Challenges Faced by Elementary School's Teacher To Teach ...

CHALLENGES FACED BY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S

TEACHER TO TEACH ENGLISH AT SDI AL MUTTAQIN

DRIYOREJO GRESIK

TI

THESIS

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in Teaching English

By:

Beby Aulia Rosa

NIM: D75213052

ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING

SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

SURABAYA

2018

digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id

ABSTRACT

Rosa, Beby Aulia. (2018). “Challenges Faced by Elementary School’s

Teacher To Teach English At SDI Al Muttaqin Driyorejo

Gresik” An Undergraduate Thesis. English Education

Department. Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Sunan

Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya.

Advisors :Mokhamad Syaifudin M. Ed, Ph. D and

Rakhmawati, M.Pd

Key words :Challenge, elementary’ school teacher, teaching

English

English teacher holds an important role to teach English to the student in

every schools’ level. The power of the class in teaching and learning

process is a teacher. As a teacher they have to be able to handle the class

in every situation. The teacher should create the English learning goes

well. While the idea of teaching English has to be in a smooth process

but the reality shows that process of teaching and learning practice is not

easy. Teaching English as a foreign language can create challenges for

every teacher whether beginner or experienced. Everyday teacher faces

a variety of challenges which they must learn to a constant deal with,

adapt to students need, find solutions to the challenges. This study

investigates the challenges faced by the teacher who teach in elementary

school level in second grades and the strategies to deal with the

challenges. The challenges faced by the teacher when the teacher

teaching English in the class. This research uses qualitative method,

while observation guideline and interview guideline as the instruments.

The researcher did the observation in the class. The researcher also did

the interview. The result of this study shows that the teacher faced five

challenges from eight challenges to teach English. The challenges faced

by the teacher are respecting the students, being even handed, teaching

speaking, disruptive behavior and teaching aids. The teacher uses

several strategies in dealing with challenges. The teacher uses

punishment, reduce the student’ score, drilling, also the teacher tries to

do her best.


ABSTRAK

Rosa, Beby Aulia. (2018). “Challenges Faced by Elementary School’s

Teacher To Teach English At SDI Al Muttaqin Driyorejo Gresik”

An Undergraduate Thesis. English Education Department.

Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Sunan Ampel State

Islamic University, Surabaya. Pembimbing: Mokhamad Syaifudin

M. Ed, Ph.D dan Rakhmawati, M.Pd

Kata kunci: Tantangan, guru sekolah dasar, pengajaran bahasa Inggris

Guru bahasa Inggris memegang peranan penting untuk mengajar bahasa

Inggris kepada siswa di setiap tingkat sekolah. Kekuatan kelas dalam

proses belajar mengajar adalah seorang guru. Sebagai guru mereka harus

bisa menangani kelas dalam segala situasi. Mengajar bahasa Inggris

sebagai bahasa asing bisa menimbulkan tantangan bagi setiap guru baik

pemula maupun berpengalaman. Guru setiap hari menghadapi berbagai

tantangan yang harus mereka pelajari untuk kesepakatan konstan,

disesuaikan dengan kebutuhan siswa, menemukan solusi untuk

tantangan. Studi ini menyelidiki tantangan yang dihadapi oleh guru yang

mengajar di tingkat sekolah dasar di kelas dua dan strategi untuk

menghadapi tantangan. Tantangan yang dihadapi guru saat guru

mengajar bahasa Inggris di kelas. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode

kualitatif, sedangkan pedoman observasi dan pedoman wawancara

sebagai instrumen. Peneliti melakukan pengamatan di kelas. Peneliti

juga melakukan wawancara. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa

guru menghadapi lima tantangan dari delapan tantangan pengajaran

bahasa Inggris. Tantangan yang dihadapi oleh guru adalah menghormati

siswa, adil, mengajar berbicara dengan bahasa inggris, perilaku

mengganggu dan alat bantu pengajaran. Guru menggunakan beberapa

strategi dalam menghadapi tantangan. Guru menggunakan hukuman,

mengurangi nilai siswa, drilling, juga guru mencoba melakukan yang

terbaik.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE......................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL SHEET.................................................................................. iEXAMINER APPROVAL SHEET........................................................... iiMOTTO....................................................................................................iiiDEDICATION SHEET............................................................................ ivABSTRACT.............................................................................................. vACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................viPERNYATAAN KEASLIAN TULISAN...............................................viiiTABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................... ixLIST OF APPENDICES...........................................................................ixCHAPTER I...............................................................................................1INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................1

A. Research Background.......................................................................1B. Research Questions...........................................................................3C. Objectives of the Research............................................................... 4D. Significance of the Research............................................................ 4E. Scope and Limitation........................................................................ 4F. Definition of Key Terms....................................................................4

CHAPTER II............................................................................................. 6REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE..................................................6

A. Theoretical Framework.................................................................... 61. Teaching and Learning Process.....................................................62. The Role of a Teacher................................................................... 63. Qualified Teachers in Teaching Young Learners..........................84. The Role of Teacher to Teach Young Learners Successfully..... 115. Definition of Young Learners.....................................................146. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Indonesia... 177. Challenges in Teaching English as a Foreign Language............178. Strategies in Dealing with the Challenges................................. 21

B. Previous Studies............................................................................. 29CHAPTER III..........................................................................................33RESEARCH METHOD.......................................................................... 33

A. Approach and Research Design......................................................33B. Research Subject.............................................................................33C. Setting of the Research................................................................... 34D. Data................................................................................................ 34


E. Source of Data................................................................................ 35F. Data Collection Technique.............................................................. 35G. Research Instrument....................................................................... 36H. Data Analysis Technique................................................................ 37I. Research Stages............................................................................... 37

CHAPTER IV..........................................................................................39FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION............................................................ 39

A. Research Findings......................................................................... 391. Challenges Faced by Elementary School’s Teacher in TeachingEnglish at SDI Al-Muttaqin............................................................ 392. Strategies in Dealing with the Challenges................................. 47

B. Research Discussion...................................................................... 49CHAPTER V........................................................................................... 57CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION....................................................57

A. Conclusion.....................................................................................57B. Suggestions....................................................................................58

REFERENCES........................................................................................ 59


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Research BackgroundTeaching English in school has been described by

Johnston as possibly the biggest progress in Education whichis becoming increasingly important in a world includingIndonesia, where idea of political, social, and trading barriersbetween people are rapidly improving and it showed Englishindicates as a new realization of the importance in modernworld. One thing appears to that reality that the teacher shouldteach English to learners are increasing in number anddecreasing in age. The number of English language program,courses and lessons children is increasing at a high ratenowadays. Government introduces English language programearlier at primary school and there are several kindergartensthat offer their children English language already during theirpre-school years.1

While the idea of teaching English is stronger but thereality shows that process of teaching and learning practice isnot easy. Teaching English as a foreign language is achallenge for every teacher whether beginner or experienced,yet rewarding career choice. Everyday teacher faces a varietyof challenge which they must learn to a constant deal with,adapt to students need, find solutions to these challenges andmost important to achieve successful communicativelanguage teaching.

In fact, English has identified a number of pressing. Thestudy conducted by Reem Abdullah entitled “TeacherChallenges in Middle School Classrooms and theirRelationship to Teaching Performance from EducationalSupervisor’ Perception.”. The teacher faced some challenges

1Johnstone, R. An early start: What are the key conditions for generalized

success? In J. Enever, J. Moon, & U. Raman (Eds.), Young learner Englishlanguage policy and implementation: International perspectives.Reading,(England: Garnet Education, 2009), 31.


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in teaching English. The teacher faced challenges such asunsuitable teaching aids, overcrowded classroom which is oneclass consist of forty to fifty students, and noisy environment.The unsuitable teaching aids and the overcrowded classroomare considered as challenges in teaching English. Thosechallenges made the teachers and the students becamefrustrated and stressed. Therefore, incorporating the essentialfeatures of classroom management like organizing theclassroom, planning, using effective materials, choosingappropriate activities etc, would help the school’ teachers toestablish effective learning management system.2

Furthermore, the other challenges also occurredespecially teaching in secondary school in rural areas inSoutheast Sulawesi Province. The research took place inEnglish language classroom that the challenges found in theclassroom. The study is conducted by Nikolaus entitledTeaching English In An “Acquisition-Poor Environment”: AnEthnographic Example Of A Remote Indonesian EFLClassroom. This research shows that the challenge appearsabout the facilities. Such the teacher did not have teacher’sbook, they had to work from student’s book. Asconsequences, they did not have clear, practical guidance inhow to proceed with the task in the classroom.3

On the contrary of becoming secondary teacher, peoplethink that becoming an elementary school teacher will notface many challenges such above. Many assume that primaryschool teacher don’t need to know too much beyond basicreading, writing, speaking or listening because they will not

2 Reem, Abdullah. Bachelor Thesis: “Teacher Challenges inMiddle School Classrooms and their Relationship toTeaching Performance from Educational Supervisor’Perception.”( Palestina: Al - Azhar University, 2011), 88.3 Pasassung, Nikolaus, Bachelor Thesis: “Teaching English In An“Acquisition-Poor Environment”:An Ethnographic Example Of ARemote Indonesian EFL Classroom”( Indonesia: University ofEducation, 2003), 259.


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face so many challenges.4 As a matter of fact, the elementary’school teacher also faced challenges. The challenges occurredfrom the students. such as controlling crowded situation in theclass. The challenges often faced by teachers when the teacherexplained the lesson. The students busy with themselves.They had their own things to do, and also they played withtheir friends while explanation was going by the teacher. Asthe children they wanted to play in the class until they feltsatisfied. The school system already gave them a break time.But, when break time were not enough. They continued toplay in the class. Moreover, the teacher also faced activestudents, they also easy to felt bored. When they felt bored,they moved and ran around the class. Not only moved and ranthey also disturbed their other friends. As well as theydisturbed their friends, they also disturbed the teacher. 5

Those phenomenon makes the researcher wants toconduct the study more extensive in order to help the others’teacher to aware of the challenges they faces and to deal withthe challenges. Because being an integral part of the Englishteachers in every level schools, teacher should be givenappropriate attention so that the overall aim of teachingEnglish can be achieved. Teachers do everything they can tomake sure that their lessons are successful in the class.Teachers must have a lot of strategies in dealing with challengein the classroom. Thus, the strategies are very important to dealwith the challenge which can cause of problem in teaching andlearning process. In most cases, students in the class need to geta good teacher to deal with the challenge as a means of accessinformation and communicating socially.

