Pre-Service English Teachers’ Voice on Virtual Teaching Practice: Shifting from Face-to-Face Teaching into Virtual Teaching

Pre-service English teachers face various challenges that can significantly impact their competencies and roles, particularly in dealing with students and fellow teachers. The COVID-19 pandemic has added an extra layer of complexity by necessitating the transition from traditional face-to-face learning to online education. This shift is evident in the case of the microteaching course, which originally took place in a physical classroom but was abruptly moved to an online format. This study aims to examine the experiences of pre-service English teachers in virtual teaching practice and how they navigate the challenges associated with professional development during the microteaching course. A total of 31 pre-service English teachers participated in this research, engaging in virtual teaching practice. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and reflective journals. The findings indicate that pre-service English teachers acknowledge the ineffectiveness of virtual microteaching, citing difficulties in managing and accessing teaching processes as well as the challenges of creating suitable teaching materials. As a result, future pedagogical practices should focus on enhancing the preparation and design of teaching and learning materials to better support the professional development of pre-service English teachers. This will ultimately contribute to their growth as educators during their teaching internships. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-SA license


INTRODUCTION
Teaching can be meant as a transmission of experience and knowledge from teachers to students.Teaching is a profession that requires specific knowledge and skills, and teachers should be given special training before conducting their profession (Isma, Hermansyah, et al., 2023;Isma, Rasmin, et al., 2023;Orchard & Winch, 2015).Professional teacher characters can be built through following microteaching subjects.Teachers should implement and apply microteaching lessons to facilitate preservice teachers' critical thinking (Arsal, 2015).As its explanation, that is why microteaching course becomes one of the compulsory courses that should be made available at university level.Microteaching is a method that is designed to improve the pre-service teachers' teaching skills and to develop their professional experience (Elias, 2018;O zonur & Kamışlı, 2019).Before the pandemic attacks, microteaching generally was done by face-to-face learning in microteaching laboratories where the preservice teachers show their teaching skills to the lecturer and other pre-service teachers.
Due to the pandemic attack, the Indonesia Minister of Education and Culture announced that all teaching and learning activities shifted to online or virtual learning.In addition, microteaching courses E-ISSN: 3026-569X; P-ISSN: 3026-734X Journal Homepage: http://journal.lontaradigitech.com/GLENS11 Published by Lontara Digitech Indonesia sd have an impact.Consequently, it should be shifted from face-to-face learning to virtual learning.Since the regulation and announcement about teaching and learning activity during the pandemic had been launched, pre-service English teachers of Nahdlatul Ulama Sunan Giri University conducted microteaching classes virtually, then the teaching practice was done by recording their teaching process.Thus, it gave new learning experiences for them.It also has some problematic dilemmas.They had problems with internet connection, unstable signal connection, and lack of sufficient and appropriate learning devices.In other words, they have different experiences during virtual teaching practice.
Pre-service English teachers found some problems and challenges that connected with virtual teaching practice.It has the same problems as previous research that has been researched about the online microteaching subject with distinguished aspects.The researchers from IAIN Bukittinggi, Indonesia (Iswantir & Sesmiarni, 2021) explored the evaluation of online learning in microteaching courses.There were 450 students as participants and the results reveal that online microteaching had an impact and changed the students' behaviours to work harder and increased their productivity.In other words, virtual teaching practice had positive impacts on their teaching practice.Meanwhile, this research shows more details on virtual teaching practice during microteaching courses.Differently, this research does not explain the detailed experience experienced by the pre-service English teachers.It just focused on the evaluation of virtual teaching practice.
On the other hand, Lestari et al. (2022) revealed the students' perception of applying online learning.They showed that students have negative perceptions, and they found some problems particularly technical problems and perceptions during online learning.Previous studies have shown pieces of evidence about virtual learning.and evaluation of virtual teaching during virtual learning.However, among pre-service English teachers, not much research, particularly in investigating experience and challenges.Considering the essential roles of pre-service teachers and preparedness for teaching experience in education, it is crucial and considerable to the improvement of pre-service English teachers in real teaching practicum.It would be potential support for the quality of education.Therefore, for the experience and challenges of virtual teaching and learning the researchers intend to investigate (1) how the pre-service English teachers' experiences of virtual teaching practice and (2) what are the challenges of having virtual teaching practice in microteaching courses.

