Abstract

This article has identified the opinions, perceptions obstacles and experiences of the EFL pre-service English teacher who participated in a training program in EFL context. In this study, only qualitative data was gathered. The participants in this study were 7 pre-service English teachers aged 23-28 years, from seven boys’ schools in Al-Baha city in Saudi Arabia. The researcher interviewed them at the end of the semester of the training program. The findings of this study were that some EFL pre-service English teachers felt that the training program enabled them to increase their confidence and social skills, enabling them to gain more experiences.

However, there were many disadvantages, barriers and obstacles to practicing pre-service teaching in the training program. These included: some EFL students were naughty and they caused problems in the classroom, the EFL students’ English level was very weak such that they could not communicate in the language and even they also could not understand the teacher’s instructions. Being in the training program, and studying at the college at the same time was very challenging for the pre-service English teachers. Also, some their main teachers were not willing to guide them. They were also often shy and embarrassed before the students. There were claims that the preparation book was difficult for most pre-service teachers to prepare. Most complained that they lacked the resources they required to prepare for their lessons.

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