Thus, The researcher chooses to conduct the research inElementary school teacher from SDI Al-Muttaqin whom hasEnglish teacher education background. The researcherchooses the teacher from SDI Al-Muttaqin also because theteacher teaches English to the students with Cambridge

4 Linda, Banks. What does it take to become an elementary schoolteacher?.(USA: NCTQ, 2015),2.5 Evertson, CM. Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers.(USA: Pearson, 2006), 19.


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curriculum followed by Cambridge book. The researcher didthe preliminary research where the school faced thechallenges of disruptive behavior students. That challengemade the researcher wanted to conduct the studies deeply.Nowadays, English in elementary school in Indonesia is notcompulsory subject, the researcher chooses the place whereEnglish as a compulsory subject to learn.

B. Research QuestionsThe study will be guided by the following research question :1. What are challenges faced by elementary’ teacher to teach

English at SDI Al-Muttaqin?2. What are the teacher’ strategies in dealing with the

challenges?

C. Objectives of the Research

Based on the research question, the objectives of the research are:1. To describe challenges faced by elementary school teacher in

teaching English in Surabaya.2. To find out the teacher strategies in solving the problems in

teaching their students.

D. Significance of the Research

1. For English TeacherThe result of this research can be used as reference in

teaching English in Elementary School. Any unveiled strategieswould help solve the problem of the teachers when facing thechallenge in teaching English in elementary school.2. For Further Research

This research gives a benefit in giving academic informationfor the future research in ELT research especially in challengeto teach English in elementary school.


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E. Scope and LimitationThis research focuses on teaching challenges faced by the

teacher to teach elementary students in the class. The first concern isabout the challenges faced by teacher in teaching in the classroom.The second concern is about the strategies of teacher in dealing withthe challenges faced in the classroom. The researcher limits thestudy to only focus on a teacher whom has English educationbackground and teach English as a compulsory subject.

F. Definition of Key TermsChallenge according to Toynbee is something difficult which

requires great effort and determination, something that testsstrength, skill or ability. In this research challenges are teacher’difficulties in teaching English which need problem-solving.6

Elementary’s School Teacher is teacher who teaches thestudents of vastly different age groups, from the early ages of fiveor six to the cusp of adolescence 11 or 12.7 In this research,elementary school teacher is the teacher who teaches English insecond grade.

Strategy is a plan of action chosen to bring about a desiredfuture, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. Inthis research, strategy is a plan of action chosen by the teacher todealing with the challenges faced in the class during the learningprocess.8

6 Toynbee, J. Arnold, “A Study of History” (London: Oxford UniversityPress, 1987),125.7

Nikolov, M, “Early learning of modern foreign languages: Processes andoutcomes” (Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2009), 12.8 Strategy, “Oxford Dictionary 2010”, accessed January 2, 2018.


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Framework

1. Teaching and Learning ProcessThe great power of the class in teaching and learning

process is a teacher. As a teacher they have to be democraticand be able to handle the class in every situation. The teacherhas to make sure the condition in the class is ready during theteaching and learning process. The teacher must create a goodteaching and learning process in the class. Actually here arethree kinds of steps in teaching and learning process:9

a. Information : In each course the students get some ofinformation that can improve or broaden theirknowledge even though it will be opposite witheverything that they know before.

b. Transformation : The teacher is needed to help thestudents to make a transformations of the knowledge inthe abstract or conceptual to make those knowledgelarger.

c. Evaluation : After the first and the second step, it isnecessary to evaluate those process to know about theknowledge that can absorb with the students and theprocess of information and transformation will useful forother indication or not.

9S Nasution M.A, “Berbagai Pendekatan dalam Proses Belajar dan

Mengajar”(Jakarta :BumiAksara,2000),9.


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2. The Role of a TeacherThe subject of the class who encourages motivation and

desire during teaching and learning process is a teacher. Whenthe student comes into the educational form, they get ateacher as their parents help in their home. The teachers in theschool have a main aim to do the transmission of knowledgeto development of student’s brain. Teacher has a specific rolesin teaching and learning in the classroom. These are the rolesof teacher as follow:10

a. The Teacher as a ControllerThe teacher as a controller, controllers have the

capacity to tell students things, organize drills, readaloud and in various other ways exemplify. Theycommand the class and of the activity taking place andthey often lead from the front class. Teacher as acontroller is needed when giving explanations,organizing question and answering work, lecturing,making announcement or bringing a class to order.

b. The Teacher as a PrompterThe teacher as a prompter, when the children in the

process of learning the teachers are sometime includedin a role play activity and find the students lose of whatis going on, or they are lost for words during the learningprocess. The teachers have to prompt students inmonolingual groups to speak English rather than usetheir mother tongue. The teachers choose some kinds ofa motivation role and keen to encourage the students tothink creatively rather than have them hang on our everyword just to do everything that teachers asks. When theteachers motivate the student, they need to do in calmway and encouragingly but above all, the teacher shoulddo wisely.

10 Harmer, Jeremy, “The practice of English Language Teaching Fourthedition”(USA : Pearson, 2009),108.


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c. The Teacher as a ParticipantTeacher as a participant, when students get on with

the discussions, role plays or group decision makingactivities the teacher should allow them and onlyintervenes later to offer feedback to correct mistakes. Itmeans that the teacher can live things up from the insideinstead of always having to prompt or organized fromoutside the group. The teacher can join in an activity notonly as a teacher but also as a participant in their ownright.

d. The Teacher as a ResourceThe students still have need of their teacher as a

resource to develop their knowledge. The meaningfuljob for teacher is to encourage the students to useresource material for them and to become moreindependent in their learning generally. Therefore,instead of answering every question about what a wordor phrase means. The teacher can instead direct studentsto a good dictionary. If the teacher does not know theright answer as an alternatively, the teacher needs tohave the courage word to say with their students. Theydo not know about the answer right now, but the teacherwill tell to the student tomorrow. It means that theteacher will have to give them the information in thenext day otherwise they may begin to lose confidencewhen teaching in the class. When the teachers are actingas a resource, they will want to be helpful and available.

e. The Teacher as a TutorThe teacher as a tutor, the teachers are blending the

roles of prompter and resource, in other words acting asa tutor in learning activity. The teacher can go round theclass when the students are working in small groups orin pairs, and staying briefly with a particular group orindividual, give the short of general guidance. Thestudents need the teacher who are care to them, however,to assure that as many individuals or groups as possibleare seen, otherwise the students who have not had access


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to the tutor may begin to feel unhappy. Accordingly, theteacher needs to be able to switch and combine betweenthe various roles above, when it is appropriate to use oneor other of them. The teachers need to be aware of howthey carry out that role, how they perform when teachingin the class.

3. Qualified Teachers in Teaching Young LearnersThe study after study shows the single most

important factor determining the quality of education achild receives is the quality of his teacher. Teaching isone of the most complicated jobs today. It demandsbroad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum andstandards, enthusiasm, a caring attitude, and a love oflearning. With all these qualities required, it’s no wonderthat it’s hard to find great qualified teacher. Here aresome characteristics of qualified teachers:11

a. Qualified Teachers of English Should Know WhoChildren Are

The teachers should know who their target learnersare before they can design a good English instruction.12

Who are the children? Review of theoretical treatise andresearch-based reports the teachers who understandchildren from children’s own perspectives will lead themto a clear conclusion that children are children, they arenot little adults. Children have their own culture andways of doing things which are different from that ofadults. Given this thinking, children should be treatedand appreciated in their own right. If we want Englishteaching to work as expected, it should first of all be

11 Mustafa, Bachrudin”Teaching English to Young Learners inIndonesia: Essential Requirements”(Indonesian University of Education,2010), 122.12 Barrat Pugh, C., & Rohl, M. “Literacy Learning in the EarlyYears”(Australia:Allen & Unwin,2000),121.


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ensured that teachers hold an appropriate perspectiveabout who children.

b. Qualified Teachers of English Should Know HowChildren Learn

Bruner and Piaget have provided very usefulinsights into how children learn. More specifically,Bruner proposes a hierarchy of children’s learningmodes: enactive (which means the children like doingthings on physical activities), iconic (which representsresidual mental images resulting from the contacts withmaterial entities), and symbolic (which comes later byway of symbolic means such as language). Parallel tothese three modes of learning, Piaget contributes anotherhelpful concept. That is, three kinds of knowledgechildren create from their engagement with physicalobjects and social intercourse. More specifically,according to Piaget, there are three kinds of knowledge:physical knowledge (which children construct out oftheir “interaction” with physical objects), logicmathematical knowledge (basic concepts childrenacquire as a mental residue from their actions onphysical objects), and social knowledge.

c. Qualified Teachers of English Should Know HowChildren Learn a Language

Young learners acquire a language from directcontact with language in use, including observing andparticipating in literacy practices; watching how peopleread and write for functional real purposes; andparticipating in literacy events. In other words, languageskills are acquired naturally in the context of meaningfuloral interaction and literacy events. In addition, childrenlearn a language by doing things in and with thelanguage, the children can participate in social activitiesinvolving the use of the language; being engaged insocial interaction using the language being learned.There are three dimensions when children learn


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language, the first is exposure to the language (wherechildren get exposed to language in use which can serveas examples to learn from), engagement (where childrenget opportunities to use the language for communicativepurposes), and consistent support (where the children seefor themselves that learning the language is useful;andthe language they learn socially recognized asprestigious). These three dimensions should be there ifthe learning of a language is to be effective asexpected.13

d. Qualified teachers of English should know theprinciples and should be able to do things to facilitatechildren learning English as a foreign language

Teachers of English should use English all the timeor as much as possible during the session in theclassroom as exposure to English in use is very limitedoutside of the classroom, . To support the idea ofincreasing exposure to English use, print-richenvironment should also be created in and around theclassroom. As children learn more readily when engagedin physical movements, teachers should useactivity-based teaching-learning techniques such as TPR,games, and projects. Also to be noted here is thatteachers should focus on functional English orvocabulary development, and for immediate fulfillmentof communicative needs of the young learners. Aschildren have relatively short attention span, teachers ofEnglish should use various techniques for short periodsof time to maintain the interest level of the children inengaging the English lessons. Also noteworthy is theidea that teachers should reiterate often to ensure theacquisition of English. As classroom English (orlanguage of classroom interaction) is relativelydistinctive in nature, it is good idea if the teachers can

13 Mustafa, Bachrudin,“Teaching English to Young Learners inIndonesia: Essential Requirements”(Indonesian University of Education,2010),122.


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provide useful acquisition-promoting routines in Englishso that as a collective children in the classroom canacquire relatively significant amount of functionalEnglish simply by being present in the classroom.

