or walking grammar encyclopaedias. In my experience, they are asking us — often quietly, often indirectly — to create conditions in which effort feels worthwhile, failure feels survivable, and progress feels possible….

Key references

ndrews, S. (2007). Teacher language awareness. Cambridge University Press.

Arnold, J. (Ed.). (1999). Affect in language learning. Cambridge University Press.

Borg, S. (2015). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. Bloomsbury.

Csizér, K., & Nagy, B. (2020). The dynamic interaction of motivation, self-regulation, and autonomous learning in second language acquisition. System, 92, 102249.

Dewaele, J.-M., & Mercer, S. (2018). Do ESL/EFL teachers’ emotional intelligence, empathy and self-efficacy predict learner-centredness? System, 79, 31–43.

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Guilloteaux, M. J., & Dörnyei, Z. (2008). Motivating language learners: A classroom-oriented investigation of the effects of motivational strategies on student motivation. TESOL Quarterly, 42(1), 55–77.

Lamb, M., & Arisandy, F. E. (2020). The motivational dimension of language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 24(3), 1–24.

Macaro, E. (2008). Language learner strategies: Thirty years of research and practice. Oxford University Press.

Mullock, B. (2006). The pedagogical knowledge base of four TESOL teachers. The Modern Language Journal, 90(1), 48–66.

Oxford, R. L. (2016). Toward a psychology of well-being in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 3–29.

Papi, M., & Hiver, P. (2020). Language learning motivation as a complex dynamic system. The Modern Language Journal, 104(1), 209–229.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd ed.). ASCD.