摘要：To allude to the ‘native speaker’ concept and investigate the native speaker effects, this research looks into the perceptions of 25 Thai EFL university students towards native English speaking teachers. How native English speaking teachers influence the participants’ learning behaviours and motivation to learn English are also perceptually reported. Two research instruments, the survey questionnaire and the semi-structured interview, are employed for this study. The findings indicate overall positive perceptions towards native English speaking teachers, pointing that their classes are mostly fun, interactive and motivating. The flexible and interactive teaching methods and styles used by native English speaking teachers are found to be most favoured, followed by their approachable personality traits and the students’ vast opportunity to practice oral and written English. Most participants, if given an option to choose a teacher, have a salient preference to study with native English speaking teachers in which case neither teachers’ age nor gender matters. There seems to be a strong relationship between studying with native English speaking teachers and the participants’ learning behaviours and motivation to learn English.
关键词：Perceptions; EFL; University Students; Native English Speaking Teachers; Learning Behaviours
