Problem while Teaching English as a Foreign Language

English Education Study Program

Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

Lampung University

cindyycanoraa@gmail.com

Abstract

Researchers have done a lot of research to solve problems and help teachers overcome the difficulties
they face. They also try to find a relationship between research results and teaching. Learning English
as a second or foreign language has received a lot of attention, so teachers need to find several planned
and organized ways to facilitate the teaching and learning process. This article is a brief overview of
teaching English as a foreign language. It also discusses why teachers struggle to teach English and what
they should do to make teaching easier. It shows the relationship between pedagogy and research and
between research and teaching. It also discusses various strategies and methods that teachers can apply
as tools to improve students' English learning.

Keywords : Teaching English, Methods and Strategies, Second Language Acquisition

Introduction

English language is a global language. Learning English improves the individual’s status and
opportunities in education, technology, global trades, and business. Moreover, English plays an
important role like a channel of communication (Kannan, 2009). In the 21st century, most people use
technology to carry out activities in their daily lives. Many sectors use technology, such as in the fields
of: education, health, companies and so on. Technology for the world of education is very important,
especially when experiencing the Covid-19 virus pandemic as it is today. Teachers must experience
difficulties in teaching from various things. The problem that the teacher is going through is what method
is the best, what is the most difficult for the teacher to teach, and is it very difficult when teaching online
and so on. This is a challenge for teachers to be able to complete their duties properly and correctly and
be able to convey knowledge to students. Language teaching has many different features. A teacher not
only teaches and pay attention to students’ language skills but also helping, facilitating, and encouraging
students to have enthusiasm, good attitude, and motivation towards English. Therefore, teachers should
always look for useful strategies to reduce the difficulties of teaching English language (Long, 1969;
Chen, 2007; Nunn, 2011) and they have to deal with many challenges and often have questions about
the best ways to teach. Furthermore, teachers must understand what students learn, how and why it
affects them, how lessons can benefit them in the future (Drakhshan,2015).

Teaching is a multidimensional process, and teachers should pay enough attention to all skills of students
such as: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. These skills are educated by teachers and learnt by
students. There are various strategies that researchers have introduced based on their studies. These
 strategies may involve all skills. Researchers have different opinions about various strategies in teaching.
For example, Nassaji (2012) believes that there is a relationship between teaching and research, so
teachers and researchers learn from one another. Researchers (Crookes, 1998; Jenkins, 2000; Zaman,
2004) have conducted several studies to prove the interplay between research study and teaching, and
they have suggested helpful strategies to facilitate teaching and learning process.

Problem of Teaching English

Language teaching requires teachers to teach students to develop academic and personal abilities.
English language in Indonesia as a foreign language and as an International language that should study
by the students. Therefore, many people are interested in teaching English as a second or foreign
language. In Indonesia, students learn English from elementary school. Learning English must make
students feel interested when they learn, so they can master it well. and acquire language not only
understanding the concept or format of the language but being able to speak the language fluently is
what makes a learner acquire the language (Dong & Ren, 2013). In an era that is as sophisticated as it is
now, coupled with the epidemic that is currently hitting. Learning the English language at home can use
the easy online learning, many tools or applications that properly in learning the English Language with
their need. but it's definitely not that easy, there are still many difficulties experienced by teachers such
as student learning motivation, unstable internet network, students who have difficulty understanding,
lack of direct interaction and so on. Keeping all these facts in view, this article aims at exploring and
identifying some reasons behind the problems faced by the teachers.

Literature Review

Teaching English as a foreign language is a general issue and researchers have investigated problems in
all aspects of teaching process. The main goal of language teaching and learning is to develop the
speakers’ four skills with a good command of grammar, but this is not the ultimate goal. The final
objective is to empower speakers to be able to use language communicatively (Shakibaei & Keivan,
2014). This approach should be used by teachers because it addressed pedagogical issues, but always it
may not be the case because classroom practice is contingent upon teachers’ perspectives, beliefs, and
views. Interaction between researchers and teachers is very important because it helps teachers to know
what researchers are saying and also “researchers can hear what teachers are saying”. (Lightbown, 2000).

Pica (2005) mentions that “as teachers and researchers, we cannot work in isolation each other if we are
to help our students meet their needs and accomplish their goals” (p.49). Researchers should pay
attention to teachers’ idea because it fosters the relationship between teachers and researchers and leads
to the production of a useful research that can be more germane to classroom practices and hence more
likely to be used by teachers. Teachers should know what students learn, how and why instruction
influences such learning, and how lessons could be based on this information to be more influential when
teaching them next time (Berk, Hiebert, Jansen, & Morris, 2007).

Methods
A. Research Design

The research used descriptive qualitative methods. Therefore, descriptive method is implemented
because the data is presented descriptively. To collect data, the researcher conducted interviews

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 with junior high school English teacher. The qualitative research design was adapted for the
purpose of collecting qualitative data for this study. Interviews were conducted through Instagram
messages by answering questions one by one and then the data was analyzed inductively.

B. Participants

Rella Islami (English Teacher in Lazuardi Haura)

Annisa Azzahra (English Teacher in Al-Kautsar)

Data Collection
In this research, the type of data is data from interview question to find out the problems when teaching
English. The researcher collects interview data through the instagram message. Previously the
researcher interviewed the researcher high school teacher but the evidence was lost because her device
was damaged, and the researcher was using a new device so.. Luckily, the researcher interviewed 2 other
speakers via Instagram message. Due to limitations the researcher was only able to interview a total of
2 Teachers.