4. The Role of Teacher to Teach Young Learners Successfully

Teaching at any level is challenging occupation, studentscan be demanding, the grading often feels endless, and talkingin front of a room full of people gives many teachers anxiety.However, like any other worthwhile professional pursuit,teaching has learning curve. Once the teachers learned to feelcomfortable in front of the students, teaching will becomefun, rewarding job. The teachers can be successful bypreparing ahead of time, successful managing classroom andengaging directly students. These are some effective teachersof English should do:14

a. Teacher should use English all the time to ensure thatchildren have relatively much exposure to English

Teachers of English should use English all thetime/or as much as possible in the classroom during theinstructional sessions in order to expose students toEnglish in use which represents an essential prerequisitefor the acquisition of English to happen. Teachers ofEnglish model the acts of speaking, reading and writingby speaking, reading, and writing themselves while thechildren try to do so. This functional use of Englishduring the instructional time should be carried outconsistently to provide learners with opportunities sothat they can see or themselves how English is beingused for communicative purposes with their teachers. Inthis way, children can observe and participate in the useof English for communicative purposes, and then acquirethis language in use as a prototype for later use in other

14 Mustafa, Bachrudin.”Teaching English to Young Learners in Indonesia:Essential Requirements”,(Indonesian University of Education, 2010),123-124.


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communicative events.

b. Print-rich environment in English should be createdin and around the classroom

Teachers of English should create a learningenvironment rich in multimodal literacy artifacts.Provide the room with ample functional reading andwriting materials in English such as brochures, leaflets,circulars, posters with captions written in English,comics, magazines, dictionaries and encyclopedias sothat functionality of English is visible to the children inthe classroom. Teachers of English for young learnersshould use activity-based Teaching and learningtechniques such as total physical response (TPR),games, and project

Teachers of English should use activity basedactivities teaching techniques such as TPR, games, andprojects and learning how to use English isaccomplished when children use the language to learnabout the world; the focus is on the subject matter (e.g.,games they like most; favorite activities during the rainyseason, etc.).

d. Teachers of English for young learners should usevarious techniques for short periods of time tomaintain the interest level of the children in engagingthe English lessons

Teachers of English should use various teachingtechniques for short periods of time to avoid boredom onthe part of learners. At the same time, keep focus on theteaching items from one instructional move to another sothat children’s learning is ensured.

e. Teachers of English should focus on functionalEnglish for vocabulary development, and forimmediate fulfillment of communicative needs of thelearners

Teachers of English should use functional Englishduring the instructional time in the class so that children


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can acquire functional vocabulary items from your talkand their communicative needs get fulfilled. In doingthis, encourage children to speak up their minds byproactively soliciting their responses and anticipatingtheir vocabulary needs so that genuine communicationcan take place.

f. Teachers of English for young learners shouldreiterate often to ensure the acquisition of Englishexpressions or vocabulary items

Teachers of English should reiterate usefulvocabulary items and expressions as frequently as theyare contextually appropriate. The more frequently theyencounter words and expressions in the context ofgenuine communication, the easier they would find themto acquire. Do this activity consistently and you willlearn how speedy your students pick up the language anduse it in their talk and writing.

g. Teachers of English for young learners shouldprovide useful, acquisition promotingroutines

Teachers of English should create routine activitieswhich are rich in language use such as reciting prayers inEnglish together before getting started with Englishsessions, engaging students in small but authentic socialtalks as an ice breaker before delving into the topic ofthe day, and having children do “show and tell” on aweekly basis. As part of a regular instructional “menu”,have a shared book reading and talk about the book youcollectively read in the classroom regularly. Researchhas established that shared book reading helps childrendevelop many of the skills essential for eventual readingachievement.

5. Definition of Young Learners

According to Ersöz young learners is between the age of7-9 years old which is processing in elementary school in


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grade 1st until 3rd. The characteristic of young learners are :15

(1) Low concentration pan (2) Short memory: frequentrevision needed (3) Logical-analytical: asking questions(4)Problem in sharing group work (5) Limited motor skills(left-right) (6) They love stories, fantasy, imagination,

drawing, and coloring. According to the characteristicsof young learners language focus or skill used in teachingyoung learners at that level are limited, children only taughtabout simple listening and speaking skill, vocabulary items,new reading and writing and no grammar teaching ormetalanguage (songs, classroom language). The teacher mustthink and operate the learning process on how the younglearners think and operate. A good teacher must play theirroles appropriately. They must be able to provide bestcondition and materials so they can control the learningprocess and the students characteristics.According to Piaget the characteristics of young learners are:

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a. Children learn from direct experiences.Children is unlike adults who can generally learn

from decontextualized abstractions, children learn andcreate knowledge base from direct experiences: fromwhat they can capture using their senses, and from whatthey experience directly. This learning principle has agreat implication for topic choice and materialsdevelopment by the teachers. For instance, rather thantrying to engage children into the idea of playing cricketduring winter time which they generally do notexperience in their lives in Indonesia, teachers ofEnglish could involve the children in talking about theirfavorite activities during the rainy season. In this way,

15 Ersöz. A, “Teaching English to Young Learners.(Ankara: EDM Publishing,2007),3.16 Cameron, Lynne,”Teaching Languages to Young Learners” (UK:Cambridge University Press, 2001),2.


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the learning of English makes a better sense to learnersbecause this foreign language can serve a real purpose:talking about things they think important in their lives.

b. Children learn from hands-on physical activitiesChildren is different from the way adults learn

whereby abstract, virtual experiences can be digested insuch an allegedly easy way, young children’s learning isgreatly enhanced when the learners are engaged inhands-on physical activities such as playing withphysical objects or making physical movements. Thislearning tendency has a great implication forinstructional design. That is, rather than using seat workall the time, for instance, a teacher of English would helpher students learn better if she has the learners do thingsin English (such as creating posters with captions inEnglish) or do things with English (such as negotiatingfield trip plans in English). In this way, Englishinstructional activities become more varied and engagingto young learners.

c. Children thinking is embedded in here-and- nowcontext of situation

Common in classes of young learners are learningactivities related to the identification of colors andshapes of objects. Teachers of English often complainabout how time consuming it is to prepare teachingscenarios and create learning media. Given thatchildren’s thinking tends to be embedded in what ishappening right now and what can be experienced onsite, it would make a better sense if the teacher capitalizeon the colors she can spot in what students are wearingand using and use this as a basis for the learning activity.The same procedure can also be adopted for the topic ofshapes of objects. In this way, the teaching and learningof English can serve a real purpose, and this will, in turn,increase children’s learning motivation because they cansee for themselves that English is useful.


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d. Children learn from whole to parts; holisticallyusing scripts

Children create knowledge by accumulating whathas already been experienced case by case. From thiskind of experience, children develop scripts which serveas a kind or “organizer” for digesting their ensuingexperiences. Take eating in a restaurant” as an example.Using their direct experience as a guide, children wouldconstruct the eating-in-a restaurant- script as comingin-> making an order-> being waited on-> eating ->paying the bill ( and then) -> leaving. This initial scriptwill later be revised with more details if the childrenexperience having a meal in “all you can eat” restaurantwhere customers help themselves; or when dining at theexpense of another person (i.e, “being treated” byanother person) where the bill is taken care of by theother person. Given this way of learning, children wouldget facilitated if the English instruction builds on whatchildren know rather than on what is likely new to them.In this way, thinking in the foreign language would belimited only in terms of vocabulary items, not in theconcept they do not have.

e. Children have short attention span

Adult learners can concentrate hours and hours onthe topic they are working on, but children can hold theirattention for about 15 to 20 minutes only. This relativelyshort attention span has a great implication for teachingprocedures. That is, rather than using a large time blockfor an uninterrupted session, it would be better to dividethe time block into several smaller chunk of activitieswhere children are engaged in different, smaller chunksof learning activities. This means that teachers ofEnglish should use various teaching techniques forshorter periods of time to avoid boredom on the part ofstudents, while at the same time pay close attention to


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teaching items being targeted for each fraction of thesessions.

6. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) inIndonesia

Teaching English as foreign language in Indonesia havemore advantages than those who teach it in the context ofsecond language. In the context of second language, thoughEnglish is not native for them but the teachers have lots ofopportunities to be directly exposed their students to Englisharound them. The teachers can provide their students todirectly listen to English used by native speakers throughvarious language activities such as listening songs, speeches,announcements, advertisement, debates, campaigns, etc.Printed materials are also available in great quantity, so thatthey can read whatever they like. Filling forms, takingmessages, taking notes, writing application for job or writingletters to the native speaker in the country are done in English.The case is different when the learners learn English in an FLcontext, such as Indonesia. The learners who learn English inFL context will not have as much advantageous as when theylearn the language in a SL context. The main reason for this isthat they have limited exposure to English. The circumstanceand language milieu available do not support the developmentof the target language the learners are learning. The only placewhere English is probably used and the only time where thelearners might be exposed to English is school, or morespecifically, classroom. Outside school or classroom, it is veryrare occasion to find people included the learners themselves,use English. It is no wonder why the teacher seem to havedifficulty teach them successfully though they actually havetaught English to the students for years. That’s why effortsmust be made to create such opportunities. 17

17Muth’im, Abdul,“Teaching English in an FL Context: a challenge forEnglish Teachers”(Banjarmasin: Lambung Markurat University, 2013),5.


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7. Challenges in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

a. The Course BookUnits and lesson often follow an unrelenting format

so that students and teacher eventually becomedemotivated by the sameness of it all. And in theirchoice of topics, coursebook can sometimes be blandculturally inappropriate. The teacher need to provide arich diet of learning experiences which encourage theirstudent to get information from variety sources. It is oneof challenge because they need to plan a range ofactivities and materials and flexible enough to move onthe next exercise when they see the students get bored.In India good coursebooks also difficult to find. Thecoursebook that mostly used in India are edited orwritten by those who are not actual practicing teacher.18

b. Recognizing the Students’ NamesStudents want their teachers to know who they are.

They would like their teacher to know their name, ofcourse, but they also appreciate it when teachers havesome understanding of their characters. Recognizing thestudent’s name also involves knowing about students. Atany age, they will be pleased when they realize that theirteacher has remembered things about them and hasunderstanding who they are. Its extremely difficult toteachers to know their names, especially at the beginningof a term or semester. As a result, teacher havedeveloped a number of strategies to help them cope withthis situation. 19

c. Respecting the Students

18Thakur Jyoti. (2013) Challenges and Prospect in Teaching English atElementary School Level. India: Chitkara University.19 Harmer, Jeremy, “The practice of English Language Teaching. Fourthedition” (USA : Pearson,2008), 113.


