From Challenge to Commitment: When Confidence Meets Competence in EFL Student Teaching

Abstract

This study explored how perceived challenges of an intensive student teaching phase contributed to EFL pre-service teachers' confidence, competence, and career-related motivation. Data from 122 participants, collected through questionnaires and external assessment, underwent correlational analysis, multiple regression, and mediation modeling. The findings evinced that pedagogical challenges, especially in teaching language skills and instructional organization, undermined teaching confidence. Confidence, in turn, positively predicted competence and motivation to pursue teaching. Mediation analysis confirmed confidence as a key mechanism linking challenge perception to teaching motivation. Interestingly, while confidence correlated with competence, actual competence did not reduce perceived difficulty. Thus, confidence is simultaneously a vulnerable and powerful construct: affected by teaching challenges yet crucial for professional commitment. The findings underscore the need to build a strong foundation for competence and cultivate self-efficacy during initial teacher education to support professional retention.