Teaching English in Vocational High School is different from teaching English for general high since VHS students are expected to master the English subject to support their career in the future. Unfortunately, several researchers found that English teachers face various challenges in teaching, both in general high schools and vocational high schools. These challenges are also faced by new teachers who are still in their first year of teaching. This research focused on exploring the challenges teachers face in teaching English at vocational schools in their first year and their strategy to overcome them.

The researcher applied a descriptive qualitative approach with two first-year English teachers at SMK ISFI Banjarmasin as the research subjects. The instruments of this research are interviews as the main instrument and observations as the supporting instrument.

The findings of this research showed that English teachers at SMK ISFI Banjarmasin experienced challenges in their first year of teaching English. The challenges found were almost similar to the challenges found in previous research examining experienced teachers. However, factors such as lack of experience and sufficient training are the main factors in the challenges faced by the first-year teachers. Teachers face challenges that arise by applying various strategies that are visible during observations. Unfortunately, there are challenges that teachers have not been able to find a strategy to deal with, one of which is classroom management. Researcher suggests that teachers should take part in various seminars and training such as MGMP. The government also suggested to provide structured teaching materials that contain ESP elements for vocational high schools.