Talking about challenge, obstacle, or problem in term of Teaching Learning Process (TLP) will never end. It emerges from the whole sides of direction. It is affected by the stake holders of education namely; students, teachers/school, parents/society, government. The most first answer raising when I ask my fellow English teachers about their problems of teaching English as Second Language, or actually in Indonesia is the Third/Foreign Language, is that: "MY STUDENTS ARE POOR IN ENGLISH BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE GOOD MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH". What's about you?
The answer above was definitely MINE as well. I used to believe that it was my students that have no ample motivation in learning English. They found that English is such an Alien language. The words and how to pronounce them is totally different with how Bahasa Indonesia spelling and pronunciation are. I thought that the students should find their own objectives of mastering English in order to have the benefit of learning English itself that I formerly believed will drive them to get their own courage and curiousness of English. They are supposed to realize that English is deadly important for their future, English is the key of the world, If you want to hold the world on your hand, then you must master English, and so forth. The saying was and is still totally good and I find that there's nothing wrong with the all saying above BUT the context itself that is inappropriate. It sounds like blaming all the "sin" to students. What a poor student!
Once, as I stated the answer to a friend of mine, then, he posed a question back. "Have you made a research of your finding(which is actually just an assumption)?" he asked. I blushed "How dare I am of saying so!" I yelled out silently. I fell in the depth of my reflection. Questioning all the excuses that I used to make them for excusing my failure. Eventually, I realized that I had judged something from its surface look as if it's such the whole understandable finding that I grabbed from a trustworthy research. I called it personally "judging the students from their pimples". It means that it is like small thing but not so simple as the look, it is so important and sometimes unimportant as well, it is nothing to do between pimples and students' ability in English as it has no significant correlation between low motivation, that you never know the cause, and students' ability. What a confusing! yes, we sometimes don't have ideas about things that we are being talked about and of what we are doing, then finally found that the students are the black sheep.
Let's use the point of view of "positive thinking". An old saying states that if you point to other people accusing that they are bad (using index finger), it will mean that other four fingers are pointing into you yourselves. So, let's take a better look if there's something wrong around us, it must be something wrong with us. If the students don't have good motivation in learning English, it could be possibly WE that are fail to motivated them by our techniques, methods, personality (as moderate facilitator, wise motivator, and or real inspiration), or many other factors influenced the TLP. Before blaming students or others, let's answer the self-reflection questions honestly; Have we taught them in a well-planned scenario that involves appropriate technique and suitable approach? Be well-prepared!; Have we given all our best to them? Be Professional! Have we been a warm personality for the students? Be good listener! Have we?
Furthermore, "Intake" is the next victim of teachers' assumption. The Low Intake Students are the obstacles of TLP. How can we say that they are Students of Very Low Intake while we haven't take any research to measure it? We even don't know how to make reliable and valid instruments to prove those prejudices or assumptions. How can we say that we have taught our best while we haven't applied any appropriate approach and technique for their ability level? It's easy to say but it's hard to do, isn't it? But the point is that it is more urgent to answer "How to increase the intake?" rather than just to blame others. Any better ideas?
Besides, the Prior Knowledge or Background Knowledge is like the domino effect of blaming others. The Lecturer blames the Senior High School teacher for the poor product (out put), then the Senior High School teacher blames the Junior High School teacher for the bad performances of their out-put, next the Junior High School teacher blames the Elementary School teacher for neglecting the important of basic knowledge to the next level of study, later on the Primary School teacher blames the students of the lack of learning the subject, finally the students blame the teacher of being grumpy, lazy, bossy and vice versa. Who wants to be blamed?
We are then quite busy in blaming others that even don't have correlation on this big matter as judge the students from their pimples. It is clearly strange and irrational, isn't it? So, STOP FINDING THE BLACK SHEEP then START DOING BEST WHAT WE SHOULD DO!
