The Challenges Encountered By English Department Students During The First Year Of Study

English have learned for many years in Indonesian School. However, there are still many challenges in learning English at different levels, including university level. So, it is need to recognize the challenges in earlier step, namely in the first year of study to minimize the big challenges that could be happened in the following years. Therefore, This study are conducted to investigate the challenges that English language department students of UIN Ar-raniry faced in learning English in the first year of study and the strategies used to deal with the challenges. The researcher used a mixed method in this research. The researcher used two techniques in collecting data: questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The study found the challenges regarding English skills: speaking unconfidently and unfluently, the inability in comprehending explanation and recognizing words, and the difficulty in understanding different accents. Several challenges found regarding linguistic aspects, namely: interference of the first language and the complexity in using grammar; interference of the first language and the difficulty in pronunciation; limited vocabulary and the difficulty in guessing words’ meaning. The other challenges found are regarding motivation, background knowledge, environment, and lecturers’ behavior. In addition, this study also found the strategies in dealing with the challenges, namely watching and listening to English resources, learning with friends, memorizing vocabulary, learning independently, and trying to be confident. In conlcusions, the students faced many challenges in learning English and the strategies used have helped them in dealing with the challenges.