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  • Constraints and Resources For Applying Communicative Approaches in Indonesia

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    Iwan Jazadi
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    Jazadi, I. (2000). Constraints and resources for developing communicative approaches in Indonesia. English Australia (EA) Journal, 18(1), 31-40.

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    Constraints and Resources for Applying Communicative Approaches in Indonesia

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    Jazadi, I. (2000). Constraints and resources for developing communicative approaches in Indonesia. English Australia (EA) Journal, 18(1), 31-40.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    30 visualizações14 páginas

    Constraints and Resources For Applying Communicative Approaches in Indonesia

    Enviado por

    Iwan Jazadi
    Jazadi, I. (2000). Constraints and resources for developing communicative approaches in Indonesia. English Australia (EA) Journal, 18(1), 31-40.

    Direitos autorais:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Baixe no formato PDF ou leia online no Scribd
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    EA JOURNAL VOL ENGLISH 4 AUSTRALIA EA JOURNAL ATESOL Publication of Eiiglish Australia Pry Ltd ISSN 1449-4496 Volume 18 Number I Winter 2000 English Australia, acting for and on behalf of ELICOS Association Limited” (ABN 86 003 959 037) Contents EA Journal Vol 18 No 1 Editorial Rebranding of ELICOS Association Lid as English Australia Pty Ltd Articles Michael Singh Innovation in TESOL provision: Local responses and engagements with globalisation eee Soenjono Dardjowidjojo English Teaching in Indonesia wan Jazadi Constraints and resources for applying communicative approaches in Indonesia. 31 Maya David Status and oles of English in Malaysia: Ramifications for English language teaching — David CS Li ‘Hong Kong English’ New Variety of English or Interlanguage? __ _ Nobuyuki Honna & Yuko Takeshita English Language Teaching for International Understanding in Japan ____ 60 41 Kerry Ellerington English Language Learning in Cambodia: The Quest for an International Language _79 Bookshelf Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition Catherine Doughty/[essica Williams (Eds.) a) Language Play, Language Learning G. Cook ———— - 95 Mentor Courses A resource book for teacher-trainers Angie Malderez & Caroline Bodoczky —— 7 The Resourceful English teacher A complete teaching companion Explorations in World Literature - Readings to enhance academic skills Carole M Shaffer-Koros and Jessie M Reppy —_______________ 101 Choices Writing Projects for Students of ESL Carole Turkenik ee ee ee ee Academic Writing Course: Study skills in English RR Jordan a 106 Academic Listening Encounters - Listening, Note Taking, and Discussion Miriam Espeseth 07 Cambridge Business English Activities Jane Cordell ____ 109 Business Roles 2 John Crowther-Alwyn i Establishing Self Access — from theory to practice David Gardner and Lindsay Miller a Using new technology in the classroom Kristine Brown, ee eH The Internet Scott Windeatt, David Hardisty, David Easement SS Computer Literacies: Working Effectively with Electronic Texts Chris Corbel ee 8) Words for Work — A vocabulary workbook for vocational English Helen Joyce - 18 Cambridge English Readers Reviewed by Anna Dash oo 120 Publications received for review 121 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO J) $$ 5 Constraints and resources for applying communicative approaches in Indonesia IWAN JAZADI University of South Australia This article dicuses the isue of English language teaching in Indonesia, arguing shat principles underlying a so-called communicative approacb are not appropriately implemented du ta the natin’ socio-political and curriculum constraints It begins by providing a brief bsrorical penpectve of Indonesian ELT. Recommendations for ‘measures that need tobe taken to improve Indonesian ELT are made Background In Indonesia, the national English curriculum has changed many times since independence (1945). The number of Indonesian ELT specialists with advanced degrees has als increased over the last two decades. Despite these facts, Indonesia's ELT adoption of the ‘communicative approach’ has largely failed. Univesity graduates who have studied for six years in junior and senior high schools and another year in the university generally cannot communicate adequately in English, For example, Nurweni and Read (1999) report cha, ‘on average, fist year Indonesian university students only master around 1226 English ‘words far below the threshold level of senior high school completion (4000-5000 vocabulary Yer itis strongly believed that Indonesians have o be equipped with a proper foundation in English in order to be able to take part in global-oriented interaction for two important reasons: technological advancement; and employment, This paper endeavours to analyse cciticallythe issues in Indonesian ELT and proposes some ideas for coping with the issues, making use of current policy documents and recent events in Indonesia Indonesian