I Am Good at It Because I Like Its Teacher: To what Extent Does Teacher Behaviour Motivate Students to Learn?

The teachers' behaviors sometimes have a more intense and long-lasting influence than the information being transmitted; meanwhile, the concentration of much of the curriculum of teacher education has just been on the course content or teaching methods. In this study, the relationship between students' motivation and teachers' behavior is investigated based on the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behavior (MITB). The questionnaires were distributed to 211 students of eight classes of general English course at the University of Isfahan. Results indicated that among the eight scales of the model, students' motivation is significantly positively correlated with the friendly scale, and significantly negatively correlated with dissatisfied, and reprimanding scales. This may have cultural and psychological implications. Furthermore, some modifications on the graphical presentation of the MITB are proposed and a model for an ideal English teacher in Iran is obtained and compared cross-culturally.