Foreign language pre-service teachers' perceptions of concerns before and challenges experienced during the first teaching practicum

The growing call among the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to recruit, retrain, and recertify foreign and migrant teachers in order to diversify the teaching force to reflect the increasingly diverse student population justifies the need to explore the experiences of foreign language teachers during their first teaching practicum in Australian mainstream classrooms. Semi-structured interviews were held with six foreign language pre-service teachers pursuing the Master of Teaching (Secondary) programme. The purpose was to explore their teaching experiences, concerns prior to the first teaching practicum in Australian mainstream classrooms, and how they dealt with the challenges encountered. The findings indicate that although teaching a foreign language in community language schools provided the teachers with some practical teaching skills, values, and opportunities to practice the knowledge and theories acquired in their master’s programme, they all had concerns before the teaching practicum and encountered some challenges while undertaking it. The study discusses the challenges that the participants encountered and how they addressed them. In addition, it highlights the need for universities to design retraining programmes that address the unique concerns of foreign language teachers and equip them with the requisite knowledge and skills to enable them to become effective teachers in their new context.