Second language learners' motivation and their perception of their teachers as an affecting factor

International students learning English as a second language in Australia were studied to find how their perception of teachers' level of commitment to teach them English affects their own motivation to study English. A questionnaire survey was administered to the learners at three different levels of proficiency to also identify the relationship between the levels of study and the learners' perception of the teacher as a factor affecting the learners' motivation. The results showed that there is a positive correlation between the learners' motivation and their perception of their teachers' commitment to teach, though there are some differences among the three levels. The results also found that the level of study is an important variable which affects the learners' perception of three major teacher-related factors; behaviour, personality, and teaching introduced by Dörnyei and Csizér (1998). These findings support the general claim that language teachers are one of the most important factors influencing learners' motivation, but the learners' level of proficiency may need to be taken into consideration for a further discussion regarding the validity of a certain teaching strategy to motivate second language learners