PROBLEMS FACED BY STUDENTS IN ENGLISH

ONLINE LEARNING

Ichwan Syahadri*) Abstract: The spread of the corona virus in Indonesia has a
Institut Agama Islam Negeri huge impact on all aspects of life, including the world of
Batusangkar, Indonesia education. The learning system, which is usually carried out
E-mail: syahdriichwan07@gmail.com directly into a learning system in a network (online), certainly
creates various problems in the implementation process. One
Irwan of the most affected is students. This study aims to see the
problems connected by students while learning English with
Institut Agama Islam Negeri an online learning system. This research uses a case study
Batusangkar, Indonesia qualitative approach (case study). The instrument used in this
E-mail:irwan@iainbatusangkar.ac.id study was an interview. The data obtained was checked again
for its validity by conducting a second interview. Informants
from this study consisted of 11 students of grade 7 MtsN 8
Tanah Datar, academic year 2020/2021. The results of the
study show that there are several problems that faced by
students learning English through the online system,
including: 1) the lack of clarity of the learning material
provided by the teacher in both audio and text, 2) the ability to
pronounce English words, 3) limited vocabulary in English, 4)
less opportunity to practice, and 5) lack of ability in writing.

Keywords:Student Problems, Online Learning, English

wide set of applications and processes,

INTRODUCTION such as Web-based learning, computer-
based learning, virtual classrooms, and
By increasing of corona virus digital collaboration. It includes the
cases in Indonesia, the government has delivery of content via Internet,
decided to implement online learning in all intranet/extranet (LAN).
levels of education. This system is In the educations field especially in
implemented to minimize the spreading of Indonesia, internet usage has begun to
corona virus and to maximize the teaching develop even though it is not optimal yet.
and learning process. This system can Most schools in this country from
replace the conventional system in elementary school, junior high school, and
teaching and learning process which senior high school have not connected to
conduct a teaching activity without any the internet. Schools connected to the
direct interaction between the students internet only those who have applied the
and teachers. Computer-Based National Examination,
Practically, online learning process so that access to the internet must be
is done over the internet. This learning evenly distributed to the learning process.
process allows students and teachers to This is the effect of the utilization of
have interaction, share information and facilities and infrastructure provided by the
knowledge that are related to their filed. government and schools is not optimal yet.
Online learning process is a Especially in using the internet on the
supplementary education system in learning process.
Indonesia. Since in Indonesia commonly In online learning, both students
offline learning which both of students and and teachers should have an equal
teacher come to the class and follow opportunity to sharpen their skills. In this
teaching and learning process face to system, the students should be more
face, but online learning system asks the active in the teaching and learning
students and teachers to use technology process, they should have a good ability in
as a key tool of teaching and learning using the online system platform, be
process. Steeples and others (2002) familiar with the features of the platform
state that online learning covers a
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and be active to find other sources to knowledge beyond the official hours.
support their learning process. According However, in the field various
to Mounica (2018:2) Speaking is the most problems are still faced, especially in 7th
basic part of communication and hence to grade students. For 7th grade students
be a good communicator one should learning English is something new. They
speak competently and fluently, using learn English formally for the first time in
appropriate grammar and vocabulary school so that they should get the
and apply proper social and cultural maximum quality of learning English. The
etiquettes apt to the situation. According students do not have background
to Rini (2020:57) Listening process should knowledge about English itself.
be done through some processes and in Furthermore, the students must be taught
each process, students should be guided English from basics in order to easily
by the teacher in order they can manage understand the material. Besides that, the
well each difficulty they experience during learning process should be able to foster
the class. curiosity and increase students motivation
According to Supiyono (2018:92) to enjoy learning. Nevertheless, in the
In reading class involving technology implementation of online learning, there
usage, a reading teacher is suggested to are several problems faced.
build learners’ reading awareness in which There are several phenomena that
the learners are actively involved to their occur in the field about learning English
reading activity by doing lots of reading online such as difficulties in teaching
practices. According to Heryandi English skills, especially speaking such as
(2020:55) writing is one of the most pronunciation. Difficulties in teaching new
challenging skills in learning English, and vocabulary because could not find the
it becomes another challenge for the right media and difficulties to explain the
teacher who teaches writing because materials even the teacher already
teacher does not only deliver the structure conduct the media by themselves and