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The teachers should give respect to the students.Giving a respect is vital, when the teacher deals with anykinds of problems in class, the teacher might facechallenge in treating the students. The teacher couldshout or scream. If the teacher is too critical, they riskdemotivating the students. The teacher must respect thestudents while some students are fine, but others needsupport and positive reinforcement. In short, studentshave different characters and intelligences. So they havedifferent preferences when it comes to being respected.

d. Being even-handedA good teacher should try to draw out the quiet

ones and control the more talk active ones. Sometimesstudents are reluctant to take part overtly of otherstronger characters in a group. The reasons that somestudents are not forthcoming may be many and varied,ranging from shyness to their cultural or familybackground. The teacher may faces challenge inunderstand this situation.20

e. Teaching writingGiven that many children will be learning a new

script when learning English, it is not surprising thatwriting also presents a challenge. Moreover, manychildren are learning to write both in English and in theirfirst language, which means they are developing literacyin two languages simultaneously. Two aspects of writingconcerned teachers in particular (apart from spelling,which taxes teachers of children learning English as afirst language too): teaching children to write correctly,and teaching them to write creatively. Teaching childrencorrectly when they are success to write in the correctform of the words. Creative writing, by which teachermean activities in which children were required to drawon both their linguistic resources and their imaginations

20 Harmer, Jeremy, “The Practice of English Language Teaching Fourthedition”(USA: Pearson,2008),113.


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to write either stories or compose sentences around atopic area, tested children to a far greater extent. Manychildren seemed unable to complete these kinds of tasksand others were not even able to begin them. Thechallenge occur in teaching children when the teacher isteaching children to write in the correct form of thewords and also begin to write or compose sentencesaround a topic area. 21

f. Teaching speakingThe challenge most frequently identified was

teaching speaking. Previous research has identifiedteachers’ level of English and language teachingmethodologies as being problematic. The most commoncomments were about getting children to speak; forexample, “making them speak and persuade them thatspeaking English is something they do not able to do.” Itcould be that many children are reluctant to speak in frontof their classmates, particularly in a foreign language, asit can be extremely face-threatening. Teachers also statedit was difficult to teach “good,” “correct,” and “perfect”pronunciation.22

g. Disruptive BehaviourStudents’ behavior become common challenges for

the teacher to teach English. Disruptive student behavioris detrimental to the community because it interferes withthe learning process for other students, inhibit the abilityof teachers to teach most effectively, diverts students andteachers’ energy and resources away from the educationalmission and may indicate a significant level of personalproblems or distress on the part of disrupter. According to

21 Copland, Fiona,”Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners:Global Perceptive and Local Realities”(Aston University: Birmingham,2013),745.22 Copland, Fiona, “Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners:Global Perceptive and Local Realities”(Aston University: Birmingham,2013),747.


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Charles these are common types of disruptive behavior :23

2. Prolonged Chattering: Small cliques of 2-3 studentswho engage in private conversations.

3. Aggression: there are two kinds of aggression, theyare physical aggression (hitting, kicking, biting,pinching, pulling, slapping) and verbal aggression(put downs, swearing, ridiculing, and name calling.

3. Breaking rules: the student’ behavior in ways to breakthe class rules when they are unable to meetcertain needs satisfactorily.

4. Confrontation: the students try to get their way orshow dominance of anotherperson.

5. Disengagement: the students may have somethingmore interesting in their minds, feel incapable ofperforming task, or find the task boring or

meaningless. They may disengage lesson for those varietyreasons.

6.h. Teaching Aids

A general survey of teaching in Indian school saidthat provided teaching aids is very difficult, they havelimited time to do that because they are teachingeveryday which means they are not only English teacherbut also class teacher that must be handle the classeveryday, and that most of the teaching is being donewithout the help of any aid. The teacher of Englishhardly takes any initiative to prepare even simple chartsor flashcards which can greatly help them in teachingtheir subject well. 24

8. Strategies in Dealing with the Challenges

a. Possible strategies to Respect the Students

23 Charles, C.M,” Building Classroom Discipline”(USA: PearsonEducation,2010),160.24 Thakur, Jyoti, “Challenges and Prospects in Teaching English atElementary School Level” (India: Chitkara University, 2013),127.


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The teacher is a role model for the students, ifthe teacher did not respect the students, then thestudents will not respect the teacher. These are theway to help the teacher respect their students in anycondition: 25

1. The teacher’s words must be goldenThe teacher must be the one person that

students can trust unequivocally. Manystudents don’t respect teacher simply becausethey’ve never met one who did n’t lie to themwhich, fair or not, is how they see it if theteacher don’t do what the teacher say.

2. The teacher must never take misbehaviorpersonally

The teacher must respect their studentsby avoiding angry and resentful behaviors,keep the emotional distance by taking a deepbreath when responding unwanted behavior.

b. Possible strategies being even handed to thestudents in the class

The teacher has to being even handed to everystudents to gain the learning is in well going andsuccessful result,

these are kind of strategies to be even handed to thestudents.26

1. ImpartialityStudents expect an instructor to treat

everyone in the class equally. Few teachers

25 Linsin, Michael. 3 Simple ways to Earn Your Students’ Respect.,accesed November 7, 2017.https://smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/10/13/3-simple-ways-to-earn-your-students-respect/

26 Scott, Wendy and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg, “Teaching English toChildren” (USA: Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 87.


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intentionally favor certain students overothers, but it is probably impossible not to likesome students more than others. Differencesin liking may foster differences ininteractions, such as allowing certain studentsto dominate discussions. Even subtledifferences in how students are treated maylead to perceptions of partiality where noneexist. To avoid giving the impression ofpartiality, carefully monitor your behavior andinteractions with all students.

2. Give Every Student a Chance to Participate

In a large classroom, it’s easy for quieterstudents to fade into the background while themore outgoing ones answer the questions andparticipate. Whether you are keeping track ofwho you call on, playing games whereeveryone has to participate, or doing partnerwork, make sure that every student isinvolved.

3. Propriety

Propriety means acting in a sociallyacceptable manner that does not offend students'sensibilities.

c. Possible strategies to teach writing to the studentsWriting is not always easy, although the

writing and the oral skill are combined in theclassroom and the one clearly benefits from theother, writing has certain characteristics which seemto make it difficult for students to get to with,especially for young learners. Even if there there aredifficulties in writing in the foreign language, it isuseful, essential and integral and enjoyable part of


25

the foreign language lesson. These are strategies toteach young learners writing :27

1. Straight copyingThe teacher can ask the students to copy

words. Copying is a fairly obvious startingpoint for writing. It is an activity which givesthe teacher chance to reinforce language thathas been presented orally or through reading.For students who find even straight copyingdifficult, you can start them off by tracingwords. Even though they may not understandwhat they are writing, they will still end upwith piece of written work, and this in itselfwill give valuable encouragement andsatisfaction.

2. MatchingThe teacher can vary straight copying by

asking pupils to match pictures and texts, orchoose which sentence they want to writeabout the text.

3. Delayed CopyingThe teacher can do delayed copying,

which is fun to do in class, for training shortterm visual memory. Write a short, familiarsentence on the board, give the pupils a fewseconds to look at it, and then rub it out and seeif the pupils can write down. Please note thatthis type of activity should not be used as a test.

4. Rainbow - Colorful Handwriting PracticeThe teacher uses this activity to help

children to practice their spelling words.Because lets face it, memorizing things isn’t

27 Scott, Wendy and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg, “Teaching English toChildren” (USA: Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 69.


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fun for young children. All the teacher needs todo this simple activity are paper and crayons.That’s it. Drew an upper and lower case A forchildren and their friend. But the teacher alsodid a couple of numbers and threw in someshapes, too. Have your children trace the letter,shape, or number with any color crayon. Asthey are tracing it have them say it out loud,too. For letters the teacher says the letters andfor shapes the teacher will say the shape andthen say something that is that shape. Havethem trace over the object again with adifferent color crayon. Then, have them repeatit again with another color, and so on until allseven colors of the rainbow used. This is a veryeasy way to get your children to do repetitionwithout making it seem like doing the samething seven times. It is a great for handwritingand pencil grasp practice, along withrecognition of letters, shapes, numbers, andcolors. It really is a lot of fun and yourrefrigerator will soon be covered withrainbowed objects.

5. Letter TracingThe teacher must gather the materials.

The teacher will need contact paper, a marker,some paper towels, stickers, and scissors. Startby writing out the words or letters for the mat.The teacher has to make sure the marker theyuse doesn’t bleed. Prefer to used paper towelsbecause they are a perfect size for mat. Paperwill work just fine. Add your stickers. Childrenwanted different stickers, one of them for theexample is fire truck themed one and theteacher can made an alphabet mat for them aswell. The teacher chooses uppercase but thereis no rule that the teacher has to do uppercase.Cut your contact paper so they sandwich the


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place mat in it. Place the mat face down to helpavoid bubbles.

d. Possible strategies to teach speaking to thestudents

There are many other techniques and activitiesthat teachers can use for their young learnersstudents in the classroom. Here are some theexamples:28

1. GamesPlay is a purposeful activity and games

are a part of playing. Games are a veryappropriate teaching technique in the younglearner classroom. There are many kinds ofgames the teachers can create. The examplesare Memory games, This and That, Role play,Guess games, etc.

2. Talking and Writing BoxTeachers can experiment with this kind

of method. They can put the pictures or topicsin the box and the students can choose onethat is interesting to them, or teachers can doit like the example below:The teachers canshow a funny picture, the funnier the better,and give students some multiple choicesrelating to the language focus and also givethem choice to give their own opinion.

4. Tongue TwistersThis method can be used to teach

pronunciation in a fun way. Children mayhave trouble pronouncing certain Englishlanguage sounds. For example, children who

28 Fransisca, Eka. (2008). Teaching Speaking to Young Learners.Bandung: Indonesian University of Education.,p.5


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speak some Asian language may havedifficulty pronouncing the English language/r/ and /l/ because of the way that they occuror their absences in their native languages.Sometimes, the difficulty also occurs becausechildren often do not know how to form theirlips and mouth in such a way as to correctlyarticulate the sounds.Children adore tonguetwisters because they perceive saying thesounds as a game or challenge. Tonguetwisters generally have the same phonemerepeated over and over again, which is quitehard.

4. Using impromptu gamesThe teacher can create impromptu games

that star off really easy to build confidence.Only get into harder impromptu games as thechildren become proficient public speaker.Impromptu games are great to help childrenlearn to think on the spot. The teacher believsthe fear of public speaking comes because weare scared we won’t know what to do if wemake a mistake. We are scraed that everythingis just going to fall apart. But, by teachingkids to think on the spot then we can start getover that fear.

