I am an introvert person, and I find it difficult to communicate with others. When I am in a new place, I get quiet. The same situation happens when I am in the class. It is hard for me to work with people whom I do not know well. For people who are confident, it is easy, but not for me, unfortunately.
In the excerpt given above, the participant noted that for those who are confident it is easier to work with new people, thus showing that who are less confident experience troubles.
Therefore, we can see that personality is a cause for feeling insecure during
teaching. Marzhan also noted that her shyness has an adverse effect on her. She explained:
“I am very shy, and it is the reason why I become stressed while teaching or performing.
Of course, it affects negatively when I take examinations as well as when I teach.” Thus, it can be seen that due to participants’ personality prospective teachers undergo insecurity in teaching.
and it leads to anxiety making them worry while teaching. Also, unexperienced pre-service teachers are likely to experience stress due to unexpected questions from students. They are not quite positive of their knowledge in English, so during the lesson, they usually expect questions, which are difficult to answer, from students. It also provokes anxiety in teachers. Prospective teachers’ feelings of incompetency because of limited language proficiency and their anxiety due to unexpected questions from students will be described separately in the next two sub-themes below.
Sub-theme 1: Feeling incompetent due to limited language proficiency. Feeling incompetent due to limited language proficiency is directly connected to the invariant theme “worrying about proficiency in a target language” since when you are aware of your incompetence, you do not want others to notice it, and start worrying about it. All six participants reported they feel incompetence owing to their low level of English. Two participants Zhanna and Dana noted that they experience inconvenience when they do not pronounce words correctly. For example, Dana noted:
Not every teacher has very good pronunciation, and it is a problem. If you make a mistake in pronunciation, kids may ask “Whaat? How do you pronounce
[surprising voice]?” Of course, I lose confidence when students notice my mistakes.
In terms of pronunciation, Zhanna stated: “I think a lot and worry about pronouncing words correctly, as I had problems with it as a student, teachers used to criticize me for mispronouncing words.”
Moreover, five out of six participants believe they lack content knowledge which makes a teaching process difficult. Dana explained: “I feel anxious because of my own knowledge since I am not good at English. I cannot explain the topic to my students.” As can be seen from this excerpt from the interview with Aigul: “I admit that I am not a
proficient user of English, so I cannot say I know everything. Thus, I worry from the moments when students ask something I do not know.” From this quote, we can see that Aigul is not confident about her language proficiency, so do other participants, and it leads to experience anxiety about teaching it.
Dana tries to avoid conducting writing activities since she has to check them as soon as students complete the task, but she experiences uncertainty. She noted: “How can I check if I am not sure whether it is correct or not. I cannot do that. That is why I usually try to conduct speaking activities and discussions because I am very good at speaking.” From Dana’s description, it can be seen that teachers try to teach what they want and what they can, but not what they have to. Therefore, it can be concluded that prospective teachers consider themselves as not proficient enough in English to teach it to others, and it causes anxiety and stress. As a result, they just try to simplify their tasks or to get prepared more, which takes too much time. However, pre-preparation does not always work since students might ask unexpected questions.
Sub-theme 2: Unexpected questions. Notwithstanding the fact that teachers get
prepared to their classes, students might ask questions teachers find difficult to answer.
Three participants noted that unexpected questions cause them troubles during teaching.
Makpal noted: “I fell stress during the lesson even though I am prepared because students might ask something that I have not prepared. It is like out of the blue.” Marzhan also undergoes stress while awaiting students’ questions, and she described her state as below:
If my students raise their hands when I am delivering a lesson, I become nervous because they find something difficult and want to ask me. What if I do not know the answer? I do not understand what is going on with me, it is like an “explosion inside me.”
This excerpt from the interview with Marzhan reviews that she is quite worried about being incapable to explain to students what they want to know. Thus, it can be concluded that despite being well-prepared teacher candidates feel anxiety while teaching because they cannot foresee the questions that might be asked by students.