CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. Language Teaching in General
Amidon, (1967) defines teaching as an interactive activity, primarily comprising classroom discourse between teacher and learner that occurs during certain predefined activities. According to Gana et al (2018) teaching is a process of giving information to students. Thus, when performing a teaching activity, the instructor is conveying knowledge, a message, or a skill to the student, and an interaction process between the teacher and the students is occurring at the same time. Burbules & Harsen (2018) also stated that teaching is a vital, irreplaceable, human undertaking, but one that is also indeterminate. It means that the teaching process is extremely worthwhile, given the amount of effort and thinking that goes into it. So, it can be concluded that teaching is the process of paying attention to people’s needs, experiences, and feelings and intervening so that they can learn certain skills and go beyond what is expected of them.
Furthermore, Shamsuddin (1986) expressed two language understandings. First, language is a tool for shaping the mind, feelings, wants, and actions of others, as well as a tool for influencing and being influenced. Second, language is a clear indicator of a good or terrible personality, a clear indicator of family and nation, and a clear indicator of humanity's mind. In short, language teaching is a process whereby someone gains communicative competency or fluency in a language. In language teaching, teacher facilitates language practice for learners in the most effective ways. In this context, teaching English means that the teacher transfers the language knowledge to the students
for them to increase their language competencies and most importantly to enable students to communicate in English.
2.1.1 Terms in Teaching English
English has become a global language since it is recognized in every country and a large number of people utilize it in communication. Every country has English as a subject to be taught. Teaching English has been interpreted in variety of ways since the role of English differs in every country based on political context and acceptance by people with varying traits and abilities (Lin & Chien, 2010). As stated by Lin & Chien (2010), teaching English can be described in three ways, as follows:
1. Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL)
Teaching English as a second language means that the country applies English as the official language of their organizations, societies, and communities. English is taught for non-native speakers in an English-speaking environment. According to Napitupulu & Kisno (2014), TESL is employed in a vast number of English- colonized regions. It is also widely used in countries with a large immigrant population. The countries that used English as a second language are Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Singapore, and many more.
2. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
The study of English by non-native speakers in places where English is not the main language is known as English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Indonesia is one of the countries in which English is taught as a foreign language. Napitupulu
& Kisno (2014) stated that, TEFL serves no purposes with their own countries. It means that language is used solely as a means of communication between
countries around the world, rather than as an official or primarily instructional language.
3. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
TESOL is more concerned with the methods and practices of teaching English to non-native speakers or ESL speakers. It is commonly used by teacher training institutes and instructor-education programs for English teachers, as well as language learning organizations for learners in an expanding circle (Lin & Chien, 2010).
2.2. English Language Teacher
Teachers play a vital role in encouraging children’s intellectual and social development during their formative years. Based on Republic of Indonesia Law No.14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers, teachers are professional educators whose primary responsibility it is to educate, teach, guide, lead, train, assess, and evaluate pupils in early childhood, basic education, and secondary education. Furthermore, Husna (2021) defined English teacher as a person whose profession is to educate the students how to use English as a medium of communication. English teachers assist students in identifying significant concepts and key terms in the language and how to use it properly in communication. It means that, they have to master all skills in English and be able to transfer the knowledge to students properly, so that they can achieve the objectives of the learning.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher concludes that an English teacher can be interpreted as someone who is proficient in English and has the responsibility to teach English to the students in order to make them be able to communicate successfully in English.
2.2.1 The Roles of Teacher
Teacher plays an essential role in the teaching and learning process in the classroom.
In general, teacher’s role in education goes beyond teaching. Nowadays, teaching has different forms, so teachers must be able to position themselves to implement effect ive instruction in the classroom. Furthermore, Harmer (2007), classified teacher roles into eight categories, as follows:
a. Teacher as facilitator
Teacher provides students to take the responsibility of their own learning. It means, teacher is not in control of everything that happened in the classroom.
They have to support the student in learning and provides the best learning environment in order to make students can achieve the objectives of their learning.
In line with that, Osman (2015), stated that teacher as a facilitator need to help the learners to comprehend their goals and attaining them without any intervention on his or her part.
b. Teacher as a resource
The teacher acts like a monitor or a resource center that ready to assist students with any problems they might face. In this case, teachers are not fully involved in students’ learning, unless they request it and are having difficulties in learning.
c. Teacher as a controller
The teacher has complete control over the class and all the activities taking place.
