Abstract
This study examines the dimensions in teacher student
relationship in the language
classroom. It also explores the most and the least desirable qualities of the language teacher
as perceived by a cohort of Malaysian university students, and the hierarchy of these
qualities. It has been proposed that cultural mores predominant within a particular society
would determine the patterns of teacherstudent
interpersonal communication and influence
the learners’ perceptions of their teachers. The present study adopts some relevant
frameworks developed in other academic disciplines to examine these issues. Participants in
this study were one hundred students learning the Russian language at Universiti Malaysia
Sabah. This study employed Gardner’s (1985) instrument as a research tool; two openended
questions about language teacher’s most and least desirable qualities were added to the
instrument. Results of the quantitative analysis of the data showed that teacherstudent
relationship is built along clearly identifiable dimensions. Qualitative analysis of the openended
questions revealed that the students’ perceptions of a “good teacher” are less culturally
bound than it has been reported in some previous studies; three most desirable for the teacher
qualities (i.e., caring/empathetic, patient, friendly) are all relationshiporiented.