Strategies and challenges in research topic selection in Algerian EFL pre-service teacher training schools

الملخص EN

Among the challenges English as a foreign language (EFL) graduating pre-service teachers (PSTs) face in the realm of conducting research is the selection of a research topic.

those graduating PSTs seemingly struggle to select a topic that would be compatible with their own interests and research requirements.

the choice of a research topic is mostly driven by many criteria, including trends, ease, time considerations, mastery of research tools, in addition to context relevance.

this research is an attempt to explore the nature of research topics in EFL teacher training contexts.

it aims at identifying the obstacles pre-service trainees face while selecting a research topic, and questioning the reasons and the motivations behind selecting their research topics.

using a descriptive survey, a random sampling questionnaire is administered to 100 graduating students from ENS contexts in Oran, Algiers, Constantine, and stiff.

Tips are provided to help future PST researchers overcome the identified challenges.