THAILAND STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES AND MOTIVATION IN STUDYING BIPA AT UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH SUMATERA UTARA

: This study was conducted to identify the difficulties, challenges, and motivations of foreign students studying Bahasa at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara (UMSU). This research was conducted by taking data from 12 foreign students from Thailand who took part in the Bahasa Indonesia Bagi Penutur Asing (BIPA) program at UMSU as research respondents. Observations, questionnaires, and interviews were used as research materials to obtain data and analyzed using the descriptive qualitative method by looking at the percentage only. The results showed that there were several difficulties faced by BIPA students, including; difficulty pronouncing some phonemes in Bahasa; lack of time both in learning and practicing Bahasa; lack of confidence to speak Bahasa; challenging teaching materials, students’ cultural background; the different languages of the learners; and the lack of additional resources that can be accessed online. It was also found that the respondents had a positive attitude and high motivation when learning Bahasa. Further findings indicate that BIPA teachers’ role also motivates students to learn Bahasa. Overall, foreign students have a positive attitude and high motivation to learn Bahasa if they get encouragement and guidance from the teacher and the surrounding environment.


INTRODUCTION
In the current era, the discourse of globalization has penetrated into the aspects of life in society, including in the world of education.As stated by Giddens (1999: 7), globalization has removed the boundaries of space and time in interactions between Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 6 No. 2 Juli -Desember 2022: 229 -243 Cut Novita Srikandi | 230 individuals.This globalization discourse has become a competitive arena between campuses to be able to go international.Various international-based programs were launched in many ways, such as through research, journal publications, international conferences, and scientific interactions such as collaborative research (Fensham (2011).
Another effective program to get the title of a 'global campus' is the student exchange program implemented through a scholarship program.Scholarship programs for foreign students can be a means for the development of Bahasa into an international language.The discourse of Bahasa as an international language has recently become more widely heard.Bahasa's internationalization has become an annual agenda in the National Conference on Education and Culture (RNPK) at the Education and Training Centre of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Sawangan, on 21-23 February 2016.The agenda is a follow-up to the mandate of Law No. 24 of 2009.The fourth section explicitly discusses improving the function of Bahasa to become an international language.The discussion in the 44th of paragraph (1), the government will improve the function of Bahasa to an international language gradually, systematically, and sustainably; in paragraph (2), the improvement of the language function to Bahasa as referred to in paragraph (1) is coordinated by the linguistic institution; paragraph (3), further provisions regarding the improvement of the function of the Bahasa into an international language as referred to in paragraph (1) shall be regulated by a Government Regulation (Muliastuti, 2019: 125).
Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara (UMSU) is one of the private universities in Indonesia that has the vision to become one of the world-class educational universities (world-class university).One of the strategies implemented by UMSU to realize its vision as a world-class university is to offer scholarship programs for foreign students.This scholarship program attracts foreign students whom students from Thailand dominate.Following government policy, UMSU currently enforces mandatory provisions for foreign students, namely participating in the Indonesian Language Learning Program for Foreign Speakers (BIPA).This program is accommodated by one institution, namely the UMSU BIPA institution, which was initiated to help foreign students communicate using Bahasa correctly.Foreign students are required to take BIPA classes every semester.Each semester, courses are allocated four meeting hours per week.UMSU's BIPA learners, who are dominated by Thai's come from various backgrounds.In addition, they also come from various faculties.As stated by Nazir and Hamzah (2014: 409).Environmental differences and personal factors such as knowledge, previous beliefs, and individual differences affect students' success and attitudes toward learning.Therefore, the diversity of backgrounds and groups of foreign students can affect students' attitudes toward BIPA learning at UMSU.
In the BIPA learning process, every foreign student often has difficulty in learning.These difficulties can be one of the causes of the less-than-optimal learning outcomes of students who are studying a second language or a foreign language.However, despite the difficulties, students are also motivated to learn Indonesian, which helps students to stay enthusiastic about studying BIPA.This motivation arises from an innate drive or interest that comes from dynamic forces that influence thoughts, emotions, and behavior (Nurul Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 6 No. 2 Juli -Desember 2022: 229 -243 Cut Novita Srikandi | 231 & Yahaya, 2012: 30).Several studies discuss the barriers, challenges, and motivations of students to learn foreign languages, such as Ryan's (2017) research which focuses on the problems of Indonesian language learners who speak Timorese, and Hasan's (2000) study, which focuses on the difficulties of foreign speakers in understanding pronunciation.Meanwhile, research related to attitudes and motivation has been carried out by Nasir and Hamzah (2014).Based on and referring to previous research, this research focuses on the difficulties and motivations of UMSU students from Thailand in learning Indonesian for foreign speakers.Through this paper, I will show and reflect on the BIPA learning process that has been carried out at UMSU.

