Influence of Instructor Personality on Student Evaluation of Teaching: A Comparison between English Majors and Non-English Majors

160 non-English major students studying at a four-year university and 193 English major students studying at a career college of foreign language in Japan completed a questionnaire regarding instruction and instructor personality. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the students’ instructional and personality ratings predicted their general evaluation of course. This study also investigated whether the relations between instructional and personality ratings and the general course evaluation varied by major. A significant correlation was found between the instructional scale and the overall evaluation of the course regardless of students’ majors- The more the students found the class interesting and was appropriately managed, the higher the overall evaluation. However, the findings indicate that while teacher’s extroversion, thoughtfulness and neuroticism mattered to the non-English major group when evaluating the overall effectiveness of the class, teacher personality did not influence the English major group. The authors believe the findings of the present study could contribute to a better understanding of the nature of student evaluations that have always been a source of controversy, and sometimes discontent during their history.