This research was designed to investigate the relationships amongteacher characteristics, teacher-student interaction,students´ perceptions ofteacher behavior,and students´ academic achievement. Subjects includedtwelve female teachers and five hundred seventy-three students. Teacherswere administered the Self-concept Scale, the Affiliation Scale, theEmotional-stability Scale, and the revised California F Scale. Students wereadministered the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale. Tape recorders were usedto record teacher and students´ verbal interaction in the classroom,and theverbal interaction data were categorized by Flanders´ Interaction AnalysisCategory. All the data collected were analyzed by canonical correlationanalysis, multiple regression analysis, and path analysis, with a significantlevel of.05. The major findings were: (1) Among the four kinds of teacher characteristicsand the ten categories of teacher-student verbal interaction, teachers´ authoritarian personality and teachers´ direct influence languagewere the most influential variables on students´ academic achievement. (2) The causal path proposed in this research which implied that teachercharacteristics would first influence teachers´ language and then, throughteachers´ language, influence students´ academic achievement, was notsupported by the data collected in this research.