volume 4, no. 2, 2019 Volume 4, No. 2, 2019 Available online at: journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/FTL/issue/view/581 Oktari Firda Hibatullah graduated from English Language Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Currently, she is working in a Singapore Educational course as a fully employed English tutor. She has the interest in doing a research on English Language teaching fields such as language teaching practices which integrate technology and practices related to psychology. Some of her publications were investigating EFL students’ writing process, pre-service teachers training, and a fun learning process. The Challenges of International EFL Students to Learn English in a Non-English Speaking Country Oktari Firda Hibatullah English Faster, Tangerang hibatullahfirda@gmail.com DOI: 10.18196/ftl.4240 Abstract In the recent era, a wider global community has used English for any purpose; one of the most important is academic purposes. In terms of academic purposes, learning English now becomes a must for any students all around the world, specifically EFL students. Focusing on the learning English issue, this research took a rare case about the EFL students do a study abroad program in a non-English speaking country, especially in the context of English learning problems and strategies. Under a qualitative case study, the researcher addressed two main methods to two international EFL students at a private Islamic university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. By using reflective essays and interviews as the methods, the data concluded that most of the problems found had similarities to the EFL students’ problems when they study in their home country. Along with the problems, the researcher also discovered strategies done by both of the participants to resolve the problems. Keywords: language learning problems and strategies; study abroad; a non-English speaking country; international EFL students Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 89 Introduction Nowadays, English has become global and brings the impact to people around the world to be able to communicate with the language. The purpose of English has indicated it is not only limited to international purposes but also for local purposes (Gunantar, 2016). Therefore, the role of using English has spread into a wider global community (McKay, 2018). It could happen because the effect of English as an International language that successfully made domination of the English role shifted globally. According to the spread of the role of using English, Kachru (1992) pointed out that the role of English could be used in non- English speaking countries for academic purposes, especially in the process of learning English. Nevertheless, not all processes of learning the language are always working well. Some challenges still exist along the process. Especially learning English in non- English speaking countries, the potential challenges of the English learning process might arise bigger than in English-speaking countries. The challenges were affected by some factors such as learners’ ability, motivation, environment, practices, and previous knowledge of learning foreign languages (Thompson, 2014). Furthermore, linguistic differences also can be another factor that caused the problem; for instance, the difference of phonology, word order, phrases, and verbal system (Tappendorf, 2014). A study conducted by Akbari (2016) found that the potential challenges mostly faced by EFL students. The reason was that they included the learners of English using the language only on a certain occasion and for specific purposes (Kirkpatrick, 2014; Kanchru, 1992). Due to the limited role of using English, it leads the EFL students to have bigger learning problems than other learners who use English in their daily language, such as ESL students. Accordingly, knowing the English learning challenges emerged in their home country, some of these students studied abroad as one of the learning strategies to cope with the problems. That way, they were called as International EFL students who participated in a study abroad program (Singh, 2017). Then again, learning problems also exist during the process of learning English abroad, especially in a non-English speaking country. The most serious problem, as faced Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 90 by the researcher, was no exposure to practice English outside the classroom due to the inability of the local community to communicate with English. It began with facing the problem and then brought the researcher curiosity to gain more deeply about the other possible challenges faced by the other students with the context of International EFL students who learn English in a non-English speaking country. Additionally, due to rare investigation and analysis of previous studies about the field problems explicitly in a non-English speaking country, which is Indonesia, the researcher gained more curiosity to investigate the potential challenges that the international EFL students faced while learning English in Indonesia. The researcher would also find out some strategies that the international EFL students do to overcome those challenges to make this study more useful. Literature Review Difficulties of EFL Students in Learning English This study found some learning English problems faced by the EFL students discovered by the previous studies and categorized as followed. Problems in exposure. Learning English is quite challenging for most EFL students, and one of the causes is the lack of English roles in society (Akbari, 2015). In other words, English roles in the outside classroom are deficient. Akbari added that the possible impact of the lack of exposure in learning English outside the classroom was raising unnecessary feelings to learn English. In the following study, the unnecessary feeling of learning English had an impact on their lack of free time due to their other activities (Akbari, 2016). Thus, due to the bustles and no immediate need to learn English, they made them have less priority in time. Besides, the lack of exposure could also cause fear in learning English. A study investigated that the cause of Indonesian EFL students having difficulties in learning English was feeling afraid to develop and use the language outside the classroom (Patahuddin & Tahir, 2017). Referring to the previous studies above, the roles of English in society become the main thing to support the EFL students' language learning process. Furthermore, the little intention to learn English and the lack of confidence to use English in society also becomes another problem for the EFL students to increase their exposure. