Teachers’ Perceptions towards Challenges in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Least-Developed Region

Abstract

Teaching English as a Foreign Language is challenging. The 
body of  literature has addressed the  issue on the current challenges  in 
teaching English as Foreign Language. However, only few studies have 
investigated  the  issue  in  remote  areas  of  Indonesia.  This  qualitative 
study  investigates  the  current  challenges  in  teaching  English  in  least-
developed region of Indonesia based on the following criteria: language 
comprehension,  method  and  approach,  practical  implementation,  and 
socio-cultural environment. The data were collected from four English 
lecturers  in  one of  teaching  universities  in  Indonesia.  The  participants 
were  selected  using  purposive  sampling  technique.  The  data  were 
collected  using  in-depth  interview  and  field  observation  which  were 
then  analyzed  descriptively.  The  results  of  the  study  reveal  that  the 
participants  have  to  deal  with  several  obstacles  in  teaching  English. 
Those  obstacles  include  the  students’  low  proficiency  of  language 
comprehension,  limited  resources  of  materials,  communication  gap 
between  lecturers  and  students,  students’  lack  of  enthusiasm  and 
participation in learning and lack of environmental support from society. 
From  the  observation,  the  participants  show  that  the  challenges  are 
mitigated  by  adjusting  their  choice  of  pedagogical  instruction  and 
learning  materials  according  to  students’  level  of  language 
comprehension. The study suggests that the infrastructure development 
is strongly essential to establish a good teaching environment. Besides, 
creating  positive  understanding  and  paradigm  about  the  sanctity  of 
learning English for students might be able to help the students’ to study 
English better.