Teacher’s Challenges and Strategies in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Large Class

By Zainollah

English is categorized as international language. It is widely used in various fields, from mass-media to scientific field. English is one of the major language used by many people in the world, it is significant in international relation as means of communications among countries. Today rapid technological development inevitably makes English more and more important. English is used in many aspects of life, such as economic, politic and education. In the field of economic, it is known that English is used in trade; in politic English is used to communicate the idea or the opinion of the people, and in education, it is known that many literature are written in English. Mastering English passively and actively is very significant in today’s civilization.

In Indonesia, English is taught in all formal educational institutions, from elementary school to university. The major purpose of English teaching in Indonesia is to acquire ability in reading, listening, writing, and speaking English. It is proved by the curriculums that applied in school in Indonesia that consist of listening, reading, listening and speaking. Considering the importance of English for job opportunity, many students take an extra English class such as private course; English course to master English well.  English is a second language in where Indonesian people learned it after they mastered their first language. Because of it, many people in Indonesia including students find several problems in mastering it. They consider that English is quite difficult to learn and even they think that it is the most difficult one to master.

The difficulties in mastering English as foreign language may be trigged by various factors. Those could be from the English language its self, or from the learners themselves or obviously from the learning process itself. Obviously the role of the teacher also plays a crucial effect (Nunan, 1993, p. 93). Many people in Indonesia say that English is a complex language because it contains various patterns, the unique spelling and pronunciation or it can be said that English is difficult to spell.

Speaking is one of the objectives in foreign English language teaching in Indonesia, it is to improve students’ speaking skill accurately and fluently. To reach objectives of teaching there are many strategies and various teaching used because most of people think that speaking is the single most important aspect of learning foreign language. Therefore, there are an assumption in the reality that the success of learning English is measured in terms of speaking ability to carry out English conversation in daily activities.

Creating environment conducive for English language teaching is very important because classroom environment can determines the success of teaching and learning especially speaking skill. Mistar (2012, p. 23) argues that creating environment conducive for language teaching and learning is really important. One of the important things to note in creating classroom environment is physical component. The physical components cover class size, seating arrangement, and whiteboard position. It means that class size is one of important components for language teaching and learning.

Ahmadin (2012, p. 13) describes the possible challenges in large classes; it can be in the forms of lack of control, discomfort of both learners and teachers, difficulty of evaluation, and absence of learning. Besides that, Brown lists some challenges concerning English language teaching in large classes. 1) proficiency and ability vary widely across students, 2) individual teacher-students attention is minimized, 3) Student opportunities to speak are lessened, 4) teacher’s feedback on students’ written work is limited. Therefore, English language teaching must consider the size of the class to achieve conducive and effective language teaching.

English language teaching (ELT) in large classes is the reality of education in Indonesia. It is indicated that there are many schools still have been conducting English language teaching in large classes, especially school that does not have enough budget to pay teachers in conducting English language teaching in small classes. Private schools are the most preferred one to select English language teaching in large classes, it is because of poorness of budget and media in conducting teaching and learning many classes.

The concept of large class varies; even there is no quantitative definition concerning large class. It means that there is no specific rule concerning ideal/standard and not ideal class in English language teaching. However, several English practitioners deduce some concepts of large classes. One class ideally consists of 12 students (Brown, 2000). Another one says that ideal class must consist of 20 students (Nolasco and Arthur, 1988). A person who teaches English more than 20 students is challenging and categorized as large class. In some countries, 25 – 30 students per teacher is still categorized as small class. There are many English language teaching in some countries consists of 25 – 30 students. In Pamekasan regency even in Madura Island, most of teachers in school handle 20 – 45 students in every class.

Madrasah AliyahMambaul Ulum Bata – Bata is one of Islamic private school in Pamekasan Madura. This school located in big and popular Islamic Boarding School in Pamekasan Madura, it is Mambaul Ulum Bata – Bata Islamic Boarding School who has millions students (Santri). From the data of pre-study, this school has been conducting teaching and learning in large class for more than 10 years. It means that for 10 years every class consists of 80 – 90 in average. In academic year 2013-2014, the data showed that the maximum class of in every class consists of 91 students from different towns, places and archipelagos in Indonesia.

Therefore, based on the research context presented above, the researcher really interested in studying about the process of English language teaching of Speaking in large class. This study is focus on ‘(1) What are the teacher’s challenges in English language teaching in large class at the first grade of MA Mambaul Ulum Bata-Bata Pamekasan? (2) What are the teacher’s strategies to cope the challenges? By conducting this study the researcher do expect to find the teacher’s challenges or classroom’s challenges and strategies in English language teaching in large class at MA Mambaul Ulum Bata – Bata Palengaan Pamekasan Madura.  By conducting this study, hopefully the challenges and strategies of English language teaching of speaking in large class can be described.