5. Secret MessageThis well known games is best played

with a group of children from kindergartenupwards. Everyone sits in a line or circle andthe first person whispers a short message tothe next person in line, with the message thenbeing passed from person to person inwhispers along the line or around circle. Thelastb person announces the message they haveheard to the whole group and everyone has a


29

good laugh at how message had invariablychanged as it has been passed along.

6. Alphabet ChainChoose category and take turns naming

an item that fits the category following thesequence of letters of the alphabet. So the firstperson chooses a word sytarting with a, thesecond person a word beginning with b, thethird person wit c, etc. The category can beanything at all - animals, countries, names,superheroes, etc.

e. Possible strategies in dealing with the disruptivebehaviour students

In most of the schools of our country, whetherprivate or public, there are more than 35 students inthe same class. It is the duty of the single teacher tocontrol them and to deliver the lesson planeffectively. But, in the school commonly occurredthere are also students whom has disruptivebehaviour which can affect the teaching andlearning process. To cope with this situations theseare possible strategy:29

1. Have a sense of humor.In the classroom, you have to have a

sense of humor. If you do not, the kids willnot like you and you will not like the kidsbecause there will be a disconnect. Using asense of humor is the best way to disarm a badsituation. You also have to be careful withyour sense of humor. If you carry it too farand students do not understand their limits,you could have a potential rough class who

29Holland, Susan, “Strategies for teachers: How to deal with disruptivebehaviour class”, 2016. https://owlcation.com /academia/10-teaching-strategies-for-a-disruptive-class(accessed June 28,2017)


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thinks you are a clown who can be a pushover. Dispel this notion by constantly givingthe kids guidelines. Once they have theguidelines for classroom behavior, they will“get” your sense of humor.

2. Send the first disrupter to the hall and thesecond to the office.

In the beginning of the year, you mustset the tone. If they are going to make troublein my class, I give the first warning, “The firstone goes to the hall and the second one goesto the office.” There are usually at least twopushing the buttons many times together. Youmust follow through with the threat so theyknow you mean business. When you showthem in the beginning of the year that yourobjective is to teach them and not babysitthem, they get the message quick. Studentslove to test teachers. Not because they are"bad" but because they are kids. Try toremember your own school days so you canrelate to them before it is irreparable. Whenyou send a kid to the hall, make time todiscuss the problem clearly. Some students,even in high school, do not understand whythey are being disciplined. Make it clear in away that lets the student know you want theirsuccess. The same goes for if you send astudent to the office. Find a time to discusswhat happened to lead to the discipline.

3. Taking ChargeStart by taking charge of the classroom.

Someone needs to be in charge. If you do nottake charge, the children will. Walkconfidently. Speak with poise and confidenceand believe in yourself and your ability tocontrol the classroom. Children can feel when


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you are frightened and unsure of yourself. Youmay have to practice speaking in front of amirror until your voice is strong, firm, andfilled with positive expectations. Do this overand over again. You can also tape recordyourself while talking to children. Afterward,as you listen to the tapes, ask yourself,“Would I listen to me? What can I do better?”Practice, practice, and practice some more.

4. Fun AtmosphereThe more fun you have, the more fun

children will have. They will want to payattention to you because they are excited tosee what you will do next. Your enthusiasm ismore contagious than a cold. It is infectious.The truth is that any mood you have iscontagious, so it is really important that yourmood is filled with joy for teaching.

5. Silence GameThis is a method first devised by Maria

Montessori when she was working with youngchildren in the slums of San Lorenzo, Italy.She used it to teach them the power of silence.It worked then, and it works now. Here’s howto do it. Tell the children that you will beasking them to close their eyes and listen. Itwill be for less than a minute. When they opentheir eyes, ask them to name all the soundsthey heard. They generally will hear the airconditioning or heating vent, other childrenbreathing, and noise in the hallway. The nextday, do it again for a few seconds longer.Every day, do it longer and longer. It isamazing the sounds they start to hear that theynever heard before. This game sets the tonefor teaching children the value of silence.Some of them never experience silence. They


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go home, and their television sets are alwayson. The television is even on when they go tosleep. They have grown accustomed to noiserather than silence. That is one of the reasonsthey chatter. With this game, you are teachingthem to be still and enjoy the silence. It is askill that will last their entire lifetimes.

6. Talking Without SoundThe teacher can have a special time each

day when children can talk to each otherwithout words. They make gestures, but nowords. Children look forward to this specialtime that is generally held at the end of theday as a fun time. You can use it at other timestoo, whenever you think the noise level isgetting loud.

f. Possible strategies in providing English teachingaids

The teacher can use a variety of teaching aids,these are the example of teaching aids:30

1. The blackboard/whiteboard is a very usefulteaching tool. Dont forget it. Visual learnersreally appreciate it.

2. Auditory learners often appreciate TV, movie,CD, and audio device.

3. The teacher can use their own body or thestudent’s body gestures to help the teachingmore interesting and clarify different items.

30 Rohmah, Zuliati.”Teaching English Joyfully”.(Malang: CV BintangSejahtera, 2012), 25.


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B. Previous StudiesThe topic discussed in this research has been conducted for a

long time. Therefore, the researcher provides the report of previousstudies below in order to give clearest picture of the differentiationamong the existence research:

1. Ramadhani, Putri. Teachers’ Problem in Teaching Speaking toYoung Learners31

This study aims to investigate the teachers’ problems inteaching speaking to young learners at Jasmine EducationCenter. Those problems were gathered from observation andinterviewed the teacher in order to investigate theteachers’problems in teaching speaking to young learners, theresearcher used qualitative study to gather the data in thisresearch. The researcher observed the problems found on twoEnglish teachers at Jasmine Education Center. The researcherfollowed the observation guide from Bryne.

Additionally, an interview was intended to find out theteachers’ answers in order to know teachers’ problems inteaching speaking to young learners. The interview guide wastaken from Kayi. The classroom observation showed that theproblems found related to class management which wereresponse towards learners and proper environment in teachingand learning process.The answers of the interviews, theresearcher found that the teachers’ problems in timeprediction in teaching,the way the teacher’commentedstudents’mistakes and lack of ability in analyzing students’difficulties in learning. In conclusion, the researchersuccessfully found the problems on the teachers in teachingspeaking to young learners in Jasmine Education Center.

2. Hashemi, Masoud and Azinezhad, Masoud. Teaching EnglishTo Children: A Unique, Challenging Experience ForTeachers, Effective Teaching Ideas.32

31 Ramadhani, Putri, “Teachers’ problem in Teaching Speaking toYoung Learners.”


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This study conducted to find the proper method to teachEnglish to young learners and to find the characteristics oflanguage teachers who teach to children. The finding of thisstudy of the proper method for teaching English is using TPR.TPR is a method of teaching language based on the premisethat human brain has a biological program for acquiring anynatural language on earth including the sign language of thedeaf. The process is visible when we observe how infantsinternalize their first language. It has been used successfullywith students who are learning second language. When TPRis used at an English class, the teacher gestures, models, andsays the commands to the students and the students respondby imitating the teacher. and the characteristics of of languageteachers who teach to children are must be energetic andpatient, must love children, must pay attention to individualdifferences, must know the techniques of teaching, mustrespect children as human.

3. Thomson, Stefan. Teaching Young Learners: Adapting theclassroom for YELL.33

This study has examined the issues with teachingYELLs, and how they differ from older learners. The mainthree ways the classroom needs to be adapted for younglearners is through motivation, task-based activities that relateto students’ lives outside the classroom, and application oftextbooks and accompanying materials. These are discrete,yet related issues. Interesting materials can improvemotivation, tasks can supplement textbooks, and everything isimproved with increased motivation. The issues discussed canbe used to plan lessons and syllabuses that will engageyounger learners. Designing lessons that keep in mind theYELLs interests and ability to process information will leadto successful learning that will hopefully continue as they getolder and progress in their studies.

32 Hashemi, Masoud & Azinezhad, Masoud. “Teaching English toChildren: A unique, Challenging Experience for Teachers, EffectiveTeaching Ideas”.33 Thomson, Stefan. Teaching Young Learners: Adapting the classroomfor YELL


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4. Delija, Sphresa. Challenges to EFL Teacher Education inAlbania34

The study conducted in Albania through questionnairefor one hundred fifty students majoring English languageeducation. The study show that picture of EFL teaching iscomplex and difficult to grasp mainly because of the widevariety of factors that have interacted in the last twenty years interms of educational reform, curriculum renewal and societalconditions. The most important change that has taken place inthe change of belief about the expectations of learners and roleof the teacher. in this process is the need for a sound pre-serviceeducation. Pre service teacher education is an essential step inthe lifelong teaching/learning process. It gives to futureteachers the necessary tools to turn them into effective andthoughtful professionals. Developing as a professionallanguage teacher is much more than being an expert in thelanguage and helping others learn such language. If EFLteachers are to be skillful teachers able to use teachingapproaches that best suit the social context of teaching.

5. Akbari, Zahari. Current challenges in teaching or learningEnglish for EFL learners: The case of junior high school andhigh school in Iran.35

This study conducted the problem of EFL Learners. Oneof the major problems of language learning in Iran is that themost of students do not have the capacity to expressthemselves in the foreign language fluently after studyingEnglish at Junior and high school for seven years. In the otherword, they can not communicate in English. The researchertried to examine the reasons behind the failures of the Iranianstudents to acquire the expected level of proficiency in English

34 Delija, Sphresa. Challenges to EFL Teacher Education in Albania35 Akbari, Zahari. Current challenges in teaching or learning English for EFL

learners: The case of junior high school and high school in Iran.


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in spite of learning English for seven successive years. Theproblems appear into seven categories which constitute fiveimportant components of any education system (students,teachers, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation) and twoother subcomponent (curriculum and policy) which are closely.

The previous studies above have similiarity and differentareas with this research. In this research, the researcher wantsto know the teacher challenges in teaching English inElementary school at second grades. Also, the researcher wantsto know the teacher’ strategies in dealing with the challenges.However, this research is the first research focus on secondgrade’ teacher who teaches English in Elementary school.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A. Approach and Research DesignIn this research, the researcher uses qualitative approach. This

study was designed to get information and description concerningwith teacher’s challenges to teach English at SDI Al-MuttaqinDriyorejo. Creswell states the qualitative approach is a researchprocedure that produces a descriptive data such as written and oralwords of people or direct object.36 In addition, Sugiyono divides

36 Creswell, John. Research Design. (Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.2016), 253.


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the method of research based on the level of explanation into 3kinds; descriptive method, comparative method, and associativemethod. First, descriptive method means the research whichobserves the fact in detail. Second, comparative method means astudy which aim at compare the same variable. The third isassociative method means a study which aims at finding the resultof the associative of variables. 37

This researcher chooses descriptive qualitative method. Themethod is choosen because the focus of this research is to analyzethe challenges in elementary school teacher in teaching theirstudents and it is appropriate withe the purpose of descriptivequalitative method.

