THE SECONDARY EFL TEACHERS’ TEACHING STRATEGIES DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAK

Received: December 3 rd 2022 Revised: March 16 th 2023 Accepted: March 29 th 2023 Available Online: March 29 th 2023 Published Regulary: March 29 th 2023

This research aimed at investigating the secondary EFL teachers' teaching strategies during COVID-19 outbreak and figuring out the problems faced in implementing the teaching strategies during COVID-19.This research was designed as qualitative research.The subjects of this research were the secondary EFL teachers at SMP N 4 Kopang selected based on certain criteria.The data were collected through interview and documentation.This research used data condensation, data display, and drawing conclusion as technique of data analysis.Based on research finding, the strategies implemented by the secondary teachers during COVID-19 were situated teaching and picture description.Those strategies were effective, easy to plan and enjoyable for students.Lack of learners' motivation, insufficient time, resources and materials were the problems faced by the teachers in teaching English.Further, the strategies were used in general material and affected all aspects such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing.Moreover, Teachers as educators should be able to synergize a learning activity with the learning method used in every situation.It can support the students' skill in the processoriented material that will be taught.

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the teaching learning process is to enable students to acquire knowledge and be able to understand knowledge.Teachers have their own creative teaching strategies, that is, to establish a good teacher-student relationship.How the class runs well depends on how the teacher manages the class and how the teacher controls the students.Strategy is defined as a set of procedures in the process of learning, thinking, teaching, etc.It is used as a way to achieve a certain goal (Richards et al., 1992).One teacher is used to show a different strategy from another teacher.It depends on the needs of the students or the learning goals they want to achieve.Deciding which teaching strategy should be used in the classroom requires thoughtful design and planning (Orlich, et al., 2010).In teaching, teachers should consider the goals they want their students to achieve.
Choosing specific teaching methods that best achieves course objectives is one of the most important decisions a teacher faces.Knowing what methods are available and what objectives each method is best suited for, help teachers make this decision more easily.Silver et al. (2000) states several reasons of strategies become an important part in education, strategies are tools for designing thoughtful lessons and units, strategies make the work of differentiating instruction manageable for teachers and motivating for students, strategies provide the tools needed to bring thoughtful programs alive in the classroom, strategies build the skills needed for success on state tests, frequent use of strategies leads to consistent and significant gains in student achievement, and strategies build different kinds of knowledge.Every teacher has their own style to teach a lesson, that is make the student more enjoy and easier to understand the lesson.Moreover, every lesson has their achieve goals qualification that should completed by the students.So, teacher should match between the strategy and the lesson.
However, the covid-19 brings a new paradigm in teaching learning process.The Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim issued a circular handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.The handling instruction was aimed at the Department of Education at the provincial, district, and city levels, higher education institutions, higher education leaders, and principals through SE Number 3 of 2020 concerning prevention of COVID-19 on the education unit.In circulars listed 18 instructions that must be obeyed by the education unit.One of these instructions is about keeping a distance to interacting with other people.This has caused teachers, especially EFL teachers, to start thinking about appropriate teaching strategies to use during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Related to teaching strategies used by EFL Teachers during Covid-19, some researchers have conducted researches to find out the strategies used in teaching English.Ustadzah (2019) conducted research to find out the challenges and strategies implemented by EFL Teachers at SMA Bahrul Ulum Sekapuk.She found out that the challenges could be tired of raising voice, unequal voice, unequal attention, disparate interaction, annoying noise, inactive students, stubborn students, and thin school wall.Related to the strategies, she found out that Utami (2020) also conducted research on the strategies implemented by EFL Teachers at MTs Sudirman Getasan.During Covid-19 Pandemic.Based on the observation, interview, and documentation, she found out that the teachers used different strategies because the expected skill output were different.For writing skill, the teacher used 3 strategies namely planning, drafting, and editing.As for listening skill, the teacher applied several strategies such as listening to songs, writing song lyrics, matching lyrics, and finally sing a song which was based on the video-based learning model and also virtual education through WhatsApp.Strategies in teaching through elearning classes during the COVID-19 pandemic greatly assisted teachers in the teaching and learning process to achieve learning goals.Keywords: English Teaching, Teaching Strategy, E-learning.
In addition, Indrajid (2021) focused on exploring the EFL Teacher's teaching strategies at State Vocational High School 1 Taluk Kuantan.Through interview, she figured out that the teacher used independent learning strategy where the teacher gave material and assignment to the students and they learned independently.The teacher also implemented interactive learning.In this strategy the teacher formed a group, not only that, the teacher also applied students' centered learning, and teacher's centered learning.The teacher also used Google Classroom, WhatsApp Group, and Google meet when teaching during Covid-19 Pandemic.The results, the usage of some strategies applied by the teacher can assist the teacher in teaching English during Covid19 Pandemic by using this E-Learning.Many students became lazy in collecting their assignment and also seldom entered the class during online learning.