of text in teaching but the teacher also difficulties to controlling students’
needs to teach the student on how to use language development due to time
lexis and grammar. There are a lot of constrains.
applications that can be used by the Furthermore, in recent years, there
teacher as a made of ICT in learning were some studies related to the use of
writing. Such as: Edmodo, Google online learning platforms have been
Classroom, Slack Application and so on. conducted by some researchers.
MTsN 8 Tanah Datar as an A – Purnawarman, Sundayana, & Susilawati
accredited school located in the city center (2016) conducted a study to find out
and has adequate facilities, this school is students' perceptions towards the use of
trying maximize the online learning Edmodo in teaching writing and how
process by providing internet data for Edmodo can facilitate students'
students to facilitate the learning process. engagement. The result of the study
In this school the teacher and students showed that Edmodo can be integrated
communicate virtually. The teacher into GBA writing cycles. Some issues
distributed learning material though appeared in the study regarding the
WhatsApp, and the students download the bandwidth, confusion in using Edmodo,
material, then upload their assignment in incompatibility of smartphone applications,
the same application. According to and students' lack of responsibilities for
Deshen et al. (2014) this app has learning.
academic benefits that are manifested in Moreover, a study conducted by
the teacher’s availability for study Saptani (2017) involving three English
questions and possibility of sending study teachers in Semarang, Central Java
material by WhatsApp, such that it revealed that Quipper School provides
reaches everyone immediately. Notably, abundant alternative materials that can be
use of WAG (WhatsApp Group) also used in various learning activities. It also
enables the students to review the allowed interaction between students and
material at home, and to bring additional teachers and increased students'
motivation in learning. Thus, the teachers
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who participated in the study perceived researcher coded the problem as follows:
Quipper School as good media in teaching P.1 for problem 1, P.2 for problem 2 and
English. The theories and the result of the so forth. The researcher used
studies mentioned above indicate that unstructured interview and time
teachers can utilize online learning triangulation to get the data, it useful to
platforms such as Edmodo and Quipper to check validity of data.
bring technology into the classroom. In Based on the data analysis, the
addition, many researchers have studied researcher found there were 5 (five)
about English online learning. However, problems faced by students in English
the research about online learning in online learning. The problems were: lack
junior high school is still limited especially of Input materials, lack of ability in
related to student's problems. Thus, in this pronunciation, lack of practice, lack of
research, the researcher was interested in vocabulary, and lack of ability in writing.
conducting a study on "problems faced by There were explain clearly as follows:
students in English online learning”.
1. Lack of Input Material
The first students’ problem in
METHOD English online learning was lack input
material. Some of informants stated that
This research was qualitative they got unclear picture and audio from
research method. The design of this the teacher. The students said the teacher
research is case study research. This sent unclear picture in reading. Thus, they
research was conducted at the seventh- could not read and comprehend the text.
grade students of MtsN 8 Tanah Datar After sent the material the teacher did not
registered in 2020/2021 academic year. explain the material to the students so
Students who became informants in this they could not understand the material. In
study is students who are included in the listening, the teacher sent audio to the
criteria of the informants as follows: (1) the students, but it was unclear and the audio
seventh-grade students of MtsN 8 Tanah in Indonesian form. The important finding
Datar in the academic year 2020/2021. (2) of this interview showed the input material
Students follow English online learning. is one of crucial things that determine the
(3) students who slow respond when the successful of online learning. After doing
teacher gives assignment, (4) the students the interview, the researcher found that
who always late in collecting their there were ten informants who faced lack
assignment, (5) based on the result of of input material while English online
open-ended questionnaire and (6) learning.
students who recommend by the teacher.
In this research, 11 students of the 2. Lack of ability in pronunciation
seventh-grade students of MtsN 8 Tanah The next problem faced by
Datar who follow the English online students in English online learning was
learning and face the problems asked as lack of ability in pronunciation. They were
informants. In this study, the researcher had lack of ability in pronunciation. In this
used interviews as a method of collecting case, the students did not know how to
data. The researcher conducted pronounce a word in English because
interviews through telephone and met in they never learn English at elementary
the informant’s house. school. It made the students difficult to say
something in English or pronounce a
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS word. Related to this case, the information
was found from seven informants, they
In doing analysis the researcher have problem in pronunciation.
started firstly, interviewed the informants;