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 91 Problems in language skills. Each of language skills brings different problems for the EFL students. Ur (2000) mentioned that the most struggle found in speaking was doing verbal communication process such as the tendency of keeping silent in classroom due to lack of motivation to express their idea, the lack of participation of the students because of the mixture of ability groups in classroom, and the inability to use of English correctly in communication due to lack of vocabulary mastery (as cited in Imani, 2015, p.11). Last, the problem in pronunciation as investigated deeply by a study about the effect of mother tongue in students learning pronunciation. The study found that the effect of L1 vowels created a potential risk to master the targeted language vowels, specifically when both languages have different vowels systems (Uwambayinema, 2016). Meanwhile, problems in writing skills, as mentioned by Byrnes (1998), were that the most problems faced by the students in writing skills included psychological problems, linguistic problems, and cognitive problems. Rahmatunisa (2014) investigated Indonesian EFL learners’ problems in writing, such as linguistic problems, which comprised structuring sentences, cognitive problems which explained about organizing paragraphs, and psychological problems, which elaborated about the bad attitudes. Another common problem also faced by the EFL students is their poor insight into English due to their discouragement to read (Akbari, 2015). The lack of motivation can affect their comprehension while reading processes such as difficulty in learning indefinite words and pronouncing some words (Medjahdi, 2015). Additionally, a major problem faced by the EFL students in comprehending English text was being unfamiliar vocabulary (Raisha & Kasim, 2017). Also, a prior study found that the EFL students’ dedicated time to read is inadequate, especially in outside classroom activities (Qarqez & Ab Rashid, 2017). The major listening problems are losing concentration while listening process because of anxiety and unable to listen due to bad recording audio, the speed of speech, accent of the speaker, and inadequate vocabulary (Hamouda, 2013). The cultural differences of language also being a problem for the EFL students because it can affect the students' understanding while listening to the speech (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). Azmi et al., and Underwood in Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) also mentioned that the length and speed of Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 92 speech could affect the level of difficulty of their listening comprehension, the more the length of speech, the more difficult the EFL students comprehend what they heard, likewise with speed. The problems in maximizing the language skills above could be varied, as clearly mentioned by the prior studies above. Those problems belong to problems in productive skills, which included speaking and writing skills (Wambayinema, 2016; Rahmatunisa, 2014) and problems in receptive skills, which consisted of reading and listening (Akbari, 2015; Hamouda, 2013). Each of the problems could also be differently faced by one to another EFL students depending on their learning ability. Problems in vocabulary. The main part of learning a language is mastering the vocabulary knowledge. However, for most EFL students, mastering vocabulary knowledge became a common problem in learning English (Al-Jamal & Al-Jamal, 2014). Another study also proved that the most challenging thing in learning English vocabulary is choosing appropriate words with the limitation of word knowledge (Abrar, et al., 2018). Thus, the lack of vocabulary knowledge caused the students could not express their idea or even argue with any topic by using the language (Keong, Ali, & Hameed, 2015). Then, Rahmatunisa (2014) claimed that one of the factors that caused the EFL students to have lack of vocabulary knowledge is the bad attitude towards learning English. Problems in motivation. Most of the EFL students believe that learning English is only a part of finishing tasks without knowing the significances of what they have learned (Akbari, 2015). It is one of the problems of demotivated students in learning English. The indication of demotivated students can be seen by their no willingness to participate in classroom activity (Abrar, 2016). He also revealed three factors affect these problems are shyness, uninterested feeling to study, and fear of making mistakes. Other problems were discovered by current findings that were feeling of wasting time and challenging (Akbari, 2016). Problems in teachers’ resources. One of the English language mastery problems faced by most EFL students, especially in Indonesia, is the lack of English teachers’ competence (Kurniawan & Radia, 2017). The notion added that the teachers' competence had important roles in managing their classes, enriching the students’ skills, and providing innovative resources. Some Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 93 problems of low teachers’ ability were mentioned clearly by Kurniawan and Radia (2017), such as insufficient time of teachers’ availability to practice English for students and incompetent skills while delivering the learning materials or simply providing insufficient teaching methods for the students. Their finding is in line with the result of Keong, Ali, and Hameed's (2015). Their investigation concluded that one of the students' difficulties in learning English in the classroom was the lack of teachers' role to use English while teaching and learning