In this study, Turkish EFL students’ conceptualization of an effective English language teacher is studied. A survey formerly developed by Yu-Hsin (1999) was adapted and administered to 100 foreign language learners studying at two state universities’ English language preparatory schools. Also, participants’ written responses were collected to understand the qualities attributed to the effective teacher. Results show that an effective teacher is a friendly, young, enthusiastic, creative, and humorous person whose gender is not important. Also, students expect the teacher to be a native speaker of Turkish, but fluent in English, someone who likes to play educational games, and who teaches grammar effectively by using real life situations to explain language items. Also, students claim that an effective English language teacher has correct pronunciation.

Keywords: effective teacher, quality, foreign language, ELT