Correspondingly, in facing Covid 19 pandemic, Hamruni (2009, p. 8-9) says direct instruction teaching strategy effective to determine information or to build a skill step by steps.This strategy is teaching directed by the teacher directly.This strategy usually has deductive character.The superiority of this strategy is so easy to be planned and used.In direct teaching strategy, the focus lies on teacher-student interaction rather than students-material interaction after a brief explanation by the teacher.Besides, teacher actively involves in introducing content, demonstrating the material, checking the students' understanding and monitoring the students.Accordingly, Arends (1997) confirm that the teaching procedure of direct instruction should have (1) Clarity of goals and main points; (2) Step-by-step presentations; (3) Specific and concrete procedures;  and (4) Checking for students' understanding.Applying picture in teaching learning process absolutely enables the students to achieve the lesson.Pictures can be drawn by the teacher.It can be taken from magazine, newspaper, poster, brochure, or internet.The teacher must consider that pictures can engage the students' interest.The teacher must have many sources that can stimulate the students to learn actively because developing and stimulating the students in learning process are the teacher's role.However, a picture is one of the resources that can help the students to stimulate their interest and motivation (Wright, 1989).Harmer (2007, p. 42) also states that when students tell or describe the picture, they can easily construct the story.In short, it can be concluded that using describing picture strategies can help students in developing their speaking skill.Picture describing not only increases students' speaking ability, but also motivates students in learning process.Harmer (2001) divides picture into five types, they are (1) Flashcard; (2) Large wall picture; (3) Cue card; (4) Photograph or illustration; and (5) Projected slide.Further, he proposes several steps in applying describing picture.First, the teacher prepares picture according to the topic or material of subject.Second, the teacher asks students to examine the picture accuracy.Third, the teacher divides students in groups.Next, the teacher asks all members of groups to write the vocabularies based on the result of their examined the picture.Then, every group makes sentences and writes on the black board.After that, every group describes their picture by speaking in front of the class.Finally, teacher clarifies/concludes/reflects the lesson learned.
Personalized learning appears to be an ideal condition for learning.According to Patrick et al. (2013), personalized learning means tailoring learning for each learner's interest, strengths, and needs.This approach encourages flexibility to support mastery and enables learners to influence how, what, when, and where they learn.Furthermore, personalized learning strategy is suitable for school amidst COVID-19.Wolf (2010) suggests that there are five essential elements of personalized learning, they are ( 1 Situated learning strategy is a strategy where students learn by solving practical problems, doing experiments and projects, presenting the papers and projects supported by the use of web and multimedia technologies, animations, and simulations in virtual labs.The teacher acts as a facilitator in this teaching strategy who provides help and motivation to the students.The modern concept of this strategy accommodates students' active participation.Clancey (1995) added that situated learning is the study of how human knowledge develops in the course of activity and especially how people create and interpret descriptions (representations) of what they are doing.Situated learning environments put students in learning situations where they are actively immersed in an activity while using problem-solving (critical thinking) skills.Clancey (1995) further suggest the way the teachers apply the strategy.(1) group activities; (2) role playing; (3) Scenario Based Learning; (4) the use of technology.Cahyono and Widiati (2006) believe that the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is expected to meet the demand for mastering all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.In relation to this, almost all levels of schools have launched English teaching, from basic elementary schools to vocational high schools, teachers have their own subjects for each grade.EFL (English as a Foreign Language) is a commonly used word.Meanwhile, Herrel and Jordan (2019) suggests that there are some strategies for teaching English Language Learners, they are; Predictable Routines and Signals, Total Physical Response and total Physical Response Storytelling (TPR and TPRS), Modeled Talk, Visual Scaffolding, Realia Strategies, and Advanced Organizers.
Teaching English as a foreign language is a demanding task when it comes to the places where English serves limited exposure (Khan, 2011).Consequently, EFL students are limited by their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the target language and have to struggle to comprehend the content.The learning process can be said to take place when students can know or do something that was not known or can be done by him.So, the students result will be seen with new behavior in the knowledge of thinking or physical ability.The challenges found were varied in which they are related to the students, the teachers, and condition.The findings revealed that challenges in teaching English came from students as well.These challenges were students' lack of learner motivation, insufficient time, resources, and materials.Based on the problem statement above, the researchers have the following objectives which are: 1) To investigate the EFL teacher in implementing those teaching strategies during COVID-19 and 2) To find out the problems faced by EFL teacher in teaching English during COVID-19.
There are two kinds of significances of the study, namely theoretical and practical.Theoretically, this study hopefully could provide information to the next researchers as references about EFL teachers' teaching strategies during COVID -19 outbreaks.They may also be able to observe the effectiveness of the strategies used by EFL teacher in those kinds of classroom situation.This research can also be one of the resources of thoughts for further research.Practically, the findings of this study hopefully can be reference for EFL teacher to face or teach during COVID -19 outbreaks.By applying the strategies found in this study, hopefully they can obtain improvement of the quality; make a creative and effective class in teaching process, especially during COVID -19 outbreaks.However, this research focuses more on the teaching strategies of EFL teachers during the COVID -19 outbreak and the problems they face when implementing the strategy in this situation.

METHOD
This research employed qualitative descriptive with phenomenology design.Qualitative research tends to collect data in the field at the site where participants experience the issue or problem under study.They did not bring individuals into a lab (a contrived situation), nor did they typically send out instrument for individuals to complete.In the natural setting, the researchers had face to face interaction often over time.The phenomenology design was chosen because it had similar regulation with natural setting about how the data was collected through the right instrument.The research took place at SMP Negeri 4 Kopang where the researchers observed and interviewed two EFL teachers.In addition, document such as lesson plan was also studied to gain more valid data.
This study used qualitative data analysis techniques, the data analysis included several steps: the first step is data condensation which refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting, and/or transforming the data that appear in the full corpus (body) of written-up field notes, interview transcripts, documents, and other empirical materials.The second step is data display; it is the most frequently used mode to present data in qualitative research with narrative text.The presentation of data made it easier to understand what is happening and to plan the next work based on what has been done and understood.The last step is drawing conclusions or interpretations.Conclusion can be a causal relationship or an interactive, as well as hypothesis or theories.In the conclusion stage, the researcher began to see and examine all data then tell the story by making a relationship between the stories so that the researcher got the results and conclusions from the study.

RESULT
Teachers' strategies on English learning classes are based on the results of interviews that have been conducted with English teachers about the strategies used in teaching English classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.There are several strategies used by the teacher in teaching according to the material used.a. Teacher 1 The teacher in teaching English was different strategies after COVID-19.The teacher should improve their ability to make students get the material clearly, even though the situations change.Before COVID-19 the teacher had a lot of time to explain the material, they gave the students task, topic for discussion even the home work in one meeting.Every single chapter of the material, the EFL teacher gave the students personal assignment.Personal assignment gave by the teacher in the classrooms or by WhatsApp group, the assignment was around the material that was delivered.
First, the teacher explained the material in their text books which begin with explaining the goals of the students' learning the material and how to use it in daily life, giving them keywords about the vocabulary they did not know before and giving students topics for their personal assignment around the chapter.Second was the assignment correction by the teacher.In the next meeting, the teacher reviewed the previous material to make sure the students understood the material and started to collect the students' assignment.Third, the teacher collected the assignment and he gave comments, and advice for the alternative answer and gave them score.
The teacher, Mr. H, said he described the picture from the textbook.He said that describing picture had important role to teach in the classrooms, describing picture made the students imagine what they would talk about.Furthermore, Harmer (2007, p. 42) also states that when students tell or describe the picture, they can easily construct the story.In short, using describing picture strategies can help students in developing their speaking skill.It also motivates students in learning process.
He explained that the benefits of describing picture in the classrooms amidst COVID-19 was very useful to give students an overview of the topic of discussion so that students could more easily provide explanations or information.Students could also practice their speaking, their writing and increase their English vocabulary.Before COVID-19 the teacher divided the students into a group to discuss a topic, case, and material.But, in current situation this method was no longer be used because it must follow health protocols amidst COVID-19.
In implementing the strategies, Mr. H found some problems faced by him, as the teacher, as well as by students.The first problem was when implementing personal assignment to be answered by the student.This strategy had a problem for the teacher i.e., lack of practice.In doing this strategy, the teacher only explained the material in general and gave the assignment individually.Students' vocabulary could affect the completion of the assignments because it slowed the provision of the materials.The second, problem faced by students; some of the students did not understand the material so that they need more explanation and lack of vocabulary that affected learning process.Sometimes assignments had been given through social media (via mobile phone) and some of the students did not have phone.The students only learned what was provided by the teacher which made the students unindependent.b.Teacher 2 According to Mrs. S, personalized strategy is the strategy used to make the students more active in learning process.Usually, she gave the students topic and then the students used mobile phone to get the references.According to Patrick, Kennedy and Powell (2013), personalized learning means tailoring learning for each learner's interest, strengths, and needs.This approach encourages flexibility to support mastery and enables learners to influences how, what, when, and where they learn.So, this strategy was suitable for the pandemic situation by combining the learning process with technologies.
She said the benefits when applying personalized was that the strategy made the students become independent.They did not depend on their friends or teacher, and the students worked by themselves.Thus, this strategy was more effective in this situation.However, Mrs. S also found the problems when she implemented the strategies.She found that the meeting duration was only 30 minutes for one meeting, which made the teacher give students more explanation through social media group.Hence, students and teacher should have social media for further discussion.Through social media, they could share and discussed about the material, task and home work.Students were not only as the readers, but they also had to be active in discussion session and they must be able to use the internet to find and learn material that had been or would be given.

DISCUSSION
Teacher 1 and teacher 2 mostly employed situated teaching.This strategy is roughly similar to personalized teaching.In other aspect, personalized teaching resembles advance organizers and predictable routine and signals.According to Herrel and Jordan (2019), Signals and routines serve to lower students' anxiety and help them feel that they are fully participating in the classroom community, which is especially important for English learners.Which is the strategy can help the students more excited in the class.
Employed advance organizer makes students more active in classrooms.The students are not only as listeners but they can give their opinion or questions.The use of advance organizers with English language learners is particularly effective because their design is built on the past experiences of the learner and provides bridges to the new material being taught (Cummins, 1986;Diaz-Rico, 2008).
In addition, both teachers employed picture describing.This strategy resembles to visual scaffolding.To use this strategy, the teacher builds hard-copy and digital files of visuals, such as photographs or drawings.It can be easily accessed for teaching.Photographs, illustrations, and even hand drawings can provide visual support for a wide variety of content and vocabulary concepts and can build background knowledge (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2010b).Visual scaffolding is not only for the students' understanding but also for the teacher to describe the picture to enhance students' listening ability and vocabulary.When the students listen, they will find new vocabulary and they can ask the question to the teacher.Both of teachers at SMP N 4 Kopang were rarely to use discussion group, conversation, role play or games during COVID-19.
Based on the teacher challenges, according to Derakhshan (2015) in teaching English during COVID-19, there must be problems encountered such as lack of learner motivation, insufficient time, resources and material.The students have less motivation for study because they mostly learned individually and got less understanding to search the material by themselves.Therefore, it can be concluded that the teacher should prepared the strategies well for teaching the students during COVID-19 pandemic in the context of online teaching which typically refers to courses that was delivered completely online, meaning there are no physical on class sessions.

CONCLUSION
This study explores how the secondary EFL teachers applied teaching strategies and the problems they faced during COVID-19.It is suggested that the EFL teachers' teaching strategies during COVID-19 were situated teaching and picture description.Whereas, the EFL teachers' problems were the lack of learner' motivation, insufficient time, resources, and material.
This study suggests for the EFL teachers that they might find it useful to employ the strategies introduced by the researchers in the current study in the teaching and learning process.Besides, they need to be able to manage the time and use appropriate media that might increase the students' motivation.For further researchers, it is suggested that they use these findings as reference to conduct the same research with different perspective.