Journal of English Teaching.
Literature, and Applied Linguistics ISSN 2614-5871 Vol.
No.
Published by English Language Education Department of UMG http://dx.
org/10.
30587/jetlal.
Pre-service Teachers' Source of Anxiety in Online Teaching Practice during Covid-19 Outbreak Septian Tri Wardana English Education Department.
Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik Indonesia wardanatian1@gmail.
Slamet Asari Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik Indonesia asari70@umg.
Candra Hadi Asmara English Education Department.
Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik Indonesia candrafkip@umg.
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Abstract This study investigates the sources of anxiety experienced by pre-service English teachers during their online teaching practice in the Covid-19 outbreak.
Using a descriptive quantitative approach, data were collected through a close-ended questionnaire adapted from Pasaribu & Harendita .
and distributed to 25 pre-service teachers at Muhammadiyah University of Gresik.
The findings reveal that all participants experienced anxiety in their online practicum, with seven main contributing factors: lesson delivery, classroom management, studentsAo condition.
English language skills, evaluation, confidence, and preparation.
Among these, lesson delivery emerged as the most dominant source of anxiety, while preparation was the least.
The study highlights that pre-service teachers face significant challenges when transitioning to online teaching, particularly in delivering abstract concepts, managing virtual classrooms, and addressing studentsAo needs.
These findings underscore the necessity for institutions to provide more comprehensive training and support for pre-service teachers in adapting to online teaching environments.
Keywords: Pre-service teachers.
Teaching Practice.
Anxiety.
Online Teaching.
Covid-19.
English Education Introduction To become a professional teacher, people must go through the learning and practice process first.
Someone prepared to become a professional teacher not only learns about theory but also has the practice to do.
People who carry out the practice to become a teacher are called pre-service teachers.
They are prepared to be professional teachers.
Zhao .
explains that pre-service teachers are those who are college or graduate students studying the compulsory course in pedagogy at an ordinary university and have not officially entered supervised teaching.
They are introduced into teaching roles for specific classes by a mentor or cooperating teacher.
Permatasari et, al.
conducted a study on pre-service teachers in Indonesia and found that all pre-service EFL teachers felt anxious when performing classroom teaching during teaching practice at school.
The study involved a total of two hundred and two pre-service EFL teachers from faculty of teacher training across universities in Indonesia.
They participated in the study where they were asked to complete an online Teaching Anxiety Scale (TCHAS) survey.
The research shows that anxiety is still a major problem for pre-service teachers in carrying out teaching practice.
The research also found that some contributing factors to such teaching anxiety that had been identified concerned their Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.
0 International License English Education Program Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik.
East Java.
Indonesia Journal of English Teaching.
Literature, and Applied Linguistics Vol.
No.
Februari 2026 feeling of being incompetent in the classroom, dislike of teaching, career uncertainty, being unable to answer students' questions, and negative attitude.
In early 2020.
Indonesia was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, this condition led to the implementation of social distancing.
This is very influential in education.
The whole learning process has changed from what was originally done offline learning to online learning.
This quick transition to full online education in the time, however, creates the risk of decreasing the quality of the courses provided (Alan et.
, 2.
Teachers get a big impact because they have to be forced to adapt to technology in a very sudden time.
For some teachers who have mastered technology, this reshuffle does not affect their competence in teaching, but for teachers who have not mastered technology, this will be a challenge in itself.
The change from conventional to online teaching also affects pre-service teachers.
This is because the teaching practices will also be carried out online.
Nel & Marais .
stated that the teaching practice is likely to be significantly impacted because it coincides with the pandemic.
Pre-service teachers, most of whom have no teaching experience are forced to teach online (Gustine, 2.
Thus, it is necessary to conduct research on the teaching online practice anxiety felt by pre-service teachers as a result of the sudden transition from face-to-face learning to online learning.
Previous study has discussed about the causes of English pre-service teachersAo anxiety in teaching practicum.
Pasaribu & Harendita .
conducted research in a teaching training program with fifty pre-service teachers.
