The practicum: does it enhance the EFL pre-service teachers’ professional skills?

الملخص EN

The practicum is a key component of the Algerian pre-service EFL teacher training curricula.

it provides the student-teachers with the opportunity to employ and practice their learnt pedagogical and teaching skills.

therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the student-teachers ‘perspectives of the ecole normale superieure bouzareah, (ENSB) on their practicum experiences and the challenges they encountered during this training period in the academic year 2022 / 2023.moreover, it aims to obtain deeper insight of their envisioning of the practicum.

eighty (80) Algerian ENSB EFL student-teachers participated in this study.

the researcher used an open-ended questionnaire to collect data.

qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data.

the findings revealed that the practicum contributed to the Algerian ENSB student -teachers’ professional growth and enhanced their teaching skills.

the findings also suggested some implications for optimizing the practicum in the Algerian ENSB pre-service teachers’ education curriculum.