Teachers takes this role especially when a new language is introduced and accurate replication and drilling procedures are required (AL-Rowais, 2015).
Other activities that necessitated the teacher’s role as a controller included
delivering explanations and lecturing, organizing questions, answer work, and making announcement that should be follow by the students (Harmer, 2007).
d. Teacher as a prompter
The teacher encourages students to participate and gives advice on how to proceed with an activity. The teacher should help students when it is absolutely essential.
When the students lose track of what is happening, or they are “lost for words”, teachers need to play their role as a prompter and help the students in supportive ways.
e. Teacher as a participant
The teacher needs to play this role in order to participate in an activity in the classroom. Harmer (2007) stated that when teachers take part in an activity, they may liven things up from the inside instead of continually needing to prompt or organize from outside the group. However, the teachers will unintentionally dominate the activity while doing it.
f. Teacher as a tutor
The teacher acts as a tutor when students are engaged in project work or independent study. The teacher gives advice and guidance, as well as assists students in clarifying and limiting tasks. Paramitha et al., (2018), stated that this role is a combination of the teacher’s role as a resource and a prompter.
g. Teacher as an organizer
Teachers frequently involve in giving the students information, telling them how to complete the task, putting them in pair or groups, and finally closing the activity when it is time to stop. Teacher organizes all the things and activities, as well as
giving the instructions in the class. The success of many activities is determined by how well they are organized.
h. Teacher as an assessor
An assessor is the one who is responsible for grading students and correcting their mistakes by providing feedback in various ways. The teacher takes on this responsibility to assess how well students are doing or how well they have done.
Students anticipate feedback and correction from their teachers since they should know what they are looking for and what success looks like so they can measure themselves later (Harmer, 2007).
2.2.2 Characteristic of a Good English Teacher
According to Harmer (2007), good language teachers should have sufficient understanding of the language as well as appealing information. They should also be motivated and passionate about teaching and be able to effectively explain the use of the language (e.g., grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary) to the students. Husna, (2021), defined an excellent English teacher as a person who possesses ideal and successful characteristic in the English teaching-learning process.
It is critical to identify the characteristics of a good language teacher in order to serve as a guide for teachers to enhance their teaching abilities. Borg, (2006), identified characteristics of good language teachers that distinguish them from teachers of other subjects, including having more communication in the classroom, demonstrating creativity, flexibility and excitement, and utilizing a more diverse teaching method.
Furthermore, according to Al-Khairi (2015) there are several characteristics of an ideal English language teacher, particularly in the context of teaching EFL, as follows:
a. willingness to repeat an explanation b. availability to assist students
c. welcome to students' explanations and suggestions d. serves as a role model, and
e. treats students equally.
On the other hand, Virgiyanti et al (2016) mentioned that there are various characteristics of a good junior high school English teacher while teaching from the perspective of both teachers and students. From the students’ perspective, good teachers are those that have a positive personality, such as being fair, pleasant, enthusiastic and responsible, as well as cheerful and entertaining. While, from the teachers’ perspective, they are more emphasize on pedagogical and personal skill than on English proficiency.
Pedagogical skills include, preparing the lesson well, using a variety of materials, using a variety of techniques and strategies, using IT to support the learning process, creating activities that pique students' interest in learning, maintaining a good classroom atmosphere, relating the lesson to previous and future learning, encouraging dictionary use to promote independent learning, providing their own examples if textbook examples are insufficient or ambiguous. Whereas, personal skills as the behavior or characters that should be possessed by a teacher, such as being fair, pleasant, cheerful, entertaining, as well as being witty, and many more.
From the explanation above, the researcher claimed that good English teachers are those who have a deep understanding in teaching and delivering knowledge to students as well as possessed good characteristics in teaching and learning process.
2.3 English Teaching Challenges
According to Cambridge Dictionary, a "challenge" is a circumstance in which a person is confronted with something that requires significant mental and physical effort in order to be done successfully and thus puts a person’s skill and ability to the test. It can be said that challenge is a problem or situation that difficult to solve and requires great amount of effort to overcome it. Therefore, in this study, challenges refer to the obstacles or problems that teachers face when teaching English in Pesantren Hidayatullah.
