The Emotional Landscape of EFL Internships: Challenges and Growth Through <i>Perezhivanie</i>

The transition from student to teacher in EFL contexts involves significant emotional and identity challenges, yet existing research often overlooks how affective experiences mediate professional growth. This study investigates the emotional challenges and professional identity development of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) interns during teaching practicums, framed through Vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie—the dialectical interplay of emotion and cognition in lived experiences. Employing a longitudinal qualitative design, the research traces four Chinese EFL interns over a four-month internship via reflective diaries, recall interviews, and mentor narratives. Findings reveal that interns faced multifaceted challenges, including non-English teaching assignments, classroom emergencies, cultural adaptation pressures, and role ambiguity. These tensions, however, catalyzed growth through perezhivanie-driven reflection. Critical incidents (e.g., student conflicts, pedagogical failures) prompted cognitive reframing, enabling shifts from scripted imitation to agentic, context-responsive teaching. Structured mentorship and institutional scaffolding emerged as pivotal, enabling interns to transition from performative imitation to agentic, context-responsive teaching. Urban interns with systematic support achieved ethical coherence, while suburban/rural counterparts grappled with role fragmentation due to resource constraints. The study underscores the need for teacher education programs to integrate emotional scaffolding, context-sensitive mentoring, and communal recognition rituals to transform affective struggles into developmental resources. By reconceptualizing professional identity as a socioculturally mediated process, this research advocates for holistic internship models that bridge theory-practice divides and foster ethically resilient educators.