Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Challenges in Video-based Microteaching: An Exploratory Study

چکیده مقاله

Prior research on the challenges encountered by EFL pre-service teachers mainly relies on the data collected from student teachers’ reflective journals, classroom observations, and interview data. Accordingly, these studies are based on participants recalling general information from memory rather than being based on the live and ongoing microteaching experience. The video-recorded microteaching sets the ground for the analysis of moment-by-moment teaching practice and the challenges faced by pre-service teachers. Building upon sociocultural and reflective practice theories, the current exploratory study seeks to shed light on the challenges that pre-service EFL teachers encountered in delivering video-recorded microteaching lessons. To this aim, the instructor’s field notes, along with the problems collected from timeline analysis of video-based microteaching, were subjected to constant comparative analysis for 4 subsequent teacher training courses. Analysis of the results pointed to 6 categories of challenges including 1) classroom language, clarity of instructions, and lesson delivery; 2) choice, sequence, ad adequacy of tasks; 3) student involvement and motivation; 4) error correction, feedback, and evaluation of learning outcomes; 5) anxiety and lack of confidence; 6) body language, stance, and mobility. The implications of the study were proposed for designing quality teacher training programs and other professional development opportunities.