LITERATURE REVIEW Review of Difficulty and Motivation of Foreign Language Learners
Difficulty and motivation are two essential things that can affect the optimization of students in learning a foreign language.Difficulty and motivation are influenced by the attitude of the learner.Learner attitude is a positive or negative reaction to an item, individual, establishment, or opportunity to object that affects the learning process and can determine student learning success because it affects student behavior in the learning process (Ajzen, 2005).In other words, if students have positive attitudes, such as awareness of the importance of the language they are learning, then they will try to master the language in various ways.One of the factors that determine the attitude of learners is motivation.The motivation referred to in this paper is studying foreign students to learn Bahasa.Ryan & Deci (2000) stated that motivation is a stimulant to move to do something.While according to McGoarty (1996), attitudes and motivation have a major effect on the ability of learners.Meanwhile, Tileston (2004: 14) states that student motivation is related to the student's desire to do something, learn new things and encourage someone to try again when he fails.In other words, motivation can be categorized as energy within students that encourages the desire to learn, maintains enthusiasm for learning, and provides direction for learning activities.Research on attitudes and motivation needs to be carried out as presented by Burn et al. (2001: 184) because it aims to provide valuable information for language planners when they make policies about which language or language variation is commonly used as the official language or language of education.
In the teaching and learning process, motivation becomes very important because it can determine the direction and effectiveness of learning.Students with high motivation usually have a strong drive to continue being interested in what is being taught.Motivation, in this case, can be in the form of stimuli such as incentives and motives.Incentives in teaching and learning are often delivered in extrinsic forms such as grades, grades, money, praise, awards, stars, etcetera.Meanwhile, motives arise as a result of natural drives or individual tendencies that move individuals to act to achieve a goal, even in the long term.Because students have different tendencies and interests, a teacher, and lecturers, as much as possible, can choose teaching and learning materials, methods, and techniques to motivate students (Nasir & Hamzah, 2014: 410).Brown (2001) mentions two motivation categories, intrinsic and extrinsic.Intrinsic motivation is directed by interest in the task itself, while extrinsic motivation is more directed by external stimuli, such as parental approval, the offer of a reward, the threat of punishment, good grades, and so on.In relation to intrinsic motivation, Elis (2003) suggests that in some learning situations, it may not be a common reason for learners to learn a second language as the main determinant of their level of motivation.It is possible that many learners have different attitudes, positive or negative, toward the target language community.It may be the case for many foreign language learners, but this does not mean that such learners are unmotivated.They can get assignments in learning that are intrinsically motivating.According to this view, motivation involves curiosity in a person who continues to be maintained consistency.Because curiosity can have ups and downs depending on the extent to which the learning tasks are in accordance with the learner's interest which can make them involved in various learning activities.

Bahasa Indonesia bagi Penutur Asing (BIPA)
Bahasa Indonesia Bagi Penutur Asing (BIPA) aims to introduce Bahasa as a language to communicate Indonesia culture to foreigners who want to live in Indonesia.This program also helps prospective foreign students prepare to interact and communicate with Bahasa in class and daily activities.A foreign student is a person who is accepted by a country other than his own country, usually with a special permit or visa, for a specific purpose following a particular study program at an accredited institution in the recipient country.BIPA students are students who already have a mother tongue (mother tongue) with different cultural backgrounds.Teaching BIPA is different from general Indonesian teaching for native speakers.This difference is caused by the objectives of the learner and the teacher's approach to teaching.Students have various goals that are tailored to their needs.Some students want to learn a language just for practical conversation, such as simple reading and writing, and some learn to survive in Indonesia, such as job demands.The age difference is also a concern for BIPA students.Adolescent learners certainly have a different approach to middle-aged learners and child learners.
In addition to students, BIPA teaching staff also varies based on their educational background.BIPA teaching staff are dominated by graduates of Indonesian Language Education (S2 and S3) and English or foreign language education, but there are also teaching staff who do not have a language/literary background.It is because there is no standardization of BIPA teacher competencies.Apart from teachers, the BIPA curriculum also does not have standardization.Each Institute is free to develop its own curriculum.This freedom has an impact on variations in BIPA textbooks that are more adapted to the context of the area where BIPA students' study.Teachers are also free to take books that match the material.The source can be any media (print or non-print).Teachers can also look for sources of teaching materials on the official website of the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education BIPA (Muliastuti, 2005).
