Integrating Peer-teaching Element into Pre-Service English Language Teacher Education Courses

The present study aims to investigate into the attitudes of both students and instructors in the English Department at Islamic Azad University of Shiraz towards „microteaching‟ element in some departmental courses. The study also aims to identify their needs, expectations and suggestions as regards the utilization of microteaching component in some of the departmental courses. This study has been designed as a case study which uses a mixed-methods approach to research. In other words, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through student and instructor questionnaires and interviews. The participants of the study are sixty-five student teachers and twelve instructors in the English Department at Islamic Azad University of Shiraz. Overall, the findings of the present study indicate that both the instructors and the student teachers held positive attitudes as regards the inclusion of microteaching element in some of the departmental courses including methodology courses and study skills courses. Also, the results highlighted the effectiveness and necessity of integrating microteaching component into language teacher education programs as perceived by the participants of the study. Furthermore, some pedagogical implications of the present study such as increasing the teacher candidates‟ awareness as regards the importance of microteaching as well as promoting the integration of microteaching in some of the departmental courses are presented. Also, some recommendations are provided to pave the way for the future researchers who are eager to conduct further studies on the utilization of microteaching component in language teacher education programs. Keywords: peer-teaching, student teacher, teacher education programs, instructors‟ attitudes, student teachers‟ attitudes