A Turning Point in the TESOL Practicum

This chapter describes the design and creation of the San José English Exchange (SJEE), an internet-mediated, international English program in which San José State University student teachers in a TESOL practicum course taught remote video conversation classes for students from Spain, Japan, Colombia, and other countries. Though initially designed in response to school closures under the COVID-19 global health pandemic, SJEE highlights both the affordances and challenges of such virtual learning exchanges in the development of future teachers of English as a second or foreign language. Drawing upon the classroom teacher’s notes and the student teachers’ written journals over the course of the Spring 2020 semester at San José State University, the chapter discusses three key themes of relevance for those who might wish to integrate such exchanges into existing practicum classes, while rethinking general relationships between participants, technologies, and place in practicum teacher development.