Tokoz, FatmaDemiroğları, Gürcan2025-03-072025-03-072024978-100385482-1; 978-103252549-5https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003407133-5https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12507/2582The process of becoming a teacher is perceived as a very complicated one, encompassing diverse emotions, conflicts, and dissonant interactions; such complexities may have an impact on student teachers’ enthusiasm to teach. Using the grounded-theory approach, this study explores how two pre-service teachers construct professional identities based on their emotional trajectories, challenges, and sense of becoming language teachers during their practicum. Data were collected through personal narratives, semi-structured interviews, and teaching diary entries. The findings show that pre-service teachers experience a range of emotions and conflicts when developing their professional identities, including enthusiasm, passion, shock, and a sense of inferiority, all of which can be shaped both internally and externally by factors such as self-image, teaching context, authority, and relationships. This research contributes to the revision and development of pre-service language teacher education and practice in EFL contexts such as Turkey. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Myint Swe Khine and Abdulghani Muthanna.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessBook Chapter31462-s2.0-8518454163810.4324/9781003407133-5N/A