Teaching Reading in Remote Areas in Indonesia: A Focus On Challenges and Strategies

In the process of teaching English throughout the country, more effort is needed when it comes to the teaching in remote areas. This research aims at investigating challenges faced by the teachers in remote areas and their strategies in teaching English especially reading. This study was a descriptive qualitative study which involved 14 former SM-3T teachers posted in 2013-2016. The data were collected using questionnaire via Google Form and online interviews. The data analysis was done by transcribing, coding, looking for larger categories or themes, and interpreting meaning and presenting the result. The result of the research showed that challenges faced by the participants were related to students, media, and material. With regard to the teaching of English, especially reading skill, the teachers still focused on the teaching of language-focused learning and meaning-focused input. Since reading can be useful to help the students understand the language, the problems in the real situations caused the teachers to conduct language learning imbalance. The results imply that the teachers need to balance the learning by making sure that the meaning focused strands exist in the teaching and learning process so that the students' language learning could occur in a meaningful and contextual way