PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Teaching Practice is a course in which student teachers were asked to teach real students in schools. At an English language education program, this special course requires various activities, one of which is teaching English in real classes to apply English teaching skills. As a prerequisite of enrolling in Teaching Practice, the student teachers must pass Micro Teaching, a course in which student teachers teach English to their peers. Both Micro Teaching and Teaching Practice generally aim at putting theory into practice, providing valuable experience for them. This paper is a report of a study on the interest in teaching experienced by student teachers in Indonesia. The study as a part of a bigger research project, which was related to perspectives on teaching practice, reveals that to a certain extent teaching interest is influenced by an on-campus teaching demonstration and real teaching in schools. It somewhat exposes that most student teachers are encouraged by the practical components of a teacher education program. Actions should then be taken to advance the teaching interest of the 'minority' especially after Teaching Practice. Otherwise, their interest may be destructively influential in spite of the training efforts provided by the teacher education program.