How I Learnt to Be An Autonomous Pre-service-EFL Teacher During My Teaching Practicum Program: A Self-reflective Research
Abstract
As teachers hold a series of complex tasks that require the ability to make decisions, it is crucial to prepare them to be autonomous teachers during the teaching practicum program. This article reported my journey to be an autonomous pre-service EFL teacher during my teaching practicum program at a state senior high school in Jember. This research was designed as a narrative inquiry because it reported the stories of my journey to be an autonomous pre-service EFL teacher during my teaching practicum program. The data were in the form of self-reflective journals composed based on the recording of my teaching videos. The results of thematic analysis revealed that to become an autonomous EFL teacher, I had to learn to be self-aware by conducting teaching observation and receiving advice and feedback, build my own ideas through modifying the lesson plans, and selecting and producing learning materials and make my own decisions through presenting various media, experimenting with teaching techniques and monitoring the students' works. The findings imply that pre-service EFL teachers need to be given opportunities to teach English based on their selections of the instructional materials, media, teaching techniques, and assessment during their teaching practicum program.