ELT: an historical perspective The teaching of English in formal education from junior high schools to universities in Indonesia is one manifestation ofthe national policy on foreign languages. Since Indonesian independence in 1945, English has been taught from junior high school up to university, replacing Dutch and Japanese, which had been che dominant languages in che colonial era, English is now the fist and most important foreign language ofthe country. Is the dominant language for the transfer of science and technology, and for interaction and transaction with other cultures and countries. (DPK RI 1995). Acthe end of the colonial era, for ideological easons, the government deported expatriate Dutch teachers who had caught English, in addition to Dutch, and replaced them with EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1 —__ 3 local teachers, Most ofthe local teachers had no qualifications in English teaching and had love proficiency inthe language. Some certification programs were established, but only to meet a formal criterion: the teachers were formally certified for teaching positions regardless of their lack of reaching ability The sending of Indonesians to study English overseas (mostly to the US) began in the 1960's The numbers were very small and only some teacher educator posts in some central cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya were filled (Sumardi 1993), The English curriculum has changed several cimes over the years, from the 1950's grammar- translation method to the 1970’ audio-lingual method, then to the communicative approach, in 1984 and, most recently (1994), to the tak-based communicative approach. Over the lst two decades, the number of Indonesian ELT specialists and professionals has increased. These specialists have frst degrees ftom Indonesian universities and further degres in TESOL and or linguistics From English-speaking countries such as Australia, the US and the UK. Despite this recent development in Indonesia's ELT situation at the national level, what hha actually taken place at the local level seems similar to the early post-colonial era, and is characterised by limited resources (both human and material). Policy changes made by the ‘central government are not based on the actual conditions of classrooms throughout the archipelago, but on theoretical formulations and on trials conducted in a few sample schools, in some capital cities in Java Issues explaining the failure of Indonesian ELT ‘Two ELT issues are currently being debated in Indonesia. The first is ideological, and is linked tothe assumptions, expectations and positioning of various educational stakeholders in the policy and curriculum decision-making processes. Irs also associated with the status of language, literacy and TESL/TEPL in Indonesia. The second issue is practical, having todo with teaching and learning situations inthe classrooms, and involves the suitablty of ‘communicative language teaching (CLT) and its implications for teaching, learning and assessment, Ideological issues ‘The Ideological issues can be discussed in two different contexts, the government context and the local context. The government context “The Indonesian government sces any form of curriculum change as necessarily being top-down. Such change is thus uniform across a variety of local contexts and is tied to official national curriculum policy and its textbooks. Any form of implementation that does not stick to the official curriculum and the official textbooks is seen as EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1 encouraging deviation (Tomlinson 1990). This unwillingness to allow accommodation to local contexts has contributed co the failure of ELI’ curricular change (Sadtono et al. 1997). Under this model the government is regarded as the provider of regulations, guidance and resources, while the teaches are regarded as the implementers, the leaers as the recipients and the parents as supporters, in thac they pay tition fees (Alisyahbana 1993) Within such constraints in the curriculum decision-making processes, there can only be cone form of interpretation and implementation of the national curriculum guidelines (Tomlinson 1990; Coleman 1996). ‘Another ideological issue is that many Indonesian education administrators fear that the ‘communicative approach will ead co the overuse of English as foreign language by students and that this will eventually ceduce the students sense of nationality and will corrupt their caltural values (Tomlinson 1990). Such a position is supported by some Indonesian academics who claim that the spread of the use of English in Indonesia, including its use as the medium of instruction in format education, constitutes a betrayal of the national language (Sudarmo 1995; Hardjopriworo 1998). Local contexts ELT curriculum implementation in focal contexts in Indonesia reflects a mismatch between national policy and local conditions and needs. National policy ignotes several local realities: learner’ low achievement and low motivation; teachers’ lack of competence and their heavy teaching loads; large classes and the lack of textbooks and facilities (Sadtono et al 1997). Several other