process. Thus, the impact is that the students rather use the native language than English. Strategies of EFL Students in Learning English Referring to some strategies found by Ellis as mentioned in Safranj (2013) such as formal practice strategies, functional practice strategies, resourceful-independent strategies, general study strategies, conversational strategies, Avila (2015) included creative strategies. Firstly, formal practice strategies, these practices included some strategies such as recognizing the similarities and the differences between languages, scrutinizing words, adopting structural knowledge, also generating and reviewing some rules. Secondly, functional practice strategies, these strategies mostly conducted in the outside classrooms, such as watching foreign movies, making interaction with foreigners, and using authentic materials of learning targeted language. In line with the practice, a study conducted by Sargsyan and Kurghinyan (2016) also mentioned some activities to improve English skills in the outside classrooms, such as listening to songs, watching movies and clips, exploring social media and even traveling. Furthermore, thirdly, resourceful- independent strategies covered some activities related to memorizing words and sentences, for instance, listing, recording, and elaborating words and sentences, also doing exercise to develop words and sentences. Fourthly, general study strategies. These strategies contained some activities intending to study hard, being well prepared and organized, having good time management, and paying no attention to interruptions. Fifthly, conversational strategies, these included techniques such as asking repetition, slower speed, pronunciation alteration, and predicting what the native language speaker will say. Then, lastly was creative strategies. As initiated by Avila (2015), creative strategies Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 94 could assist the students’ language learning process easily by implementing various interactive activities such as games, role play, and presentation. Challenges of International EFL Students to Learn English in Study Abroad Program There have been many studies discussed the English learning problems in English speaking country, but lack investigation about the English learning problems, especially study abroad program in a non-English speaking country need to be concerned. This study found a similar investigation conducted by Nam (2018) that the biggest problem while international EFL students experienced a study abroad program, particularly in a non-English speaking country, they have lack opportunities to use English for communication. Strategies of International EFL Students to Learn English in Study Abroad program Most of the recommendations given by the previous studies including the facilities or universities teaching and learning management, including facilities that help the international EFL students to adapt easily in their new environment (Milian, Birnbaum, Cardona, & Nicholson, 2015). The idea is also in line with Paltridge et al. that, the international EFL students need to have more social supports such as build relationships both in the university and society, enhance English proficiency, increase social and cultural communications, also to grow the view about the world (as stated in Alghamdi & Otte, 2016, p.18). Moreover, improving the classroom teaching and learning activities such as increasing the lecturers’ role in teaching processes, and providing more effective standardized English language placement test to assess students’ language capability are other examples of the proper strategies (Singh, 2014). Research Methodology This study focused on a descriptive case study as a qualitative approach. Merriam (1998) mentioned, “A qualitative case study is an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit” (p.21). The type of study could be by studying a phenomenon, which has a boundary. Under the qualitative case study, this study addressed multiple methods, such as document writing and interview. Each Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 95 method has a different function in terms of collecting the data; first, in order to explore the International EFL students’ English learning problems, this study collected the students’ document writing in the form of an essay. Second, to find out the strategies done by the students, this study delivered the interview process. The interview process was also to get more information and probing some unclear information based on the students' essay writing. Place and Participants A private Islamic university in Yogyakarta was chosen as the research setting because several international students came from non-English speaking countries such as China, Thailand, and Taiwan. These places provided some international majors and an English major that most all of the courses are in English. Besides, the data of this study came from two participants by using purposive sampling. The participants consisted of male and female students from Thailand who already took one and a half year period of a study program. Furthermore, they had low to intermediate level proficiency of English (ETS, 2017). The first participant, a male student with a pseudonym name as Rio, had 480 and Ellen. A female student had 403 for the TOEFL scores. The low level of proficiency indicated that the learning problems are highly possibly happened. Technique and Procedure The first method was using the document analysis method because it comprised “manageable and practical sources” (Triad, 2016). The document proposed in this study was a document of students writing, which gathered from a reflective essay on experiencing their study program in Indonesia called a reflective essay. Meanwhile, for the second method, this study addressed questions in the form of an individual interview. The questions clarified the efforts to overcome their English learning problems. Addressing a consent letter to agree with the selected participants while gathering the data process to avoid the thrust of the participants was the first procedure to collect the data. Then, asking the participants to make an essay based