In teaching BIPA, the method that is considered appropriate is the direct method that adopts the method, according to Bashir (2013), which is the opposite of the conventional method in which students studying a foreign language are taught grammar and vocabulary of the target language in their mother tongue.In other words, students Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 6 No. 2 Juli -Desember 2022: 229 -243 Cut Novita Srikandi | 233 must translate both the grammar and vocabulary of their mother tongue into the language being studied.Meanwhile, the direct method focuses on speaking and listening skills, and new vocabulary is taught by demonstration, drawing, imitating, or inferring from a certain context a new word appears.Basic vocabulary is given in advance, so students can start communicating and speaking in the target language as quickly as possible.Grammatical rules are also not given explicitly and are taught inductively.
On the contrary, students must find the rules by practicing the language orally and getting corrections from the teacher.During lessons, all new topics are introduced orally.Thus, the direct method places great emphasis on developing speaking and listening skills.However, in practice, learning BIPA in Indonesia still has many obstacles.Zulfa & Triyono (2018) classify these obstacles into five types: human resources related to teachers, differences in the culture of BIPA learners and teachers, learning materials that are not following BIPA learning competencies, management of institutions, and BIPA learning processes related to learning methods.Zulfa & Triyono (2018) also emphasize the teaching methods that must be related to the goals to be achieved by students.In line with that statement, Ningsih, Ernawati & Wiharja (2019) stated that the BIPA learning method must use innovative, creative, and fun teaching methods to increase BIPA students' interest in learning.One such method is Learning Contextual Teaching (CTL).This method can help teachers elaborate teaching materials with real situations of students and encourage students to apply the knowledge they have in everyday life.
While Basuki and Meilinda (2020) said drama theater could be an effective tool for teaching and learning BIPA.Students will learn BIPA in a fun way because of the use of theater plays as an alternative to conventional teaching and learning processes.By using drama theater, students can get to know the culture more artistically and experience acting in Indonesian, giving them a different experience as foreign students.The most important thing about the BIPA program is the effort to introduce the Indonesian language and culture to the international world.As research conducted by Riyanti, Zuchdi, and Nurhadi (2019) showed that BIPA is a language learning program that is not only specifically designed to provide teaching for foreign students who want to learn Indonesian but is also used as a means to disseminate various information about Indonesia, including introducing the community and Indonesian culture.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Design
This research is descriptive qualitative, with the case study method.This study uses a case study to investigate Thai students' difficulties and motivations in learning the language.The case study is part of the qualitative research.According to Creswell and Poth (2016), a case study presents a comprehensive case through interviews, observations, questionnaires, documents, and various artifacts to get a picture of a case.The data analysis results were displayed as a presentation and a description of the data.In this study, the researcher wanted to obtain information about the attitudes and motivations of foreign students toward learning Bahasa at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara.The primary data in this study were referred to as respondents.The respondents of this study were foreign students from Thailand of Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara who took BIPA learning courses at the basic level.There were 13 respondents.The research started by observing the students, then distributing questionnaires and conducting interviews based on the results of the questionnaires obtained.Meanwhile, the scope of this research was only focused on identifying the difficulties, challenges, and motivations of students toward learning Indonesian at UMSU.
The data collection carried out by the authors for this research was the observation method with the distribution of questionnaires containing several questions about the difficulties faced by students in learning Bahasa and also the experiences of students in the learning process, as well as the motivation of foreign students towards language learning, and interviews.Therefore, the distribution of questionnaires in this study aimed to obtain feedback on research questions and information needed from respondents.The questionnaire used consisted of 16 questions related to challenges, obstacles, and motivations for participating in BIPA learning at UMSU.

Data Analysis Mechanism
After collecting data, data analysis was carried out in this study.The data analysis mechanism in this study included two targets: students' difficulties and motivation in learning the language.For data analysis techniques, the theory of Miles and Huberman (2014) was applied in this qualitative research.Miles and Huberman (2014) separate three steps in the data analysis process, which consist of: (1) Data Condensation, (2) Data Display, and (3) Drawing and verifying a conclusion.
