The use of Video Enhanced Observation in video-mediated post-observation conversations on pre-service EFL teachers’ online practicum teaching

Abstract

Post-observation conversations are common practices in EFL teacher education contexts, which provide pre-service teachers with professional development opportunities through reflections on their practicum teaching. When performed in a data-led and evidence-based way, these conversations can constitute a truly reflective environment in and through which pre-service teachers can see their own interactional management of language learning processes. This study presents a case that comes from the online practicum teaching of EFL teachers in video-mediated classrooms. We deal with how a teacher trainer, during the video-mediated post-observation meeting, utilizes a digital observation and video tagging tool (i.e., Video Enhanced Observation) on the shared screen and topicalizes the pedagogical and technological aspects of the pre-service teacher's online practicum teaching with reference to the pre-practicum meetings, mentor teacher's role during the process, and the overall pedagogical outcomes of the process in situ. Using multimodal Conversation Analysis as the research methodology, we examine the reflective conversations between a teacher trainer and a pre-service teacher based on the screen-recorded video-mediated practicum teaching in online upper secondary EFL classrooms. The findings bring new insights into EFL learning, teaching, and teacher education in video-mediated fully online settings and describe the affordances and constraints of the digital tool.