on their English learning problem while experiencing the study abroad within two weeks maximum of submission time was another procedure done to get the data. Lastly, interviewing asking both participants available time by using tools such as a pen, notebook, and mobile phone recorder to Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 96 record the data was the final procedure to end the data collection process. Analysis There were two main steps to analyze the data of this study, such as analyzing the information in the reflective essay and analyzing the results of the interview. First, this study used five major steps, which consist of assessing the authenticity of the text, exploring the text biases, exploring background information of the text, and exploring the content deeply in order to analyze the reflective essay (O' Leary, 2014). Meanwhile, to analyze the result of the interview, this study used some steps from Saldana (2016) included transcribing, giving pseudonym, member checking, probing, and coding. Findings and Discussion In this part, the researcher elaborated on those problems and strategies based on the participants’ cases in order to provide complete and deep information. For the first part, the researcher will describe the English learning challenges of both participants, along with the discussion of prior studies, while the participants’ strategies will be in the second part. English Learning Problems in a Non- English Speaking Country The problems of both participants were categorized to be problems in productive skill, problems in receptive skill, problems in lecturer’s resource, problems in learning strategy, problems in vocabulary mastery, problems in motivation, problems in exposure, and problems in culture. Hence, each challenge is in the following paragraphs in detail. Problems in receptive skills. The indication of receptive skills problems faced by both of the participants as international EFL students were similar to the common EFL students’ problems categorized by Sadiku (2015), which divided into listening and reading. Firstly, in listening problems, both participants faced listening comprehension problems due to some factors. The factors described by Hamouda (2013) were similar to the findings found in both of the participants, such as recording audio, the accent of a speaker, and blending some words that were faced by Rio. He mentioned that he usually got low scores even if he had listened carefully; he always ended up with missing information related to Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 97 what the speaker spoke due to those factors. Besides, Ellen had struggled with the accent of the speaker, speed, and lack of vocabulary. In detail, she could not understand well about most of her friends' and lecturers' accents; also, the speed, when they spoke up, was too fast for her. She also added that it also due to her lack of vocabulary mastery that made her difficult to understand some new terms in her listening process. Furthermore, cultural differences in language also influenced difficulty in Rio’s listening comprehension outside the classroom as proved by Azmi et al. in Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) that the cultural differences of language could cause difficulty in students’ listening comprehension. Secondly, Rio faced poor knowledge caused by the laziness of reading both inside and outside the classroom. He realized that he was lazy to read so. Usually, he was too late to update any new information. Due to his laziness in reading, he always missed some updated information. Consequently, he knew something less than his other friends. It correlated with Akbari (2015), Qarqez, and Kasim's (2017) investigation that the poor insights were caused by the discouragement to read or laziness in reading and less dedicated time to read. Problems in productive skills. In line with Sadiku (2015), the categorization of productive skills is including speaking and writing skills. Firstly, the problems found in writing skills. The findings showed that the participant who faced this problem intensely inside the classroom learning process was Rio, as he clarified that the writing was a difficult process. In his opinion, writing activity was a kind of boring activity and made him a headache because he could not avoid the activity in the classroom. His bad attitude towards writing still happened, as he stated, “I do not like writing until now, especially essay; it is not my passion” (R2, reflective essay). Additionally, when the lecturer assigned a task to write an essay, he always had a problem with developing an idea. For the impact, he took a long time to finish the essay. In regards to his reason, the bad attitude came up as a result of bad reading habits. He considered that he did not like writing because of his laziness to read books. In line with Rahmatunisa's (2014) research, the English writing process is quite complicated, especially in learning a foreign language context. In the statement, Rio had explained about the difficult process caused by the factors stated in Rahmatunisa (2014) categorization aspects, a psychological aspect. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 98 Those aspects included negative attitudes towards writing, such as boring activity, not feeling passionate, and laziness influenced by the process of generalizing the idea. Secondly, allowing to the findings, the speaking skill problems were faced by both of the participants, Rio and Ellen. These findings were mostly about their difficulties to express their verbal idea due to some factors such as difficult to say words in the presentation due to lack of vocabulary in the classroom faced by Rio. Besides, Ellen tended to feel shy to express any argument because some other dominant students were participating actively in the classroom, but she spoke unclear pronunciation and lack of confidence. These results resonate with Ur findings in Imani’s (2015) investigation that the difficulties in expressing verbal utterances happened due to lack of vocabulary mastery, lack of participation due to mixture abilities such as talkative and silent students, and shyness in classroom