In every teaching and learning process, we will undoubtedly encounter a number of difficulties arising from a variety of sources. Lynch (2008), points out three most crucial challenges in English teaching and learning in the classroom, those are:
1. Lack of learners’ motivation
Students feel uninterested and unnecessary to learn English. Even if they learn English, it is only because they are afraid of failing the subject. Students are unable to easily participate in classroom interaction and learn the language comfortably. This problem requires extra attention and motivation in order to boost their enthusiasm in learning English.
2. Insufficient time, resources, and materials.
In Indonesia, English is taught as a foreign language which means it takes more time for students to learn it since English is not our native language. Two hours in a week is a very short time to learn English considering there are many aspects in English lesson. It also requires adequate resources and materials to support the English teaching and learning process.
3. Over-crowded English classes
When there are more than thirty-five, forty, or even fifty students, the teachers will not have time to give personalized attention to each student. However, the large classes will generate some problems such as, discomfort in the class, individual attention, noisy classroom, and difficulty in managing and maintaining the learning effectiveness in the classroom.
Khajlo (2013), mentioned that there are several challenges that teachers faced in teaching English. The first is low hours of English language teaching. Some experts are concerned about the amount of time devoted to the course and believe that in many circumstances, teachers will be unable to teach all subjects in this limited time. Second, Lack of interest and motivation for learning English. Most students are not interested in learning the language. They are only concerned with passing the course. They do not pay attention to their teacher and do not learn anything, even if they do learn something, they will forget it quickly because they are weary of its repetition. The third challenge is the lack of concentration in class. Students cannot learn the material if they don’t concentrate.
Some factors that caused lack of concentration are, fatigue and insomnia, environment, and family problems. Fourth, the students who are ahead of others. Another challenge in English teaching is dealing with students who attend English classes outside of school.
Next, most of English teachers lack of proficiency. Unfortunately, the majority of high school teachers are not fluent in English and are unable to teach the language orally. Last, the lack of repetition and frequent practice of students. Students will feel bored of repeating and practicing the language, since they are not interested in learning it.
Copland et al (2014), stated some challenges that the teachers faced in teaching English, as follows:
1. Teachers’ Proficiency
Every teacher requires a good proficiency level, especially for English teacher.
Unfortunately, many teachers have low proficiency levels. Moreover, most of them lack of confidence in their ability to teach.
2. Classroom Management
Many English teachers struggle to teach English, especially in large classes of more than 30 students. Teachers are unable to closely monitor the students’
language use and give instructions to them.
3. Government Policy and Curricula
Teachers must follow the curriculum and policies set by the government in teaching English. The curriculum used is incompatible with the requirements of the national assessments.
According to Songbatumis (2017), the challenges encountered in teaching English as a foreign language are diverse, and they are related to the students, teachers, and school’s facilities.
a. Students’ side
The Findings revealed that challenges in teaching English come from students themselves. Some of those challenges are:
1. Lack of vocabulary mastery
Students who do not master the vocabulary might be unable to actively participate in the class. One of the three reasons why students have a lack of vocabulary mastery, according to Mai (2016), is that English is not used in their daily lives, leading them to believe they do not need to learn the words.
2. Students’ lack of parents’ support
Lack of parental support can lead to a lack of students’ motivation in learning.
Songbatumis (2017) stated that parents who live in the cities have a higher motivation towards their children’s learning than those who live in rural areas.
3. Students’ poor concentration
Students who have low concentration in the class will be difficult in understanding the knowledge taught by the teacher. It is because they are frequently distracted by talking or doing other activities that disrupt the teaching process.
4. Students’ lack of discipline
Discipline issues were associated with the classification of students' classes based on their study mark. Copland et al (2014) discovered that discipline issues were related to the age and gender of students, differentiation, parental views, inexperience, not sharing the learners' first language, and keeping the students motivated.
5. Students’ boredom
Students often get bored when the teacher teaches a certain topic. It is because they had previously learned the subject, whether through private courses or previous education. They found it uninteresting and boring to listen to the repetitive content.
6. Speaking issue
This issue concerned with the difficulty of getting students to speak.
7. Pronunciation issue
Most of the students make mistakes when pronouncing words. Spelling, pronunciation, stress, and intonation become issues for students and obstructing the teaching process.
