Non-Native English Teacher’S Challenges And Strategies In Teaching English For Office Management At An Indonesian Vocational High School

Fabian Akbar Nugraha, Imam Wahyudi Karimullah, Sonny Elfiyanto

Abstract


This study searched for the challenges a vocational high school non-native English teacher came across in their time teaching for office management classes and the strategies they employed to deal with those challenges. Employing a qualitative single case study design, data were collected from a vocational high school teacher in Malang through a structured interview and document analysis of lesson plans. The findings show that the teacher came across challenges such as the constant changing of curriculum, industry standards, teaching methods, lesson plans, and the anxiety they felt with English fluency issues followed by the lack of available office management materials for English subjects. The strategies they have found and created include are to involve technological help, adapting general English and office management materials, constant encouragement for their students, and the use of simple instructions. A key finding was the lack of readily available material for office management classes in English causing the teacher to constantly adapt newer materials themselves with either non-translated office management materials or general English materials as they have no surefire way to gather ESP materials to this day. These results highlight a flaw in ESP teaching for office management classes as the vocational teacher are forced to work harder than general high school teachers whilst having to deal with other issues such as confidence and anxiety issues. Though the strategies listed still helped, they are still not to be considered a permanent fix for future vocational high school teachers teaching English for office management classes.

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