learning. Moreover, Ahmed’s (2017) findings were also related to the factor of the difficulties in doing verbal communication, which was pronunciation. Additionally, outside the classroom, the interesting finding was found by Rio, who stated the lack of experience to speak in front of many people caused the difficulty in speaking, especially affecting their confidence. As explained by Ur in Imani (2015), the lack of confidence, such as feeling shy if their speech will lead to an attraction, causing obstacles to say things in English. Another interesting finding, Ellen faced a communication barrier with other people because she could not speak in Bahasa and not fluent in English. Chen in Alhamdi and Otte (2016) further explain these communication barriers as the problem caused by a lack of English proficiency, so it limits the international EFL students to communicate with society. Problems in vocabulary. Agreeing with Patahuddin et al. (2017), they note that vocabulary learning had a significant role in mastering a language, the current study found the same. The lack of vocabulary prompted the other skills, such as faced by Rio, the low vocabulary mastery influenced his ability to speak specifically in terms of finding proper words, listening comprehension, and understanding material through reading outside the classroom. Meanwhile, the lack of vocabulary also influenced Ellen’s learning problem when listening to the material lesson and reading comprehension in the classroom. The most challenging thing in learning Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 99 vocabulary, as stated by Abrar et al. (2018), was similarly faced by Rio difficulty while choosing appropriate words in speaking. Problem in exposure. An unsupported environment also found the main problem in the current study. As found in the study, Rio, the only international EFL student who can speak Bahasa fluently. He faced English learning difficulty while learning English outside the classroom, which was a lack of exposure. He expressed that the social environment did not support his English learning process, especially in speaking. The finding was similar to Akbari (2015), who mentioned that the challenging thing in learning English faced by common EFL students was the lack of English roles in society. A similar case also existed in a study conducted by Nam (2018). She mentioned that the main problem of international EFL students faced to learn English, especially in a non-English speaking country, was the lack of opportunity to use English for communication effectively outside the classroom. Additionally, because of the ability to speak in Bahasa Indonesia, it led to the feeling of unnecessary to learn English, especially during free time (Akbari, 2016). Problem in culture. The cultural issue found in this study was different from prior studies investigation that commonly found this issue in a social context (Wu et al., 2015; Yang, 2017). The cultural issue found in this study came from autonomous learning, which was done by Rio through watching a video. Due to the dominant content of the video from western culture, Rio felt uneasy to understand the video content. The difficulty of understanding the video content indicated one of the English learning problems as described by Nguyen (2011), the different culture could cause it. Problem in instructional language. This problem faced by Ellen in the classroom, as she mentioned that she had a low ability to understand and speak in Bahasa Indonesia. Due to most of the lecturers tended to use the language in delivering the materials lesson, Ellen felt it difficult to understand the lesson and had a lack of opportunity to use English in the classroom. The tendency of using Bahasa Indonesia as the home country language indicated that the learning problem included problems in instructional language caused by lack of the lecturers’ role, especially in giving enough exposure to English. As explained by Keong et al. (2015), students’ problems to learn English in the classroom can be caused Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 100 by a lack of teachers or lecturers’ role to use English while teaching and learning processes inside the classroom. Problem in motivation. The indication of demotivation in English learning in the classroom exists in the current study. According to the problem, as mentioned by Ellen, the shyness led her not to have the bravery to participate in the classroom. Abrar’s (2016) indication noted that demotivated students could be visible from the unwillingness to participate in classroom activity due to shyness, even fear of making mistakes. Ellen added that the willingness to participate in the classroom was also affected by the classroom size and the assessment. Both of the classroom sizes and assessments caused the feel of challenging in learning English, as found by Akbari (2016) that the challenged feeling in learning English included the situation of demotivated students. Strategies Done by the International EFL Students in a Non-English Speaking Country Along with the problems found in this study, some of the attempts or efforts done by both of the participants were categorized based on five strategies addressed by Ellis in Safranj (2013) such as general study strategies, formal practice strategies, resourceful-independent strategies, functional practice strategies, and conversational strategies, also one strategy suggested by Avila (2015). General study strategies. The techniques intended to gain more focus and ignore disturbance, as found in Rio’s strategies, while overcoming the receptive skills problems inside the classroom by listening carefully and closing eyes to gain more focus. Then, in order to maintain his study hard in reading, Rio also motivated himself to read to increase the willingness to read. Meanwhile, still inside the classroom, being well prepared and doing self- encouragement done by Ellen to increase confidence in the learning process correlated with this type of strategy. Formal practice strategies. Some strategies implemented in this category were identifying the language meaning, finding similarities and differences of the language, generating and