After getting the raw data from interviews and observations, the authors conducted data condensation.The data condensation process is referred to as the process of transforming data to compose data by coding so that the data is more easily accessed, analyzed, and displayed.The second step was data display.After the data was converted and simplified, the author presented the data correctly.The data presented have been neatly arranged and are ready to be concluded data presentation in tables and descriptions.The final step of the data analysis mechanism is drawing and verifying conclusions.This process is carried out after selecting the data needed in the condensation data and data selection.The process is done by drawing and verifying data.In drawing conclusions, elaborate on the data from the next phase, called the verification process.

Findings
In this section, we have considered the findings according to the literature review by focusing on Thailand students' difficulties, challenges, and motivation in learning BIPA.Finally, after getting the results of the questionnaire, I conducted interviews and got the results related to the factors that cause difficulties and challenges experienced by The table above shows that the most common difficulty experienced by Thai students was the difficulty in pronouncing a number of phonemes in Bahasa, which was indicated by a percentage of 63.6% agreed with that statement, while some others said that it was not difficult to pronounce phonemes, showed 27.3% disagreed with that statement.The next difficulty experienced by Thai students was related to the cultural background and language of the students, which can be seen from the respondents' agreeing statements as much as 54.5% and 9.1% strongly agreeing statements, while 36.4% stated that they did not agree with the difficulties caused by cultural background differences.Three other difficulties obtained the same answer from respondents: difficulties caused by lack of time in learning and practicing the language, challenging teaching materials, and difficulty in following the Indonesian lecturer in the classroom.Respondents answered that they agreed as much as 45.5%, and the rest answered disagreed with the three difficulties.At the same time, the statement of lack of learning resources received negative answers from respondents.It means that they did not agree that the lack of learning resources was their difficulty in learning languages.
In this study, the motivation of foreign students towards learning Indonesian can be seen in table 2, which describes the motivation of Thai students in learning BIPA.Based on the table above, it could be seen that the highest student motivation was that Indonesian helped foreign students communicate with the local community (people around) and make it easier for students to live social life in Indonesia, where 63.6% agreed with the statement.The next motivation was that they enjoyed learning Bahasa, Bahasa is essential for a job/career, and it would be useful when returning to their home country, which was indicated by their agreement of 54.5%.Meanwhile, the very lacking motivation was in their assumption that it would be easy to learn Indonesian.As many as 18% said they did not agree.Thus, some students still thought Bahasa was difficult to learn.

Difficulties and Challenges in Learning Bahasa
Pronunciation was the greatest difficulty for BIPA Thai learners at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara.Some students found it difficult to pronounce the vowel /a/ at the end of a word.It was because, in their mother tongue, the vowel a (/a/) at the end of the word is changed to /e/ ([ə]; as in the word emas in Bahasa).The phenomenon of the phoneme [ə] in standard Malay is denoted by the letter ă.Kata apa, in Bahasa, is pronounced [apa], while in Thai's mother tongue pronounced [apə].
Phoneme pronunciation errors in Thai students are also caused by their misunderstanding of the correct pronunciation of the correct alphabet in Bahasa.Most students pronounce the Bahasa alphabet referring to the Thai script so that letters in Bahasa that are not in Thai are difficult for them to pronounce, such as the word It is also supported by the author's observations, in which the students find it very difficult to pronounce words that end in a vowel sound.When speaking or pronouncing vocabulary with difficult sounds, the students felt a little frustrated and lacked confidence.It causes the students to stop and think and pronounce the vocabulary and see the response of the writer to correct or correct the wrong pronunciation.
The next difficulty faced by BIPA students from Thailand at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara was the lack of time both for studying and practicing Bahasa.The lack of study time given by the university to teach Bahasa is a difficulty faced by both students and teachers.This limited time is due to the absence of a study room that can be used and the density of courses that students must follow.However, due to the lack of time to study Bahasa, which is twice a week, many students feel that they do not have enough time to study and practice.
Self-confidence is one of the keys to being successful in learning.Self-confidence, in this case, is the student's belief in their abilities regarding results, perceptions, and events (Köszegi, 2006;Weinberg, 2009).When students have high self-confidence in learning, students can easily speak, write and try everything.This self-confidence makes students not afraid to make mistakes.On the other hand, when students lack confidence, it will be a problem.The observation writer observed that most of the students were afraid to speak or practice making sentences.It is because students always focus on making or saying the correct sentence.They quickly feel frustrated when the sentences they make are wrong, and according to the author's observations, this has become the character of the students to always want to be perfect in making sentences or speaking.
