Teachers are a vital element in education development as effective teachers are a central resource
for the success of an educational organization. Effective teachers generally help to improve students’ learning
behaviors and academic performance, and thus attention needs to be given to examining teacher effectiveness
as a key to guaranteed education quality. As students are the first and direct stakeholders, students should
have the most influential voice in what is regarded as effective teaching. This descriptive study investigated the
characteristics of effective English teachers as perceived by 89 students of English as a foreign language (EFL)
at a public university in the South of Vietnam with a self-report questionnaire consisting of four aspects:
English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, organization and communication skills and socio-affective skills.
Overall, the students indicated positive perception towards the required characteristics of an effective English
teacher. Two additional aspects of characteristics were identified including professionalism and personality
traits. The results of this study can help teachers to become aware of important aspects of teaching qualities
from students' points of view in order to improve themselves to meet standards for an effective EFL teacher.