Título del proyecto:

The way pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA

University portray their identity within their immersion practicum.

Nombre de los estudiantes:

Kelly Daniela Castaño Londoño

Edna Rocío Jaramillo Bustamante

Línea de investigación:

Procesos de Investigación en Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras

 Unidad Central del Valle del Cauca

The way pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA University

portray their identity within their immersion practicum.

Tesis presentada para optar al título de:

Licenciado en Lenguas Extranjeras con Énfasis en Inglés

Línea de investigación: Procesos de Investigación en Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras

Nombres de los investigadores:

Kelly Daniela Castaño Londoño

Edna Rocío Jaramillo Bustamante

Director (a): Diana Katherine González Ocampo

Tuluá, Valle del Cauca

2021
Agradecimientos
Dedicatoria
 Resumen

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Palabras clave
 Abstract

The aim of the present study lies in analyzing the way pre-service teachers in the BA languages

at UCEVA program present themselves and portray their teacher’s identity during their

immersion pedagogical practicum as well as responding to the research question: “How do pre-

service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA University portray their identity

within their immersion practicum?”. The research holds a qualitative nature in order to provide

an understanding of what pre-service teachers mean when they say "teaching identity" based on

their immersion practicum experience, the study also relates with the case study research

method. During the investigation, it was found that various factors helped the pre-service

teachers build their teacher’s identity according to their own preferences and even prior

experiences in the academic field, admitting the importance of analyzing teacher’s perspective

according to their own identity and performance in the classroom in order to get a better and

most confident understanding of themselves in the role as well as serving as an aid to empower

them in the field.

Keywords
 Tabla de contenido

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 Índice de tablas

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 Índice de figuras

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 Introducción

Even Teacher’s identity remains as a topic that has been explored deeply, it holds the importance

of why teachers act the way they do in the classroom and how this role affects their academic

performance, it is still a subject matter that has to be explored context by context. This research

paper intends to discover the pre-service teachers’ identity from 10 students in 5th, 6th and 7th

semester of a Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign Languages from UCEVA in Tuluá Valle del Cauca,

Colombia, given the fact that during these semesters the pre-service teachers go through their

immersion pedagogical practices, which allows them to discover themselves as teachers and

their procedures in the classroom according to their likings and needs.

 Capítulo I: Contextualización del problema

This research problem approaches the objects of study Teaching Practicum and Teaching

Identity from a theoretical position, pertinent normative documents, in addition to a practical

dimension which will provide a description about the need of carrying out a research on

answering the question: “How do pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at Uceva

University portray their identity within their immersion practicum?”.

The immersion practicum is the phase in which the pre-service teachers are able to

engage in classes by embracing the role of teachers for the first time, bearing in mind that they

are already prepared to play the part by using what has been taught to them in the first four

semesters. Considering the first phase of the BA program, where the pre-service teacher is only

allowed to watch, but not perpetrate any action in the classroom, the immersion phase is decisive

for the pre-service teachers since they start to work with all the implications of being a teacher,
such as planning classes, grading students, getting feedback and connecting with the class

environment as they haven’t done before, making this study possible due to the need of 

identifying and describing the perceptions towards identity the  pre-service teachers can report

during their practicum, and establishing how the immersive practicum scenarios affect their

identities and how each one of them find their roles as teachers through the act of teaching.

The idea that pre-service teachers have about identity was inquired from a general

perspective in which a short interview was applied to three random students, one per each one of

the three participant semesters’ from the BA languages program. Within their description it was

possible to perceive their conception of identity is molded by almost the same concepts.

According to the results, Student 1 conceives identity as the way to recognize herself and what

she is as a human being. However, Student 2 describes that identity is shaped by those things

that allow a person to be unique and all the features that are attributed to someone. Student 3's

answer serves as a meeting point between the two above since it mentions a spectrum of

different dimensions that enable the construction of an identity in a given space-time.

Students shared their different views regarding their own identities as teachers, Student 1

expresses how their decisions as a teacher are affected by their experience in high school, while

Student 2 shares they act as a guide for the student and tries to teach as necessary, on the other

side, Student 3 just denies having a view of themselves being a teacher since they don’t enjoy

teaching.

Furthermore, participants’ responses describe from their experience which method helps

them most in the development of their classes. Student 1 and Student 3 agree that the

communicative approach facilitates the progress of their practices, hinting the performance of

activities and skills development within the class. Student 2 explains that the method that
facilitates their practice, is the content-based learning method, as it represents the placement of

students in real situations.

Teachers’ empowerment could prove to be a factor influencing pre-service teachers'

perception of themselves within their classroom practice. The pre-service teachers offer an

overview of what makes them feel empowered as teachers in the classroom, while Student 1

feels empowered by seeing the interest of students in class, the Student 2 shares how they feel

empowered by giving students a different view of the world and thinking about the general

importance of teaching. To conclude, Student 3 denies feeling empowered as a teacher by

repeating they don’t like teaching.

In the last question, students share what makes them feel unpleasant in the classroom,

this feeling may encourage pre-service teachers to change aspects about the class in order to

improve their lessons. Student 1 argues they have trouble acting as an authority in the classroom,

Student 2 shares they feel unpleasant when they feel limited in the classroom and Student 3

expresses a discontent about not being able to show emotions while teaching.

The findings of this brief introductory interview allowed the researchers to recognize the

different perceptions pre-service teachers have when it comes to their practicum, as it can be

seen in the answers, while two of the pre-service teachers were enthusiast about their

experiences, the other one expressed their unconformity in their assigned classrooms, arguing

they did not see themselves as teachers since that was not in their plans for their future.

Teachers' identity and the perception that pre-service teachers have of a practicum environment

can be permeated with many situations and responses to the difficulties, motivations and

personal attitudes of each individual. It could be considered a non-generalizable spectrum but in

which patterns related to the context of the practice and other characteristics to be discovered

can be generated.

Eventually, the beginning of the teaching process is crucial to determine the attitudes the

pre-service teacher feels more comfortable with inside the classroom, and the methodologies

which help them the most based on reflecting on their experiences and feedback on their own

practicum. In consequence, the importance of conducting research in this field lies on the

indispensable need of discovering pre-service teachers’ identity through these interaction spaces

in which themselves, the pre-service teachers are aware of their teaching skills abilities as well

as their own weaknesses, allowing themselves only through experience, the opportunity to build

and deconstruct on their perceptions, beliefs and attitudes in their teaching work. 

On the whole, the dimensions explored before work as tools which approve the

significant relevance of this problem of study, given the fact that pre-service teachers can

become more in tune with their sense of self and with a deep understanding of how this self fits

into a larger context inside their practicum experiences which involves others by recognizing

their own identities.

Rationale

The purpose of this research is to explore the different forms of teacher identity presented

on pre-service teachers from 5th, 6th and 7th semester from the BA languages program at

UCEVA University during their immersion practicum. Practicum development has been

regulated by the Colombian government through (Resolution 18583, 2017). Within the

document the specific practicum features of Bachelor Programs are established and the way the

higher education institutions should implement them. These scenarios turn out to be exercises

from which pre-service teachers conceptualize from observation practicum, intervene from
immersion practicum and investigate from research practicum in an assigned context. Bearing

that in mind, this research will focus only on the immersion phase because it addresses the first

encounter that pre-service teachers have in a classroom as teachers.

As pre-service teachers move on with their practicum and are introduced to the

immersion phase of the lastly mentioned, they get to start molding the way their identities are

formed as teachers while enacting their lessons in the manner they feel the most comfortable. In

other words, in this phase the pre-service teachers “interpret, evaluate and continuously

collaborate in the construction of their own early identity development” (Oruç, 2013). Also, as

mentioned by Timoštšuk and Ugaste (2010), teachers tend to portray their identity based on

experiencing, which is highly related to emotions and, in most cases, is linked to personal social

context. This is why it is strongly needed to conduct a study which connects the way pre-service

teachers learn to perform the act of teaching based on their different identities and its diverse

dimensions through their practicum empirical knowledge.

For instance, Nghia and Huynh (2017) affirm that “the pre-service teachers’ identities

can be developed through their studies at the teacher college, supplementing their aspirations or

expectations that they have prior to entering the teacher education program” (p. 2).  Since they

are allowed to be the main characters of their immersive practicum scenario by embracing the

teaching role for the first time; this project will attempt to analyze the portrayed identities by the

BA languages program at UCEVA University pre-service teachers, and the identification of

scenarios within the practicum that enable or limit the development of their identities.

The importance of this project lies also in getting a clear picture of how the identities of

pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA University are presented within
the immersion practicum scenarios developed from fifth to seventh semester. Furthermore, this

document aims to give way to future research related to the discovery, description and

understanding of the identities that can be present in any stage of pre-service teachers’ practicum

since this topic has not been so explored, and how all the processes carried out during these

phases affect the way their identities evolve or devolve according to their prior experiences and

new knowledge being acquired.

It is expected for the practicum scenarios to have the capacity to be enriched due to the

apprehension and understanding of what identity represents for a pre-service teacher in their

practicum contexts. In addition, it is also expected to generate possible changes and

improvements in the approach to certain aspects from the practice subject in the participant,

which is a leading part of the teaching task since it is the first teaching encounter pre-service

teachers have with the scholastic scenario, which allows them to develop their own classes as a

collision between the theory and the practice. 

Moreover, the project benefits the BA in Foreign Languages program from the

aforementioned acknowledgement of what it means to be a teacher to its students and how each

practicum context, regarding its differences and similarities eases the way those teaching

identities are shaped and lead the pre-service teacher to bring to light the kind of teacher they

are, as well as which practices give meaning to their teaching practicum by taking into account

not only the contents or methodologies but also their values, attitudes and emotions in order to

respond to the research question: How do pre-service teachers from the BA languages program

at UCEVA University portray their identity within their immersion practicum?

General Objective

To analyze the pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA portrayed

identities within their immersion practicum. 

Specific Objectives

1. To identify the perceptions towards identity reported by the pre-service teachers.

2. To describe the teacher identities reported by pre-service teachers within their immersion

practicum.

3. To establish the practices that facilitate or inhibit the teacher identity during the immersion

practicum

Capítulo II: Marco referencial

Pedagogical Practicum

To speak of pedagogical practice, it is necessary to bear in mind that it is a complex

concept because it refers to an environment where there are subjects that interact according to

their environment and that each practice is shaped and influenced by the meanings that have

been built on it. Teaching practicum is a mandatory scenario within bachelor degree programs in

Colombia according to the General Education Law, Law 115 (1994). The article 109 states that

the purpose of teacher training is to have high scientific and ethical teachers’ quality, as well as

to develop pedagogical practice as part of the knowledge of the future educator. Within this

framework, pedagogical practice is then conceived as a space to reflect on how concepts,

experiences and other factors that imply being in a real teaching context are addressed.

Zuluaga (1996) understands pedagogical practicum as a way of being, a way of

functioning that allows the appropriation of knowledge, insertion in production and research that
facilitates approprating knowledge and conceptualizing. On the other hand, Diaz (1990) states

that pedagogical practicum refers not only to procedures but also to strategies and practices that

regulate interaction, communication, the exercise of thought, speech, vision, of the positions,

competitions and dispositions of the subjects of the school. While Brittin (2005) considers that it

is a process related to planning so it brings with it aspects such as the use of material and

strategies that will be used in the teaching and learning process. According to his definition, it is

understood that it has not only to do with teaching but also in the communication that permeates

the subjects of the learning community.

Moreno (2002) offers a characterization of what is the pedagogical practice from three

perspectives on the teacher. These perspectives are: the traditional of the trade, which is essential

for the acquisition of techniques of the trade of being a teacher; the personalist, where one can

contribute to the integral development of the teacher, to approach the reality of educational

institutions and to influence them and that oriented to the inquiry, in which the proportional

practice capacity to analyze actions, beliefs and implicit theories that underlie the task.

Despite the fact that all teachers and pre-service teachers have the same training as

indicated by The Colombian Ministry of National Education, under the resolution. 18583 of

September 15, 2017 every experience turns out to be different. The document establishes that the

Foreign Languages Bachelors, Bilingualism and Modern Languages programs must guarantee,

through the curriculum, the normative components and academic spaces dedicated to

educational, pedagogical research and practice, with due supervision in support of the evaluation

and learning that are being promoted.

 According to Resolution. 18583 (2017) the knowledge of teacher training consists of four

components which, however, according to the framework of university autonomy, each

institution can determine the competencies or aspects to be developed. In first place, the general

foundations component includes general meanings that make up an academic community,

related to reading, writing, arguing, researching, foreign language proficiency as well as

mathematical abilities, citizenship training and use of ICTs. In the second place, the component

of specific and disciplinary knowledge includes the domain which must be consolidated by the

pre-service teacher over the updated knowledge in their action field. A series of aspects must be

taken into account in which the pre-service teacher can appropriate the historical trajectory and

specific foundations or knowledge of the training program in addition to mastering references

and ways of researching on the disciplinary field as well as developing dispositions regarding

academic work and training.

In order to guarantee the efficacy and use of knowledge, the BA on foreign Languages

from UCEVA must have a pedagogical component in which the pre-service teacher tests their

mastery of the theories, traditions and pedagogical trends, as well as didactics in a given context,

taking into account a wide spectrum of physical, intellectual and sociocultural characteristics of

students. For this reason, the BA on foreign Languages from UCEVA has during its course three

specific scenarios in the development of teaching practicum which allows the pre-service teacher

to perform their teaching work from the knowledge learned.

As stipulated in the Master Document of the BA on foreign Languages from UCEVA,

the program has a total of fifty academic credits of the Teaching Practicum subject, which within

the curriculum is part of the Pedagogy, Didactics and Educational Sciences area. The practicum

scenarios are present from the first semester and continue throughout the entire training process.
It is made of three different scenarios, observation practicum, immersion practicum and

investigative practicum.

In accordance with the aforementioned document, observation practicum takes place

from the first to the fourth academic semester and as its name implies, it allows pre-service

teachers to observe the classes in a specific context whose purpose varies depending on the

semester. Immersion practicum responds to the need of the pre-service teacher to make use of

the learned tools during the first practicum phase and link theory to practice in an assigned

context. Immersion practicum scenarios are carried out from the fifth to the seventh academic

semester.

As part of its aim, teaching practicum address a third scenario from eighth to tenth

semester, related to the research process also known as undergraduate work, these ones are

known as research practicum, in which the systematization of the practicum process and the

selection of possible situations to be investigated are proposed, putting into work the designs

studied in the previous semesters regarding pedagogical studies and practicum.

