Optimizing Practica Through Mixed-Reality Simulation in Teacher Education for TESOL

Abstract

This chapter discusses how pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) methods course in an elementary teacher education program perceived their teaching practicum experience using mixed-reality simulation during the pandemic. Grounded in the framework of approximations of practice, the study addresses the perceived affordances and challenges that the PSTs held about the simulation experience in the TESOL teacher education program at a comprehensive US university. The qualitative data analysis of interviews, teaching videos, and written reflections of seven PSTs revealed that the PSTs positively perceived the alternative TESOL practicum as an emergency, useful replacement for a traditional practicum experience, offering them opportunities to implement and experiment with ESOL pedagogies as approximations of practice. However, PSTs observed limitations on their ability to execute the full range of their lesson plan preparations due to gaps in functional requirements in the development of the mixed reality classroom. Furthermore, the performance of the English learner avatar in response to the PST’s pedagogical endeavors and the technical limitations of the mixed-reality context constrained the PSTs’ learning. The study has important implications for TESOL teacher educators that must grapple with an increasing demand of alternative, innovative practicum arrangements.