The results show that several factors contribute to pre-service teachers' anxiety, namely: confidence.
English skills, preparation, lesson delivery, students' profiles, evaluation, and classroom management.
In tackling the problems, the participants applied personal, professional, social, and institutional coping strategies.
Another research conducted by Kim and Kim .
documented that factors influencing pre-service teachersAo anxiety are limited English proficiency, lack of confidence, lack of knowledge about linguistics and education, insufficient preparation, being compared to native teachers, fear of negative evaluation, and lack of teaching experience.
However, there are not many studies that discuss pre-service anxiety in teaching online during the Covid-19 The previous study focused on discussing the anxiety experienced by the pre-service teachers when carrying out face-to-face learning.
Pre-service teacher anxiety in online learning needs to be discussed, even though face-to-face learning is already conducted, some schools still implement blended learning and there are some conditions that make the teaching-learning process should be conducted online.
Hence, in this research, the researcher intended to discuss about pre-service sources of anxiety in online teaching practice during Covid-19 outbreak.
Method The researcher uses descriptive quantitative research.
According to B.
Pritha .
quantitative research is the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data.
The data that will be analyzed is in the form of number.
The data will be obtained from questionnaire.
The questionnaire will be distributed to find the source of anxiety felt by the pre-service After obtaining the data, the researcher will analyze the data, the data will be presented in the form of Thus, quantitative research and descriptive approach are proper to use for this research.
The researcher will use a close-ended questionnaire.
The questionnaire will be adapted from previous study conducted by Pasaribu & Harendita .
The researcher chooses this questionnaire because the previous research was conducted in Indonesia, so there are no cultural difference and the items for each indicator are related to the condition in Indonesian education.
The research from Pasaribu and Harendita is also focus on the source of anxiety in education field, while some previous research is to measure the source of anxiety in general.
However, the researcher modifies some item that is item number 1, 2 and 3.
The researcher modified the item to make the statement be more relate to online class.
Table 1 Pre-service teachersAo anxiety questionnaire.
Indicator Item Number
Confidence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
English Language Skill
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Preparation 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Lesson Delivery 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
The Condition of the Student
21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Evaluation 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 Classroom Management 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 The questionnaire will be distributed to the pre-service teachers of English Education Department at Muhammadiyah University of Gresik.
This questionnaire aims to find the source of anxiety felt by the pre-service The result of the quessionaire will be presented in the form of percentages.
The percentages will be used to indicate the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teachers.
The percentage formula to calculate the result of the questionnaire is as follows (Sugiyono, 2.
Journal of English Teaching.
Literature, and Applied Linguistics Vol.
No.
Februari 2026 P = Percentage (%) F = Total each alternative N = Total of respondent Findings and Discussion (Capitalized 1st letter.
New Romans.
Bold, 12p.
The researcher analyzes the data that obtained from the distributed questionnaire.
The questionnaire consists of 35 items divided into 7 indicators.
The researcher uses skala likert questionnaire.
It means that the questionnaire is closeended questionnaire with some options.
There are 4 options, they are.
strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly The questionnaire has been distributed to EFL pre-service teachers in Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik who had conducted online teaching practicum.
The research finding aims to answer the research question that is.
what are the sources of pre-service teachers' anxiety during online teaching practice? From the questionnaire that distributed to pre-service teacher, the researcher can get the data of what factors affect pre-service teachersAo anxiety the most.
Yoon .
and Kim & Kim .
as cited in Pasaribu & Harendita .
stated that the feeling of anxiety stems from several causes like confidence, pre-service teachersAo language skills, preparation, lesson delivery, the situation or the condition of the students, evaluations, and classroom management.
Those are the indicators of the questionnaire, each indicator has 5 items.
Further analysis from the distributed questionnaire will be provided below.
Confidence 23 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) get nervous speaking in online class.
Only 10 pre-service teachers .
%) feel shy when speaking English in online class.
18 pre-service teachers .
%) feel very uncomfortable in speaking English and feel unsure and tighten up when they are going to have online class.