Self-confidence is one of the factors that emerge in students.Self-confidence is one of the foundations for achieving one's success.Sarastika (2014: 43) explains that selfconfidence is a belief that a person can behave according to his hopes and desires.Selfconfidence is an individual's mental attitude to assess themselves and the surrounding objects so that confidence arises in their ability to do something.
Based on the results of questionnaires, interviews, and also the observations above, it appears that some students have low self-confidence.It is because students don't want to make mistakes and want to make or start something very perfect.On the other hand, some students were very active and always wanted to try and dare to speak up.
The cultural and language backgrounds of the students are also one of the triggers for students' difficulties in learning Indonesian.Even though they come from Thailand, the backgrounds of BIPA students at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara are very diverse.Some of them are from different villages.Some came from Pattani, Yala, and so on.Some of them have very different language patterns from Indonesian.Likewise, with intonation and pronunciation.When the teacher explains and asks students to do the exercises, sometimes students still follow the concept of sentence patterns in their first language.So, this is what makes the students make mistakes in their practice.
Communicative misunderstandings often occur between two people from different countries due to ignorance of the opposing attitudes of certain social norms.Words, gestures, and rules of interaction have a tendency to be misinterpreted, as well as how you should express politeness.To prevent cultural misunderstandings that can leave two parties fumbling their way out of an awkward conversation, the promotion of cultural understanding is essential for language learningespecially if you are holding a business meeting in another market in their native language.As emphasized by Wellmon (2008), every student students are taught to be able to communicate with native speakers in the target language.They are also taught to be able to describe the world and themselves through other languages and cultures.Even when they communicate and interact, they are Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 6 No. 2 Juli -Desember 2022: 229 -243 Cut Novita Srikandi | 238 still seen as foreigners by native speakers.They perceive speakers of the target language as members of society.However, In the conventional view, the classroom is considered a place for conveying information from teachers to students.However, the classroom can also be a place for forming culture if students play an active role as agents of social practice in forming culture (Kroteva & Mirascieva, 2020).I also realize that students also need time to translate the author's explanations into their first language.It is true because the majority of them do not use Bahasa as their first language.This makes some of the students ask the writer to repeat the explanation over and over and ask for time to process it.
The results of the questionnaires and interviews above are in line with the results of the author's observations.Acquiring Bahasa as a foreign or second language differs for each student.For students who are British citizens, it is easier to receive the material and process it.On the other hand, students from other countries, like Thai students, find it a little difficult to receive the material.The grammar and sentence patterns of Bahasa and English are not much different, so they can easily understand it more quickly.Meanwhile, students from other countries find it difficult and need time to process new sentence patterns.
The next difficulty is the lack of additional teaching materials that are suitable for the level of students that can be accessed online.With the lack of study time each week, Indonesian learners look for websites for practice.However, students found it difficult to access the existing material.
Teaching materials are one of the main things in the learning trilogy.Learning can occur if at least there are students, materials, and teachers (Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2004).It means that teaching materials in the learning process are very important and must be designed properly.When designing teaching materials to be used, a teacher must consider various things.Teaching materials that are designed must look at the situation, conditions, and needs of the students.Teaching materials must be adapted to students' needs and based on the material that students in each meeting must study.In addition, the design and development of teaching materials must also be able to adapt to the times, such as the use of technology following learning methods (face-to-face, online, elearning, distance learning, etcetera), special study programs (professional skills), skills user needs (course objectives are formulated in terms of skills) and, on the other hand, adaptation of educational resources (Pop, 2015).
From the author's observations, the material provided is appropriate to the student's level and needs.However, the age factor and the density of activities made it difficult for some students to join the class.Students who are busy do not come to class, so adjusting the material that has not been studied is a little difficult.And also for elderly learners, it is also a challenge to be able to remember the material that has been studied previously.
The existence of additional online sources of teaching materials that are appropriate to the level of the learner, of course, will make it easier for Indonesian language learners.The website will be very useful for students who want to practice both listening and Cut Novita Srikandi | 239 reading.However, sometimes the additional teaching materials on the website are not available for all levels, so it is quite difficult for novice learners to access them.
As for the negative attitude statement, the table above shows that 9.1% of students said that learning Indonesian is not the main goal of foreign students studying in Indonesia.This is because most of these students are students from the economics department and the language field is a field that is very far from the learning syllabus of their majors, especially for the Indonesian language.
The influence of the environment also affects students' learning motivation when studying Bahasa.As we have seen, locals are uncomfortable speaking Bahasa when meeting foreigners.They will automatically speak English when they meet a foreigner.Likewise, with the situation on campus.This causes concern for students when 81.8% worry about speaking outside the classroom.