secondly, transcript the recording; thirdly, 3. Lack of Practice
reduced the data and coded the data as The next problem faced by
follows: I-1 is the first informant, I-2 is the students in English online learning was
second informant and so forth. Then, the lack of practice. The students did not get
any chances to practice their English. The
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teachers tend to ask the students to write not clear and did not use English.
rather than speak. They had never even Materials has crucial role in learning
been practiced speaking by using English. process. It is as tools that can help the
Related to this case, there five informants teacher and students in presenting and
who faced these problems. The important learning a language to achieve the optimal
finding of this interview showed that, lack result in learning process. According to
of practice makes the students could not Richard (2001) learning materials or the
practice their ability in English. Thus, the term instructional materials that the
students also could not evaluate whether teacher uses serve as the basis for much
their English rightor not. of the language input learners receive and
the language practice that occurs in the
classroom.
4. Lack of Vocabulary
The next problem faced by The second one lacked ability in
students in English online learning was pronunciation. In this case, the students
lack of vocabulary. Related to this case, could not pronounce any words in English.
the information was found from four In addition, they also face some difficulties
informants. In this case, students had in spelling the words. Pronunciation plays
problem in spell the words in English. a crucial role in learning language. Monica
They got confused because they did not (2018) states that success in teaching
know the right spell of the words in pronunciation can be ensured if taught
English. The informants said that they did using variety of methods. Sounds can be
not know the spelling of words, they have taught using different methods. Listening
limited vocabulary and they could not to the teachers pronouncing a sound and
understand what the teacher said in repeating after them is one of the common
English. drills practiced teaching sounds. Teaching
a sound at a time makes learners grasp
5. Lack of Ability in Writing better. Besides, based on the fact in field,
Problem at lack of ability in writing the teacher did not give the audio
makes the students difficult to write simple recording or even sent voice notes to the
and complex sentence in English. students to teach them how to pronounce
Furthermore, they were had problems the word. It made the students confuse to
because it was the first time to them in read the text withthe right pronunciation.
learning English. In addition, sometimes The third problems were lack of
the teacher asks them to write poem in practice. In this case, the teacher did not
English. In this case, the students could give the students any chance to practice
not write sentences in English because their English. The teacher did not ask the
the teacher did not tell them how to write. students to pronounce the words, to speak
in English and to listen the material. The
DISCUSSION teachers tend to teach the students
reading and writing rather than listening
Based on the result of the data and speaking. It is not accordance with
analysis, it shows that there were five the curriculum 2013 especially for junior
problems faced by students in English high school. Based on the core
online learning at the seventh grade of competencies and basic competencies, in
junior high school. They lack input junior high school the teacher must teach
materials, lack of ability in pronunciation, all the English skills to the students
lack of practice, lack of vocabulary, and include listening, reading, writing and
lack of ability in writing. The first problem speaking. Lack of practice made the
was lack of input materials. Some students could not develop their skills in
students said that they got unclear English.
materials in form of audios and pictures in The fourth problems were lack of
from the teachers. This condition made vocabulary. Since the teacher did not
the students difficult to comprehend the explain the material to the students, it
materials. For example, audio material. made the students difficult to comprehend
The audio that given by the teachers was the material. It was because they had
36
limited vocabulary. Vocabulary is very there were several problems faced by
important in learning language. If the students in English online learning of the
students did not know the meaning of the seventh-grade students of MTsN 8 Tanah
words automatically, they will not Datar 2020/2021 academic year. They
understand the content and context of the were: first, lack of input materials in form of
language. audio and picture. The materials were
The last problems were lack of unclear that made the students difficult to
ability in writing. In this case, some of comprehend. Second, lack of ability in
students said that they could not write pronounce words in English. Third, lack of
sentence in English. It is related to their practice in listening and speaking skill.
vocabulary and their practice. Since the Fourth, lack of English vocabularies. Last,
students had limited vocabulary and lack lack of ability in writing that made the
of practice it will be difficult for them to students difficult to do their assignment in
write because writing is one of the most English. All these problems faced by
challenging skills in English. Acccording to students when they follow English class
Heryandi (2020) writing is one of the most by using online application.
challenging skills in learning English, and
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