Beyond Linguistic Competence: Speaking Anxiety and Professional Identity among TESL Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

Speaking anxiety can constrain oral participation, communicative confidence, and professional learning among future English teachers. Yet speaking anxiety among TESL pre-service teachers warrants closer examination because oral performance is simultaneously experienced as language use and as a demonstration of emerging professional competence. This qualitative case study examined how TESL pre-service teachers experienced, interpreted, and managed speaking anxiety within teacher education. Using a sequential screening-and-interview design, ten pre-service teachers with elevated anxiety scores on an adapted Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) were selected for semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The analysis generated three themes: (1) performing the ideal English teacher, (2) speaking as exposure to professional judgement, and (3) creating communicative safety through mediated participation. Across the simulated accounts, anxiety was not experienced simply as a consequence of limited linguistic knowledge. Participants described a perceived discrepancy between the English teacher they believed they should be and their moment-to-moment speaking performance. This discrepancy intensified self-monitoring, anticipated judgement, and avoidance. At the same time, rehearsal, peer support, and lecturer feedback were described as mechanisms that reduced perceived communicative risk. The paper proposes an integrated interpretation in which speaking anxiety emerges at the intersection of linguistic self-perception, professional identity, social evaluation, and pedagogical mediation. The findings have implications for teacher education programmes seeking to develop communicatively confident teachers without equating professional competence with linguistic perfection.