factors exacerbate the problem. Fist, unsurprisingly, many teachers and school administracors still have a narrow view of the role of curriculum policies and textbooks. Asa result, they restrict themselves to prescribed textbooks and disregard other potential resources that can be found elsewhere (Yomlinson 1998); Kopong (1995) and ‘Coleman (1996) both found that uniform ways of learning as prescribed in the national curriculum document did not match the ways of learning that many people were used to. In a country as culeurally diverse as Indonesia, learning style differ markedly. Practical curriculum and classroom issues The Indonesian 1984 high school English curriculum was developed based on CLT (DPK 1984; Nababan 1983) and the adoption of this approach has affected reaching, learning and assessment. ‘Although Indonesian English teachers are familiar with the tem ‘communicative approach they are not well informed about how this approach has developed, or that there are any forms and types of CLT. Critis ofthis approach argue cha it still gives too much attention EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1 ——_—___________ 33 to form and not enough to communication. However, new developments in ELT have been brought co Indonesia by recent graduates from Australia and other English-speaking, countries and have had some impact on curricular change. Thus, in 1994, the high school English curriculum was again modified. A major reason for this change was that, even in the 1984 CLT curriculum, the main focus of language learning remained on form: each lesson began with the teaching of a structure, In conteast, the 1994 curriculum begins with themes or reading texts (Dardjowidjojo 1993). As we shall see, however, little change has really taken place. The curricuhum document contains inconsistencies. First, the document explicitly states thac che English teaching program is based on a meaningful ‘communicative approach’ in swhich the four macro skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) are equally promoted, buvat the same time it gives reading the major emphasis. The reason for thisis that Indonesia is an EEL setting, characterised by a lack of exposure to English. Alwasilah (1999) and ‘Sumardi (1993) even argue that skills orientation isnot relevantin the Indonesian context Giving reading the major emphasis, means that the 1994 curriculum is not significantly different from the 1975 and 1984 curricula. This emphasis on reading has also placed textbook writers in a dilemma. Should they focus on reading texts or on actual communication? A close look at some high school English course books designed for the 1994 curriculum shows that there is a mismatch between learners’ needs and teaching materials. The ‘main problem lies in the themes/topics inthe course book, as these have not been selected based on real-life communication needs. Instead, the themes/topics — examples include agriculture, geography, culture and art (Saukah and Wahyudi 1997) - have been chosen because they are thought to provide interesting material chat will stimulate classroom discussion, In other words, the notion of the communicative approach has now become an approach where learners are expected to read about an ‘interesting’ topic and then talk about it, Forms, including grammar and vocabulary, are addressed only ifthe learners ask about them, [As the communicative tasks are based on topics of the above type, communication, develops ‘artificially’ if, indeed, it ever does develop. A furcher problem is that the readings are conceptually difficult. One Indonesian high school English teacher reported that a native speaker student from Australia who was on an exchange program at his school reported difficulty in understanding some of the readings (Bahri 1999, personal com.). In addition, as the only learning materials are theme-based course books, learners are not exposed to non-classroom types of discourse, such as listening to native speaker monologues —— EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 or conversations, Such input is useful for learners and can help teachers whose English proficiency is stil less than perfect. [A second problem lies with the national assessment system. This is designed as a multiple- choice exam and is based on reading, With this ype of assessment, scudent language performance has become a matter of complete indifference (Setiono 1999). Williams et a (1999) have pointed out that che standardised national assessment narrows the curriculum and offers little information about students’ learning. The national assessment also causes negative backwash on teaching practices. Teachers and learners want to achieve the best possible results in the exams. Teaching and learning activities become focused on exam preparation, “While the curriculum objectives may include a wide range of productive skills, the multiple choice exam format neither tests the ability to communicate nor adequately evaluates learners’ actual performance in the target language. Some ideas for change: re-emphasising curriculum concepts In this section some conceptual considerations about how a learner-centred communicative approach can