INTRODUCTION

Your teaching practice course will have provided you with the opportunity to experience the realities of classroom teaching and to experience some of the problems language teachers deal with on a daily basis. It will also have given you the opportunity to put into practice many of the things you learned during your teacher education course or program. Doubtless however you will have found that no amount of reading, study, or listening to experts can fully prepare you for dealing with the full range of issues that language teaching involves. Some of these may arise from working with learners of different cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds; some result from the intrinsic difficulties learning a new language entails; and some may be the result of working with learners who have had difficult life experiences or who have pressing educational and other needs. Some of the issues you confronted may not have appeared in your teacher-training courses. Learning how to deal with others may take considerable skill and experience, and practice teaching is only the start of this learning process. In this chapter we will examine some of the challenges you may face once you commence your teaching career and consider some of the options that are available to support your ongoing professional development. Here is a reflection by a student teacher who has just finished teaching practice: