EFL teacher's challenges and strategies in teaching in large class at SMPN 1 Kanor

This study is to describe the challenges and teaching strategies used by EFL teachers in teaching in large class to grade eight students of SMPN 1 Kanor in the academic year 2020/ 2021. It was conducted to investigate the teachers' teaching challenges and strategies they used to cope with those challenges they faced. The researcher used descriptive qualitative analysis to analyze the data. The researcher collected the data by conducting interviews with the EFL teachers. The researcher used interview guides as the research instrument. Based on the collected data, the researcher concluded that there were eight challenges faced by the teachers which are: (1) unequal voice (2) tired of rising voice (3) unequal attention, (4) disparate interaction, (5) annoying voice, (6) inactive students, (7) stubborn students, and (8) school environment. The strategies used by the teachers to cope those challenges are: (1) making eye contact to all students, (2) asking questions to draw students' attention, (3) changing students' seat, (4) warning the students, (5) praising the obedient students, (6) giving purpose to listen to others, (7) giving students responsibilities, (8) using group work, (9) involving students in the lesson, (10) giving written instruction, (11) using the class list for nomination, and (12) using mimes and gestures. Based on the conclusion, the researcher offers several suggestions to cope with the challenges faced by the EFL teachers. The teacher should use more creative strategies such as using class list nomination to make the learning process more effective and efficient and the school should build higher windows so that the students will not look out the windows and the teaching learning process can run well.