Recent research in English education has emphasised dialogically organised instruction to promote learning talk; yet little is known about teachers' perceptions of their efforts to teach dialogically. This study draws on video-cued interviews to examine how secondary preservice English teacher Emma experiences trying to teach dialogically and the conflicting demands it elicits for her. Findings indicate that she must navigate competing discourses including the curriculum, the ideas of her mentor teacher, her beliefs about dialogic teaching and her university schooling. Emma's accounts revealed that satisfying these at once was not achievable, and that her endeavour to become a dialogic teacher was rife with conflict.