The established teaching practicum scenarios allow the exercise of dynamics in various

teaching contexts through experience. Immersion practicum, according to the stipulations of the

Master Document of the BA (2017), are then the ideal scenarios for: a) promoting the ability of

designing pedagogical materials for teaching English as a foreign language, b) analyzing the

context on situations of local educational institutions and managing innovative projects for real

situations contextualized in their professional work and c) refining the gaze on the different

objects of study and knowing how to analyze the demands and needs of people, groups or

organizations in different educational contexts.

 Through the teaching practicum pre-service teachers are allowed to introduce themselves

to a real English Language Teaching context and to understand the implications of current

classroom practicum, thus improving teacher engagement, attitudes and dedication to the

teaching profession (Fajardo & Miranda, 2015). Immersion practicum scenarios allow pre-

service teachers to make use of strategies and tools for the creation of pedagogical material that

they consider suitable for the context in which they are, Also the design and application of

possible pedagogical proposals as institutional projects in his time as pre-service teacher within

the institution.

Since pre-service teachers must keep track of the practicum development a portfolio is

used to register their teaching process in their assigned grade. In this folder, students must carry

their lesson plans, which are done before the class takes place, as well as their field diary, in

which they write their real outcomes of the classes, reflecting on students’ behavior and asking

some questions to keep in mind when making the next lesson plan. This portfolio is revised by

teacher advisers, who read the documents and also listen to the pre-service teacher about their

doubts or special experiences they encountered in their practice by receiving personalized

tutorship.

The experience during these semesters generates enrichment and growth in the pre-

service teachers, not only from the selection of the method they consider appropriate to carry out

the classes, but also other fundamental aspects as group management, assessment methods and

traits related to themselves such as beliefs, attitudes and choices, from a theoretical perspective,

is what is known as Teacher’s Identity. Then, the nature of identity implies to be consistently co-

built in circumstances, utilizing numerous assets including individual memoir, interactional

aptitudes, information, knowledge, and social capital (Miller, 2009)

Teacher’s Identity

However, with pedagogical practice arises a new aspect within teachers that will start

defining the pre-service teacher behavior during class and that will be constructed from the start,

this is known as Identity. The concept of identity differs according to the author, to some,

identity is not something that one seems to have, but something that changes throughout one's

life (Beijaard, Meijer, Verloop, 2004), while others may think identity refers to “people’s

concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how they relate to others” (Hogg

and Abrams 1988).

On the other hand, the Real Academia Española dictionary would describe the term as

the “set of characteristics of an individual or a community that characterize them compared to

others”. All these come together illustrating identity as a transforming term that alludes to the

behavior and customs that people adopt according to their environment and preferences, building

their self-image and character. Nevertheless, as said by Izadinia (2013) without understanding

the meaning of self identities, since people don’t know where are going, they are not able to

accomplish what they want effectively, this is why it is essential to differentiate the various

forms of identity as well as deciding which is the one that will be deeply discussed in the present

study.

Various kinds of identity remain according to different types of environments and

categories a person may fall on or attribute themselves to reach conformity within one-self. For

instance, Day and Kington (2008) argue that identity itself is a combination of personal,

professional and situational factors that interact and these can go in different directions such as:

professional identity, within a given school, department or classroom, situated or socially located

identity and personal identity. Professional identity includes variables influencing the growth of
their identity and the changes someone experiences within their identity regarding their

workplace, as reported in various studies, under the influence of different variables (Izadinia,

2013). Moreover, in their current or anticipated professional life, professional identity is created

through one's beliefs and attitudes, values, motives and experiences through which individuals

define themselves. The compilation of symbolic resources, including status and esteem, mastery,

sense of belonging and attachment which are related to one another (Tsakissiris, 2016). Bearing

this in mind, this research will correspond to the professional identity of teachers, best called:

Teacher’s Identity.

Fajardo (2013) talks about Teacher’s Identity being an area of study and theoretical

interest that entails the imaginations of academics from fields such as information, perception,

abilities, attitudes, positions, ideologies, values or policies, among many others, to reveal their

own reality. In a rather dualistic approach, Akkerman & Meijer (2011) define a teacher's identity

as “simultaneously unitary and multiple, continuous and discontinuous, and individual and

social”. (p.8) As teachers engage in a community of their kind, this identity is developed,

influenced or transformed and develops abilities and teaching skills that are central to

understanding professional identity. (Fajardo, 2014) On the other side, Gomez-Torres (2015)

states that emotions are referred to as an influential identitary component in the perception

teachers have on themselves, which can have an effect on motivation and commitment to

professional practice, therefore, on the way the professional self is perceived and displayed in

practice.

Moreover, the identity of the teacher is not an identity that is attributable to all educators

in a similar way. It is formed by continuous interaction between the person and the context.

(Canrinus et al., 2011) On this same nature, it must be mentioned the complex link between the
 private and personal selves of a teacher must be taken into account in understanding teacher

identity. The interplay of emotion as part of self and identity, the narrative and discourse

elements of self and the shaping of identity, the role of reflection in understanding self and

identity, and the relationship between identity and agency are some of the complex factors

involved in this relation. (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009)

Evidently, every author has a special way to interpret teacher’s identity, Rodriguez

(2017), on a similar note, talked about how uncertainty seems to be the fundamental law, and

how change appears as a “sine qua non” condition since teachers face the paradox of recognition

of their key role in learning processes, while also dealing a growing devaluation of their daily

work, subjecting them to identity tension. In the long run, one might argue that Teacher’s

Identity is an individual construction that refers to the history and social characteristics of the

teacher, but also a collective construction linked to the context in which the teacher works,

(Valliant, 2007) this concept being adaptable and suitable according to the context. However, it

is essential to mention that research into teacher identities is needed as a way to encourage

comprehension of the teaching job and what it means to be a teacher in various political and

personal contexts and different times. (Day & Kington, 2008)

Literature Review

In the search for both national and international literature related to teaching practicum

and the construction of teaching identity in pre-service teachers’ pedagogical practicum, it is

considered important to highlight the following research documents.

First, in the Colombian context it was possible to find Aguirre & Castañeda (2017) in

their research Pre-Service English Teachers’ Voices About the Teaching Practicum allow to get
a reflective view of what for a group of pre-service teachers from first semester of teaching

practicum at Universidad de La Salle in Bogota practicum is, and how from this reflection they

are aware of the context in which they develop this process. Their perceptions of the classrooms

during their practicum and their voices about every emerging situation. The document is relevant

to this research because it offers a systematization of the pedagogical experiences from three

aspects associated with the most frequent concerns of pre-service teachers: (a) understanding

their own classroom, (b) learning from their mentor teacher, and (c) mastering the art of

language teaching in general (Brinton & Holten as cited in Farrell, 2001). This classification

may give an idea of which terms the teaching identity could be taken into account for the pre-

service teachers of BA Languages program at UCEVA.

As well as Diaz (2013) who reports in the document The Way Student-Teachers

Construct Their Identity at School a study that aimed to explain how ten pre-service teachers

from a public university in Colombia develop their identity from their school experiences. This

research —as well as the aforementioned— is important to our present study because of the

assertion that student-teachers represent their identity through the actions and choices they make

in school as a result of their everyday experiences with the background during their work, as

well as using observation, field diaries and group meetings to collect the data, which results

optimally. Both documents from their conclusions and positions present perspectives of what

may or may not be found in the teaching identity of pre-service teachers.

Then, Micán (2019) in Understanding EFL Pre-service teachers’ professional Identities

construction through narratives at a public university in Bogotá, analyzes the construction of

teaching identities of nine participants of the Department of Languages of Universidad

Pedagógica Nacional. The present master’s thesis is useful for this developing project since the
selection of data collection for this research serves as a guide to use semi-structured interviews

as well. It highlights the importance of giving voice to pre-service teachers to speak from their

experience what constitutes the construction of their identity through data gathering.

On the other hand, in the international context it was possible to find more

documentation related to the object of study of this research. Ayala & Salinas (2017) at EFL

Student-Teachers' Identity Construction: A Case Study in Chile, aims to explore from a

sociocultural perspective, the process of building the professional identity of two students of

pedagogy in English as a foreign language. The present document is relevant to the research

since it contributes from its theory to the characterization of the teacher's identity. It explores

identity from a perspective that covers professional environments may affect teachers’ identities

both positively and negatively (Day et al., 2006) from cultural aspects and identities.

Sarasa (2015) in Procesos de Construcción de la Identidad Profesional Docente de los

Estudiantes del Profesorado de Inglés inquires about the processes of construction of teaching

identity through stories narrated by twenty-four undergraduate students (pre-service teachers)

from the Languages Program of the Faculty of Humanities at the Universidad Nacional del Mar

del Plata, Argentina. The contribution done is related to the way identities derived from the

narratives take into account some terms —as other researches did— such as: reveal the desire to

be a teacher, the love for language to teach, the imagination that sustains the permanence in the

career and the still valid transit towards an identification with the profession of teaching through

the creation or building and re-building of they found identities.

In addition, the English Pre-Service Teachers' Identity During Teaching Practice:

Narrative Research (Hapsari, Ena, 2019) study asserts that teaching practice is also important in
the creation of the professional identity of pre-service teachers, which, due to the nature of this

project, is relevant and demonstrates that pre-service teachers are provided opportunities to learn

professional knowledge, teaching skills, and teaching skills through doing teaching practice.

A research that highlights teachers’ professional identity is an important research field is

The Influence of Field Teaching Practice on Pre-service Teachers’ Professional Identity: A

Mixed Methods Study (Zhao, Zhang, 2017), which defines it as a “core element of teachers’

professional lives”, this being essential to our study given the roles of professional identity, pre-

service teachers’ professional commitment in the practicum and the intrinsic and extrinsic

dimensions.

Furthermore, the investigation The Emerging Identity of Preservice Teachers During the

Practicum Component of Second Language Teacher Education (Díaz, 2017) argues that learning

and identity development for preservice teachers are interconnected and are crucial to

professional growth, and this is very important due to our wants to examine how realistic

interactions impact professional identity creation and the factors that support this process.

To conclude, the document Becoming English teachers in Thailand: Student teacher

identity development during teaching practicum (Prabjande, 2019) focuses on the questions of

study “How was the development of teacher identity shaped by the teaching practicum? How do

student teachers overcome the challenges of the teaching practicum?” which is significant in

view of the fact that feeling, practice, theory and other elements continuously form identity,

because of all these variables, learning to teach is demanding.

Overall, different research projects were consulted, three of them were national while the

rest responded to the international research category, no local studies were found. These
documents help the researchers have a clear picture of what has been done before with the main

objects of study geared toward the facilitation of the work to be done ahead.

Capítulo III: Diseño metodológico

Approach

This research methodology is framed in a qualitative approach. The qualitative approach

corresponds to the nature of this research since it is based on the understanding of a phenomenon

in its natural context. As stated by Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (2010), “qualitative inquiry seeks

to understand and interpret human and social behavior as it is lived by participants in a particular

social setting” (p. 420). Therefore, the nature of the design seeks to analyze pre-service

teachers’ identities based on their own experiences and their teaching practicum context, this

kind of approach offers details about an issue's "human" side – that is, the individual's

occasionally conflicting attitudes, values, thoughts, feelings, and relationships.

(Mack,Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, Namey, 2005). Through this methodology it will be

possible to collect information to have a clear photograph related to the emerging identities of

the participants in the development of their teaching work.

Design

Stake (1995) defines a case study as a ‘holistic’, ‘empirical’, ‘interpretive’, ‘empathic’ and

integrated method that values the different standpoints and interpretations researchers and

participants have. Bearing in mind that this document aims to analyze and comprehend a

specific aspect such as is pre-service teachers’ identity, its design is an intrinsic case study.
Stake (1998) states that the intrinsic case study has value in itself and seeks to achieve an

understanding of the specific case to be studied, it is not chosen because it is representative of

other cases. It is because it is of interest in itself. The methods used on the case will depend

exclusively on the intrinsic or instrumental interests.

Design Phases

The present case study will follow up Stake’s (1998) six steps:

Bounding and conceptualizing the object of study:

To concretize the case study a revision was done. Thinking on a problem within UCEVA

University was the first step, then adjusting the focus to BA Languages Program in order to have

a specific context. In accordance with what is explained in this project rationale, Practicum is a

crucial aspect in pre-service teachers’ formation that’s why this case study focuses on it,

specifically on immersion practicum scenarios and its relation with teaching identity.

Developing the research questions:

After the specific scenario was established, the research question was developed: How do

pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA University portray their identity

within their immersion practicum?

Seeking patterns of data to develop the issue identified by the research question:

This case study will have three data recollection instruments. First, observation of the pre-

service teachers’ practices will be done and it will serve to know the class dynamics. These

observations will be made of the virtual video-classes led by pre-service teachers in the subject

of Immersive Teaching Practicum during the academic period 2020-2 through field diaries.

Maxwell (2012) argues observation can enable you to draw inferences about someone’s
perspective that you couldn’t obtain by relying exclusively on interview data” (p. 94). Once

observations are made, the categorization will be done by the usage of a qualitative analysis

software called Atlas.ti in which the raw answers will be organized in groups through an open

coding process.

This term is used to define the act of discovering concepts but also to expose thoughts,

meanings and ideas behind the words on a document. (Strauss and Corbin, 2002). The open

coding process will allow the conceptualization of the meanings contained in the observations

through the journal field instrument and the creation of some questions for a semi-open

interview. Meanwhile the other ones come from theory.

Semi-open interviews will acknowledge students’ thoughts from the developed question

which come from the actual observations and theoretical characterization of teacher identity.

One of the main goals of interviews is the active involvement and learning of the interviewer

and the interviewee that the interview can favor in the identification and analysis of the issues.

(Simons, 2011). Such interviews may consist of a dialogue that will happen across the topics on

the agenda (besides just having to stick fervently to the factual questions as done in a structured

survey) and can come down to completely unexpected issues (Adams, 2015)

Afterwards, raw interviews data will be codified through Atlas.ti with the purpose of

obtaining new categories and from these, conduct a focus group with the purpose of getting a

social consensus of how identity is portrayed by pre-service teachers from BA Languages

Program at UCEVA and then its data will be codified through Atlas.ti as well. Morgan (1996)

gives a concise yet interpretable definition of what a case study is. He defines it “a research
technique that collects data through group interaction on a topic determined by the researcher”

(p130).

Triangulating the data for various interpretations and

Selecting alternative interpretations to pursue:

Once the interpretation of the categories obtained through the three data collection

instruments is done, a comparison is made among the categories present in the analysis of each

of the instruments in order to know how similar or different they are and which dimensions are

addressed. The next step is to triangulate the categories that emerge from this interpretation,

background studies and theory presented. This will allow to have a clear vision of how this

reality of the teaching identity resembles or not to those exposed from the theory and other

studies carried out.

