Rahmadani, Fitri. 2011. A Study of Problems and Challenges in Teaching English Faced by English Teacher of SMP Negeri 19 Penajam Paser Utara. Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Mulawarman University.Samarinda. Advisors (I) Drs. Y. Yohansyah Arifin, M.Si (II) Syamdianita, M.Pd.
Teaching English in the classroom not only focused on the students, but also focused on the teacher. Teacher faced many problems and challenges during teaching and learning process. Problems can be related to the attitude and the ability of students and also about school facilities. Besides, challenges can be related to the way teacher attract the students in learning English. So, the teachers needed to pay attention in this case.
The purposes of this study are to know about kinds of teacher’s problems and challenges in teaching English of SMP Negeri 19 Penajam Paser Utara and to find out the solutions in solving the problems faced by English teachers in teaching English of SMP Negeri 19 Penajam Paser Utara. This is a qualitative study which used descriptive qualitative approach.
The aims of using this study are to describe various problems and challenges in teaching English faced by English teachers of SMP Negeri 19 Penajam Paser Utara. The subjects of this study were three English teachers. The researcher did observation and also used questionnaire to obtain data in this study. The researcher used three data flows activity by Miles and Huberman (1994), they are data reduction, data display, and conclusion to analyze the data.
The results of this study found many problems and challenges that faced by three English teachers. The problems that found were less of facilities in the school such us language laboratory (for listening test), limited resources of materials, less of student’s interest in English
lesson, number of many students, and about the laziness of students to bring dictionary. Then, the challenges which faced by English teachers were how to choose material that will be effective and interesting for students, how to keep student’s concentration, students’ attitude in the school, how to increase students’ score in English subjects, and how to find more creative teaching methods in the classroom.
Based on the results of this study, the suggestions are needed to give. This study is about finding problems and challenge of the English teachers in the classroom. So, the suggestions must be about the solution to solve them. The solution to face teacher’s problems and challenges is the teachers should have many good methods and strategies in teaching English. Teacher can combine the teaching method with some games related to the material. Students need more encouragement, attention, and motivation in every meeting. So, the students will be more interest and spirit to follow the lesson. For the other researchers who want to do similar research, they can relate the teacher problems to students and use another instrument of the study such as interview.