Connecting collaborative practicums to beliefs: The development of nonnative student teachers’ self-efficacy in native-nonnative trainee collaboration

Abstract

This qualitative study aimed to fill a research gap by examining the development of self-efficacy beliefs among nonnative-speaking student teachers (NNSTs) in teaching languages other than English. Situated in an international teacher education program for Chinese as a second/foreign language, this study explored the impacts of collaborative practicums on the self-efficacy beliefs of 17 NNSTs while they worked with 28 native-speaking student teachers (NSTs). The collaborative tasks included peer discussions, microteaching, peer observations, and peer feedback. The NNSTs' reflective essays were collected as primary data, supplemented by peer discussion and microteaching videos and peer feedback questionnaires. Using a qualitative methodology that integrated emotion coding and thematic analysis, the study revealed that all four tasks positively influenced NNSTs' self-efficacy beliefs by satisfying their professional engagement intentions. However, tasks involving verbal interactions between NNSTs and NSTs had adverse effects on NNSTs' self-efficacy beliefs, attributed to the limited academic language proficiency of NNSTs and the unsympathetic reactions and linguistic superiority displayed by NSTs. Finally, a three-phase collaborative practicum framework was proposed for language teacher education programs involving mixed native and nonnative trainee groups. This framework highlights the importance of developing inclusive interventions to foster the mutual recognition of nonnative-speaking teachers' values.