Developing generalizations about the case:

Finally, to establish a clear picture of what teaching identity is for the pre-service teacher

of the BA Languages Program at UCEVA through a written report that facilitates the

interpretation of the reality of immersion practicum in the selected context.

Study subjects and Sampling setting

The participants of this study are the pre-service teachers of BA languages program at

UCEVA, specifically between the fifth and seventh semesters since they are in their immersion

practicum. The sampling selected is of a non-probability nature. And it is also a Purposive

Sampling. Yin (2011) defines purposeful sampling as “The selection of participants or sources

of data to be used in a study, based on their anticipated richness and relevance of information in

relation to the study’s research questions” (p. 311).

 The criterion followed in pursuance of this selection were four fifth semester students,

three sixth semester students and three seventh sementer students. Finally, the only approach that

the participant pre-service teachers must have on teaching is their immersive asynchronous

practicum, implemented online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scope and Limitations

The main focus of this research is the analysis of how the pre-service teachers of BA

languages program at UCEVA portray their teaching identity. The investigation will be

conducted as a case study. It is only limited to the understanding of the forms of identity that

may arise from pre-service teachers in the development of their teaching practices. According to

Elliott (1999) it allows the understanding of the phenomena in their right.

The project can serve as a basis for future research related to the role of teaching practice

in the development of the teaching identity of pre-service teachers as well as helping the

participants discover their own identities as teachers and use them as a tool to perform their

classes in a more practical way.

On the other side, some limitations regarding the research may include the access

limitation to some research documents. Unfortunately, many studies are under platforms which

require a subscription or certain pay in order to read the papers, this obstacle to the research can

affect the way the study is carried out and the authors to be mentioned as well as what goes

inside the document. An alternative found to this was referring to sites where different

researches are published without any need for a payment.

 Capítulo IV: Análisis y discusión de resultados

Field Diaries – Observation

Observations were made of videos created by pre-service teachers for their immersion

practicum, the virtuality in the process is on account of the health emergency due to the COVID-

19 virus as mentioned above, their video classes lasted maximum twenty minutes. The purpose

of this first intervention was to know what are the classroom practices of pre-service teachers in

the development of their pedagogical practicum. The participants presented two videos for the

first academic term that were narrated through open field diaries. Each video was addressed in

the same way. However, the open encoding was done only to three videos (one for each

semester) selected randomly.

 The open diaries were presented as shown next:

P.1: In this field diary, it is seen that the pre-service teacher from 5th semester took an

active role in the class, used code switching between Spanish and English as well as
implemented didactic tools to maintain the class dynamic, some of them were songs, games,

worksheets to color or even a puppet to connect with students while teaching the subject, which

was the numbers from 1 to 50.

P.2: This one shows the class made by a pre-service teacher from 7th semester and the

approach they took to teach this class, the teacher made use of code switching to explain the

topic (To Be verb) and then presents the instructions in the same way, making sure to leave

everything clear for the students to understand, the exercises consisted on a speaking activity and

then a short grammar activity about the subject.

 P3: The pre-service teacher from 6th semester, as shown in this field diary, used a song

as a warm up activity to get the students to guess the topic of the day which was the Third

Conditional along with Social Values, the pre-service teacher tries o maintain the class in a

lively way by including the students and asking them some questions as well as making use of

code switching and worksheets.

Once the open coding of the three selected field diaries was completed through Atlas.ti, a

process was conducted for the creation of the categories that facilitate the grouping of the

obtained codes. According to the above, three categories of analysis were obtained, each

corresponding to different aspects of classroom practices carried out by pre-service teachers:

tools, classroom activities and speech acts.

 Categories

Table 1

Classroom Practices

Category Codes
Tools Chat, slides, chronometer, images, examples,

music, videos, coloring, online games.

Classroom Activities Grammar assessment activity, vocabulary

activity, video activity, grammar learning

activity.
Speech Acts Topic importance socialization, students’

participation encouragement, greetings,

objective socialization in class, activity

instructions, clear topic explanation, code

switching, time setting for students to answer,

suggestions made by the pre-service teachers,

tips provided by the pre-service teacher.

Categories’ description

Tools

The codes obtained in each of the three open field diaries, allowed the creation of this

category, it has nine different codes: use of the chat, use of slides, use of chronometer, use of

images, use of examples, music, use of videos, coloring, online games. This category responds

to the work material chosen by the pre-service teacher to develop their clases
Classroom Activities

This category corresponds to the different activities planned by the pre-service teacher

during the development of his class, making use of the material described in the previous

category. This category is composed of 5 codes: warm-up activity performed by the pre-service

teacher, grammar learning activity, video activities, vocabulary activity, grammar assessment

activities. As can be seen in the codes, it corresponds to different moments of the class but

frequent between the encoded videos.

Speech Acts

The speech acts described in these field diaries correspond to the same category

composed of nine codes, each of which responds to different needs in the development of its

class: topic importance socialization, student participation encouragement, greetings, objective

socialization in class, activity instructions, code-switching, time setting for answers, suggestions

made by the pre-service teacher, tips provided by the pre-service teacher.

Semi-structured interview:

Questions adapted from previous studies:

Reference: Lerseth, K. A (2013) Identity development among pre-service teacher

candidates

1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student teaching

experience? 

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are?

Balban, S. (2015) Reflections on teacher identity: A case study of novice language teachers.
 3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use? 

Questions created from Observation

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for the

development of your classes? Why?

After all the data collected from the interviews was open codified using the

software Atlas.ti once again various categories of analysis were established according to

the eight questions applied.

Categories

Table 2

Teaching task aspects

Category Subcategory Codes

Perception of the n/a No changes regarding pre-service teachers’
teaching task perception, some changes regarding pre-
service teachers’ perception, changes
regarding classroom tools, changes
regarding role in the classroom, changes
regarding pre-service teachers’ perceptions
according to classroom management.
Pre-service teachers’ n/a Positive examples based on classroom
identities based on activities, positive examples based on
actions attitudes, positive examples based on tools,
negative examples based on attitude,
negative examples based on context.
Teaching challenges n/a Challenges regarding attitude, challenges
regarding tools, challenges regarding
classroom management, challenges
regarding not wanting to become a teacher,
challenges regarding classroom activities.
Facilitators n/a Suggestions regarding attitude in the
classroom, suggestions regarding COVID-
19 pandemic issue, suggestions regarding
tools provided by the institutions,
suggestions regarding taking advice from
teachers, suggestions regarding college
curriculum.
Description of prior n/a Positive adjectives, negative adjectives,
practicum experiences neutral adjectives.
L1 value n/a Use of L1 to be understood, use of L1to
clarify concepts, use of L1 to explain, use of
L1 on extreme cases, use of L1 according to
students’ level, use of L1 according to
students age.
Theoretical and practical Authors Jeremy Harmer, Piaget, Sauveur, Skinner,
influences Vygotsky.
 Methods Audio-lingual method, Pedagogical
conductism, Direct method, Communicative
approach, Total physical response.
Government Guide 22, Basic learning rights, Suggested
guidelines curriculum.
Criteria to select class n/a Skills, students’ motivation, understandable,
material participation, visual appeal, grade, context.

Categories’ description

Perception of the teaching task.

The pre-service teachers expressed the mixed thoughts about the changes they’ve had

about what a teacher does or what it means to be a teacher, while a couple of participants affirm

their ideas about the role of a teacher have changed only a little bit or haven’t changed at all, the

rest communicated the manners in which this perception has changed, these being due to:

classroom tools, their roles in the classroom as teachers, or classroom management.

Pre-service teachers’ identities based on actions

The pre-service teachers reminisced of previous experiences they’ve gone through in

which their attitudes as teachers resembled their comportment, three of the five emergent codes

were based on positive examples given by the pre-service teachers, who expressed their own

selves come through in the class during activities, the tools implemented or simply just their

attitude in the classroom. On the other side, negative examples were also given, these regarding

their previous experiences at school and also their own attitude in the classroom.

Teaching challenges
 In the third question, pre-service students claimed their diverse challenges they´ve

encountered during their practicum and the career, the participants opened up to their

experiences by adding examples to their answers, their challenges included their classroom

activities, their attitude in the classroom, the tools to use in the classroom, classroom

management or just the challenge of teaching when they don’t want to be teachers. 

Facilitators

The participants spoke their minds by indicating suggestions on what would have made

their challenges easier to overcome, six categories emerged in this question, the pre-service

teachers talked about how the process could have been less demanding if they were given more

tools by the institution, if they had better classroom management, if they changed anything about

their attitude in the classroom, if they had taken advice from other teachers, if the curriculum of

the career were more flexible or even if there was no COVID-19 getting in the way of their face-

to-face practicum.

Description of prior practicum experiences

Through their narrative it was possible to identify the way participants perceived their

practicum based on positive, negative and neutral adjectives. Their perceptions of the practicum

varied according to the experiences and the perception they have about teaching. The emerging

codes for this category were: Positive Adjectives, Negative Adjectives and Neutral Adjectives.

L1 value

The subjects think that the use of L1 is necessary under different conditions that can be

present in the contexts they are developing their practices. According to it, the emerging codes

were: use of L1 to be totally understood, use of L1 to clarify concepts, use of L1 to explain, use
of L1 according to L2 learners’ age, use of L1 ccording to L2 students’ level, use of L2 on

extreme cases, in which the subject expressed L1 is valuable but it must be avoided if it’s

possible since the ideal class for them is just using L2. Those aspects evidence that the pre-

service teachers are focusing on different features of their teaching process to know from which

they can or can not make use of the mother tongue. 

Theorethical and Practical Influences

The theoretical and practical references and influences of the participants, allow to know

the perspectives under which the pre-service teachers carry out their practices, Therefore, it was

necessary to create three subcategories that allowed the correct understanding of their elections.

1. Authors

Within the theoretical references they presented, the following codes were founded:

Jeremy Harmer, Piaget, Vygotsky, Sauveur and Skinner. Some of them explained how they were

connected to the teaching methods they use during their classes but other ones were just

mentioned. 

2. Methods 

Some of these codes were explained by the subjects naming the authors already

mentioned as well, the codes found in function of these questions, were: total physical response,

communicative approach, direct method (2 times), audio lingual method and pedagogical

conductism.

3. Government Guidelines
 Besides the authors and teaching methods used by the pre-service teachers, it was

possible to evidence as well their awareness when including policies established by the Ministry

of Education, those codes are: suggested curriculum, guide 22 and basic learning rights.

Criteria to select class material

The pre-service teachers consider that the selection of their work material is determined

by diverse features that come from different situations associated to their context, within the

codes it was possible to find these: skills, they consider it is really important to use material that

includes language skills, but also think that visual appeal of the material is important, they like it

to be striking to their students so they can feel engaged. At the same time, they take into account

that their material is understandable, according not only to the grade, but also according to

students’ motivation, context, since it is important for them that students feel that the use of L2

can be done in their local context and participation because the interaction itself is the aspect that

measures how much the material was useful for them.

Focus Group

Once the categories from the interview were analyzed, these allowed the creation and

adaptation of the questions for the application of the focus group, this is intended to be a meeting

point in what the pre-service teachers of the BA Languages Program understand as their identity.

The focus group took place with nine of the ten participants of the research project through the

Google Meet platform. To know these aspects, the following questions were asked.

1. How has your perception about teaching changed with your practices?

2. Have you had any meaningful situations regarding how you feel as a teacher during your

practices? Please mention some of them.

 3. How have you overcome any of the challenges you mentioned in the first interview we

had?

4. Based on your recent experience, what advice would you give yourself when you first

started your immersion practices?

5. Where do the tools to cope with the challenges in your pedagogical practices come from?

College autonomous search? Mention some of them

6. Can you describe your practices during last semester with three words?

7. What importance do you give to carrying out your practices through digital platforms? Is

it relevant or not?

8. If you had to choose one of the ELF teaching methods applied in your practices, which

would it be and why?

9. What value do you give to the mandatory documentation to develop your immersion

practices? For example: lesson plans, area plan, journal.

10. How important is the advisory teacher in the development of your practices?

11. If we had to construct a definition of identity for pre-service teachers, what would it be?

The information was coded through Atlas.ti and the following categories according to

each of the questions were created.

Categories

Table 3
Class practices and teaching task development.
Category
Perceptions about teaching
Meaningful experiences
Self-advice regarding prior practices
Overcoming challenges
Classroom tools
Description of prior practices
Virtual Education importance
EFL teaching methods
Mandatory documentation importance
Advisory teacher importance
Self-perception of the teaching role
Codes
Negative perception about teaching,
positive perception about teaching, Positive
changes in teaching perception, No
changes in teaching perception.
Negative experiences of the pre-service
teacher during practicum, positive
experiences of the pre-service teacher
during practicum.
Advice regarding attitude, advice regarding
actions.
Overcoming challenges by empowering
and gaining confidence.
Use of games, use of tangible material, use
of internet resources, use of original
material.
Positive adjectives, negative adjectives.
Big recognition of virtual education
importance, awareness of virtual education
difficulties, disapproval of virtual
education.
Gamification as a method, the direct
method, English language content.
High value of mandatory documentation,
little value of mandatory documentation,
no value of mandatory documentation.
High value of the advisory teacher.
Identity as an individual concept regarding
pre-service teachers’ comfort, challenging-
teacher vision of self, creative-teacher
vision of self, adapting-teacher vision of
self.
Categories’ description

Perceptions about teaching

This category corresponds to the perceptions that the participants have about their role as

teachers and the profession in general. These perceptions are permeated by preparation prior to

developing their practices, participants consider that gathering enough material to develop the

classes is a main important part of thinking as a teacher and also being prepared allow them to

feel good about all the process. Positive changes relate to having relevant guides to develop the

classes, planning everything in advance, having a teaching vocation, and adapting to the

teaching process. This codes allow the understanding of various faces of teaching and how those

aspects affect and are filiated to perceiving teaching positively.

On the other hand, negative perceptions that participants have about teaching are immediately

related to not liking teaching. Some of the participants share the fact that they don’t feel totally

comfortable about being considered a teacher, so the perception they have about the proffesion

itself is not good. Even though they have some experience, some of them haven’t changed their

perception about this rol, factors associated to the personality of the pre-service teachers, as well

as considering teaching as a difficult process to carry out, these codes are: not having enough

patience, teaching being a hard work are still the same perception they had about the teaching

task.

Meaningful experiences

Experiences can be both positive and negative, so a category about the experiences of

pre-service teachers is fundamental to determine why their perceptions, among the positive

perceptions is being recognized as a teacher. But, some negatives experiences were shared
through their respondes, their closeness to different dimensions, allows to understand different

facets of the teaching reality, the codes are: negative comments by the students, being a young

teacher, classroom management, performance anxiety, balance and dangerous contexts.