8. Confidence issue
Students feel embarrassed to demonstrate their speaking skill. This issue arises since the students believe that they are classified as less capable than other students in the class who take English lessons outside of class.
b. Teachers’ side
Teachers' poor teaching knowledge and development may provide challenges in teaching English, such as:
1. Shortage of teachers’ training
Most of the teachers find themselves lacking in English training. They sometimes feel unconfident in what and how they teach.
2. Limited mastery of teaching methods
Most of the teachers still do something monotonous in teaching that makes the students lost interest in learning. It is difficult to implement various teaching methods and techniques because teachers must consider not only how to transfer four language skills, but also how to maintain students' motivation and enthusiasm for learning and practicing English.
3. Unfamiliarity to IT
Teachers frequently struggle with a lack of specific technological knowledge, technology-supported pedagogy, and technology-related classroom management.
4. Teachers’ lack of professional development
Developing English teaching skills highly depends on the teachers’
motivation. They need to try to develop their abilities and enrich themselves through training and creativity in teaching English.
c. Facilities problem
1. Inadequate resources and facilities
Songbatumis (2017) in her research stated that the availability of the facilities in the school did not support the English teaching and learning process. The limited resources and materials can influence the affectivity of English teaching (Abrar, 2016).
2. Time constraints
The time provided in teaching English was insufficient for the teacher to cover all the materials and to implement their teaching ideas in the classroom, as well as to improve their own professional growth.
Furthermore, Khan (2011), mentioned some challenges in teaching English as a foreign language in Islamic environment, as follows:
1. Background of English teachers
The teacher is the most important element in any educational programmed.
The teacher bears a great deal of responsibility for conveying the subject to the students. It is necessary to examine the knowledge base of second or foreign language English teachers, as well as their pre-service education and in-service
training, in order to gain a better understanding of what language teacher education should be.
2. Poor Ability
Arab students' difficulties in learning English are typically caused by the following factors: a) lack of information about the university or collage they enrolled in; b) a lack of English language curricula offered by some schools and universities; c) poor teaching methodology; and d) issues with proper language environments. As a result of these circumstances, students are becoming less likely to participate in English classes.
3. Lack of Management
The management can be defined as the minimum resources available in one institution. Because of the limited resources, teachers are unable to develop themselves in teaching. The teachers will be easy to deliver the subject matter to the students if the Institution can provide a good management to the teachers.
2.4 Teaching English in Pesantren
According to Dhofier (1994), Islamic boarding schools are traditional Islamic educational institutions to learn, understand, appreciate and practice Islamic teachings by emphasizing the importance of religious morality as guides for daily behavior. Haedar (2004), stated in his book that pesantren is defined as the dormitory-based place where students from various regions and levels come together to learn holy book Al-Qur’an and other Islamic teachings. In general, Pesantren is a traditional Islamic educational institution that studies religious knowledge (tafaqquh fi al-dîn) with an emphasize on
moral formation of students, so that they can practice it under the guidance of kiai, and use the yellow book as the primary source and the mosque as the centre of activity.
Pesantren that maintains a vital role among Indonesians has added English, as well as other secular sciences and technology as part of its curriculum in its current advancement. In organizing the educational programs, Pesantren are now encouraged their students to require not only religious knowledge but also general knowledge such as English. Some pesantren also provide a bilingual system of language use in daily communication that includes Arabic and English in order to develop learners' language skills.
Teachers may face many challenges while teaching English in pesantren since English serves limited purposes. The students are more focused in learning Islamic teachings rather than the general knowledge. They are unmotivated to learn English because it is not their native language and provides only limited purposes. Therefore, teachers’ abilities to utilize various teaching strategies are very needed. Besides, many stakeholders are participated in order to establish a conducive environment that is measured and set up to achieve the greatest output of the educational process. Teachers and students are the main actors to determine the success of classroom learning. They have their own perspectives on how the learning process, environment, and instruments work. Students must have personal motivation, which influences both their perspective and their learning behaviour.
English is believed to be a language that must be mastered, considering that English is an international language used by the majority of countries in the world. Therefore, mastery of English and the ability to communicate in English is considered crucial by
developing the English language teaching in pesantren, so that the students can convey Islamic messages to all level of the world community (Umar, 2022). In short, English language teaching in pesantren is absolutely important and necessary.
