Investigating pre-service efl teachers' foreign language teaching anxiety in teaching practicum

Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety (FLTA) is crucial because it can have significant effects on the performance of foreign language teachers (İpek, 2006). Investigating FLTA in pre-service teachers is particularly important as they are more likely to experience anxiety due to lacking teaching experience and as a result, they are more likely to encounter a sense of insufficiency (Li, Xie and Zeng, 2023). Therefore, this study aimed to investigate FLTA among pre-service EFL teachers during their teaching practicum process. Another aim of this research was to explore the levels of FLTA and its relationship with variables such as the participants' gender, age and practicum school level. Additionally, it was conducted to identify the sources of FLTA and its manifestations, its perceived impact on the pre-service teachers' teaching performance and the coping strategies used by pre-service teachers to deal with it. A mixed-methods convergent parallel research design was utilized to achieve the aims of the study. The quantitative data were collected from 111 pre-service EFL teachers from two state universities during the 2024-2025 academic year. All participants were selected according to purposive and convenience sampling. Every participant was actively attending their teaching practicum when they participated in the study. The quantitative data was gathered using the Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety Scale (FLTAS) (Aydın & Uştuk, 2020a). The qualitative part of the study featured 10 participants who also responded to the questionnaire, and the qualitative data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data was analyzed with the SPSS 26 program, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The quantitative findings revealed that the pre-service EFL teachers experienced moderate levels of FLTA in the teaching practicum. The quantitative analysis also showed that key sources of anxiety included self-perception of language proficiency, teaching inexperience, lack of student interest, fear of negative evaluation, and difficulties with time management. "Being unprepared for class" was found to be the most significant specific source of FLTA. Qualitatively, FLTA levels were found to be varying and situation-specific. The study concludes that FLTA is caused by a combination of personal, pedagogical, and contextual factors and has observable impacts on the participants' well-being and teaching practice. The findings also highlight that teacher education programs must explicitly address FLTA and raise awareness regarding it. Therefore, these programs should include anxiety management techniques and coping strategies into lessons, and build supportive practicum environments to better prepare pre-service teachers for the emotional demands of the teaching profession. Keywords: Foreign language teaching anxiety, EFL classes, pre-service EFL teachers, teaching practicum, teacher training programs