Self-advice regarding prior practices

In this category it was possible to find two types of advice that pre-service teachers give

themselves and as a result they manage to overcome the challenges that exist in the development

of their practice, such advice is related to their attitude during the practices, temperament and

self-control. In addition, advice related to their actions such as time management, procrastination

and organization.

Overcoming challenges

According to the participants' discourse, it was possible to recognize that their fears and

challenges regarding their role as a teacher during their practicum are due to insecurities about

the control of the dimensions of classroom practices and their speech in the foreign language.

The codes that can be found in this category are: timing, planning, English skills, decision

making and assisting students.

Classroom tools

Las herramientas utilizadas por los pre-services teachers son varias y se clasifican de acuerdo a

diferentes factores tales como: use of original material during the pre-service teacher practicum,

holds the most common answer among the pre-service teachers, they expressed how they

preferred to make their own material in order for it to match their students’ level as well as their

social context, it was also mentioned that they would rather make their own material hence this

way they can be creative and put their own mark in their tools used during the practicum, some
of the pre-service teachers said they used certain platforms that make easier the creation of

material, these would be kahoot, educaplay, slides on powerpoint and padlet.

Also, the use of internet resources during the pre-service teacher practicum is relevant, the pre-

service teachers talked about how they would rely on websites that provided: materials and

didactic tools to implement in their classes according to the topic or the level of the language, it

was also mentioned how sometimes they would adapt the material found if they considered it

was needed. It was also being expressed that the use of games during the pre-service teacher

practicum helped the pre-service teachers to maintain students’ attention during their practicum

as well as guarantying participation and a light environment where teaching and playing meet.

Finally, the use of tangible material during the pre-service teacher practicum is relevant since

they can use these material to link it with the class topic.

Description of prior practices

The pre-service teachers talked they had rather a negative view about their last semester

practicum using words such as: stressful, non-didactical, boring, anxious, sad, angry, upset, tired

and frustrating. On the other hand, some students on this category also mentioned they had a

positive view of their practicum during their last semester, they used words like: amusing,

entertaining, cool, easier, nice and rewarding.

Virtual Education importance

On this category, the pre-service teachers admitted the importance of digital education

and its relevance in today’s society and situation, even some of them expressed it was easier for

them and it allowed them to be more creative compared to face-to-face classes. The pre-service

teachers talked about the challenges of virtual academic meetings, the most mentioned was the
difficulty some students had according to their economic situations, their internet connection

would fail and they would not be able to attend classes and this puts them into an inequity

situation. Based on that, it was shown a certain dislike about virtual education, claiming it

wasn’t the same as normal classes or face-to-face interaction and it could not bring the same

outcomes as presential meetings.

EFL teaching methods

Pre-service teachers consider the most relevant methods in the development of their

practices and how these have advantages over the educational process. As said by Wiseman

(2018), Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an approach where students learn a

subject and a second language at the same time. The pre-service teachers that choose this

method talked about how in this, language becomes a tool to work on a topic but it is not

necessarily the goal. On the other hand, according to Millsaps (2020), the direct method relies

heavily on total immersion in the classroom setting, with no consideration of the students' native

language. The pre-service teachers expressed they liked this method because it made the student

speak in the foreign language at all times and in this way they can get used to the language.

Finally, even if it is not exactly a method, but rather an approach, gamification of education is a

growing approach to rising learners' motivation and participation in educational settings by

integrating game design elements (Dichev, Dicheva, 2017) on this category, the pre-service

teachers mentioned Gamification helped the students learn while playing and and think of the

class as a “fun place”.

Mandatory documentation importance

On this category, the pre-service teachers manifested the documents had a big importance due to

the national guidelines of education, as well as expressing how useful these articles were in

order to planning and reflecting about their practicum but at the same time some pre-service

teachers express how they did not like the documents but they thought the documents were a

little bit valuable in order for the university teachers to track down their process, while some

others did not find the mandatory documentation valuable at all, they referred at it as

“exhausting” and “not useful”.

Advisory teacher importance

The pre-service teachers talked about how the advisory teacher had helped them during

their process, they claimed they saw the advisory teacher as a guide they could go to when they

felt doubtful in their practicum and they would help them find a solution by themselves.

Self-perception of the teaching role

The pre-service teachers agreed that identity was individual aspect they felt comfortable

with and makes them feel sure within themselves and environment, But, since identity is

something that constantly changes, the pre-service teachers expressed a challenging vision of

themselves by trying to overcome constantly the challenges that come within the profession and

try to do their best constantly. In that sense, they see themselves as teachers who used creativity

as their most outstanding feature in their role and their practicum, whether it was explaining

topics, doing activities or using tools in a creative way. Finally, the pre-service teachers claimed

to see themselves as teachers who are constantly trying to adapt to the context of their students

as well as their levels of learning, doing what they could to adapt to the needs of their students’

situation.
 Categories comparison

Table 4

Categories comparison

Instrument Field diary Interview Focus Group

Classrooom tools
Classroom tools /
Tools X Criteria to select class
Material
material

Classroom activities Classroom activities X X

Speech acts Speech Acts X X

EFL teaching methods.

Practical and Theoretical and
X Mandatory documentation
theoretical references practical influences.
importance.
Perception of the
Perception about Perceptions about teaching
X teaching task
teaching

Overcoming challenges by
Challenges X Teaching challenges empowering and gaining
confidence.

Description of prior Description of prior

Practicum description X
practicum experiences practices

Mandatory Mandatory documentation

X Government guidelines
documentation importance

L1 use Speech acts L1 value X

 Once all the results were analyzed individually, the table above, allows the comparison of

the categories obtained in each of the instruments according to the most notorious aspects since

the use of the observation technique to complete the field diary format, to the analysis of the

focus group. As can be seen from this, the first instrument allowed the identification of the

classroom practices of the pre-service teachers of the BA Languages Program at UCEVA,

among these can be found the activities carried out by them practitioners in the video classes

analyzed, as well as their work tools and speech management they did.

However, the purpose of the interview was to explore other aspects related to the role of

a teacher, such as theoretical and practical references, perception about teaching, the challenges

they face, descriptions of their practice, goverment guidelines and the value of mother tongue

within the classroom. Finally, the focus group allowed a consensus between what was evidenced

in the first two instruments, therefore, their categories respond to most of the aspects described

in the table.

Triangulation

According to the findings obtained in the analysis of the three instruments applied, it was

possible to determine different aspects related to pre-service teachers' classroom practices, as

well as the construction of their professional teaching identity. First, the perception that

participants have regarding the teaching task is determined by factors such as gathering guides

and appropriate material to develop their classes, adapting to teaching work according to

contexts and having a vocation to teach. As stipulated by Canrinus et al. (2011) the identity of a

teacher is not an identity that can be generalized to all educators at the same time, it is formed by
the permanent interaction that the person has with the context. Based on this perception, it is

possible to establish that pre-service teachers conceive teaching various from factors that

constitute the role of a teacher.

However, some participants also consider to have a negative perception of the teaching

task because they perceive it as a very difficult task to develop and they also take into account

some aspects related to personality such as not having patience to carry out the teaching process,

this is related to what is stated by Díaz (2013) in the research “The Way Student-Teachers

Construct Their Identity at School”, it’s shown in their results that pre-service teachers consider

their practicum is permeated with the particular context in which it is developed and they also

recognize factors beyond classroom practices that can affect the way they view their practicum.

It is also reported this perception is related to negative experiences that pre-service

teachers have lived during their practices such as receiving negative comments from students

that generate demotivation in the pre-service teacher, being a young teacher and not having total

control over the classroom, stress to face their role as a teacher within the classroom and the

encounter with dangerous contexts that put their integrity at risk. Aguirre & Castañeda (2017) in

their research Pre-Service English Teachers' Voices About the Teaching Practicum determine

that becoming a teacher requires analysis of the educational context and how the activities they

design; the way they conduct classes makes it a meaningful process for their students. In one of

the categories of the findings, named "Understanding of English teachers in training in their own

classroom" the relevance of the aspect "social and human individuality" it is shown that the

practicum context determines the role that the student chooses to perform according to the tasks

to be done.
 In accordance with the provisions above, it is clear that for the pre-service teachers from

the BA Languages Program at UCEVA, the role played by the context in which they operate

determines not only the perception they have about teaching, but also their behavior within the

process. The variety in the perception of teaching by the participants is also evidenced in the

background study by Micán (2019) “Understanding EFL Pre-service teachers' professional

Identities construction through narratives at a public university in Bogotá” identity is revealed in

the findings as a continuous, unstable and constantly changing process, this means that all

participants can experience changing processes in their identities according to the factors that

influence their context, the relationship they establish with their students and the way they feel

in the development of their practicum.

This can also be related to what was established by Day and Kington. (2008), who think

of identity as a composite of three different points of view that complement each other, the first,

is called professional identity, the second is known as situated or socially located identity and

finally, personal identity. The position discussed above is part of the situated or socially located

identity because it is determined by the specific context that is modified and affected by the

conditions of the environment. Still, the perception of teaching according to context is not the

only factor that is part of the socially located identity.

That is why, to carry out their planning and classes, it was possible to profile the

participants based on the tools they use in their practicum, which allows them to be totally

understood and also to feel comfortable. They use chats to share information, slides with key

concepts, chronometer to measure the time spent by activity, images, examples, music, videos,

coloring and online games, as well as to have different moments within the class that allow them

to make use of the material described above. This was evidenced in the observation phase,
through which the types of activities carried out by pre-service teachers in their classes are

specified. Each of these responds to specific aspects of L2 and linguistics, such as grammatical

activities, vocabulary activities, grammatical evaluation and specific moments such as warm-up

activities.

Based on what is said above, authors like Brittin (2005) establish that teachers require the

creation and organization of a learning environment in which students can learn effectively and

for this, planning, selection of materials, strategies, methods and timing are needed. This

happens because the preservice teachers take into account the situational aspects of their practice

to select their classroom work tools because they consider that this material should be not only

original to suit the needs of their teaching context but also believe that the creation of their own

material, allows them to strengthen their creative skills and to give a personal touch to the way

they present content.

These patterns of specific activities within the class allowed for inquiry into the methods

applied by pre-service teachers and the preference they may have over some. Initially, there was

little recognition of authors belonging to each selected method, However, it is established that

for them it is more important to know the method with which they are working but it is even

more important to recognize that the methods as they are presented sometimes do not work and

it is necessary to make modifications. The methods and strategies preferred by pre-service

teachers are the direct method and CLIL, in addition to the gamification strategy. This is related

to what Moreno (2002) in the results of the research "Conceptions of the pedagogical practice"

speaks of how the reflection on the methods applied in class avoid routines and customs, it is

also suggested that the selection of methods is a constant dialogue between knowledge and
practice. This responds to the need of pre-service teachers to choose from reality the applicable

methods and how they should be modified to obtain real results.

However, besides any adaptations and changes the pre-service teachers wish to make

during their practicum, they must all comply with guidelines established not only by the national

government as tools to facilitate work, but also by the university that has formats for planning

and monitoring during the development of their teaching process. The pre-service teachers

consider that institutional elements such as the class plan are very important because they

facilitate the creation of classes, as well as the "Guide 22" tool created by the MEN. Despite this,

they do not find much use in the field newspapers, they consider that it is only documentation

with which they must comply to obtain a grade.

On the other hand, the pre-service teachers consider the advisory teacher as a

fundamental support in their practicum process, they consider it a necessary figure to which they

can turn to receive advice, ideas and help when they feel doubt about some aspect of their

teaching practicum. In addition, this figure provides them with the necessary ideas and tools for

the resolution of conflicts in the classroom or problems around their work. This result was also

evident in The Influence of Field Teaching Practice on Pre-service Teachers' Professional

Identity: A Mixed Methods Study by Zhao and Zhang (2017), the authors share in their results

that the participants consider that the role of the advisor teacher is very important since it allows

them to focus more on their teaching work and to rely on their ways of carrying out the

processes to do the same in their practicum. It was initially considered that the most important

thing was the content of the class, but with the guidance of the advisor teacher it was possible to

understand that also aspects foreign to language such as communication help the student to feel

more interested in learning.

 Pre-service teachers are aware of the challenges during their teaching practicum,

these are related to the development of activities, tools, attitudes and management of the class,

more determining factors such as not wanting to practice the profession. Despite that, pre-service

teachers overcome these obstacles once they recognize that these come from insecurities

regarding their foreign language skills, having enough time for classes and activities, planning,

decision-making and support for students outside and within the classroom. Contrary to what

was evidenced in the research by (Prabjande, 2019), entitled Becoming English teachers in

Thailand: Student teacher identity development during teaching practicum, in which its results

establish that the participants overcome these challenges through two support mechanisms, the

first, psychological support and the second, technical support. For the first one they received

help from their colleagues and advisor teachers and the technical support was through actions

carried out by their teacher advisor in which this figure helps one of the pre-service teachers to

be recognized as a teacher within the classroom.

This difference could be established by the approach given to the problem, however,

given as well that the experiences of practices are not generalizable processes. For the pre-

service teachers of the BA Languages Program from UCEVA, overcoming their challenges

comes more from intrinsic motivation than extrinsic, so recognizing their fears and challenges is

the first step to improving their practice process. Among some other facilitating tools that pre-

service teachers find to carry out their practicum it was possible to find the following ones:

receiving more tools from the educational institution, curriculum flexibility, and even the

existence of the pandemic that stands in the way of the usual development of face-to-face

practices.
 Moreover, pre-service teachers agree that their actions within the classroom allow them

to show a bit of who they consider themselves to be, both in the choice and variety of their

activities, the tools to develop such activities and the attitude of their person in the classroom. In

addition, to making use of creativity as the most outstanding tool in his role as teacher and in his

practices, from the approach of the topics to the activities themselves. Once again, Diaz (2013)

in the results of the research The Way Student-Teachers Construct Their Identity at School once

again, describes how participants go from being dependent on the decisions they make in their

practicum to making their own decisions, this happens owning to the fact that teaching is

considered a social process and sensible to school realities.

Pre-service teachers reflect their identity according to the context in which they find

themselves, try to adapt their person to the environment and not force the environment to adapt

to them. The definition of identity varies according to authors, however, when Beijaard, Meijer,

Verloop, (2004) state that identity is not something you have, but something that changes

throughout life, supports what they say Hogg and Abrams (1988) about how identity is people’s

concepts of who they are, but also how they relate to others. This self-adapting version of pre-

service teachers emerges as a response to the demands of the contexts in which they are, their

learning levels and how to proceed according to the needs of their students.