2.5 Previous Studies
In order to support this study, the researcher provides some previous studies related to the Teachers’ Challenges in Teaching English. First, the research conducted by Songbatumis (2017) with the title “Challenges in Teaching English Faced by English Teachers at MTsN Taliwang, Indonesia”. This research investigated the teachers’
challenges in teaching English as well as the solutions to overcome those challenges. The challenges emerged from the perspectives of students, teachers, and school’s facility.
Challenges related to the students are lack of vocabulary mastery, lack of parent’s support, students’ poor concentration, students’ lack of discipline, students’ boredom, speaking problem, pronunciation problem, and confidence issue. Then, challenges faced by the teachers are shortage of teachers’ training, limited mastery of teaching methods, unfamiliarity to IT, and teachers’ lack of professional development. While the challenges associated with the school’s facility are inadequate resources and facilities, and time constraint. Songbatumis (2017), suggested some solutions to overcome those challenges.
The solutions taken by the school are reforming attitude as well as improving resources and facilities. On the other hand, the solutions given by the teachers are applying various teaching methods, matching students’ proficiency level, and learning situation, making use of available resources and facilities, providing motivational feedback, and teachers’
self-reflection.
Another related study by Fajaryani et al (2018), investigated the challenges that English teachers faced when teaching English at Madrasah Tsanawiyah as well as to find out the effort of the teachers to overcome those challenges. This research used qualitative case study. All the English teachers at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Jambi Timur and Madrasah Dharma Wanita were the participants of this research.The data were obtained through a demographic survey and in-depth interview. The demographic data were analysed descriptively, while the interviews data were analysed using within-case and cross-case displays and analyses. The findings of this study revealed four major themes including academic challenging factors (student demotivation and low students' basic English ability), non-academic challenging factors (lack of facilities, crowded classrooms, socioeconomic level, and school management), teachers' effort, and leader support.
Marzulina et al (2021), carried out the research entitled “Challenges in Teaching English for EFL Learners at Pesantren: Teachers’ Voices”. This study aimed to investigate the challenges faced by the English teachers in teaching English at pesantren or also known as Islamic boarding school. This study employed qualitative case study approach. The participants of this study were two English teachers at pesantren in MUBA regency. The researchers used observation and interviews in collecting the data. The data obtained were analysed by using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that English teachers encounter five problems in teaching English, those are: improving students’
motivation, improving students’ language competence, managing over-crowded class, dealing with time constraints, and dealing with a lack of supporting facilities.
Another relevant study was conducted by Hasanah & Utami (2020) entitled
“Emerging Challenges of Teaching English in Non-native English-Speaking Countries:
Teachers’ views”. This qualitative study aimed to reveal the challenges faced by English teachers from non-native English-Speaking countries, such as China, Japan, Thailand, Senegal, Mongolia, Cambodia, and Laos. The participants of this study were seven English teachers from those mentioned countries. The Researchers used semi-structured interview to gain the data.The findings indicated three major issues: inadequate learning resources that do not meet students' needs, overcrowded classrooms and school environments, and students' low motivation. To overcome those challenges some programs were implemented. For example, every school in Japan has an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) who comes once a week to cooperate with the English teacher.
Then, the Volunteer English Teacher (VET) program assists English teachers in Laos.
Based on some previous studies described above, the researcher discovered some challenges that experienced by the teachers in teaching emerge from certain aspects. The emerging challenges come from students, teachers’ themselves, and the schools’
facilities.
The researcher took those related studies as the references for her to conduct this research since she would investigate the similar topic, which is about the challenges in teaching English in Pesantren as well as to find out the effort done by the teachers to overcome those challenges. What distinguishes this research from those previous studies are, first, time. The related studies that provided in this research have been done for quite long time. Therefore, the researcher believes that there are some certain distinctions and changes in several aspects relating to the topic over time.
Other than that, the research setting is also different. The researcher conducted this study in Pesantren Hidayatullah that is located in Muaro Jambi district, Jambi Indonesia.
The object of the study is also different. It focused on the English teachers (male and female) in Pesantren Hidayatullah and six female students (santriwati) in grade nine Tsanwiyah.
