”Sometimes you got to do what you got to do”: pre-service English language teachers’ experiences of online microteaching practices during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Microteaching, one of the teacher training techniques in-use to help pre-service teachers gain knowledge and experience with teaching, is conventionally provided on-campus. However, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a switch to remote education, thereby moving teacher training practices to online platforms. This novel situation indicated a need to understand pre-service English language teachers’ experiences of their microteaching practices conducted on online platforms. To this end, this study adopted a qualitative research design. Over a semester, 62 pre-service English language teachers provided written reflective papers after they delivered their microteaching online. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that the participants attributed positive qualities to their online microteaching; however, the challenges they met outnumbered these qualities. The most frequently stated qualities involved valuable experience with online teaching, improved technology use and knowledge, and reduced anxiety. On the other hand, the main drawbacks were poor internet connection, low engagement in classes, and limited interaction. The significance of these findings lies in the fact that several courses of action are available to improve the effectiveness of the praxis and highlight its strong sides. Therefore, the findings were discussed in line with the relevant literature, and recommendations were offered for both pre-service teachers and teacher educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-service language teacher education
• online teaching during COVID-19
• online microteaching
• English language teachers
• online teaching
• English language teaching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Merve Öksüz Zerey

Merve Öksüz Zerey is a research assistant at Gazi University, English Language Teaching Program. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at the same university. She worked as a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at Syracuse University between 2019 and 2020 as a Fulbright scholar. Her research interests involve second language teacher education, teacher beliefs, and second language development.

Paşa Tevfik Cephe

Paşa Tevfik Cephe is a professor of English Language Teaching at Gazi University in Turkey. His research papers, presentations, and publications have addressed numerous aspects of teacher education and teaching language skills. His graduate courses involve research methodology and curriculum development and syllabus design. Besides, he has carried out several projects affiliated with the Ministry of Education.