Teachers’ Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners in Rural Public Primary Schools in Salatiga

Abstract

It is believed that rural education has a legacy unique challenge as compared with that of their urban and suburban counterparts. The challenges are also found in the place and the implementation of English program in primary level. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the challenges encountered by English teachers in teaching English for young learners in rural public primary schools in Salatiga, Central Java. To answer the question, semi-structured interview is used with eight participants from eight primary schools in four sub-districts (Argomulyo, Tingkir, Sidorejo, and Sidomukti) in Salatiga. It launches by briefly discussing the place of English in national curriculum for primary school in one hand and the execution of English program in rural schools on the other hand. Throughout the research, the researcher obtained three challenges and those were: (i) the status of English as a local content subject creates conditions which is less supportive for the teachers to teach English, (ii) most of the teachers are coming from non-English educational background which influence their competencies in teaching English, (iii) socio-economic status from parents plays a big role in students’ motivation and achievement in learning English.