High levels of teaching-related anxiety may cause high levels of stress, failure and disappointment in pre-service teachers. The factors that increase anxiety and those that reduce it for student teachers might also be culture-specific. This study was conducted on 52 pre-service language teachers at a state university in Turkey during their practicum. Rather than investigating the anxiety levels of student teachers, the study aimed to find out the reason why they experienced, or did not experience anxiety with reference to culture specific reasons. This was done by focusing on factors that reduce or provoke practicum anxiety. A questionnaire comprising 25 open-ended questions was developed from the Student Teacher Anxiety Scale (STAS). The items in the scale were converted into questions and the participants were asked to clearly state why they felt "anxious" or "easy". The responses were analysed through content analysis and then quantified to show frequencies. The findings indicated that the student teachers experienced anxiety due to the stress of being evaluated, as well as problem behaviour in the classroom. The results also revealed that helpful and supporting staff at the host school reduces teaching anxiety. The student teachers also felt at ease with a supervisor that they had a partnership with from the micro-teachings in their methodology courses through to supervision in their practicum. The findings are discussed and suggestions regarding improvement in practice teaching are suggested.