CHALLENGES IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN SOUTHERN THAILAND (A Case Study of Indonesian Pre-service Teachers’ Perspectives)

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Yoga Prihatin, Yulia Nur Ekawati, Ihda Rosdiana, Aurora Sakinatulhaq

Abstract

Teaching primary students which are commonly referred as young learners is indeed different with teaching adult learners. A variety of researches have been conducted to investigate the challenges in teaching English to young learners (TEYL). This study aims to analyze the challenges faced by pre-service teachers during their five-month teaching practice in Southern Thailand and how they handled the challenges.Qualitative data were used in this research by using both questionnaire and interview.Purposive sampling was applied in selecting the subject of the study.A number of challenges emerged from several sides, namely from students’ side, pre-service teachers’ side, and others’side. Students’ challenges namely cognitive development, lack of motivation, discipline problems, speaking problems, and writing. While pre-serviced teachers are challenged by their limited mastery of TEYL methods and techniques as well as their lack of professional development. In addition, challenges also come from others’ side including curriculum/syllabus, school’s facilities, class size, and cultural differences. Learning the students’ mother tongue is believed as the most significant key to overcome the challenges. Other solutions are also proposed such as learning from/consulting with teacher advisors, using teaching aids/medias, using gestures/mimes, etc.

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