The causes of the English teachers’ problems on professional competence at Vocational High School

The objectives of this research aimed at (i) finding out the causes of the problems in teaching English at vocational high schools and (ii) finding out the possible solution toward the problems of the teachers in teaching English subject at vocational high schools. The researcher applied purposive sampling technique in selecting the participants. The participants consisted of two advanced teachers and two beginner teachers at vocational high schools in Somba Opu sub-district. The additional participants were two headmasters that focused on the possible solution dealing with the problem found by the English teachers at VHS. This research under applied descriptive approach and qualitative method. The data were collected by using two instruments namely semi-structured interview and observation checklist. The data were analyzed by using the framework of Miles and Huberman’s (2012) namely data reduction, data display, and drawing then verifying conclusion. The results of this research mentioned nine causes of the problems on the professional competence of English teachers in teaching at vocational high school and the possible solution toward the causes. The outline of the causes of the problems on professional competence are the less effort of the English teachers to improve the linguistic aspects, lack of English for Spesific Purpose knowledge, less of communicative competence, less preparation of teaching contents, less in using ICT as a teaching method and lack in managing the time and managing the class. The possible solution can draw in this research that the English teachers at VHS have to consider the students’ need, prepare the teaching planning and involved in the teaching training. Thus, this research might become a recommendation to the government and the Educational trainer for facilitating the English teachers at VHS with education training of ESP knowledge and supporting the teachers in developing their professional competence.


INTRODUCTION
The vocational high school has a vision and mission that is to achieve the international standard of Vocational High School (VHS). In this global era, facing Asian Economic Community, the students of VHS not only demanded to improve and master their skills but also demanded to speak English well in order that they can compete with the foreign labor either in Indonesia or other countries. This is due to the English language is considered the third rank of

METHOD
This research employed a descriptive approach and qualitative method to investigate the causes of the problems found by the English teachers at VHS. In this research, the researcher took the vocational high schools in Somba Opu sub-district as the participants they are State Vocational High School 2 Somba Opu and State Vocational High School 3 Somba Opu. The researcher had two criteria in taking the participants, namely the advanced beginner teachers and the expert teachers. Furthermore, two expert teachers and two beginner teachers were taken from each school. The additional participants were the headmasters from the two vocational high schools. The data from the headmasters focused on the suggestion to the problems faced by teachers. The instruments used were a semi-structured interview to investigate the causes of the problems and checklist observation to verify the data collected. The data analysis steps based on Huberman, Miles, and Saldana (2013) that consists of data reduction, data display, and conclusion.

