COMMON CHALLENGES IN DELIVERING A SUCCESSFUL FOREIGN LANGUAGE LESSON

Sa？etak Student teachers and teacher trainees face a number of challenges when they enter the classroom during their university education and upon graduation. The aim of this paper is to highlight the most common challenges that foreign language student teachers and teacher trainees encounter when delivering a lesson in elementary and high school – and to offer advice on overcoming these challenges successfully. The challenges were identified based on our observations of student teachers and teacher trainees during pre-service training and on the state exam. The observations were carried out over a period of seven years, and we used observation sheets to identify the most common problems. The paper thus addresses the issues of using one’s voice, motivating learners, giving instructions, planning the length of activities, using additional materials, calling on students, organizing pair and group work, writing on the board, transitioning between activities, handling grammar, carrying out listening activities, and managing the classroom. The paper is intended for pre-service and in-service trainees, mentors, and novice teachers, but also for university instructors of foreign language teaching methodology as it may help point to areas of concern that could be addressed within the methodology course