In addition to their adaptable nature, pre-service teachers are subjects in constant action

who give the best of themselves for the purpose of overcoming the challenges or obstacles they

may encounter during their practicum. They say that while teaching can be difficult or complex,

their students deserve the best of their teaching and want to offer them what they as school

students did not receive from their teachers. According to professional commitment, Zhao and

Zhang (2017) The Influence of Field Teaching Practice on Pre-service Teachers’ Professional
Identity: A Mixed Methods Study realized in their findings that during pre-service teachers’

practicum, their professional commitment was strengthened and it is consider it has a

determining effect on their future professional decisions.

The project “The way pre-service teachers from the BA languages program at UCEVA

University portray their identity within their immersion practicum” allowed to portray the

identity of the pre-service teachers of the BA Languages Program at UCEVA in the

development of their immersion pedagogical practicum according to the curriculum and

guidelines of the faculty of Educational Sciences of the university. The feasibility of this

research is remarkable since its results are supported by theoriticians of the objects of study, in

addition to the research documents that served the function of background studies.
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Anexos
Observation Network

Semi-structured interview
Subject 1
1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student teaching

experience? 

Okay, my first perception of teachers was that the word was based mainly on how they

studied things and they taught them as they were learning. But after starting my experience as a

teacher, I realized that the teachers must create tools, aspects and materials that help us teach

students about topics. Since it has been proved that a more energetic class with more stages of

movement generates more learning than an old class. So, my perception changed in a big sense

or in a great sense because I first think that the teacher, I don't know, the teacher has some

sequence or has some tools or materials that develop the class. But now I think into account that

the teacher doesn't have any material, the teacher creates the material, the teacher only has some

clues or something or some books that allow us to create and develop material so this is my

perception in my teacher experience. 

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are?

Well some examples and I can think in my own perception or in my own lights, is that,

well sometimes I like to play and, not every game or something like this. I like to play some

games like uno, like the lottery, something like that. So my idea when I prepare my class is that I

develop this material based on the fact that the kids love to play, so I try to bring them games

like table games like Uno like lottery, related to the topic that we are looking for. The idea is that

the students relate the game, the (inaudible), the movement with the English and they can change

their perception of the point of view that the English is bored and tried to change that the English

could be fine if you adapt them into different and tastes that the students like, like the games.
3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.

My biggest challenge is complicated because it was a lot of challenge, but I think that the

biggest in my experience was the attention. Yes, the attention because students, as you know, are

kids and maybe 12, 13, 14 years old and in their lives maybe something more important or

something more exciting than going every morning to class. But you can change, or you can

catch their attention and try to develop some classes or some learning class with some tastes of

some things that the students like. For example when you try to explain or you try to develop a

class, you always know that you explain and explain a copy you board and as soon as I think is

bored only write and write and write and repeat the examples. I think that it's boring for them

and it creates a monotone that can affect in the future the idea of the point of view from the

English. So the idea is to develop something or something materials or some process that can be

able to catch the attention; for example, when you start you can make an active pass, making

stand up, move, yeah, I mean to catch the attention, that the students says, “oh it’s going to be

interesting” or at least the cash the attention of them. And you can develop with something that

students like. Like for example music and some actually like something that is happening right

now and the kids are very interesting, games as I said before, the students like games, normally

video games or table games, I don't know, movies. You can put some movies in English and try

to hit develop at last and around them, the biggest problem is to catch the attention but you can

change that if you know how to develop according to the interests of students. 

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?
 Something that could be smoother for you. For me this process could be smoother or

more easily if the schools gave us the materials. I mean, it’s different that the teachers create

some material to develop in one class that teacher uses one material that is in the classroom to

develop into different classes. It's easier because if you develop one material general, that you

focus in some topic on something specific competence. Meanwhile if you developed some topics

or some activities around, why not one material, one accessory in the classroom you can use in

different situations and change the sentence avoiding the monotony. So, it could be smarter for

me if the schools or the educational institutes gave us different materials to develop our

classrooms.

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?

OK describe my first year with adjectives, well this is complicated, but if I could describe

it into adjectives, I must say that could be enjoyable maybe some issues and I'm so proud of

them and so fantastic. Because when I start in fourth semester, I'm only watching the teachers,

then making the class write in the notes some important things to change in the classroom,

something different. Is to watch the teacher that has years of experience that starts in two

changes: the teacher is those who watch while I'm the one that is making the class. It's too

anxious and I was so excited to make that but at the same time I wish the anxious of what

happened if I fail what happen if the student doesn't understand me but and when I finish, when I

finish my class and I say that the students understand me I feel so proud of the things that I've

made and the things that I teach I feel so proud of it.

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

As a pre-service teacher. I make, well when I’m teaching in my classroom, I prefer that I

use my mother tongue into the most important aspects. I mean, when I reading a test I try to read

it in English, I read it in English and later I tried to explain the most important parts or the

factors from the book in Spanish. This because you can change to assimilate to students in

English with the Spanish. I'm trying to assimilate that the English are more understandable when

you try to relate with Spanish also, I only speak in my mother tongue when there's something

important. I don't know, maybe there's not something very important sometimes in the classroom

but when  I'm teaching I prefer to speak all the time in English that the students can assimilate

when I say good morning students said “oh, él dijo buenos días en inglés, entonces yo puedo

decir buenos días” and later when I say good morning the students can say good morning and so

on, and with every permission and every question like can I go to the bathroom, what time is it,

what is the weather and something liked it. But something important or some bigger problems or

activities that require some analytic place I prefer to say it or to make it English and later explain

it in Spanish or in my mother tongue.

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

OK when I try to make my classes or when I time to build and develop my English class

I tried to refer as theoretical and practical reference like Jeremy Harmer. Why? because I know

that it's one of the most important authors of the (inaudible). I know that it could be more and

more interesting and more deeper authors, but I prefer to talk with them, because he's not only a
speak about they way that we can teach or how to teach to the students. But Jeremy Harmer talks

about the topics and the specific sentences that we can get to know, or we can adapt or use in a

classroom. I mean, it's not only to explain or is not only the way that we teach to the students, is

the way that we get better and bigger at the teachers, not only all the concepts in the classroom. I

have in my computer I have two books from Jeremy Harmer one is how to teach English, that is

the more knowledge, and the other is the essential teacher knowledge, that both of them explain

in different concepts of how to teach ELT in different classrooms, not only English but Spanish

and Portuguese, explained the basis of the teacher and not only the English teacher, every

teacher as a Spanish teacher, as social science teacher, I don't know, maybe. I think that Jeremy

Harmer complete author for me, so I use it in my theoretical and practical reference.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

My criteria, generally when I try to develop, to create or to adapt some material for my

classroom I prefer that those materials have two of the four competencies, you know, reading,

writing, speaking, and listening. I prefer that this materials has two of these four competencies,

and these competencies could be related between, for example, if you are putting a reading or

some sentences to read, you can adopt it to have reading or writing that the student must read a

sentence, understanding,  and answer some questions or write some short resume or something

like that, or you can relate it to make a reading and speaking that the student read the book

understand the sentences and trying to speak with their own words. Another example is when

you for example make some dialogues, some music, some listening, some audio or conversation

you can put it into that they have listening that the student must listen the conversation or the

music or the audio or the dialogue, and later speaking that they student must explained what are
they speaking in the dialogue or maybe some writing that is student must write some questions

or answer some questions related to the dialogue or maybe something different. I don’t know,

but I preferred that these materials have two or more you can be more, obviously, if you can

make. 2 or more competencies by the four that we have actually to at least make or understand

that the student can develop two competence is at the same time. 

Subject 2
1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student

teaching experience?

Ok, well I consider that what has changed during my years as a student until now that I

am in my teaching practice is very little change that is seen because, well, I think that already

depends on each institution, because, well, teachers try to use the tools that the institution

provides. If the institution provides many technological tools or that help students in these types

of institutions, the teacher is usually more dynamic and more, as he tries to make sure everything

goes well, instead when the school has few resources and does not have many tools to work with

the students, what happens is that the teacher uses traditionalism a lot and, basically, most of the

public schools, most here in Tuluá do not have the capacities or the tools to provide a full

education to the students.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are?

Basically in the games I make in class, because there I give examples that are closely

related to things that I like, like anime, kpop and well I try to ask my students what they like too,

so as to try to create an environment where we like things in common so that there is a full
coexistence, I also play a lot of children's music, not because I am childish but because I really

like children's music, I think it sounds nice, it is very recreational and good to learn a language

when you are at a beginner level is much easier with songs for young children and that's it.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.

Ok, the biggest challenge for me was to control or try to control, to understand students

from a school that had very, very few resources and because the children not only studied but

often skipped classes because they worked too, they had to do two things and they said "no, I am

a mechanic" "no, I fix such a thing" or "I work selling such a thing" and I was amazed and on

the other hand it was also a bit complicated because many of these children, they tried to rob me

several times, once I saw one who was already packing my computer and I thought “Jesus what

is happening here?”, another was getting tattooed in class, another showed me ... well, it didn't

happen to me, but it happened to a partner who threatened him saying that they were going to

send his brother and one knew what could happen.

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

Well, I have tried to be more organized, I have tried to do so physically, that is, to stand

up, to interact, to have fun, that they run, that they jump, that is, it seems to me, because I do it

with them, I do not sit there looking but I do it with them, so this becomes easier for me because

I feel that I establish a relationship with the students.

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?
 Ok, I think it was good, interesting, facilitating and that's it.

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

Well, it is very complicated because I have never worked in a bilingual school, so we use

the mother tongue to give the explanations, basically it would be like a 50/50, you explain in

English and you explain in Spanish so that the students understand and they ask you in Spanish

and you answer them in Spanish so there is no confusion.

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

Theoretical and practical references that I usually use for my English class, I usually use

the method of total physical response if we talk about methodology and we also talk about tasks,

projects or tasks and when organizing classes because it would already be the usual documents

that they send, the lesson plans normally of the institution, the suggested curriculum that is from

the ministry of education, guide number 22 and so on.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

And well, what I take into account for my material is that it is colorful, that it is as

striking for the students so that they can do it, that it be simple, that it is not complicated, that

they allow everyone to interact, also that it has basic vocabulary that they can understand and

that the images are related as I am saying and that's it.

Subject 3
1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student teaching

experience? 

Okay, I always thought that the job of a teacher was to teach and no more, but through

experience in my practices I realized that a teacher is also a friend and even a psychologist.

Sometimes I feel I am not a full time person but a full time teacher because of all the things I

need to do, I am always working on something different, some planning, some reading… I don’t

know, we got to do plenty of stuff. It is such tiring work, I thought it was easy.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are?

I think I care a lot about people and I always verify if my students are okay with

everything that is being done so the way I reflect myself on my practices is when I propose

activities through which I can make them feel happy, with games, songs and some many other

things.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.

I think to have control of the classroom has been the biggest challenge. When I did my

practice a year ago with fifth graders it was so challenging to control my students, they were

moving all the time, it was intense, it was a really really really big challenge for me. 

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

I try to be a little less closed and I tend to be dynamic. It's easier when the class isn’t

boring, I like to talk and I try to make the class smoother. I would like to be understood, I think
professors expect your practices to be perfect but it is not possible. I would like to feel… like,

like my effort mattered, I am still learning to be a teacher. It is not something that you are born

doing, you can have the vocation and stuff… But all the knowledge, like, all the preparation.

Those things take time. 

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?

I would describe it as interesting and satisfactory, when you are already in the field of

action, everything is so different from the theory and you learnt in the university classroom. It is

satisfactory because I can see that my students are actually learning and they like the material I

prepare. 

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

To me, the mother tongue is really important since it allows me to clarify concepts and to

be totally understood even though the subject is English. But I try to explain the content in

English, and of course, if the student has a question in Spanish, I will answer it. 

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

 I don’t know his name but I always focus on the communicative approach. I really like

it. Ah… and Piaget, I remember him a lot because of the stages in which a kid learns to do…

like, to do things. Interaction is the most important thing.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

First, I think of the grade in which I am doing my practices and according to that I look

for the material that suits them the best. To me, grades are really important. I also always use

videos and songs. 

Subject 4

1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student teaching

experience? 

Well, my perception has changed a lot since I put myself on the role of a teacher, perhaps

when I was in high school I considered that being a teacher was not such a difficult job, you

know? because my teachers used to just talk about something they already knew over and over

again. But this semester when I started teaching… I realized that is a difficult profession and it’s

not about talking and talking. Being a teacher requires a lot of planning, reading, modification of

plans that are supposed to be ready… Adapting ourselves to contexts.... Yes. 

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are? 

The things that I consider that reflect myself during my practices… That reflects the

person I am… Maybe my kindness, my cheerful tone of voice, the type of music that I play on

my activities or videos… I try to keep my classes out of a routine. 

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.
 I think that the biggest challenge for me in this profession was speaking in public…

Since I was a child I was scared of talking on stages of places where there are many people… It

has been very difficult for me… like to express myself.... I tend to speak a lot now. 

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

I think it would be good to have a speech class in which we could improve our speaking

skills. It would be nice. But also I think that feedback is always given and from that we can learn

to work in our expressions and body language as well as in our speech. 

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?

Since virtuality is now a thing… and like… I don’t know if it affects the way I am seeing

this process, but right now it's so boring, stressful and demotivating… but since we have to do a

lot of effort, it has helped me to be more creative… more ingenious.

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

Since I do my practice with first graders and you know, the policies of the Ministry are

very high for Colombiian contexts and classrooms. My classes are kind of seventy percent in

Spanish even the lesson plans in Spanish, those are the demands of the school due to the age of

the kids. 

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?
 The references I use a lot are the basic learning rights. Now, talking about theoretical

schools… I focus a lot on the direct and audio lingual method.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

I think the most important criteria for me is their motivation so I am always trying to

implement activities and strategies that make them laugh and play… theater is something I use a

lot. 

Subject 5

1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student teaching

experience? 

My perception has changed a lot in terms of what a teacher does, a teacher herself seeks

for the student to be able to acquire and understand concepts that help them face real life. When

I say that I mean that the life of the high school I had never thought about before entering this

career but of course to achieve this you have to have objectives, method, material that support

the classes, and seeing all this a new panorama generated about what a teacher does.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are?

Question number 2 (laughs), The examples I can give are that there are aspects of myself

that are seen a lot in class, for example, how come a good listener I can become, in classes my

attitude is serene and I would strike to maintain control, even if I find defects of see that

something disturbs the class, in terms of being a good listener it is because I listen well to these
suggestions and problems of the students and I don't in order when I see there’s no time for

answers I say the questions and I answer them when there is time.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.