FINDINGS 3.1 English Teachers' Problems in Professional Competence
The following data was gained from the interview and observation from the participants of the English teacher at the vocational high school; they are teacher 1, teacher 2, and teacher 3. The explanation is the summarized in terms The Causes of the English teachers' problems in professional competence at Vocational High Schools 4 of the causes of the English teachers' problems in professional competence at vocational high schools. 3.1.1 Less effort to learn the vocabulary of vocational terms for various departments Teacher 1 stated that her problem was because she teaches various departments in which automatically she has to correlate with the department. There were two causes of this problem. First, she had less necessary of ESP. Second, the vocabularies in the module were general.
( Teacher 2 implied that the cause of difficult to master the vocabulary for the vocational term is because she was not very familiar with the students' department. She mastered the vocabulary which concerns the Tourism department. However, the difficult vocabulary for her was the vocabulary which concerns to the Engineer and Performing department. Whereas, teacher 3 stated that the cause was coming from the students' side. Teacher 1, teacher 2 and teacher 3 realized that they lacked the special terms, but they were not willing to identify the special terms of the students' department. It can be concluded that they were less effort to learn more the vocabulary for particular terms.
3.1.2 Seldom to have pronunciation practice It was found that teacher 3 faced a problem dealing with pronunciation. The cause of her problem is revealed in the following statements.
( The cause of the problem of communicative competence is the students have low capacity for communicating in English, and the teacher cannot balance the students' capacity. Whereas, teacher 3 faced the problem in communicating the lesson with her students by using English in which the problem is coming from both students' and teacher side. Based on the simple statement above, the cause of the strategic competence is still about the teachers' problem in mastering the English vocabulary, so the students also had a low vocabulary in understanding the English material.
3.1.4 Lacking time management to reach the necessary competence and learning objectives Teacher 1 explained that the cause of her problem dealing with the standard competence is to the time allocation in the teaching process.
(Actually, to reach the learning target which has been determined, I am restricted with the time in order the expected basic competence reached whereas the students' knowledge is still in basic level and for them is a little awkward). (Interview with teacher 1) She thought that the limited time becomes the restricted for her to reach the necessary competence. Moreover, also the students needed more explanation due to their basic knowledge of English was very low achievers. By this information, teacher one is lacking time management in teaching the low achievers.
3.1.5 Less effort to make a lesson plan Based on the observation, teacher 1 never brought a lesson plan. Thus the researcher needed information dealing with the cause of the problem.
(Sometimes, I borrow the lesson plan from the senior teacher. (Interview with teacher 1) Teacher 1 did not make a lesson plan for this semester because she borrowed the lesson plan from an expert teacher. It means that she neither copied nor had personally archive toward the lesson plan.
The Causes of the English teachers' problems in professional competence at Vocational High Schools 6 3.1.6 The content of the book is English for General purposes, and the teachers lack references In developing the material, the participants found a problem in selecting the materials and adapting the relevant materials for students. Teacher 1 stated before that the problem is in applying the material which is not specific for students. This problem is caused by the book content as stated below: (Because the books which are provided by the school are too general, it has not focused on their department. Thus, I have to find out the material from other sources. However, it is not supported by the facility from school to update the relevant material for students). (Interview with teacher 1) According to her, there were two causes of this problem. First, the materials from the available books are too general for students of various departments. Second, the school does not support regarding the facility. During the observation, she only used one module.
In another case, teacher 2 stated different causes in developing the material. The cause in selecting and adopting the material is described as follow.
( The books are generally written for various departments. Teacher 2 wanted to change and adapt the material, but she did not do have any choice, she did not have any references. She only used the books which are provided in the school.
3.1.7 Lacking ESP knowledge to adapt the relevant material The lack of ESP makes her difficult to adapt and develop the material to be related to the students' needs. The data is described below.
( In line with teacher 1, teacher 3 stated that she had an obstacle with the vocabulary for each department. Thus, she taught the same material for different departments. In another case, teacher 3 graduated from the Non-English department. Nevertheless, she knows English and teaches English. The problem is she did not know about English for a specific purpose (ESP). Also even in educational training of teacher that she attended, she had not got a little information about the ESP material in teaching for vocational school. According to the statement above, the cause of the problem in adapting the material of teacher 3 is she was not familiar with the vocabulary for each department, and she did not know the ESP knowledge.
3.1.8 Depending on the school facility to update the sources of material In updating the material from many sources, there were three teachers found that they faced a problem, they were teacher 1, teacher 2 and teacher 3. Teacher 1, teacher 2, and teacher 3 shared the same cause that the internet access is the cause of their problem to be updated in learning from many sources.
3.1.9 Lacking information for teacher developing activities Teacher community is considered the place to learn, share or discuss information to update the teacher professional competence. There were three teachers found they were teacher1, teacher 2 and teacher 3 who did not attend the English teacher community in their region when deals with teaching activities. The first data presented as follows.
( Teacher 1 thought that the cause of her problem to be lack of developing activities was because the school did not provide the activities for supporting the teachers to be professional. Whereas teacher 2 and teacher 3 never heard before about the English teachers community. Also, teacher 3 also stated that she has less communication with the English teachers in her school. Even though they met, they did not discuss the lesson.

Lazy to use information and communication technology for communicating the material
The cause of the problem in using information and communication technology for communicating especially in communicating with the students for learning is stated below. The incomplete of facilities is the cause of teacher two problems in using information technology for teaching. Also, teacher 3 stated sometimes she was diligent to carry the LCD to the classes but sometimes she was grudging. Whereas teacher 1 explained stated that the system in their school was "moving class". So, several teachers responsible for certain classroom, for instance in the language laboratory is functioned for studying class by other English teachers. Even the teachers use the lab as the class but they did not give a listening. They mostly teach by using a whiteboard.
3.1.11 Difficult to control the students Based on the interview data which was gained from the students of teacher 1, they stated that teacher 1 faced difficulty in managing the students in the class. Then the researcher clarified this problem to teacher 1. She confirmed the caused that the students were difficult to control. The interview data is presented below.
(Because the students were difficult to manage). (Interview with teacher 1) 3.2 The possible solution toward the problems of the teachers in teaching English subject The possible solution came from the Headmaster of each school and the English teachers (teacher 1, teacher2, teacher 3, and teacher 4). Due to teacher 4 was the expert teacher who did found any problems with the professional competence thus, he actively shared the suggestion for other English teachers. Headmaster 1 came from English education major field whereas Headmaster 2 was from Engineer department. The possible solution is summarized by presenting in a table.

