Educational Degree, Gender and Accent as Determinants of EFL Teacher Credibility

Abstract

Teacher credibility is assumed to be the most important variable which affects teacher-student interaction. It may be one possible reason for why students prefer to have more classes with some particular teachers than others. Highly credible teachers can motivate the students and maximize their overall academic performance. In light of the foregoing, this study aimed to investigate the roles of educational degree, gender and accent in the credibility of Iranian EFL teachers from their students' perspectives. Data for this study were collected from 400 high school students and 20 EFL teachers in Sistan and Baluchestan province who were chosen by convenience sampling. The results of independent-samples Mann-Whitney U Test indicated significant differences between credibility evaluations for BA and MA teachers and for male and female teachers. The findings revealed that female teachers and teachers with MA degree perceived to be more credible compared to male teachers and teachers with BA degree. Furthermore, the results of simple linear regression showed that students perceived teachers with more native-like accent as remarkably more credible. Besides the theoretical implications, this study addresses some pedagogical implications.