ABSTRACT
This study investigated pre-service English teachers' perceived restraints in developing communicative competence in speaking and writing, alongside their underlying factors. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, nine final-year pre-service English teachers at Universitas Indo Global Mandiri (UIGM) were selected via purposive sampling. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, reflective questionnaires, and document artifacts, then analyzed using the Miles, Huberman, and Saldana framework. Findings revealed distinct restraint patterns across language modalities. In writing, restraints concentrated heavily on structural mechanics, with grammar emerging as the primary bottleneck affecting eight of nine participants. Conversely, speaking performance exhibited compound constraints across fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and clarity. Furthermore, psychological (40%) and linguistic (40%) factors dominated as primary drivers, followed by environmental factors (20%). These results highlight the necessity of targeted discourse scaffolding, affective support, and English-rich environments in teacher education programs to bridge theoretical knowledge with productive language execution.