Maximizing the Potential of Reflective Practice in Pre-Service Language Teacher Education: The Issue of Authenticity

Reflective practice (RP) has been widely promoted in many second language teacher education programs to foster pre-service teachers’ pedagogical competence. However, the effectiveness of RP has often been questioned and challenged due to its lack of authenticity in practice. This Viewpoint paper focuses on the issue of authenticity of RP and how it can manifest and shape the complex process of learning to teach. Specifically, the paper proposes a tentative framework with practical tools and strategies for the design and implementation of authentic RP. The framework emphasizes the context, content, and process dimension of authenticity in both RP instruction and assessment, where student teachers can gradually develop their reflective abilities and learn how to integrate RP into their future classroom practice. The paper also outlines directions for future research on RP in second language teacher education.