METHODS
This research employed a descriptive qualitative method in which the researchers tried to find out the students' experiences and challenges in teaching practice in virtual microteaching.Nassaji (2015) explains that qualitative research often involves data collection from various resources to reach a deeper understanding of the personality opinions, attitudes and perspectives of the participants.This method enables the researcher to collect the data in describing the participant's experiences.The qualitative research method is suited to address a research problem if we do not know the variables and we need to explore them (Creswell, 2012).The participants of this research are students of English education at Nahdlatul Ulama Sunan Giri University who have experience in having virtual microteaching classes.They were in the eighth-semester academic year of 2021/2022.The participants consisted of 31 preservice English teachers who had experience in virtual microteaching.There were 22 female and 9 male pre-service English teachers.As they have completed microteaching course, it is indicated that the researchers have met the requirement as the sample of this research.
In collecting the data, the researchers employed interview guidelines and a closed questionnaire as the research instruments.There are two steps in gathering the data namely: (1) interviewing the participants.In the interview process, 10 participants were interviewed with 10 open-ended questions, and it was done through a face-to-face method.The researchers used a mobile phone to record the

Pre-Service English Teachers' Experiences on Teaching Practice in Online Microteaching Class
The first part of the result deals with pre-service English teachers' experiences in virtual teaching practice.Based on the interview, the result reveals that all the participants have conducted teaching practice by recording the teaching process through video.Then they uploaded it on the YouTube channel and shared its link to the WhatsApp Group.Then, the lecturer and other friends gave constructive comments and valuable suggestions.Most of the participants explain that teaching practice by recording is less effective and inefficient.During the virtual teaching practice, pre-service English teachers did teach practice in groups.
Regarding the way virtual teaching practice is done, it seems that virtual teaching practice takes too much time because the pre-service English teachers have to record and prepare the appropriate devices to make it good.As the preparation, they need to prepare the essential components such as lesson plan, teaching materials and media.The video has to consist of three necessary processes namely opening, content and closing.Each member of the group has a different task in taking teaching practice videos.To support the process of video recording, pre-service English teachers need several media and devices to make the video teaching practice perfect.They need smartphones with high memory capacity, software editing video, and an internet provider with a good speed connection to upload the video practice on YouTube.The interview result was supported by questionnaire findings in Table 1 as follows: Based on the explanation above, it reveals that in the virtual teaching process, pre-service English teachers have different experiences compared with the previous one.It means that they have extra effort to prepare for good performance in virtual teaching experience.They need to make sure that they have a stable and good internet connection to upload their video and get constructive comments and suggestions from other participants and lecturers.Instead of making videos, they have to work in a group as well.They also found a problem in editing their videos.Instead of editing the video, they have to provide and have appropriate devices to support some editing applications.In short, they commonly found problems in submitting their teaching video.It can be inferred that they still have new experiences in practicing online teaching practice.
Regarding online teaching practice, it reveals that they have uncomfortable feelings when they have to do virtual microteaching.It can be interpreted that pre-service English teachers have an uncomfortable feeling when they have to have virtual microteaching.On the other side, pre-service English teachers feel confused about editing their videos.It means that they commonly find problems in the editing process.It simply can be analyzed that pre-service English teachers commonly have some dilemmas in having virtual microteaching, particularly in editing teaching videos.It can be inferred that each pre-service English teacher has different experiences during microteaching class, most of them had bad experiences on they have implementation of teaching practice by taking video records.It can be seen from the participants' responses that no one gives agreed or strongly agreed responses in positive statements.
The researchers added some indicators about the benefits of virtual teaching practice in microteaching classes.It aims to find out the pre-service experiences when experiencing virtual teaching practice and its benefits.It was gathered through questionnaires, consequently, it helped the researchers to analyze the students' experiences deeper and more accurately.The finding reveals that the pre-service English teachers got some beneficial experiences in virtual teaching practice as follow: 22,6% 45,2% 25,8% 6,5% 0% The benefits of virtual practice teaching show that pre-service English teachers have learnt something new in technologies that are used in the teaching process.It is related to the percentage of student responses were 58,1% agree on item number 12.It also indicates that creating teaching videos can save them money and time.In other words, virtual teaching practice has beneficial experience in utilizing technology and the teaching and learning process.Instead, they can review their teaching performance before submission on YouTube and the lecturer.

Pre-Service English Teachers' Experiences on Teaching Practice in Online Microteaching Class
Based on the interview, the main challenge of pre-service English teachers in virtual teaching practice is signals and internet connection.Other challenges found that the pre-service English teachers have different and far locations from each other.As a result, they commonly have some problems in gathering and discussing their teaching project.It took miles away and pandemic situations for members of the group to meet each other.They also revealed other challenges such as a pricy internet provider, and bad internet connection.They spent a lot of time editing the teaching video before submission.Some of them stated that the virtual teaching practice process was complicated.These findings are supported by with questionnaire as follows: Based on the table above, it can be described that pre-service English teachers' challenges deal with some aspects.The first is devices and technology.They need high-quality devices and proper memory to record and edit their teaching video.The next aspect is about time.Based on the data, they found an uncertain time to schedule and discuss their video due to their distance.They lived apart from each other.Consequently, they had a lack of time to discuss and talk about their teaching project whereas they had to work in a group.The next challenge is virtual teaching practice costs much internet quota.They spent their money to buy internet quota.As a result, some of them left some lessons and they missed some opportunities in virtual teaching practice.Regarding the explanation above, it can be analyzed that pre-service English teachers faced negative experiences, particularly in preparing their teaching videos.In addition, they found some dilemmas when they had to work in a group and record the teaching video in a group.They lived apart from each other.Those become challenges in completing their teaching video.In summary, pre-service English teachers faced some challenges in virtual teaching practice.Those lead to negative experiences since virtual teaching practice is conducted during microteaching courses.They experienced some challenges in completing the virtual teaching practice project.They faced technical problems in having virtual teaching during microteaching classes.

