VietTESOL International Convention 2026

Classroom observation is a meaningful professional activity through which teachers reflect on the practice of others, and for pre-service teachers it is a critical site for professional development. This study investigates how pre-service EFL teachers drew on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories to interpret their supervising teachers' instructional choices, specifically how form and meaning were taught in real classrooms, during an eight-week practicum. The study draws on Dewey's (1933) notion of reflective inquiry and Schön's concept of reflection-on-action, extended by Walsh and Mann (2015), who urge language teachers to use concrete data to focus reflection. Building on these ideas, the study guided pre-service teachers to reflect on lessons they observed rather than taught, using SLA theory as an interpretive lens.
Twenty-eight pre-service teachers, working in seven groups, observed lessons taught by their supervising teachers and analysed them through SLA theories. Data consist of a pre-practicum questionnaire on observation orientations, group presentations of their SLA-informed analyses of the observed lessons, and a post-practicum questionnaire. Findings indicate that participants entered the practicum with a predominantly technique-oriented, evaluative approach to observation. While participants reported a partial shift in their observation orientations afterward, an uncritical approach constrained their interpretive thinking, leading them to describe classroom events rather than interrogate the pedagogical reasoning behind them. This points to a gap between declarative SLA knowledge and the interpretive capacity needed for critical reflective practice. Implications for scaffolding observation tasks in teacher education are discussed.