be successfully implemented, based on the analysis of education policies and recent events in Indonesia, will be considered. The conceptual considerations proposed here corroborate the policy ofthe new Indonesian minister of National Education, Yahya Mahaimin, He stated recently that no new curriculum policy i to be established because ‘what is now important is to create the best environment for students to study and develop. His agenda is to re-emphasise concepts that have not been given proper attention by the previous governments (Kompas, 7 November, 1999). There is a need to ensure that the roles of the central curriculum guidelines, syllabuses textbooks and the national asessment system are properly understood. Education stakeholders (¢,, curriculum writers, rextbook vwriters, inspectors, teachers and also students) should possess a full understanding of the principles and practices underlying the so-called ‘communicative approach’ and the ‘learner- centred approach. Understanding the principles of any agenda is essential. This is true with any kind of national policy provided by any central government. The national curriculum policy in relation to school and teachers/students as ianplementer is analogous co the ‘state broad guidelines in relation to the President as che executive. The President is given wide scope to interpret and develop the guidelines. Likewise, schools and teachers as executives of the national curriculum policy should be entitled toa great deal of autonomy to interpret and develop the curriculum policy for their classrooms. In the 1994 national curriculum policy for high school English, the principles of the learner-centred communicative approach are cexplicily stipulated in the introductory section, 'A JOURNAL VOLUME 18No as ‘They can be summarised as follows: + Students are primary in reaching and learning actviies All curriculum decisions, including the preparation and selection of learning ‘materials and learning activities, have to consider the students’ needs, interests and value systems + Teachers play a facilitating role during the teaching and learning processes ‘The Indonesin government, ie. the Ministry of National Education, has been on the right track with this conceptualisation ofthe principles ofthe learner-centred communicative approach, The Ministry’ task now is to make sure that relevant education stakeholders fully understand and implement such principles. The Ministry's key officers have to realise that their main tasks ar limited to the provision of gencral principles or guidelines and so thei role in quality control should not go beyond such parameters. Curriculum decisions that include the kinds of materials to be used, how they are selected and prepared, and the methodologies to be used should ideally be the responsibility of schools and teachers, However, ifschools and teachers are not yet capable of accepting this responsibility it should be given to the provincial office of The Education Department, not recuried co the Central Government. There ae two reasons underpinning this argument, First, given the diversity of Indonesia, the Central Government will never be able to make appropriate decisions about the local implementation of policy, especially as policy is intended to reflect earner-centred principles Second, in provincial capitals, cher is at least one public education faculty where new teachers for the province are prepared. Most lectures in these teacher-training faculties have advanced degrees and have expertise in subjects such as materials development or language testing and evaluation. Also, there are many experienced high school teachers whose teaching experience can be utilised productively for relevant local contexts. These people's expertise has rarely been utilised yet they are precisely the people who know the local contexts and, at the same time, understand the message of the Central Government. ‘These proposals ae realistic as Indonesia is now entering a new era with a true commitment for reform and democracy. Such a commitment is indicated by the Regional Autonomy ‘Act (No, 22 1999) and the Central-Regional Financial Balance Act (No. 25 1999). fn principle, these two regulations are intended to ensure a decentralised form of government in which each local government is given extensive autonomy to develop generate policies and to improve services for the empowerment of the local communi various walks of lif, including education (The Jakarta Post, 21 January 2000). Meanwhile, the People’s Consultative Assembly, as the nation’s highest decision making institution, is ‘committed toa decentralised education system and to significant increase in the national 36 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO L education budget (State Guidelines of the Republic of Indonesia 1999). In short, given the existing human resources and the new acts, iis time for Indonesia to sec up an education system that priorities people and their nceds. Questions remain regarding the content of the 1994 national curriculum, the textbooks and the Final examination (EBTANAS). Will the government have to disregard and/or

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