Uhm, the biggest challenge for me was to stop being a shy person, I have not always

been a person who talks a lot, but I’m already entering the context of having to enter a

classroom, having to teach in front of many individuals, it was the perfect place that it was going

to boost me, help me improve as a person to open up to others, so yes, when I started teaching I

talk more I communicated more with people and yeah, I spoke like a parrot.

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

I don’t really know, I would believe that having faced my fears in the past, that is public

speaking, maybe that would have helped make the process easier.

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?

The first adjective that I would have thought would be some bad adjectives, I felt so

stressed but it was also cool because I learned a lot. This first year was good as well as bad. 

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

It is high since the institutions in which I have had to carry out teacher practice do not

handle the second language so much, therefore I had to speak a lot in the mother tongue and

sometimes in the target language.

 7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

There are some documents that I have received in my classes and I can say have

contributed a lot to the development of these. Currently the book that most comes to my mind is

Jeremy Harmer’s book, the name is “How to Teach English”.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

The criteria that I select for the class is that the material is pleasant to the eye, that it has a

good presentation, that it has appropriate size, also that it helps to achieve the objective of the

class in a shorter way, I think that these things are important because with this criteria, in this

criteria in a material is more likely to see good results with works or activities that revolve

around the material.

Subject 6

1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student

teaching practice?

Okay, my perception has changed a lot because teaching is not only about explaining a

topic, teaching goes further… It is about looking for different ways to be understood. As well as

using tools and even creating them taking into account that not every student learns the same

way. I think teaching is a very complex job to do if you want to get good results, I mean, that is

made of many aspects, at first I thought it was only about delivering information to the students

and that’s it, but my point of view has changed a lot, it’s more than that. 
 2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher

reflected who you are?

Well I think that several of the things I have done reflect who I am. I have always been

interested in every student's assertive learning since I always try to use different strategies for

my students to learn. I love to use music because I like it a lot, through that I bring into the

classroom what I am. 

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain

with examples.

My patience… I am a person with explosive temperament in some situations. For

example when I met rude or rebellious children that are not interested in the class and they tend

to sabotage the class by bothering their classmates and even their teacher… So I think being

more patient than I normally am was one of my biggest challenges. 

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

I think one thing that made it easier for me was to show myself as a bit harsh teacher

because when you show up as a flexible or kind teacher they don’t respect you. Also I think I

should’ve paid more attention to certain things that my professors told or some tools they

provided.

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would

you use?

Okay… I think that my first year as a teacher has been good, challenging and meaningful

at once. 

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your

English class?
 I give a lot of value to it since it allows us to clear up many doubts students can have and

give them a better understanding especially with those who don’t have a good domain of

English. So if I see that something is way too (exaggeration of vowel o) important, I explain it in

Spanish. 

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing

your English class?

Well, I would like to give a complete list of referents that I know but actually I don’t

know them all. I will say the classic ones, Piaget and Vygostki, but when it comes to

methodologies, I think a lot of the communicative approach as well as the task based learning…

And a professor gave us a book by Harmer.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material

for the development of your classes? Why?

I like to catch my students' attention, so I am always trying to work on activities that

are… that involve their speaking skills because I think that when they have to give an opinion of

what they think they can feel more involved with the topic… Like, my criteria is always based

on the needs of my context.

Subject 7
1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student

teaching experience? 

Well, hello first of all, so my perceptions as a teacher it hasn’t changed during this career,

literally, like all semesters and like I said every time before entering this career since first

semester or tonight I never wanted to be a teacher and that perception haven’t changed because I

think that this career is like so ungrateful for others, you know? Teachers don’t get the

recognition that they deserve because this is a really hard work and I think that maybe if people
saw a little bit more about it they would understand like how difficult and hard-working this

process has to be so my perception as a teacher it haven’t changed that much… but I think that

teachers do really deserve to have like more recognition, a better salary and stuff like that

because what they do it’s not easy, it’s not easy at all and its something amazing and I really

(inaudible) for people who have that passion but for me it’s not my thing.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher

reflected who you are?

I think maybe my temper, well I definitely… I wasn’t like rude to students or things like

that but I really like to have things under control because sometimes students think that just

because you are a practice student or something like that they can get over you in the sense that

they can like have more control over the class, over the subject, over the content or something

like that so… something that I show over there is that my character is that if they want to go this

way they’re going to get exactly the same because I deserve respect just like them, just like they

do so that’s what I show through my practice and maybe the fact that I like to give the best of me

you know to make things in the right way and that’s something that I show them, like guys every

time you’re going to do something you gotta do it the best as you can, don’t compete with others

but try to compete with yourself in order to be better and improve more and more every day, so

yes, this is what I show about me, my character and maybe the things that I like to make them

right, to give the best of me.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain

with examples.

Everything has been like a big challenge for me, really, just like I was telling you before I

never wanted to get into this career… but, hm, things happen, but especially subjects like
pedagogy and didactics, it has been like really really difficult for me because I don’t like it, I

don’t feel passion for it and its really hard to make things you don´t like so the biggest challenge

has been that, to have to got to the classroom, to plan a class, to make reflections about it, to

create material, everything that has to be involved with pedagogy and didactics it has been a

challenge for me.

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

Something that would have made this easier for me or well, a little bit more comfortable

its to have more options in the language and the issues to the choose them, for example, if I want

to study german or Italian, ok, it's up to me but I don’t have to take into account of other 30, 20,

40 students, so that would be the first thing, to have more options in language. The second,

choose the teacher with whom I want to see the class, because there are some teachers I don’t

like, I don’t like the way they teach or maybe they're not like the greatest of all of them, so that

would be the second, to choose the teacher. The third one is that pedagogy would be elective,

you know, that it wasn’t obligatory or mandatory to see that subject so that would make

everything easier because we can have different opportunities like in translation, in business or

something like that so… more opportunities in order to get into different fields.

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would

you use?

It was terrible, sad, annoying, anxious, madness, anger, “¡ay!” (expression in Spanish) I

don’t know, they are like the worst thing literally, you can use those adjectives because I didn’t

like it, not even one bit, you can also use stressful.

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your

English class?
 Well, I do believe that in order for you to learn a language is very good for you to be in

the native environment, you know, to get into that sense that you’re going to be talking,

listening, reading, doing everything in the foreign language that you’re trying to learn, but also,

it's really important to understand that not all students learn in the same way, so for that reason I

give like a really big value but when it's necessary, when I see that the student didn’t understand

or like this new word for him or her in that case I do use the mother tongue because I want them

to experience as much as they can with the new language, you know, so I think its very to give

them like the, this new opportunity to get in touch with the language but without leaving aside

the mother tongue that is going to help us in order… sorry, in case that we didn’t. 

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing

your English class?

Well, I have been sticking to some documents that teachers have given us during this

career because I think they are really like adequate and appropriate for the practice, so I just take

two authors that we have seen, I think everyone has seen during this career, for example, Jeremy

Harmer, Vygotsky, stuff like that, because they got like the appropriate tools theory that it's

really important, some documents that we have used in 3rd and 1st semester I think are really

helpful, also in 4th semester, documents that have to do with some philosophers and stuff like

that because I consider that they’re really nice and practical, you know, that I can change

everything and the theory is so good that is going to work with anything I want so if I want to do

this activity is going to be ok, if I want to do this other one it's going to be ok as well, so I can

have different models and play with them.

 8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material

for the development of your classes? Why?

I like to use material that makes the student feel comfortable but that it’s also innovative,

because I think that it’s really good to make something different you know just to study with a

book or something like that it's really boring so I like to have different ideas, to keep in mind

their opinions, to work with music, movies, board games, stuff like that, in order that the, that

the class have like a different environment, you know, it's not gonna be like fun the whole time

but I try to do it because learning a language shouldn’t be taken as a something boring like a

long process or something like that but as something you can enjoy, so the criteria that I take its

that its innovative, creative, accurate of course, also comfortable for the students.

Subject 8
1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student

teaching experience? 

Okay, so, I believe that the role of teacher goes beyond just giving the class and I think this

is something that we should value a lot and it seems for us as students is very easy to judge or

see the bad things of a teacher without putting ourselves to see the effort and obviously the

dedication the teacher has. The fact that you have to see that a teacher is not only that he or she

is also a guide, a mentor, a full time motivator who must carry like a burden and not only work

but also personal things, to be a trust entity for his or her students.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher

reflected who you are?

Well I think that I can reflect myself on the things I really want to teach, the messages.

when I motivate them to do activities where they feel comfortable with each other, for example

activities or exercises where they must interact with each other and where the error is seen as
one more thing to learn.  I also like to use images, videos and even songs that can be related to

the topic that is being studied. I really like to use images that are related one way or another to

the planet, to take care of animals, about the ecosystem. Related to music... the music I like to

use are the classic ones… the music that is really going out of style, something like that it's like a

kind of reminder that there is much more than just like the music and that many of these lyrics

are really powerful and rich in vocabulary.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.

The biggest challenge for me has been the simple fact of being here in this career because

I don't have the teaching vocation, I'm not interested in having it, so the simple creation of lesson

plans and development of didactic materials has been really complex for me, it really isn't

something that I enjoy to do, so the effort that I have to put is greater. Also when I’m teaching I

think it is something that anyone in this career has been terrified of but for me has been difficult

and I consider that is something that requires giving a lot of yourself and I don’t have the

patience and the dedication that is necessary for this. 

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

Well, you already know I don’t want to be a teacher (laughs)... but I think if the feedback

process was greater, it would be easy for us to know when we are doing something wrong.

Feedback is something really important to me. 

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?

Well, the truth is that sometimes this process has been stressful, unpleasant and somehow

boring… It made me cry a lot, I felt frustrated. I didn’t feel happy. But I think this a job for
someone who really loves teaching. It’s hard and I don’t really feel capable of practicing this

profession in any field. 

6.  As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

I consider that the use of the mother tongue is fundamental within a L2 learning process,

but we must not let it dominate the teaching space or like the classroom. We know that here in

Colombia, English seems to be something not very approachable because students don’t take it

seriously. They think this subject is just to fill like… some hours So the use of L2 should be

seen. The mother tongue can hinder or help the second language, like to clarify. But it shouldn’t

be like a primary resource. Neither can we pretend that if a topic is not understood it must be

explained in Spanish because students' ears must be prepared to… must get used to understand a

second language. The mother tongue must be used only in extreme cases. 

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

Well, I rely on the direct method a lot where the student is involved in the process of

comprehension, obviously oral and writing production. Also when the teacher corrects errors

and the student acts as a participant rather than just a receiver… They can communicate in

everyday situations. Also, introducing active learning just as learning your mother tongue, so

you get to speak by speaking… So in practice it’s the same, I put them to speak by different

activities. So here I include Sauveur; he bases his teaching methods in intensive oral interactions

in the target language using questions as a means to use and stimulate the use of the language. 

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

 I like that whatever I am going to use, like in activities and some things regarding

didactic. Those things must help me to keep my students in constant participation, such as

dialogues, readings, writing all kinds of things that allow them to communicate like actively in

the classroom among them. The reason why is… well, it is the method that I have chosen to do

my immersion practices and I consider it a good method to promote the evolving of their

speech. 

Subject 9

1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student

teaching practice?

Well, I think that it's very important in the learning process to do a lot of change because

you have to take into account the context of your students. You never you never uhm… You

never, as a teacher have the same classroom with the same aptitudes. This... I'm a student. I

mean, every classroom is different. And in my perception, I think that as a teacher, we have to...

we have to do... a lot of change regarding the ability of the aspects that the context has.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher

reflected who you are?

Well, I I think that I am a teacher that loves music, and I think that music is really… is a

really good resource for learning a language. I mean, as a teacher, I really like to play songs…

with the objective to recognize a song or some new vocabulary, some right pronunciation, or

even grammar because the music for me is really… a really good resource.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession and why? Can you please

explain with examples?

 Well, as I said before, I, I… consider that each day each class is really… well is different

with a lot of challenges. But in my opinion… And the challenge. Well, I don't know… I think

that… that… the way that I express I think that… when you want to teach something… You

have, uh. I don't know what the word is. I have to. Well, you are a teacher. You have to have the

knowledge, the correct knowledge about the language and you... have to... to take into account

the. Well, the ability to express yourself in a better way, I think. Well, I mean, it's very difficult

to recognize the better way to express yourself in a lot of contexts that we can have, as I said

before. Well. I, I, I, I know it's it's really it's really it's really difficult for me when you are in a

new classroom, for example, because you don't know what your context is. And some students

are very rude. For younger teachers, I mean, sometimes the students don't respect you. And I

think that is one of the challenges that us as teachers have. 

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you is what is more

there like easier for you?

Mh, I think that through experience you can say which aspects can become easy, right?

But at this moment, I think that… Eh, that being a teacher is not something that you… can say

like “Ah, it’s easy to do this” or something like that. Something I can say it’s easy is planning

your activities but it is a little bit hard when you plan your activities and they don’t happen the

way you think they would be.

5. If you could describe your first year of teaching with additives, which objectives will

you use?

I… I don't know, it's really hard. But... I think it is amazing and hard and difficult. I think

that no more.
 6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your

English class?

OK, OK. Well, I think that it depends, it depends on the context, right?  I think, because

if you are in contact with people that have, for example, level A1, you can not express all the

information in L2. And I think that it depends on the context. If you are teaching in a classroom

with B2 or maybe in a college that you already know, in that context have knowledge about it,

you can use only the L2. But if you don't if you don't have a context with that kind of level, I

think that is better a time to find a balance in the mother tongue and L2.

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing

your English class?

Authors? Well, yeah, I don't know. I think that… I don't know, I don't remember. Well, I

think that I like when I am teaching to students, that their age is around five or four years.

Skinner is one of the authors that I like because you can do some activities in the classroom like

If you do this right, you get a point. For example, I like to reward my students when they do

something right.

1. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material

for the development of your classes? Why?

Well, I, I, I think or I consider that I am a really creative person and I like to do a lot of

things related to making things I don't know, drawings or something tangible. And when I’m

planning my classes, I, I mean I, I really like to do activities not only that the students have to sit

down and stay there like they are machines. No, I really like them to stand up and do things to

interact with others. And I think that is right… the answer or…
Subject 10

1. How has your perception of what a teacher does changed during your student teaching

experience? 

Well, as we started to do pedagogical practices in first semester, well, it was not like

doing the real practice but we were watching other teachers I think that we had a different

perception of the role of a teacher, because we saw what a teacher did from the perspective of a

teacher and I think that a lot of things changed since the fact that… we students maybe in school,

maybe in the university we think that teachers are not (laughs) like, I don’t know how to say it

but like real people, but we think that they are kind of robots that are there only to explain the

things that they have to explain but here in this position I think we can easily find and feel

related to the humanity of teacher and how this profession is as easy and how it may looks but

this is a really challenging one but also a very rewarding one.

