Abstract This study investigates how pre‐service L2 English teachers manage turn allocation when student willingness to participate is uncertain or absent during microteaching sessions. Drawing on conversation analysis (CA), we examine video‐recorded teaching demonstrations conducted by undergraduate L2 English education majors in South Korea. The analysis focuses on how novice teachers deploy accounts—justificatory or explanatory remarks—to mitigate the imposition of participation, particularly when open solicitations fail to elicit responses. The study identifies three distinct strategies: (1) grounding a forthcoming nomination in students’ displayed conduct, (2) expressing discomfort before nominating a reluctant speaker, and (3) escalating to whole‐class instruction to mobilize reluctant participation. Across cases, teachers also mobilize affiliative resources such as smiles and laughter to manage interactional delicacy while sustaining instructional progressivity. These findings extend the CA research on classroom interaction by specifying how student unwillingness to participate is locally produced, recognized, and managed in simulated teaching contexts, and by elaborating the interactional resources through which pre‐service teachers display classroom interactional competence. Beyond documenting pedagogical practices, the study also contributes to language teacher education research by demonstrating how microteaching functions as an analytically consequential site for examining pre‐service teachers’ participation management and turn‐allocation practices.