Question :
The questions that used for collect the data are :
1. What is your struggle in teaching and learning based on your experience?
2. What are the teaching methods or learning styles thatused by the teacher?
3. Is there any differencies struggle on online learning and offline learning?
4. When do you conduct assessments or evaluations of students?
5. How do you increase student motivation?
6. Is there any suggestion to other teachers or who is want to be a teacher in the future?

Answer :

Ms. Rella Islami ( Lazuardi Haura)

1. Personally, as a teacher we don't just have to teach, but here (the school where I teach) we have to
really take care of our children from building their character, understanding them, and so on. AND
we also have to deal with parents who think their kids are perfect💔

2. In my opinion, the first one, We have to teach students with different learning styles. There are
students of mine who just listen to them immediately understand, some are visual, some have to
move a lot, and so on.

3. For me, online is more draining than teaching them directly. We cannot control them, there are
students who are lazy on camera, there are students who are shy about speaking. And for online
learning, the media also has to be prepared because it has to be varied and creative😅

4. After my teaching hours I usually evaluate what is lacking and what has improved.

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 5. I become a teacher who is a friend, so that it makes them comfortable to tell anything, if they are
looking bored or lazy I usually tell a story for them first.

6. Be the teacher you needed when you were a student and please believe in your student potential.

Ms. Annisa Azzahra (Al-Kautsar)

1. I always do everything, as long as I can do it, based on my own best version for teaching and learning
something new.

2. As a new teacher, I'm still confused about how to deal if sometimes I see my students are less
motivated to learn but usually I use the audio lingual method so that students don't get bored and
interested.

3. Ofc, it can be defined by the media wht we use in the on/off learning.

4. I do weekly evaluations, so that if there is an improvement it will be more significant.

5. I approach students by giving advice and asking if there are any problems or difficulties they are
going through in learning.

6. Nice question cindy, being a teacher is not only how to teach a student, but being a teacher is how
to make a student want to learn something. If your student don't want to learn, so it means you failed.
Last but not least, adjust the way you teach with 'what' and 'who' you are teaching🥰.

C. Result and Discussion

According to all Teachers, the first one is, Teacher has to teach students with different learning styles.
There are students who listen to them and understand immediately, some are visual, some have to move
a lot. Then secondly, as a teacher they are not only have to teach, but here (the school where they
teach) they must really take care of her children from building their character, understanding them, and
so on. And they also have to deal with parents who think their kids are perfect. And for them, teaching
online is more draining than teaching students directly, because they cannot control students, there are
students who are lazy on camera, there are students who are ashamed to express their opinions, and for
online learning, the media must also be prepared because it has to be varied and creative. On average,
they use the "Audio Lingual Method" for learning method in order to attract the attention of students in
learning and become more interested and students are not bored.

The steps they take in teaching are first by giving short films or short stories in English or giving
examples and asking them to understand then making understanding and giving tests or questions. They
all make learning evaluations but the time is different, some are during class promotion and some are
during that week (after teaching time is up). they usually build relationships with parents by
communicating or calling their parents to school so that they know the progress and development of

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 their children's learning while at school, and what their children lack in learning. The way they motivate
students in learning also varies, some are by giving advice, some are teacher as a friend, or by sharing
stories first before starting learning. What they like about teaching and becoming English teachers is
that, according to them, there is a special pride when their students can learn new vocabulary or
knowledge through them which will certainly be useful in the future. And the last message they said for
new teachers or those who want to become teachers was adjust the way ypu teach with “what” and “who”
you are teaching” and “Be the teacher you needed when you were a student and believe in your students
potential”

From the analysis of interviews conducted with teachers regarding the problems that are often faced
during the learning process, I can conclude that the main problem faced by teachers when teaching is
how difficult it is for teachers to be able to build student motivation in learning and make them focus
especially when learning online, and Also the task of the teacher is not only to provide knowledge but
also to build good character. The Character education is the intentional effort to nurture and develop in
young people the core ethical and performance values that are widely affirmed and accepted across all
cultures. To be effective, character education must include all stakeholders in the school community and
must permeate the school climate and curriculum. Character education includes a broad range of
concepts such as positive school culture, moral education, just communities, caring school communities,
social-emotional learning, positive youth development, civic education, and service learning.

Teachers can read the result of researchers’ study then they can select some good strategies and helpful
notes to use in the classroom, because all researches are not useful for teachers, some of them are only
theories and are not related to teach in real environment. Griffiths (2007) stated, teachers can be able to
promote language learning strategy used by their students. Bell (2007) suggested that teachers need to
be enlightened with all methods, and they should construct their own principled methods or decide what
principles they draw on in their teaching.

Conclusion
The conclusion that I get here is that these teachers have a big responsibility in teaching their students,
by motivating students, evaluating and so on, and they also experience difficulties in teaching especially
during a pandemic, students who are not focused and lazy to learn distance far away, not wanting to be
on camera and so on are obstacles that must be overcome by teachers so that students continue to learn
and gain knowledge even though they are far away. Researchers concluded that teachers can use the
result of studies in the classroom to facilitate teaching English language, but teachers sometimes have
doubt about the relationship between the result of studies and teaching because they believe these studies
are general and cannot be used in different situations. Researchers
stated that teachers need the results of research because they can adapt the results in their classroom
practice. Some teachers prefer to use their teaching experience instead of using the result of researches
in the classroom. Other researchers suggested useful strategies to help teachers. Teachers use different
strategies to plan the lessons because these strategies are adaptable
with the classroom situation even students have good strategies to learn English language.

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