B. Research SubjectIn this research, the research subject is the English teacher

of Elementary school in SDI Al-Muttaqin, Gresik. She is Mrs.X. Mrs. X finished her undergraduate degree in EnglishEducation Department of Muhammadiyah University inSurabaya in 2014. She has been teaching English in this schoolsince 2017 as new English teacher. But She has a lot ofexperience in teaching young learners. She has been teachingyoung learners 9 years. During her professional career, she hadexperiences in teaching English in three different schools. Theresearcher chose the teacher of English backround study.

C. Setting of the Research

1. PlaceThe research was conducted at SDI Al-Muttaqin which

was located in St. Raya Driyorejo No. 151 Gresik. Theresearch was focused on challenges to teach English and thestrategies in dealing with the challenges.

2. TimeThe research was done during 7th August - 11th

September 2017. The observation was started from 7th Augustuntil 11th September 2017 in the class. The researcher

37 Sugiyono. Metode Penelitian Pendidikan. (Bandung: Alfabeta.2013),7.


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conducted the observation five times. It because theresearcher wanted to get valid result. Five times observationwould show the process of the teaching in naturalistic setting,provide more detailed and precise evidence, and stimulatechange and verify that changed occurred.38 The researcheralso did the interview. The interview was done on 11th

September 2017. The interview was done after school hour.By conducting the interview after school hour, it would notdisturb the teaching and learning process.

D. Data

There are two types of data to answer the problems in thefield. There are primary and secondary data. The primary data inqualitative research are words and action, the secondary data suchas documents to support the research. Those research explained indetail below:

a. Primary DataPrimary data is data, which is collected by first-hand

experience, or the researcher obtained directly from thesource. The primary data of this research was the challengesthat teacher faced when teaching English and the strategiesin dealing with the challenges. This primary data weregained by observing and interviewing the teacher who teachEnglish at second grade. In addition, to find the follow-upactivity as result of the challenges faced by the teacher toteach English, the researcher gained the data by doingobservation in the class using observation guideline (SeeAppendix 1), and interviewed using interview guideline forthe teacher strategies in dealing with the challenges inteaching English in the class (See Appendix 2).

38Waxman, Hersh C.,and Huang, Shwu-Yong L. Classroom ObservationResearch and the Improvement of Teaching. (Barkeley, CA: McCutchan,1999), 44.


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b. Secondary DataSecondary data of this research is the video recording

about the challenges that teacher faced in the class whenteaching English, the video is from the first meeting till fifthmeeting.

E. Source of DataThe researcher had collected the data from primary and

secondary sources. The primary source in this research was theEnglish Teacher who faced challenges to teach English in secondgrade. In this research, the researcher found the challenges inteaching English through observing the teaching and learningprocess. And then the English teacher was interviewed by theresearcher based on the questions in interview guideline. Then, thesecondary sources in this research were the video when the teacherteaching English in the classroom.

F. Data Collection TechniqueThe researcher used the data collection techniques to make

the process of gathering data more clearly and data collection aimsto get the data which are relevant and needed to accomplish theresearch. The data collection techniques those are used in thisresearch were as follow:a. Observation

To support the data for answering the first researchquestion, the researcher used observation. The researcherobserved the teaching and learning process in the class,especially teacher challenges in teaching her students. Theresearcher was doing non participation observation. It meansthat the researcher just sits in the class to observe the teachingand learning process. From the observation report theresearcher found out about the challenges to teach English inthe class. The researcher will checklist the challenge based onthe observation guideline and made notes. Based on therecommendation of the lecture, the researcher was doingobservation about five times.

b. Interview


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Creswell states that interview is situation in whichresearcher sets out the elicit information. The researcher cando face to face interview with the participant or by thetelephone to communicate.39 In this research, the researcherused face to face interview to answer the second researchquestion. The researcher interviewed the English teacher. Theresearcher asked some question about the strategies in dealingwith the challenges and the researcher made notes and recordthe teacher’s responds in answering the researcher questions.Research Question Data Collection Technique Research InstrumentRQ 1 Observation Observation GuidelineRQ 2 Interview Interview Guideline

G. Research InstrumentThe research instrument of this study applied by the

researcher were observation checklist and interview guideline inorder to collect the valid data.a. Observation Guideline

The researcher used observation checklist to gain thedata to answer first research questions which is often uses inresearch to know the condition directly in the field of theresearch, and also the researcher wrote notes during theobservation. The observation checklist adopted on JeremyHarmer, Fiona Copland and Thakur Jyoti. (See Appendix 1).The researcher also using field note when observed in thefield in order to help the researcher complete the observationchecklist.

b. Interview GuidelineThe researcher used interview to gain the data to answer

the second research question which is often uses in research toknow deeper about the phenomenon. The researcher asked therespondent to answer the researcher questions throughinterview guideline. The interview guideline is adopted on

39 Creswell, John. Research Design. (Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar,2016), 194.


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Jeremy Harmer, Fiona Copland, Nada Mohammed andThakur Jyoti. (See appendix 2) The researcher also used fieldnote to write the answer between the researcher and theteacher in order to avoid incompletely or forgotten dataduring interview.

H. Data Analysis TechniqueIn data analysis technique, this research used descriptive

analysis. It means that the data as analyzed and describednarratively.1. First, the researcher analyzes all of the result of observation in

the class. The researcher collected the observation guidelinefrom the first meeting and until the fifth meeting. Theresearcher checked the observation guideline which containschecklist and notes about the challenge that teacher faced inthe class when teaching English. The researcher classify thechallenges were faced by the teacher from the first meetingand until the fifth meeting. The researcher choose thechallenge which appear many times from the first meetinguntil the fifth meeting. For the interview the researchercollected the data from the interview guideline which containsnotes from the interview between the researcher and theteacher. Then, The researcher summarized the interview aboutthe strategy in dealing with the challenges.

2. Second, when all of the data were collected, the researcherstarted to describe the findings and all of the data narratively.The description that was made by the researcher was based onthe data collected from observation and interview.

3. Third, the researcher analyzed the findings against the theoriesfrom the theoretical framework. The analysis was morefocused on teacher’ challenges to teach English. Then theresearcher compared the challenges faced by the teacher withthe criteria presented in theoretical framework to knowwhether the teacher face same challenges and strategy statedon the theoretical framework or not.


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I. Research Stages

The researcher had the following stages in doing the research:1. First, the researcher made an appointment with the research

subject that is the English teacher of SDI Al-Muttaqin aboutthe place and time to have an observation was done five times.

2. The second, after making an appointment, the researcherprepared the instrument of the research that is Observationguideline. Then, the researcher observed the challenges thatoccurred during the teaching and learning process in the classabout five times. In this step, the researcher also asked theteachers’ permission to record all of the activity betweenstudents and the teacher in the learning process.

3. The third, after the observation was done. The researcher didinterview with the teacher about the strategy in dealing withthe challenges to teach English. While asking questions, theresearcher recorded the interview process using the recorderand wrote some notes from the answers. Recording theinterview process was so much useful for the researcherbecause the researcher could not write as fast as theresearch subjects answer. It was also as anticipation to somestatements that were missed.


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CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the researcher presents her results of her study bypresenting two major subheadings concerning findings and discussion.The data is presented based on the research questions.

A. Research Findings

1. Challenges Faced by Elementary School’s Teacher inTeaching English at SDI Al-Muttaqin

To obtain data of the first question “What are challengesfaced by elementary school’s teacher in teaching English at SDIAl-Muttaqin?”. The researcher used observation checklist toobserve the teacher’ class five times meetings, in which itconsisted of eight items. This observation was adapted fromJeremy Harmer, Thakur Jyoti and Fiona Copland. To answerthe question the researcher need to come in the class to observethe teacher in teaching her students. The observation notes canbe seen in Appendix 3. The following explanations are theresults:

a. The Course BookThe researcher found that the teacher did not find

any challenge to obtaining or using the coursebook.Actually, the teacher used two kinds of book. The firstbook is from Mary Tomalin and Ken Wilson and the titleis You and Me book, the second book from MacMillanEnglish practice book.

The teacher is the first reader, when the teacherstarted to teach the students using the textbook, theteacher always reads the textbook first to the students togive the information from the book. The teacher also usedtwo languages which are Bahasa Indonesia and English inorder to help the students understand about the teacher’sinstruction and the vocabularies that they were learning


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with the teacher. The teacher also asked questions to thestudents what they did not understand about the materialsinside the textbook, if there was student that did notunderstand she would explain what the students did notunderstand not only to the student whom asking but alsoto all students in the class. The book titled “You and Me”contains basic English skill such as Greeting and Favoritefoods which is appears in the daily life, and the point plusof the book is provided in colorful book. The teacherobtained the colorful book in order to make the studentsinteresting because they are young learners whom lovecolorful picture. The second book is English practice bookfrom Mac Millan the books contains the materials whichare supporting for their grammar construction. She taughtthe simple grammar materials such as preposition andpersonal pronoun.

4.1 Picture of the English coursebook

4.2 Picture of the English coursebook’content

The teacher also provided and used another bookfrom MacMillan English practice book.


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4.3 Picture of the English coursebook

4.4 Picture of the English Content in MacMillan Practice book


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The teacher also provided worksheet created by the teacherherself to strengthen students remembrance in memorizing thelearned materials.

4.5 Picture of the English Worksheet created by the teacher

b. Recognizing the Students’ NamesThe researcher found that the teacher did not find

any difficulties in recognizing the student’s name duringthe process of teaching and learning. The teacher alreadyknows students’ names. The teacher also reallyremembered and paid attention to the students withdisruptive behaviour. The teacher remembered thestudents’ name within two weeks in the first month of herteaching. She checked the attendant list before she beganto teach. When the teacher gave oral questions related onthe materials she called some students’ name to answerher questions. She also called the student’s name whenthey did not pay attention to her explanation. The teacherbelieve that if she did not know her students’ name, thestudents will only become anonymous members of class.Knowing and using a name acknowledges each person asindividual.