2. What are some examples that you can think of where what you did as a teacher reflected

who you are?

I think that the individuality and the perception of ourselves starts early in the education

process since we are kids basically, and I think we as teachers do reflect a lot of ourselves in the

things that we do in a classroom, so for example, my experience in school was a little rough and

I hated a lot of things of English class so I tried to change those things into make to my students

that English learning is a… ok, to make English learning a better experience, so I think a lot

myself who I am is reflected on that perspective into that approach to education, into my way of

teaching.

3. What was the biggest challenge for you in this profession? Why? Please explain with

examples.
 Well, I think that the biggest challenge for me in this profession that is something that

still challenges me is the organization and the time I must pay to this profession because, ok, we

as students don’t see these things but as teachers we realize how much time or how much work it

takes to create a lesson plan, how to plan a class, how to think about the activities, think about

the concepts and things we are going to teach and that is a very time-consuming activity and in

my case is a huge challenge to be organized in that way, and to have things up and tidy and to

present good lessons to my students because sometimes I do prefer spend my time doing other

activities than paying attention to them and the teaching profession does not take just 8 hours a

day but a lot more than that.

4. What could have been done to make this process smoother for you?

Well I think that this experience of the pandemic and the COVID-19 in this year, made

the experience even worse for me because, as I’ve said before, one of my biggest challenges is to

be organized and being all day at home I think that helped me procrastinate a lot and be more

disorganized so I maybe if I took this experience in its “natural way” I mean… In a normal or in

a normal situation or normal scenario it would be way better and way smoother to me because

maybe the schedule of a real class, or well I mean a real life environment would help me to press

myself and do better things than the things I’ve done this semester… that I don’t mean they’re

bad but they can improve a lot.

5. If you describe your first year of teaching with adjectives, which adjectives would you

use?

Ok, if I describe this year of teacher which was my first one I would describe it as messy,

chaotic and unorganized, along with some adjectives like unpleasant and stressful because I
repeat, this semester was not a good experience for me because of the virtuality and the COVID-

19 scenario that we’re in.

6. As a pre-service teacher, what value do you place on the mother tongue in your English

class?

Well, as a pre-service teacher I found something pretty interesting which is that the

ministry of education has a series of curricular guidelines that are supposed to give us as

teachers the idea and the level of students, sorry, the level of English students may have in which

courses, in which grades, and I found that the reality is far below that descriptions that curricular

guidelines, if you go for example to an 11th grade here in Colombia in a public institution you’ll

find out most of students don’t have the slightest idea of how to speak English and how to relate

to the language, so I, I think that the value of the mother tongue is still fundamental to

communicate with those students because they don’t have the capacity and the competences to

communicate in the second language so maybe we should try to limit ourselves when speaking

in the mother tongue but if we just don’t speak in the mother tongue the teachers won’t

understand anything and we’ll find even harder and even worse the process of learning a second

language.

7. What are your theoretical and practical references when building and developing your

English class?

Well, when I think about creating a lesson plan for an English class, what I try to do is to

establish my objectives, thinking about what do I want that students to develop in that class,

maybe I just want to introduce them to a new topic, maybe I want that they have activities that

help them to practice with new vocabulary or new word structures and when I have that

objective clear I try to find methods of learning, sorry, to teaching second language that may
help them to achieve that goal, so for example, earlier in this semester I created a lesson plan

where I used realia as a method to learning new vocabulary, and my idea was that, well, the

objective was that students learn new vocabulary, what I did was to show them to look in their

own rooms in their own houses for elements and for things that they didn’t know its names, and

that way, with familiar and close things to them, hm, made them to expand their vocabulary so

that’s kind of the way that I try to build my English class, thinking about what I want to achieve

and what are the best tools to achieve that.

8. What are the criteria you take into consideration when choosing the work material for

the development of your classes? Why?

Well, first of all, I don’t use to take materials and implement them as they are but what I

try to do is to contextualize them in the situation and in the context of my students so, if for

example, if I am working in the guideline book and I found an activity I try to change that

activity and to adapt it to the level of my students, the capacity that they have, the skills that I

wanna train, that I wanna reinforce and of course the context and the familiar things they are

with, you know? So if for example there’s a roulette that talks about city and the city is New

York, well my students are not related to new York I try to change that vocabulary and to adapt

that activity to again, things they are familiar with, so instead of new York I’m going to say

Tuluá, instead of Central Park I will say Sarmiento’s park or Parque de la Guadua, things that

they can find familiar and that may make them feel interested for the topic because many

students find English just as a necessary subject to graduate but actually English is an extremely

powerful tool to understand our reality, and if I can do that my students see English from that

perspective I think that they will understand the language better and that they will feel attracted

to it and put no resistance when I am teaching.

Semi-structured interview Network
Focus Group

Hi guys, this a focus group, it is a pleasure to have you all here today. I’m going to ask you

questions and you can answer, if some of you have something to add up it’s more tan fine, we

would like to discuss about the topic. The questions are pretty similar to our last interview….

The first one is, how has your perception about teaching changed through your practices? Who

wants to start?

Subject 1: According to our practices?

Mediator: Yes! Indeed.

Subject 1: Well, I think that… teaching is one of the most beautiful experiences… I mean, if you

have enough resources to develope your class, if you can teach something that’s important and

really interesting, it can be a good experience.

Mediator: Okay, I see… but but based on your own practices and experience, what do you think

about it? Has it changed?

Subject 1: I… I… I think it has changed and it’s good, you just need to know how to do it,

because if you try to do the same on every aspect and every class… well, you won’t survive, the

idea is to know exactly what you should you and to know the topic you will teach and prepare

everything that’s necessary for the class itself, you get used to everything… In my opinion, base

on the semesters in which I have done my practicum, it is an amazing experience and my

perception is so good.

Mediator: Nice… Okay, thank you, who else? Who wants to say something?
Subject 2: I would like to say something… I totally agree with Subject Juan Carlos, because the

planeation makes everything easier, my perception about teaching has changed because I got

used to it… the planeation of the clases are all, cause it is really important that you are really,

really organized in the topics and the topics you want to teach, but I think that more than

knowing the topic you need vocation because to be a teacher is far away from being easy…

because, well, you can know a lot of grammar, a lot of words in English, you can be a C2 in

English but if you don’t have vocation for this profession, you can’t do… you can’t teach in a

adequate way because more than teach something you have to listen to your students, you have

to interact. In my experience I really like it because since I was a child I really liked teaching… I

like to interact with people, I like to interact through knowledge. If I kno something and the

other knows something I don’t, the fact that we can exchange that something it’s exciting to

me…I like to learn… I mean I find teaching really interesting because I can learn from my

students.

Mediator: Okay, cool, who else wants to participate?

Subject 3: Yes, I… I kind of agree with what my partners have said…What they say is true, you

need vocation to put yourself through all of this process… Since the very first interview that we

did, my perception hasn’t changed, I still strongly agree with the fact that I don’t like teaching,

this is a like… this is not for me. I know that being a teacher is a really hard job and I really

appreciate what teachers do for us but it’s not something that I see myself doing because I am

not patient enough for that, I’m not so good at… like trying to transmit knowledge…Like to

make everyone understand me… So, my perception hasn’t changed… but as I said I really

appreciate what teachers do, I think… I am pretty sure this profession deserves better than they

receive.
Mediator: Okay, thank you, let’s continue…

Subject 4: So… I like… I kind of agree with my classmates because… I don’t like teaching as

well, even though I know it is not my vocation, my perception has changed a lot since the

beginning of my practices… because the first time I hated teaching… And I was like “oh my

god, why did I commited this mistake?” Well, it was awful… I thought that I was so dumb for

starting this career. But through the experience I found out it is not that bad and even though I

don’t like it and I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life, for me it is not like a bad

experience… And it is not something that I still hate…I am not saying anymore things such as

“no, oh my god, why am I here?” I mean the process is enjoyable, sharing with your students,

learning from them, adapting activities, strategies… I mean you kind of can have a good time

while teaching but anyhow I still don’t enjoy it that much as I should.

Mediator: Okay, thanks a lot… Who wants so say something else?... No? Then, should we

continue with the next question?

Subject 5: Yes, because actually I feel the same about it… my perception has changed a bit but I

don’t feel like I am a pro at teaching even though I enjoy it.

Subject 6: I can say that when I started with the practices, I used to think that it was easy for

teachers just to stand there and speak about a topic… Maybe we… as students are too rude and

don’t understand but know I started my practices I realized how it is, when you are the teacher

and start to try to be understood…

Mediator: Good to know, so, based on that… Have you had any meaningful situations regarding

how you feed as a teacher during your practices? Please mention some of them.
Subject Juan Manuel: I am going to start because when you said something about significant

experiences I thought of something that happened to me that I will never forget, I thought that I

was doing a good job with my practices and then a student said that he didn’t learn anything

from my class, I got so upset and I started crying, it was not a good experience but it was

meaningful and I was so sad about that everything that I used to perform as a teacher felt like

nothing just because of that single student. So it of course changed how I feed as a teacher, I

gotta keep working on my processes but I can’t let those simple things ruin all the process that I

am carrying out.

Mediator: I see! Thank you for sharing that… Who else would like to share something?

Subject 1: Me… Okay a situation that a situation that I consider it was very difficult or that

changed the way that I was doing my things, the idea of being of being a new young teacher in a

new context, on a new school or institution… Mh, I don’t like it, sometimes, students don’t take

you seriously, I mean, eh, when you try to explain something with your material and tools,

students don’t pay attention to what you say, sometimes, in my case, some students raised their

voice against me… and they say I was too young to be a teacher so they are not paying attention

to me. Instantly, the professor who was watching my class and myself, raised our voices and we

explained to all the class that I was the teacher and I would be grading them, we had to put a

warning because just being a teacher doesn’t mean I am being respected.

Mediator: Thank you… I see, who wants to say something? It can be regarding this experience

or something that had happened to you…

Subject 4: I want to say something that I…it’s related to what my mate was saying, It was when

I first started my practices, I had the same problem, I started the class with all of my energy like
“hey guys, I am your new teacher, blabla, I got this for you…” and they didn’t take me

seriously, it is upsetting, because at that moment I was…seventeen or eighteen. So they were

like “what is this kid doing here?” because they were almost my age, so they didn’t see me as a

teacher but a classmate, they didn’t take me seriously. Those first experiences were pretty hard.

But then I had an experience with first graders and it is kind of strange because they respected

me way more than grown students and the fact that I don’t see myself doing this all my life

makes it weirder but beautiful… and it was nice for me to see them saying hi to me when I

encountered them casually on the street like “Hello! That’s my teacher, hello teacher! Hola

teacher, ¿cómo está?” but also since they are kids it is so hard to control them, I remember they

were screaming all the time, running through the classroom and I don’t want to be a teacher

that’s rude… like “hey, don’t do this, do that, sit down, stand up, blabla” but also I don’t want to

be a teacher that’s soft and who can’t even properly use their voice, I mean, I don’t want to be

on any of those extremes. So it is so hard to find a balance.

Mediator: That’s interesting, two different experiences, thank you so much, who wants to

continue?

Subject 7: Well, I can’t think of any kind of situation but it is scary for me, because I have to

prepare my class… I don’t like I fit in on these profession, the feeling is strange… I don’t see

myself doing this. It happens to me all the time, I don’t feel comfortable on any of them, I don’t

have the patience and I don’t have the right to ask my students to respect me in the classroom. It

is very complex to be in classroom and being the centers of attention… so, it is scary and it

makes me feel anxious. It is just that I don’t feel comfortable at all?

Mediator: I understand… but do you remember any specific situation in which you felt that

way? Like… did something happened?

Subject 7: Well, I just had one class before pandemic so… It was on fifth semester, so it was just

one and it was enough for me to feel bad, the other ones were video classes. The class wasn’t

bad, I just don’t feel comfortable, the problem aren’t the classes, it is me.

Subject 4: I would like to share some things… the first one is that I have a really awful

experience in my practices, before pandemic, we had like three classes and the titular teacher left

me alone with the students, they were seven graders and in the back of the classroom some of

them started to fight, like, fighting… with punches and fists and stuff, and I was so scared that I

ran to the teacher to find a solution because I couldn’t do it by myself… It was so difficult for

me because I didn’t know how to handle those situations, they were bleeding and I was like

“What am I going to do here?” It was impossible for me, I was crying for help, it was stressful.

The hardest part of all is the time before teaching… All the planning of the classes, activities,

writing, gathering, that paperwork is awful for me… like I don’t want to do it anymore… It is a

super stressful situation because we have to create those plans, to know that each week we have

to have a plan… no… that’s the hardest part for me.

Mediator: Okay… thanks for sharing… Someone else?

Subject 6: Well… yeah, I think it was on sixth semester, I was doing my practices at a very

dangerous neighborhood in the city, it is a place with a lot of issues and situations…that are bad,

It has a high index of violence and drugs. Teaching there was like very… rough… it was

difficult because the teachers there were sorry that I was there, they were always saying I had to

be careful, students’ both parents were in jail, some students were in gangs, a teen years old
student had like 8 tattoos over his body, it was shocking for me to a see with tattoos. He was in a

gang and by the time I was performing my classes he would be like looking through the window

and his classmates told me it was because he was protecting the classroom from other gangs and

bad people around there. Those situations were relevant to me; those students were disconnected

in the class… It was really bad. I was afraid. It was shocking…

Mediator: Thank you so much… Anyone else wants to say something?

Subject 5: So… well, so far I haven’t had any situation like that, most of my students are very

good but I haven’t had a meaningful situation that makes me feel comfortable enough in this

profession. There are things that I am more passionate about… I feel like I am a good teacher…

I don’t know… If I find myself on a hard situation I prefer to ignore it because otherwise I

would end up dying of stress… So… to be a teacher is something that I consider but isn’t a full

decision of what I want to do.

Mediator: I see… thank you, let’s move on to the next question… well, do you remember the

challenges you mentioned on the interview? Some of you said you were afraid of speaking in

public, to be patient, to express yourselves properly, to be organized… classroom

management… So, think of those challenges and how have you overcome any of those

challenges you mentioned in the first interview we had and some that have appeared by now?

Subject 6: Like, any of them?

Mediator: Yes, any of them…

Subject 2: I want to say something… one of the things I am afraid of is that the time won’t be

enough for me to complete my classes so I have to be patient and I have realized I have enough
time to perform my class, planning is everything as some of you guys had said… that’s it. I feel

very confident by now.