The possible Solution Data of Participants
A. Mastering the material, the structure and the concept of the subject taught 1) The possible solution to master all the vocabularies of unique terms for various departments The teacher should make a lesson plan by the expert teacher guidance. C. Developing the learning material creatively 1) How to select the appropriate material a. Take the relevant material from many references b. Find or compose the story which is relevant to the students' department c. Analyze the syllabus and then find the handbook

The Possible Solution Teacher 2
Suit the material with a lesson plan and provide many references Teacher 4 a. Take the relevant material from many references b. Find the related discourse Headmaster 1 a. Compose the relevant stories for the students' department b. Find related stories from many references. Headmaster 2 a. Analyze the syllabus and then find the handbook b. Curriculum 2013 provides a handbook for students and teachers 2) How to adapt the material to be relevant for the students a. Involve the ESP by considering the students' interest and students' needs b. Relevant the material with the students' needs c. Orientate the material with the students' department activities The teacher should be mobile in the classroom Teacher 4 a. The teacher should make the learning contract with the students b. The teacher should give the exciting learning method)

Headmaster 1
Agree with the students to silent the mobile phone Headmaster 2 The teacher needs to master the material, use the method, learning sources and other things which support the learning and teaching process)

DISCUSSION
The EFL teacher of vocational high school even realized that they were not familiar with the vocational terms, but they had less effort to identify and list the terms more (Nur, Patak, & Naim, 2013). As the good English teachers, they should prepare their learners to deal with the large numbers of technical words (Nation & Macalister, 2009). Another case was one of the English teachers was lacking pronunciation because she was seldom to practice her English, especially regarding pronunciation with the English teachers around her. The beginner teacher is challenging to decide the appropriate strategies to make all of the students engage in the teaching and learning activities. Also, she also lacks time management to cover the target of learning objectives in one meeting (Kayode & Ayodele, 2015). The beginner teacher is less effort to make a lesson plan. Either the beginner or advanced teacher found difficulties in selecting the appropriate material because they lacked references. Still, about the material, they lack ESP knowledge to adapt the material because they did not quite master the ESP content (Al-zahrani, 2014). The teachers did not become familiar with the gap between the knowledge of the learners' towards the special subject, and they were afraid if they might not be able to cope with students' area of specialism. Both expert and advanced beginner teachers hampered by the unavailable of the school facility to access the internet. Even the expert teacher who has certified did not have a modem to access. This is indicated that the teachers depend on the school facility to update the sources of material. Three of the English teachers at vocational high schools in Somba Opu district never attended in Teacher Working Group of Subject Matter or Teacher Working group. They also confirmed that they were troublesome to bring LCD to every class. The last, one of the beginner teacher found that she lacked classroom management because she faces difficulties in DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2566630 ISSN: 26146169 @Center for Humanities and Innovation Studies 13 controlling the students (Mustafa, 2013). However, as the teacher, we have to put in mind that the students have different characteristics in the class.

Table.2. Summary of Discussion
The causes of the problems in dealing with professional competence in teaching English at a vocational high school The possible solution from English teachers and headmasters toward the problems dealing with professional competence in teaching at the vocational high school Less effort to learn vocabulary for various departments  The teachers should consider who are taught and what field of study are they from  visit the workshop and identify the vocabulary which commonly they use  Formulate the technical terms or particular term into the students reading  The government must provide the educational training of vocational term.
Seldom to have pronunciation practice  Listen the English music, video, news  Play English listening comprehension cassette  Learn from the English learning software and dictionary.  Practice with the English native speaker  The teachers lacked strategy  Less of communicative competence  The teachers can paraphrase the problematic words  Switch the language into English or Indonesian  Use verbal or non-verbal language and have more practice in teaching.  Teach based on the discipline Lacking time management to reach the necessary competencies and learning objectives  Analyze the necessary competencies and learning objective would be achieved by the students  Combine the learning objectives with another learning objectives of possible or at least combine the material with and communication for communicating maximally  The headmasters will provide them as a special room which can be used as audio-visual room to substitute the language laboratory  Difficult to control the students  The teacher should be mobile and make contract.  Teacher should master the material and use interesting method