DISCUSSION
Based on the findings and some relevant studies, in this section, the researchers focus on discussing the result with relevant theories and studies.Dealing with Pre-Service English Teachers' Experiences on Virtual Teaching Practice in Virtual Microteaching Class, in line with Sarimanah et al. (2021), microteaching was implemented during the pandemic Covid-19, and it revealed that onlinebased microteaching learning to improve basic teaching skills during the Covid-19 era was needed.It can be implied that virtual teaching is urgently conducted due to serious matters, particularly pandemic outbreaks.As a result, virtual teaching and learning have become one of the alternatives to keep teaching and learning on track (Isma et al., 2022).While, practically, both lecturers and preservice English teachers face some technical and non-technical problems.It is supported by research conducted by Lestari et al. (2022) reveals that online teaching and learning was applied in Bojonegoro regency during the pandemic covid 19 and most university students face problems and challenges.They have a lack of proper devices, unstable internet connection and bad internet connection in their area (Lestari & Fatoni, 2022).
Pre-service English teachers frequently spent their time submitting their teaching videos on YouTube channels.It was a new experience for them to be connected with YouTube which they had never been to before.As a result, pre-service English teachers need some knowledge and experience in submission.They have to upload their teaching video on this platform and make sure that the link is shared with their lecturer and their friends.This finding confirmed O'Connor (2010) that both preservice English teachers and lecturers as trainers agreed to publish their teaching practice to the public.It indicates that pre-service English teachers are ready to go public and they get feedback from their peers, groups, and lecturers even viewers related to their performance.It can be concluded that pre-service English teachers face a new challenge in getting feedback on their teaching performance.It may come from internal and external as the viewers.
Dealing with experiences, Pre-service English teachers had experiences before they recorded the video.There are specific and prior preparations for virtual teaching practice.As supported by Majoni (2017) the efficiency and effect of the microteaching model includes planning and preparation.They found that microteaching has an effect and efficiency on pre-service teachers' steps in preparing their materials such as preparation, implementation, feedback and re-teach steps (Bilen, 2015).In other words, through virtual microteaching, pre-service English teachers can implement some preparation steps to gain and perform their best teaching practice experience.They can plan and prepare everything well.Regarding virtual teaching and microteaching courses, instead of negative perceptions, they also gain positive benefits.It is also supported by the research conducted by Altuk et al. (2012) that found a reliable instrument to determine the role of microteaching techniques where the statement of instrument appropriate with the results of online teaching practice benefits.It implies that virtual teaching practices need parameters to determine pre-service teachers' techniques applied in their teaching.
Contrary to Kusmawan's (2017) findings, which indicated that online microteaching had a positive impact on the professional development of pre-service English teachers, this research suggests that some challenges exist.Online microteaching has indeed enhanced critical thinking and reflective abilities among these educators.However, the study found that 58.1% of pre-service English teachers strongly favored offline or face-to-face microteaching over the online alternative.Dealing with the challenges of virtual teaching, the findings align with a study by Peter Egielewa et al. (2022) from Nigeria, which revealed that students were dissatisfied with online learning due to inadequate technological support and power supply issues.Virtual microteaching faces its own set of challenges, primarily technical issues such as inadequate facilities and unreliable internet connections (Isma, Hermansyah, et al., 2023).It is worth noting that the rapid advancement of technology has generally made distance learning more accessible (Dhawan, 2020;Isma et al., 2022).However, this study highlighted that 38.7% of pre-service teachers encountered difficulties in conducting online teaching practice due to the necessity of group work and mobility restrictions caused by lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced them to work separately from different locations.

E
-ISSN: 3026-569X; P-ISSN: 3026-734X Journal Homepage: http://journal.lontaradigitech.com/GLENS12 Published by Lontara Digitech Indonesia sd conversation.Each participant took 20 minutes; (2) distributing the questionnaire.It was done through online distribution.It consists of 28 closed-ended statements.The questionnaire instrument used the Likert Scale to measure the degree of subject agreement with each statement.The degree is divided on a five-point scale; Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree and Strongly Agree.31 participants contributed to answering the questionnaire instrument.In this research, findings from the interview were analyzed using the theory of Miles and Huberman 1984.The steps to analyze the data are data reduction, data display and last drawing and verification of conclusions.Meanwhile, the findings from the questionnaire based on the value of the Likert Scale, are Strongly Agree=5, Agree=4, Neutral=3, Disagree=2, and Disagree=1.