The barriers pre-service English teachers encounter in the classroom during practicum

Abstract

The teaching practicum class is a crucial component of the English degree program at UNAN Managua. This component provides students with the foundation to contextualize not only the theory learned in the classroom but also their experiences related to teaching English in public elementary and secondary schools in our country. Although students are prepared with all the skills necessary for teaching in the context described previously, they carry out their internships in a different environment. In this study, we will analyze the challenges that English students faced in their pre-professional internships in the university context. In addition, we will describe the impact that this new teaching context had on students and the strategies they used to face these challenges during their pre-professional internship. Similarly, it should be mentioned that in this qualitative study, we will also describe how students handled aspects related to the new type of planning, material design, classroom strategy management, stress, anxiety, and emotions as English teachers. Regarding the instruments used to collect information for the study, an interview and a focus group were used with the student teachers. Both tools focused on the aspects mentioned above.