Motivations and concerns: Voices from pre-service language teachers

Abstract

Contemporary interactionist theories conceive identity formation as a dynamic process that is continuously co-constructed within a social context. For pre-service language teachers, teacher education programs constitute the context in which their professional identities are formed. This cross-sectional qualitative study aims at exploring variations in pre-service language teachers' motivations, and concerns in order to understand how their identity is developed throughout teacher education programs. Data were collected from 121 pre-service language teachers at a state university in Turkey through their written reports. The differences across years with respect to their motivations and concerns indicated that as pre-service language teachers proceed along their education; their professional identity does not remain stable. The fluctuations observed among different year levels demonstrate the interplay between the context and the self. We suggest that these personal attributes need to be monitored in order to enhance language teacher education programs.