A Cognitive Linguistic Study on Arabic Female BA Students’ Perceptions of Their Teachers in an English Department

The contemporary age has witnessed many challenges regarding the common qualities of the best teacher. Thus, the present paper is qualitative, explorative, and experimental in nature; it is limited to the domain of teachers only. Langacker’s model of Domain Analysis (1987) and Endicott and Lee’s presentation of survival dimensions have been adopted and adapted to meet the first objective. Secondly, an open-ended questionnaire has been submitted to (200) participants to examine their knowledge of these qualities. The study concluded that all qualities can be grouped into three matrix domains: CONTENT, DESIGN, and DELIVERY, which are the same dimensions of presentation survival. Under the CONTENT domain come the following sub-domains: knowledge, interest, mastery, updated information, etc.; under the DESIGN domain come these sub-domains: clearly setting goals, well and advanced preparation, using teaching aids/effects, etc.; whereas under the DELIVERY domain come the sub-domains of: verbal ability, class management, ethical aspects, etc. Speaking of the second objective, it has been found that the CONTENT and DELIVERY ranked the top from the participants’ perspectives. However, the sub-domains of these matrix domains have varied.