Authoritative or Authoritarian Teacher: Which One do Foreign Language Learners Favour?

Abstract

Learning, the ultimate aim of any instructional activity, is highly contingent on the type of the teacher in charge of the class. His charisma, his personality attributes, his knowledgeability, his teaching style, his stance towards learners, are factors which affect class learning to a great extent. In this respect, two prominent types of teacher can be distinguished: the authoritative and the authoritarian. This study aims to determine foreign language learners’ preferences concerning teachers’ classroom interactional styles, whether authoritative or authoritarian. A quantitative research method, namely a questionnaire, has been deployed to gather data for the present investigation. It has been posted online and has, thus been able to reach out to forty seven students who actually took part in the investigation. What is worth noting is that there has been variety in responses; however, learners demonstrate more inclination towards the authoritative teacher who is ready to bestow on them some freedom and occasionally incorporate them in decision making. The findings confirm the hypothesis put forth at the beginning of the study. They also inform language teaching practitioners --who are in constant pursuit of efficiency in involving and assisting learners to optimize their learning-- that much of their efficacy in teaching depends on the type of classroom management they maintain, and the teacher-learner type of interaction they provide for. Exploiting such insights benefits the foreign language classroom in general.