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4.6 Picture of name list using for remembering students’name

c. Respecting the StudentsThe researcher found that teacher faced difficulties in

respecting her students during teaching and learning in theclass. The teacher could’t respect students with disruptivebehaviour, respect the students with disruptive behaviouris a big problem for the teacher. The teacher could’t bepatient, many times the teacher screamed and hit thestudents. Some students felt demotivated to learn when theteacher did not respect them. Saying demotivated wordswas chosen by the teacher than using golden words toadmonished the students. The teacher also can’t respectthe students when the students were doing their worksbecause the teacher was playing with her mobile phonerather than controlling the students.


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4.7 Picture of demotivated student after harsh wordfrom teacher

4.8 Picture of teacher using smart phone during the class going

d. Being Even-handed


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The researcher found that the teacher facedchallenge in being even handed to the students. Theteacher couldn’t pay attention to all students duringteaching and learning because the teacher only stood up orsit in front of the students without controlling to otherstudents while the other students wanted her attention toanswer their questions. Some students called the teacherduring the lesson but the the student’s did not get theanswer to what they want to hear from the teacher. Theteacher also only talked with the talk active ones. Respondto all students during the learning process is difficult forthe teacher.

4.9 Picture of teacher only stand up in front of the class whileteaching


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4.10 Picture of teacher only sitting in front of the class whileteaching

e. Teaching writingThe researcher found that in the teaching writing

the teacher did not find any challenge, the teacher taughtthe students to write by using straight copying through thewhiteboard, the teacher gave example by writing thevocabularies or sentences in the whiteboard then studentshave to write on their book. The teacher also instruct thestudents to write the vocabularies or sentences based onthe coursebook to their workbook. The researcher foundthat the teacher always teaches students writing when theresearcher was doing observation five times.


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4.11 Picture of student write using straight copying fromcoursebook

4.12 Picture of student using straight copying from whiteboard


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f. Teaching Speaking EnglishThe teacher faced challenge to teach speaking, the

teacher used drilling to teach speaking to the students andrepeating sentences which is very basic in the daily life.But the students often found difficulty to say the rightpronunciation and silent to say the sentences. The teacherunderstood in this situation because she believe that herstudents still in the process to construct their ability tospeaking English. The students often used their firstlanguages during the learning because they had limitvocabularies.

g. Disruptive BehaviourThe researcher found that the teacher faced

challenge of disruptive behaviour students when theteacher explained the materials during teaching andlearning process. The teacher faced three kinds ofdisruptive behaviour. The first disruptive behaviour wasprolonged chattering, when the teacher inattentive duringthe learning and teaching process the students would be socrowd they would have conversation with their friendsbeside them or behind them. The second was the studentsdoing confrontation, the students would be showingdominance not in a good way such as copy cat to theteacher’ words and they wanted attention from the teacher.The third the students was disengagement to the teacherexplanation, when teacher was delivering the materials butthe students were day dreaming. When the students wereday dreaming or demotivated then the teacher chose toignore the students rather than giving them attention.


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4.13 Picture of small cliques students; disruptive behavior

h. Providing Teaching AidsThe researcher found that the teacher found

challenge to provide teaching aids to the students. Theteacher only used the blackboard as teaching aids. All thematerials which need the real media were not provided bythe teacher. Nowadays, there are so many technologiesthat support the English learning process. But the teacherfound that the class she taught is low tech resources.


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4.14 Picture of teacher only using whiteboard as teaching aid


a. Strategies in Dealing with the Course BookThe teacher did not find any challenges with the

course book because the teacher were feeling helpful bythe books that she used in the teaching and learningprocess. The teacher also provided worksheet by herselfwhich can be strengthen the students’ understanding forthe teaching and learning process.

b. Strategies in Dealing to Recognize The Students’Names

The teacher used class list to recognize the studentsname in her class. She was remembering the student’s


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name in two weeks of the first month in teaching herstudents. The teacher called the students using the namelist to checked the students’ attendant.

c. Strategies in Respecting The StudentsThe teacher was angry with the students especially

disruptive behaviour students because of the studentscouldn’t respect her as a teacher and the students who diddisruptive behaviour can’t respect their friends whom alsolearn in the class. But the teacher tried to respect thestudents all the way her students did. She would admonishthe students in the good way first by telling the studentsnot doing disruptive behaviour again. The second case theresearch found that the teacher played smart phone duringteaching and learning process. The teacher confess that theteacher was doing it to updated the news from anotherteacher from the school, because there often happen asudden meeting with the school staffs.

d. Strategies in Dealing with Being Even-HandedBeing even handed in the teacher’ perceptive is

being fair in giving the materials to the students. Sheconfirmed that she had already being even handed to thestudents by giving the students same materials. Theteacher did not divide the students worksheet by theirability. The teacher said that all the students has the samechance which is reflected on the same materials and sameworksheet.

e. Teaching WritingThe teacher used straight copying to teach writing

to the students. The teacher used the vocabularies and thesentences in the course book, the teacher asked thestudents to write repeatedly in their workbook. Theteacher always gives writing task to the students everymeeting in order to students not only read but also write tostrengthen their memory. Not only from the coursebookthe teacher also gave the student new vocabularies andnew sentences which are different from the book by write


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it in the whiteboard and instruct the student writerepeatedly.

f. Teaching English SpeakingThe teacher used drilling to teach speaking to the

students and repeating vocabularies and sentences whichis very basic in the daily life. Every words that they werelearning must saying by the students that day. The teachersaid the vocabularies and sentences loudly so the thestudents listen clearly to the vocabularies in order toprevent the students said the wrong pronunciation, whenthe teacher found students said wrong pronunciation of thevocabularies or sentences she would ask the student torepeat until the students speak correctly. The teacher stillon the process to build the student’s speaking skill.

g. Disruptive BehaviourThe teacher used three kinds of strategies in dealing

with the students disruptive behaviour. The teacher usedthe marker to draw in the students’ hand while they werecrowded and disturb their friends. The second is theteacher used punishment of standing in front of the classfor the students. The last strategy when those twostrategies failed is the teacher reduce the students’ scoreand calling their parents to the office.

h. Provide Teaching AidsThe teacher confessed that in her class there were

not many teaching aids to teach students in this modernworld. She faced difficulties when she had to introducethe new vocabularies to the students because the realmedia was so limited. She relied on the course bookswhich are in the course books there are picture that thestudents can see the words that they are learned throughthe pictures. Besides the books that really helpful for herin teaching, the teacher also used the blackboard she usedthe blackboard maximally: She drew pictures andexplained the materials through the whiteboard and one ofthe most powerful thing that also help her while there is


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no teaching aids is the teacher it self. She use his voice tosubstitute the radio or DVD player while she wasdelivering worksheet of listening. She use her bodylanguage to help make the teaching more interesting andclear.

B. Research Discussion

1. Challenges Faces by Elementary School’s Teacher inTeaching English at SDI Al-Muttaqin

In this section, the researcher discusses those findings byreflecting on several theories. It discusses about the teacher’schallenges and the strategies in dealing with the challenges.Based on the definition of challenge that had been mentionedin the key term, challenge means something difficult whichrequires great effort and determination, something that testsstrength, skill or ability. The researcher identified eightchallenges according to Jeremy Harmer, Fiona Copland,Thakur Jyoti that were faced by the teacher to teach English inSDI Al-Muttaqin Driyorejo, and those challenges are thecourse book, recognizing the students’ names, respecting thestudents, being even handed, teaching writing, teachingspeaking, disruptive behaviour and teaching aids. Not all thechallenges were faced by the teacher.

The first challenge according to Thakur Jyoti is obtainingand using the textbook, he stated that the textbooks of Englishis difficult to find, the textbooks of English that mostly used inIndia are edited or written by those who are not actualpracticing teacher. Moreover, no effort is made to selectvocabulary for use in the text books.40 However in the schoolwhere the researcher conducted the research, the teacher didnot find such challenges in obtaining or using the textbooksever, the teacher used two kinds of book, the first textbookentitled You and Me which is very colorful in order to make thestudents interested. According to Ersoz the children betweenseven to nine years old; they love stories, fantasy, drawing and

40 Thakur, Jyoti.(2013) Challenges and Prospect in Teaching English atElementary School Level. India: Chitkara University,.p.127


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colorful pictures.41 In addition to proving good textbooks forthe students. The teacher provides printed worksheets in orderto facilitate students’ in memorizing the learned materials. Tobe qualified teacher of English, teacher should be able tofacilitate students learning English, not only the goodtextbooks.42

The other challenges that appear in the classroomaccording to Harmer are recognizing the students’ name,respecting the students and being even handed. The researcherexplains one by one to help reader to easily understand whatthe researcher discuss about.

The second possible challenge is recognizing the name,Harmer said that it is extremely difficult for teachers to knowtheir students names, especially at the beginning of a term or asemester. In the real field where the researcher conducted thestudy , the teacher was able to remember the students’ name inthe first two weeks of her teaching by calling their name everytime before starting the class. After that, the teacher did notfaced any challenge of recognizing the name nor mistook tocall her students by other names. The teacher used name list torecognize the students name, this strategy is stated also byJoan, she said further that teacher has to find easy strategies tolearn students’ names if the teacher already knew the names,remembering their face was relatively simple.43

The third challenge is respecting the students. Respect isvital when the teacher deal with any kind of problem. Theteacher might face challenge in treating the students.44 Asgood teachers the teacher must respect the students becauseteacher is a role model for their students; the teachers’ words

41 Ersoz,A. Teaching English to Young Learners. )Ankara: EDMPublishing,2007), 3.42 Mustafa, Bachrudin. Teaching English to Young Learners inIndonesia: Essential Requirements. (Indonesian University of Education,2010), 122.43 Middendorf, Joan & Elizabeth Osbor. Learning Student Names.(USA: Indiana University, 2012), 3.44 Harmer, Jeremy. The practice of English Language Teaching. Fourthedition (USA: Pearson, 2009), 113.


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must be golden and the teacher must avoid being angry andresentful behaviors, keep emotional distance by taking a deepbreath while responding to unwanted behaviour.45 But in thereal field when the researcher conducted the study, the teacherwas not like such ideal role model. The teacher lost herpatience, she was angry and said demotivated words to thestudents especially to misbehave’s students. The teacher hit theeraser against the desk in order to represent her anger. Whenthe researcher asked to the teacher about this challenge, theteacher said that she always try to respect the students all theyway her students did, yet, in the reality what was shown whenthe students did not listen her, the teacher became angry andcouldn’t hide her anger. As a good teacher, the teacher mustrespect their students, they must never take mis behaviourpersonally.