reviewing complicated words or sentences. Those strategies are done by Ellen when coping with the lecturer language and vocabulary problem inside the classroom by finding the language meaning through Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 101 translating and asking another Thai friend who understood Bahasa Indonesia. Moreover, Ellen also did the strategies outside the classroom, such as asking other friends and doing reviews related to the difficult meaning. Resourceful, independent strategies. These independent strategies revealed some strategies done to memorize some words or sentences, such as listing words, which were similarly done by Rio outside the classroom. Another strategy discovered in this current study, such as playing a game, namely TOEIC zombie done by Rio and Ellen in their spare time to memorize words, included in this type of strategy. Moreover, one type of strategy suggested in this category was proposing the participants to use any recordings to do the memorization easily. Interestingly, the present study found that the recordings combined with self-analysis were adopted to produce better pronunciation in speaking, not merely focused on memorizing context (Ellen, interview). Functional practice strategies. Using authentic material related to the targeted language outside the classroom was the main characteristic of using this type of strategy. Those activities included reading the materials in a foreign language. Both of the participants clarified that they used the reading materials such as articles and textbooks in order to improve their learning comprehension. Especially, Rio, he read some English articles to enrich his idea in writing. Additionally, both Rio and Ellen also used podcast audio as an authentic material to practice their listening. In order to increase word knowledge, Ellen also spent the spare time to watch English movies as another example of employing authentic materials. Another interesting finding related to the use of authentic material combined with the technology outside the classroom was gaining some of the targeted language information on Google due to cultural issues as faced by Rio. Conversational strategies. The researcher did these strategies in all of the processes of communication, such as asking repetition or requesting a slower speed. Ellen, one of the participants, also did the strategies when communicating with other people. She sometimes asked for repetition at a slower speed due to her listening problem. In the context of improving communication skills, she also added that traveling could be a strategy to develop her English language communication. It was also supported by Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 102 Sargsyan and Kurghinyan (2016), who stated that traveling is one of the activities done by the common EFL students in learning English outside the classroom. Creative strategies. Several creative activities such as playing games, doing role- plays, and presentations done by the students effectively assisted their learning process in the classroom (Avila, 2015). Similarly, the current study found that doing presentations more often as one kind of creative strategy held by most of the lecturers could help Rio improve his speaking skills. Besides, related to the context of lecturer strategies, especially in giving feedback after the assessment, the present study also found that the feedback could be useful as a resource to deal with students learning problems. As concluded by Rio, the given feedback from the lecturers could assist his writing problem inside the classroom. Klimova (2015) mentions that the feedback could assist the development of students’ language skills by assisting the students in detecting their weaknesses and developing their learning process. Conclusion The current study on revealing some English learning problems faced by International EFL students in a non-English speaking country found that the students had some struggles in language skills both in receptive and productive skills, lecturer resources, learning strategy, vocabulary, motivation, exposure, and culture. The indicated problems of this current study mostly included the problems faced by the EFL students in general when they learn English in their home country, referring to these findings to the discussed former studies. However, even if there was a domination of similarity in the findings, several unique findings still found. The unique findings indicated that learning English in home country and study abroad had differences such as problems in exposure due to the language barrier and the cultural context due to autonomous learning. The strategies carried out by both participants to cope with the problems also indicated the similarities and differences. Those were categorized as general study, formal practice, resourceful-independent, functional practice, conversational, and creative strategies. Since this study is still limited, especially to enrich specific problems faced by international EFL students, future researchers should adopt different methods to gain more specific findings. Moreover, after knowing the findings, some suggestions Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Learning VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 2019 103 were proposed to some subjects. First, reflecting the English learning problems found in this current study was considered as more effective possible ways for the EFL students to reduce their learning problems. Furthermore, they also can maximize this study as a reference to participate in a study abroad program. Second, for the lecturers, they can help the EFL students preparing to participate in the study abroad program by giving any useful suggestions especially for the lecturers in the home country, and developing the EFL students' English learning process in a new environment especially for the lecturers in the host country. At last, for the institution both in- home and host countries, both institutions can help the students to improve their English learning process by providing better facilities such as targeted language training centers. 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