What would you do if …? Perceptions about anticipating and responding to language classroom incidents

Abstract

Teachers’ responses to language classroom incidents depend on many factors, including the extent of their teaching experience. The question of how much influence teaching experience carries is important given that pre-service teachers have had limited opportunities to respond to day-to-day incidents that arise in classrooms. This paper reports on a two-stage research study in Singapore that first explored 22 pre-service teachers’ understandings of language classroom incidents and their possible responses. Subsequently, a survey was conducted to compare pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions about anticipating and responding to classroom incidents. The findings from a total of 77 respondents indicate that perceptions of the experienced and inexperienced teachers are similar in many ways, yet some notable differences emerged as well as a few interesting individual responses. This work has implications for initial teacher education programmes in terms of considering the value of providing pre-service teachers with opportunities to discuss and reflect on potential language classroom incidents.