Student Motivation in Learning Bahasa
In addition, the factor that motivates students to learn Indonesian is the role played by the teaching staff.The data shows that 63.6% of students are interested in learning Malay because of the lecturers who teach.The teaching staff's delivery techniques and strategies can attract their interest to continue learning.This finding is in line with the findings obtained by Azizi and Jaafar (2006), who said that teachers should always provide positive reinforcement to students in the language learning process.In addition, what is important is the natural criteria that must be possessed by teachers who are presenters in language classes for foreign speakers.
Another research that is in line with this result is conducted by Ruesch, Bown, and Dewey (2012).The results of their research show that the relationship between teachers and students and class climate greatly influences student motivation.As their research has shown, teachers in North America can benefit from strategies regarding an emphasis on student assignment.Likewise, Students feel more motivated when they are involved in the assignments given by the teacher and how these assignments contribute to their learning.Teachers in the United States are also concerned with cultivating motivation by developing relationships with students, such as setting an example through positive behavior.
To increase motivation in foreign language classes, teachers must face several motivational strategies, namely reviewing students' attitudes and interests, establishing good relationships with students, providing valuable and tangible material for students, and creating an appropriate learning atmosphere to maximize student motivation in the classroom.In other words, increasing teacher motivation is also needed to increase student motivation in learning.This result is in line with Saputra (2018), that researched to determine teacher competence's effect on students' learning motivation in mathematics.The results of his research concluded that there is a relationship between teacher competency and student learning motivation in learning mathematics, as indicated by an increase in teacher competence which is in line with an increase in student learning motivation.
This research is also in line with much other research connected with extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.Arjulayana and Srikandi (2018)  in studying English.The result shows that every student has two types of motivation, namely internal motivation that students get from themselves who have a strong desire to achieve their goals, and external motivation that students get from their environment, for example, lecturers, friends, or family.Another research proposed by Keo et al. (2022) reviewed the motivation of Cambodian Buddhist monk students in learning English at Hun Neng Buddhist Primary School, Kampong Cham City, and found that 93 Buddhist monk students were highly motivated to learn English extrinsically rather than intrinsically.
From the data displayed, it was also found that almost all foreign students who became respondents had a balanced interest in learning Bahasa (Strongly agree 45.5% and agree 54.5%) as offered by the university.Nevertheless, 50% of students feel happy taking this BIPA class.Here it is clear that Bahasa has a bright future in placing it as an important language in the world.

CONCLUSION
Based on the data that has been collected through observations, questionnaires, and interviews, it can be concluded that there are several difficulties faced by students in learning Bahasa at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara, including the following: First, the difficulty of pronouncing some of the alphabets in Bahasa; second, the lack of time both in learning and practicing Bahasa.Third, students lack the confidence to speak Bahasa.Fourth, challenging teaching materials.Teachers should be able to accompany and provide more time for language learners who are less in working on or explaining the material; fifth, the cultural and linguistic background of the students; sixth, the lack of additional sources of teaching materials that can be accessed online by students appropriate to their level for practice.
Overall, the findings of this study indicate that lecturers and the surrounding community have a very important role in increasing students' motivation and deepening their attitudes in the language learning process.The fact that foreign students like to try to speak Indonesian if they get encouragement and encouragement from the surrounding community.In this context, lecturers must also be skilled in organizing teaching materials so that they can attract students' interest to continue learning the language.In addition, student motivation can also be increased by carrying out teaching evaluations.This evaluation can indirectly inform students about their weaknesses and strengths in the language acquisition process.Therefore, lecturers need to carry out teaching that considers the diversity of approaches, methods, techniques, activities, and materials to meet the diversity of students from various countries.
Research on the difficulties and motivations of Thai students needs to be continued with more in-depth research related to the factors causing the difficulties and motivations of Thai students in studying BIPA.This research is very relevant for BIPA students who use Malay as their mother tongue.Understanding the difficult factors for foreign students in learning Indonesian is the basis for designing the Indonesian curriculum and language learning strategies for foreign speakers.
Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 6 No. 2 Juli -Desember 2022: 229 -243 Cut Novita Srikandi | 235 foreign students, which could be classified into eight sections.The table below describes the results of the questionnaire on the difficulties, challenges, and motives experienced by Thailand students learning BIPA at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara Table 1.The difficulties in leaning BIPA

Table 2 .
Motivation Thai students in learning BIPA