Finally, 14 pre-service teachers .
%) never feel quite sure when speaking in the class.
From these statements related to pre-service teachersAo confidence, getting nervous speaking in online class is the most affected factor caused pre-service teachersAo anxiety.
Poor personal experience in public speaking is considered the factor why pre-service teachers get nervous in speaking.
This is in line with Geist .
n Astrid, 2.
that stated that individual experiences are one of the factors that caused speaking anxiety.
This causes a person to tend to get nervous in English language skills 14 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) worry when they explain the lesson in English.
18 pre-service teachers .
%) worry that they may need to explain advanced vocabulary.
22 pre-service teachers .
%) are afraid that they will not know how to teach certain grammatical rules.
20 pre-service teachers .
%) become more nervous after realizing they have made errors.
Finally, 21 pre-service teachers .
%) afraid that their English is not as good as the regular English teachers.
From these statements related to pre-service teachersAo English language skills, teaching certain grammatical rules is the most affected factor caused pre-service teachersAo anxiety.
This is caused of the feeling of pre-service teacher that implies that their English is not that good.
Pasaribu and Harendita .
found that English pre-service teachers were worried about their lack of English mastery.
This causes pre-service teachers to feel insecure and worried.
Preparation 8 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) become more nervous the more they prepared the English class.
18 preservice teachers .
%) worry that they are anxious about maintaining a good enough standard of preparation.
13 preservice teachers .
%) are afraid when they need to write detailed lesson plan.
9 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious when they have to develop suitable sources/materials for the lessons.
Finally, 22 pre-service teachers .
%) are worried if the lesson is not interesting.
From these statements related to preparation, most of pre-service teachers are worried if the lesson is not Meanwhile, the first statement that is become more nervous the more they prepared the English class is the least chosen.
Pasaribu and Harendita .
found that most pre-service teacher considered preparation as one strategy to reduce their anxiety.
It means that the more they prepared the lesson plan the more relaxed they are.
Lesson Delivery 6 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) worry when they introduce new topics to their students.
21 pre-service teachers .
%) are afraid that they cannot deliver abstract concept to their students.
20 pre-service teachers .
%) fear that they cannot get the studentsAo attention when they deliver their lessons.
18 pre-service teachers .
%) fear that they cannot meet the goals of the lesson plan when teaching.
Finally, 16 pre-service teachers .
%) are afraid that they cannot give appropriate feedback to the students.
From these statements related to lesson delivery, most pre-service teachers feared not being able to deliver abstract concept to their students.
There are two things considered as the factor of pre-service fear of not being able to deliver abstract concept, they are the lack of experience and material mastery.
The Condition of the Student Journal of English Teaching.
Literature, and Applied Linguistics Vol.
No.
Februari 2026 20 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious about possible problems in the class with individual learnersAo 20 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious that their students will not respect them in the classroom.
16 preservice teachers .
%) are anxious when their students ask them difficult questions.
16 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious about how to give each learner the attention to each studentsAo needs.
Finally, 20 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious that their students unable to follow the lessons.
From these statements related to the condition of the students, mostly all of the indicators have high result.
means that pre-service teacher experience anxiety if they meet certain studentAos behavior.
Pre-service teacher are afraid that they are not be able to get their studentAos attention.
This is in line with the research from Merc .
that revealed that many PTs noted that when they were able to get the studentsAo attention, they could meet the success levels they Evaluation 17 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) worry about not passing the practicum.
17 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious about being observed and evaluated by their supervisors while teaching.
17 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious with their supervisorsAo expectation.
15 pre-service teachers .
%) feel anxious when they are observed by their Finally, 18 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious when their lecturer gives them a verbal evaluation of their teaching in front of their peers From these statements related to evaluation, most pre-service teachers agree that they are anxious when their lecturer gives them a verbal evaluation of their teaching in front of their peers.
However, most of the indicators also have high result, it means that mostly all the pre-service teacher experience anxiety with the presence of lecturer in giving The similar finding is also revealed by Merc .
