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This study intends to explore student beliefs regarding the usefulness of their teachers' instructional practices and compare them with a categorization of their teachers' profiles. A questionnaire with 4 close questions and 3 open questions including topics such as pair and group work, students' interest, usefulness of the material and content, the best and least useful aspects of the class and suggestions to improve it was administered to 481 high school students of a southern city of Ecuador; also 18 high school teachers were observed delivering one lesson. Using the information gathered from students' questionnaires, a 481 data matrix was constructed relating it to the 18 teachers' profiles. In addition, a descriptive analysis was carried out and a comparison between the observers' and the students' criteria for the first four closed questions was conducted. For the open questions, the answers were categorized according to the usefulness of three elements: grammar, content, and methodology. Results showed that students favored modern EFL pedagogy. Task Based Learning Teaching (TBLT) and Presentation-Practice- Production (PPP) methods were considered as the most accepted methodologies; notwithstanding, traditional methodology was considered as the least effective one. A model was constructed which allowed us to point out the relevance of pair work, content, and methodology, so if these factors occur in teacher practices, it can be inferred that a teacher is closer to a TBLT profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]