The forth challenge stated by Harmer is being evenhanded. He said that the teacher should draw out the quiet onesand control the more talkative one, the teacher may facechallenge in understanding this situation. 46 The researcherfound that the teacher also faced this challenge. The teachercould’t even handed to the students. The teacher only focusedto the students in front of the class. The teacher only talkedwith the talkative ones. When the teacher was not being evenhanded it means that, she has left her role as a tutor and as acontroller. As tutor and controller mean in the learning activity,the teacher went round the class and gave guidance asindividuals or groups to help the students by approaching andprompting the students with ideas while they did notunderstand about the teacher’s explanation. 47 Studentsexpected an instructor to treat everyone in the class equally. Indealing with the challenge of being even handed the teachergave the same task to the students without thinking in what

45 Scott, Wendy and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg, “Teaching English toChildren” (USA: Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 87.46 Harmer, Jeremy. The practice of English Language Teaching Fourthedition (USA: Pearson, 2009), 113.47 Harmer, Jeremy. The practice of English Language Teaching. Fourthedition. (USA: Pearson, 2009), 108.


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extent they were learning because every children has the samechance to learn.

The next challenge faced by the teacher were teachingwriting to her students. According to Fiona the challenge ofteaching writing to the young learners is teaching children towrite correctly.48 But those challenges did not appear in theteaching and learning process that the researcher conducted.The teacher has already used the strategies of Wendy that isstraight copying when the teacher ask the students to copywords. The teacher asked her students to copy words becausecopying is a fairly obvious starting point of writing.49 Theteacher asked the students to write based on their course bookand teacher’s examples on the whiteboard.

The most frequently identified challenge for the teacheraccording the Fiona is the teacher faced difficulty in makingthe students speak and persuade them to speak English, andalso to make the students speak good, correct and perfectpronunciation.50 The researcher found that such challenge alsooccurred in the school. The teacher faced such challenge inteaching speaking to the students. The students were founddifficult to say the right pronunciation. The teacher also facedchallenge a of the silent students, the students said thesentences with stuttering. The teacher would ask the studentsto repeat the sentences until they had clear and goodpronunciation. Also, the teacher used the strategies of drillingthe vocabularies. Through the drilling strategy, the teachertried to enrich the students’ vocabularies to say. The teacheralso faced the students using their first language while in theprocess of teaching and learning English but the teacher couldunderstand such phenomenon because she thought that her

48 Copland, Fiona. Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners:Global Perceptive and Local Realities. (Aston University: Birmingham,2013), 745.49 Scott, Wendy and Lisbeth H Ytreberg. Teaching English to Children.(USA: Pearson Education Limited: 2004), 69.50 Copland, Fiona. Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners:Global Perceptive and Local Realities. (Aston University: Birmingham.,2013), 747.


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students were still in the constructing process of their abilityto speak English. Despite such condition, the teacher keptgiving instruction in English. According to Mustafa, theteacher of English should use English all the time to ensurethat children have relatively much exposure to English,English is being used for communicative purpose with theirstudents in order to make successful role as a model inteaching English.

The next challenge faced by the teacher is disruptivebehaviour, in every learning process that the researcherobserved, the teacher always faced the challenge of disruptivebehaviour. There are three kinds of disruptive behavior thatteacher faced, they are prolonged chattering, confrontationand disengagement.51 The students had small cliques whoengage private conversation during the teaching and learningprocess. The second is the students tried to get their way orshow dominance over the teacher by repeat the studentsexplanation which is no need to repeated, or it can be calledthe students are copycat. The third is disengagement when theteacher explained the materials, some students weredaydreaming or having their own world. The teacher used thestrategies of punishment in dealing with the challenge ofdisruptive behaviour. In order to show the students’ mistakes,the teacher had decided to write with a marker to the students’hands. When the students did not realize their own behaviorthen the teacher will asked them to stand up in front of theclass. When it failed the teacher would reduce the students’score and called their parents.

The last challenge occurred is providing the teachingaids, the teacher confess that she had only whiteboard andbook to help her teach her students. The teacher did notprovide the teaching aids or teaching media because shecouldn’t do that by herself. She need another teacher to makethe media or provide the teaching aids for the students. Then,to solve this problem the teacher maximize her ability tospeak, to draw and use gesture. The teacher also confirmed

51 Charles, C.M. Building classroom discipline. (USA: PearsonEducation, 2010), 160.


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that the textbook has already been so much help for theteacher because the textbooks provide a clear framework forthe course. The course books also provides ready texts andlearning tasks that are suitable for the language level of theclass. This saves time for the teacher, who does not have toprepare texts materials on her own. The coursebook alsoprovides guidance and support for inexperienced teacher, whoare unsure of their knowledge of the language or teachingskill.


There are eight kinds of challenges faced by the teacherwhen the teacher taught the students. The first challenge is theappropriateness of the coursebook. But the teacher did not findany challenge of the coursebook. The teacher used two kind ofbook. The teacher found easily used and obtain thecoursebook. The teacher also provided printed worksheet tostrengthen the student’ remembrance.

The second is the challenge to recognize the students’name. The teacher did not find challenges in recognize thestudent’s name. The teacher already applied the strategy toremember the student’s name. She used namelist toremember the student’s name. The teacher called the

student’s based on name list before the learning began.The third challenge is respect the student. But in the

reality , the teacher did not have strategy in dealing with thechallenge of respecting the students. As a good teacher, theteacher should have the strategies in dealing with thechallenges. The teacher can use the strategies according toMichael, the first is the teacher’s words must be a golden. Theteacher must be the one person who the students can trust themand the teacher must respect the students by avoiding angry


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and resentful behaviour.52

The fourth challenge is being even handed. Theresearcher found the teacher faced challenge in being evenhanded. The teacher used strategy such as she did notdifferentiate between the low learners and fast learners. Theteacher can also use the strategies based on Scott and Lisbeth,they are Impartiality where the students get an instructor totreat them equally by allow every students to dominatediscussion. The second the teacher has to act in sociallyacceptable manner for every students that does not offendstudents’ sensibilities.53

The fifth challenge is teaching writing. The teacher didnot find any challenge to teach writing to the students. Theteacher had already applied the strategy to teach writing byScott and Lisbeth. The teacher used straight copying. Theteacher asked the students to copy the words. It is an activitywhich gives the teacher chance to reinforce language that hasbeen presented orally or through reading.54

The sixth challenge is teaching speaking. The teacherused drilling to teach speaking to the students and repeatingvocabularies and sentences. In order to gain the interestingactivity the teacher can use games for teaching speaking suchas talking and writing box, tongue twister, impromptu games,secret message and alphabet chain which already stated by EkaFrancisca.55

The seventh challenge is disruptive behaviour. Theteacher used punishment to deal with the challenges. Such asstanding up in the class, and reducing student’s score. Besides

52 Linsin, Michael. 3 Simple ways to Earn Your Students’ Respect.,accesed November 7, 2017.https://smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/10/13/3-simple-ways-to-earn-your-students-respect/53Scott, Wendy and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg, “Teaching English to Children”(USA: Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 87.54 Scott, Wendy and Lisbeth H. Ytreberg, “Teaching English toChildren” (USA: Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 69.55 Fransisca, Eka. (2008). Teaching Speaking to Young Learners.Bandung: Indonesian University of Education.,p.5


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the punishment strategies, the teacher can use meaningfulstrategy and do it happily. The strategies to deal with disruptivebehaviour can be a humor, which means the teacher has a senseof humor in order to gain the students’ attention. But theteacher must also careful with her sense of humor. The teachercan also use silence game by Maria Montessori. The teachertells the students to close their eyes and listen. When they opentheir eyes, the teacher ask them to name all the sounds theyheard.56

The last challenge is provide teaching aids. The teacherfound challenge in provide teaching aids. She used her abilitymaximize to deliver materials to cover challenge of teachingaids. She used the strategies which already state by Zuliati,such the teacher’ gesture, student body’s gesture and theblackboard or whiteboard to help the teaching activities.57

56 Holland, Susan, “Strategies for teachers: How to deal with disruptivebehaviour class”, 2016. https://owlcation.com /academia/10-teaching-strategies-for-a-disruptive-class(accessed June 28,2017)57 Rohmah, Zuliati.”Teaching English Joyfully”.(Malang: CV BintangSejahtera, 2012), 25.


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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

This chapter presents the conclusion that summarizes the result ofthe studythat has been explained in the previous chapter. Some suggestions are alsogiven to some elements related to this study.

A. ConclusionThis study was expected to gain the answer of two research

questions about kinds of challenges faced by the teacher to teachEnglish in elementary school and the strategy to deal with thechallenges. Based on the explanation presented in the previouschapter, the researcher concludes the answer of the researchquestions as the following:1. The English teacher at SDI Al Muttaqin faced five challenges

in teaching English. The challenges are:a. Respecting the students; The teacher could not respect the

students especially with the disruptive behaviour. Theteacher hit and scream to the students.

b. Being even handed to the students; The teacher could notpay attention to all students during teaching in the class.The teacher only stood up or sit in front of the class.

c. Teaching Speaking; The teacher found the challenge ofteaching speaking. The students were silence and saidwrong pronunciation.

d. Disruptive behaviour students; The teacher facedchallenge in dealing with disruptive behaviour students.She faced 3 kind of challenges. They are prolongedchattering, confrontation and disengagement.

e. Teaching Aids; The researcher found that the teacherfaced challenge to provide teaching aids. The teacher


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only used blackboard as teaching aids.2. The strategies used by the English teacher at SDI Al Muttaqin

in dealing with the challenges are:a. The teacher tries to do her best in Being even handed to the

students such as she does not differentiatebetween the low learners and fast learnersstudents.

b. The teacher uses drilling to teach speaking to the studentsand repeating vocabularies and sentences which is verybasic in the daily life.

c. The teacher uses punishment to deal with the challenge ofdisruptive behaviour students. Such as standing up in theclass, and reducing the student’s score.

d. The teacher maximize her ability to deliver the material tocover the challenge of authentic materials.

B. SuggestionsRelated to the result of the study, the researcher provides some

suggestions as the following:1. For English teacher

Being a teacher is not always easy. Some teachers mayfaces more challenges in their classroom. As a teacher, faces achallenge is not always bad. There is always way to deal withthe challenge. Actually there are so many in this research thatcan be useful for the teacher, the teacher can use any strategythat have already mentioned which can help the teacher facedthe challenge. For the example, when the teacher facedchallenges of speaking the teacher can read how to deal withthose challenges of speaking. The teacher can uses talking andwriting boxes, impromptu games and alphabet chain. When theteacher faces challenges of disruptive behaviour, the teachercan create fun atmosphere or play silence games.

2. For the further researchThe next researcher that wants to do a study on more

innovative approaches in dealing with difficult classes to teachEnglish in Junior High School and the strategy to deal with thechallenge.


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