Subject 6: Uhm, I, well… I think maybe one of the biggest challenges for me has been my

insecurities regarding the way I perform my English skills and I still struggle with that but the

only way to overcome it is by trying… I was always afraid of not being enough at the end of the

career, not being like enough to be good teacher because it is very related to summative

evaluation and I was always afraid of that but right now I think it is not about the grade it is

about the way you perform your classes and you transform a situation in a classroom, you got to

start realizing how different is to be in the classroom instead of just reading the theory. It is not

about how many theoreticians you know, it is more about how the decisions are made and the

way I help my students… Lately I have felt very confident, so it is like the time gives you the

reason, that was like the only… challenge I have overcome those problems.

Mediator: Thank you! Now that you mention it… well, I was surprised because in the interview

you mentioned just a few authors when I asked about theoreticians and methods, like five of

them and we cover a lot during the whole career… So do you think is it important to have

authors in mind? Do you prefer to have in mind the author or the method? What do you do when

you are going to prepare your class? I am really curious about it… I want to know…

Subject 4: I think it is important to have those authors in your mind and to know the advances

they made in the educative field of action but I think it’s better just to follow your heart and to

create your style, because all contexts are different and if you get married to a method it would

be hard for it to function everywhere, If I don’t follow my heart I am not being myself…
Mediator: Okay, that is interesting… anyone else?

Subject 5: I feel the same about it, like, authors are important but to be honest I prefer to think of

the method and to think as well of the needs of my students… That’s what I think.

Subject 1: I would like to say… like…that I think that is very important to take into account the

authors and methods, well just to have them present, the basic of the author and the methods in

case you case you need to improve something or to remember something related to that author or

method, you can use that information. It is not necessary to develop every activity taking into

account one method or methodology or author in specific, you can develop it through things in

your environment, if you it is necessary to change or adapt the theory to your plan, you can do it

but the idea is not to base every class or every situation that you teach on one specific author

because not all the situations are the same.

Mediator: I see, thank you… Anyone else? No?... Okay, we can move on to the next question…

Based on your recent experience, what advice would you give yourself when you first started

your immersion practices?

Subject 2: I would say to me… it is something regarding to the last answers because when I

started my practicum, I was like a… I don’t how can I say como que me aceleraba mucho…

Mediator: Huh, you were rushing yourself…

Subject 2: Yes! I rushed myself… one the things I would like to say to me is that I have enough

time to do everything, don’t worry, calm down, you can continue on the next class… I am a

person who likes to do everything quick.

Subject 8: The thing I would like to say to myself is to control my temper, I am a high tempered

person, my greatest challenge has been to have self-control and in my practice I have had

moments with children where I have to say okay, stop… And to control myself… that would be

it.

Subject 6: I was thinking about the question and I think a good advice in that time for me would

be do no procrastinate because sometimes you leave everything for the deadline and you are like

you can do it tomorrow but maybe you can’t. Becoming a teacher is… a teacher needs to be very

organized because of all the information to managed so yeah, to not procrastinate and being

organized

Subject 4: I would like to say to myself like don’t take this too serious… like, don’t

misunderstand me… I take it seriously. But in the beginning these practices were everything I

thought about I started to soon… So my advice would be to relax a little bit, to slow down… as

my classmate was saying.

Subject 2: I want to say something related to procrastination…my classmate said… well don’t

procrastinate. It is very difficult for me, like when I began this career I procrastinated every day

and I realized that to be a teacher I need to stop doing that, I left everything to weekends, I

wouldn’t do anything on weekends… but Mondays came I was a mess, I would cry my soul out,

I would blame myself all the time.

Mediator: So we can move on to the next question… Where do the tools to cope with the

challenges in your pedagogical practices come from? College autonomous search? Mention

some of them.
Subject 2: I create it myself and I like to look on the internet for some ideas…

Subject 8: Same, I prefer to look on Internet to find something related to the topic and then I do

it myself, I like it that way because the material is contextualized.

Subject 4: Kahoots, slides, worksheets, games, flahscards, realia, all of them are created by

myself as well, I rely a lot on my creativity…

Subject 6: I know… I like to do Kahoots, worksheets, workshops, artistic material, realia, so all

of it must be related to the topic and the context of my students, and there’s so much material

that is for English native speakers so the level doesn’t match.

Subject 2: I really like to created slides, kahoots, worksheet, games in educaplay, I like that

platform a lot… I can take some ideas from the internet or some pages but I always end up using

it on my own way… I like to try different ways of using that material… I try it to be as dynamic

as possible… I don’t like teaching but I am a bit too serious when I have to do it, I have to like…

just do it for yourself and create something good for your students…

Subject 1: The material I create the most is Kahoot, word finder, slides. homeworks and missing

words, I am used to create it, most of the time I do it… I try it to be easy, understandable… It

guarantees more participation in the class and they actually learn from it, they spend their time

doing the actitivities and not trying to understand the questions on it.

Subject 5: I create it myself as well and I like to create Guides, quizzes, slides… I would rarely

use material that comes from college, not because is bad but because theory doesn’t match

reality and our practice contexts are too different. I like to transform my material…
Subject 7: Mine is kind of similar, I do it by myself… Slides, tests, Kahoots, games, broken

phones, drawings, kind of padlets, crosswords…It depends of the situations, material has to be

adapted, some things change depending on the grade…

Subject 3: I like to use Kahoot, slides, flashcards, worksheets, games, quizzes, but all of them by

myself…I like to create it I think like… even though this is not my thing and biggest passion… I

like to give the best of me, I like to create everything that I know I would like to have at school.

In case I run out of creativity and I find an idea and then I adapt it…

Mediator: Nice conversation! Now we can move on to the next question… Can you describe

your practices during last semester with three words?

Subject 6: Ugh, it was stressful… Non didactical, boring, necessary… like I had to do it even if I

didn’t want to.

Mediator: I remember most of you felt anxious, sad… angry, upset, tired…

Subject 7: Yes, it was pretty frustrating, like a lot, but I also think this pandemic has a lot to do

with it… like, we’ve been feeling like this the whole time. But is very different but nice, because

it is easier in terms of material creation, and creativity can flow a little more through these

electronic tools…

Subject 1: Yes, I think it is really stressful because we had a lot to do and we are not so used to

work by digital platforms buy I like it a lot. It is difficult, you have to work hard but it is also

rewarding…
Subject 2: For me it is really different from my classmates because I really feel confident when I

can talk to my students, because I really like teaching… I love to interact and in the same I enjoy

feeling like I can be a creative person because in my daily life I am like that, I like to do for

example the material as I mentioned before, I like to plan, I like my practices and when I use it, I

feel useful… So this semester was amusing for me, really entertaining… pretty cool.

Mediator: Okay! Thanks a lot! Let’s continue… What importance do you give to carrying out

your practices through digital platforms? Is it relevant or not?

Subject Juan Carlos: I think it is really important because sooner or later those platforms will be

part of education so I think we are preparing for that, I consider it is really relevant… Yes, that’s

is what I think…

Subject 6: Uhm, yeah, I think it is relevant because for me it becomes more important during the

pandemic, I mean, in the past most of the time my students didn’t have like access to internet

connection and right now it is different, it is more common to have students with internet

connection, it is important to take into consideration to transform your class in the ones carried

out during virtuality.

Subject 3: I think it is really important you know… maybe we didn’t have in mind to work like

this but also it is kind of hard to keep up the track with this virtual process, for example… I had

my first class today and the internet connection didn’t work, the other teacher was at school with

some students, some of them were at home, then my internet failed, then his… it was terrible, I

couldn’t listen to them, I didn’t have a real class. The whole time we were like “can you hear

me?” it was so frustrating… because you just want to do the thing and to do everything you

prepared, give your best, but it is really hard to keep up with it…
Subject 4: I don’t like, I prefer school contact but I have to do it, I think it is relevant but not

better that interacting in the classroom, it is not the same, there are many factors that affect life

for students and I don’t like it, the classroom is the only place we have for ourselves…

Subject 7: I like to work virtually because it is easier to create material but at the same time as

my classmates said it is way more difficult you must thing on a lot of things you don’t when you

are in the actual classroom with your students and all the environment is created for your

students to learn.

Mediator: I see, I like it when you have a convo without me having to tell you what to do, thank

you guys… we can move on… If you had to choose one of the ELF teaching methods applied in

your practices, which would it be and why?

(Silence)

Mediator: Mh… to much silence, out of the methods you have applied… which one do you like

the most and why?

Subject 1: It is not a method but I really like gamification, so I work a lot based on that, and then

I apply different strategies that allows me to play games in class in order to learn something… I

want students to move, to think of the class as a fun space…

Subject 3: I really like the direct method… I think it is good because students are forced to use

the foreign language, like the whole environment is full of English, you get them to use it… It’s

hard at first but this method is really good for students to get used to the language…

Subject 4: I would say I would choose the English Language Content in which a topic is

presented to students and we develop some English aspects based on that topic but the topic
itself is the center of the class and not the English part, I really like it… Language becomes a

tool to work on a topic, it is not the goal. The topic is an excuse to use the language.

Subject 2: I want to say something… I choose the same method as my classmate… I remember

that my first class of this semester I put the subject of describing objects I told my students to

work on that topic using English as a tool…

Mediator: Nice, I see… we already have talked about methods so we can move on… I know you

are tired; we are almost done… okay guys… What value do you give to the mandatory

documentation to develop your immersion practices? For example: lesson plans, area plan,

journal.

Subject 4: I do give value to those mandatory documents because it makes the experience of

being a teacher much easier because you already have a guideline, you don’t have to do

everything from the very beginning but you can look at Guia 22, what can I do during this class,

what can I do to achieve this goal, what am I supposed to teach? And you can have that to begin

with… You have the information; you just have to adapt it to your context…

Subject 3: Yes, I remember when I started my practices I was asking myself, how do I start this

class, what are the topics that I should teach, where can I find that information? Because I didn’t

know how to start teaching English… and for example with Guia 22, you can find everything as

my classmate said, you just adapt it, it is really useful…

Mediator: So good to hear that… And what about the journal? We have to do journals for every

week, do you find it important? Is it valuable?

Subject 2: Journal? Is it el diario de campo?

Mediator: Yes, that one, what do you think of it?

Subject 2: Oh no… (laughs)

Mediator: Do you give it any value?

Subject 2: Well, maybe if you are going to look at them in the future… but to be honest, right

now I don’t find them useful, it is exhausting to do them, I don’t like them…

Subject 3: I don’t find them valuable, they are just a way for professors to track down our

process, like that’s the only function I can think of.

Mediator: I see, huh… What do you think about area plan?

Subject 5: Those are important but they are just too many and I don’t like them.

Subject 6: Well, for me it is important because you need to know about the institution and in the

area plan you have like… la malla curricular, the curriculum… that is really important to know

what topics are we supposed to teach…

Mediator: Thank you! So… we can move on to the last two questions, I am sorry this is taking

too long guys, you’ve been so helpful… How important is the advisory teacher in the

development of your practices?

Subject 7: Absolutely! in my experience, yes, because there are some times in which I don’t

remember stuff I am supposed to know and I am like “teacher, can you help me with this?” or

“teacher I don’t remember this, would you please remind it to me?” and stuff I need an advice

about…

Mediator: Nice, and your practice teacher? The one who answers your journals…

Subject 5: Yes, they are very nice tool, but I still don’t like journals…
Subject 2: Yes, he is very valuable… If you have some trouble at my practice place I can ask

him about it, some advice, something I could change, something I am not doing fine… If you

want to improve your teaching and you want to get advice, it is really useful.

Subject 4: In my experience I have had the same practice teacher since the beginning of my

career… He is very strict on his things and I find it awful because I was too lazy to do things. So

at the beginning it was very stressful for me I didn’t like it but now I know how useful is to have

a guide when you are developing your practices… Then I was able to tell him if something was

happening like “hey teacher, I would like to know what can I do solve this situation, this and

that” He is amazing… I really like him as advisor teacher.

Mediator: Nice, guys, thank you, now we move onto the last question… If we had to construct a

definition of identity for pre-service teachers, what would it be? Think of the way you feel as a

teacher, the way you behave, think of all the things we have talked…

Subject 3: Well, I think identity is what you feel comfortable with… that makes you feel

confident, secure about yourself… something you like, that you really appreciate…

Mediator: Thank you! Now that we have a definition for identity… What do you think about

your identity as teachers? What kind of teachers are you, guys?

Subject 3: Well, even I don’t even know what kind of teacher I try my best to fulfil everything

that I am supposed to do in my practices if you ask me to do things I will do them because I

really like to give my best…. Well, I think that since identity is something that changes, it
depends on contexts in which I am, so if I feel comfortable in my practice context my identity

would be certain way but if my context is bad, I won’t the same.

Subject 5: I agree, the context changes who you are and who you are supposed to be.

Subject 2: Same. Even if you don’t like it you have to give the best of you… because I don’t do

it only for a grade but I like to show myself I know how to do things.

Mediator: So, do you all agree that you like to challenge yourselves and to do things right? Let’s

talk about some features…

Subject 4: I agree! I think that even though we find this process so hard and sometimes so

stressing and the contexts aren’t the best, our role is to keep on going with it and to challenge not

only our students to learn but ourselves to teach. The idea is not to do a plain job, the idea is to

be the best version of yourself. We push ourselves to find the best of us…

Subject 2: I know we said it is tiring and we don’t want to do more paperwork but in the end we

do it because I need to and since I need to, I want to do it the best way possible, this is a

commitment not only with my students and with myself but also with the university…

Subject 7: I am a very organized teacher… but as well as all we know, sometimes things don’t

go as planned I tend to rush in many situations… like I put a lot of pressure on myself because I

want to go as they should.

Subject 1: I see a pattern here, we all are creative, we all like to do our work like it is supposed,

we put a lot of effort but we all are tired…

Mediator: I see it as well, that’s interesting…

Subject 2: I am a teacher as I said before I am very creative and I like that in my classes and I

like my students to be creative as well, that’s very important and I see all my classmates think

that way too…

Subject 9: I think our identity will keep changing, maybe we feel this way. Like pressured

because we are being graded, that pressure could be gone if grades weren´t an important part of

our lives as teachers… I consider myself a very empathetic teacher and I try to adapt my

everything into the context I am in…

Subject 5: I am the kind of teacher who can be a friend as long as students respect me and show

good results, everything is fine for me...I like interactive classes, I like good material, I like

when my students enjoy learning… I think that all of us are going to finish the process, all of us

are going to get graduate, so, we gotta keep doing our best… that’s part of our identity as

teachers, we like to do our best… I have that commitment with my students… I don’t my

students to see me as a teacher who doesn’t care at all… about what I do.
Mediator: Very interesting, guys, I am so grateful with you guys, this focus group has been

really nice, I enjoyed listening to you all, thank you so much for your participation!
Focus Group Network