Authentic Teaching Opportunities of English for Primary Students as a Community of Practice: A Case of Pre-service Teacher Education at a Japanese University

This case study explored what pre-service teachers learned through authentic experiences of English teaching forprimary students, drawing upon the concept of a Community of Practice. A total of 21 pre-service teachers engagedin the training project—including planning, preparing, and teaching lessons—and wrote reflection papers afterthinking about their activities. The focal data was the pre-service teachers’ written work, which was analyzed with aqualitative approach. Follow-up interviews were conducted for selected pre-service teachers. The findings indicatedthat the project contributed to allowing the pre-service teachers to develop knowledge and skills for primary Englisheducation. The study also confirmed that the training project promoted solidarity, especially between the old-timersand the newcomers. On the other hand, the typical Japanese school culture seemed to function as an obstacle toallowing the old-timers and the newcomers to become acquainted enough.