, the research found that the presence of universityAos supervisor resulted in great anxiety.
Classroom Management 20 from 25 pre-service teachers .
%) are anxious that they cannot have the full control of the class.
17 preservice teachers .
%) are worried when teaching English because the classes are too silent.
17 pre-service teachers .
%) are worried they cannot manage the time to deliver the materials.
20 pre-service teachers .
%) feel uncomfortable with the silent level in their online class.
Finally, 17 pre-service teachers .
%) worry when they have to enforce discipline to the students.
From these statements related to classroom management, most of the pre-service agreed that classroom management is one of the factors caused anxiety.
It shows from the result that all the indicators have high agree and strongly agree result.
Pre-service teachers have high anxiety related to the classroom management because they tend to adapt with online classroom.
Based on the result above, here is the table of percentage of each indicator.
Table 4.
10 Total for Each Indicator Indicator Agree Confidence English Language Skill Preparation Lesson Delivery The Condition of the Student Evaluation Classroom Management Based on the result above English language skill is the most chosen by the respondent.
Then, it is followed by the condition of the student, classroom management, evaluation, confidence, lesson delivery and the least chosen is From 7 indicators tested to find the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teachers, most of pre-service teacher agree that the 7 indicators are the source of anxiety.
It shows from the high score of pre-service teachers who choose strongly agree and agree.
While there are some items are felt relaxed by pre-service teachers.
They are item number 2, 10, 13 and 15.
It means that statements from those items are not the source of anxiety experienced by pre-service teacher.
Another study was conducted by Pasaribu and Harendita .
The study was conducted in English Language Education of Sanata Dharma University.
They had 50 pre-service teachers as their subject.
The study revealed that 7 factors influenced anxiety are confidence, pre-service teachersAo language skills, preparation, lesson delivery, the situation or the condition of the students, evaluations, and classroom management.
Safira .
also conducted research on the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teachers.
The result found that the most affected factor triggers pre-service teachersAo anxiety is the fear of making mistakes.
Meanwhile.
Kim and Kim .
stated that factors influencing pre-service teachersAo anxiety are limited English proficiency, lack of confidence.
Journal of English Teaching.
Literature, and Applied Linguistics Vol.
No.
Februari 2026 lack of knowledge about linguistics and education, insufficient preparation, being compared to native teachers, fear of negative evaluation, and lack of teaching experience.
From the discussion above, we can infer that there are numerous pre-service teachers that still experienced anxiety.
There are various factors that can be the source of anxiety experienced by pre-service teacher.
In this research, the researcher found confidence, pre-service teachersAo language skills, preparation, lesson delivery, the condition of the students, evaluations, and classroom management are the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teachers.
Conclusion The researcher investigates the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teacher at Muhammadiyah University of Gresik during their online teaching practice.
The researcher investigates 25 pre-service teachers from 7th and 9th semester.
They have conducted online teaching in PLP 2 and Thailand Internship Program.
It is discovered that all of the preservice teachers experienced anxiety during their online teaching practice.
Based on the result of the study, there are 7 factors caused anxiety felt by EFL pre-service teacher at Muhammadiyah University of Gresik during online teaching practice.
These are the sources of anxiety mentioned from the most influential until the least one, the most chosen source of anxiety is lesson delivery.
Then, it is followed by classroom management, the condition of the student.
English language skill, evaluation, confidence and the least chosen is preparation.
The result found that there are some items felt relaxed by pre-service teachers.
They are item number 2, 10, 13 and 15.
It means that statements from those items are not the source of anxiety experienced by pre-service teacher.
However, most pre-service teachers do agree that the rest statements on each item are likely the source of anxiety felt by For other researcher, especially those who have interest conducting the similar research area, it is suggested that this study can be a reference.
However, the researcher only measures the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teacher after they have conducted their practicum.
Hopefully there will be any further research that measures the source of anxiety felt by pre-service teacher whilst they conduct their practicum.
The researcher also suggests to another researcher to measure the correlation between pre-service teachersAo anxiety with their teaching performance.
References