Are we ready for IFL teaching?

By A. Chaedar Alwasilah

JAKARTA (JP): The number of foreigners learning Bahasa Indonesia as a foreign language (IFL) has increased significantly over the years. As it is also widely taught in other countries, like Australia, many teachers are delighted about the creation of a lucrative profession -- teaching IFL overseas.

Few major universities in Indonesia, however, have developed intensive Indonesian courses for international students who come to campuses individually or in groups organized by their universities.

Some Indonesian universities have signed memorandums of understanding with their overseas counterparts to exercise faculty and student exchanges and admit international students to learn Indonesian periodically.

Major universities have anticipated professional teaching of IFL and they, therefore, have held international seminars on it. Also, the Bandung Teachers Training Institute, West Java, is to organize a third International Conference on Teaching Indonesian as a Foreign Language in 1999, during which a professional association of IFL instructors is expected to be established.

But a question rises as to whether Indonesia is ready to provide professional teaching of IFL, which will need, at least, five requirements.

First, professional IFL instructors by definition should possess a specialized knowledge about IFL. Being a scholar on Indonesian does not guarantee that one is capable of teaching IFL.

No Indonesian institutions are currently capable of providing students with expertise in IFL teaching. For comparison, American universities offer MA and PhD degrees in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) for both native speakers and foreigners. This is evidence that the Ministry of Education and Culture has no vision on IFL. It is, therefore, high time that quality Indonesian universities open programs to offer master and doctoral degrees in IFL.

Second, professionalism presupposes mastery of specialized knowledge based and developed on scientific discoveries, which are published in journals. The absence of IFL journals demonstrates that IFL is not professionally established.

Most presenters (54.28 percent) at the first conference (1994) held at Satyawacana Christian University, Salatiga, and the second (1996) at Padang Teachers Training Institute, West Sumatra, offered theoretical analyses on various aspects of IFL -- something that can be done by people even without IFL teaching experience nor research backgrounds. Only two of the papers were research-based.

A big problem will arise when IFL teachers have to develop language policies, teaching materials, testing instruments and IFL handbooks, all of which must be based on research findings.

IFL learners' experience is another aspect that tends to be taken for granted. There were only two papers that specifically self-reported strategies of IFL learning. This strongly signifies lack of awareness in IFL circles here of understanding psychological as well as sociological aspects of foreign language learning. Actually, a significant number of Indonesians have experience in teaching IFL overseas or in Indonesia. However, due to their lack of writing skills, their precious teaching experiences have gone unreported.

Third, any occupation aspiring to the title of profession will claim a basis of competence. In other words, there is a minimum set of criteria of the profession to be acquired. Roughly, there are two kinds of knowledge development -- received knowledge and experiential knowledge -- both of which are relevant to IFL teaching professionalism. A suggested list of training courses will include methods of teaching IFL, material development, Indonesian arts and culture in general, sociopolitical linguistics of Indonesian, English proficiency and cross-cultural understanding. After long and rigorous academic study and teaching experiences, all these criteria will be manifested in a demonstrably competent manner.

With all fairness, the existing curricula of Indonesian departments in universities do not qualify students to teach IFL. In some cases, people with some background of English study have higher potentials to be IFL instructors, provided that they want to brush up their knowledge of Indonesian grammar. The facts show that teaching elementary Indonesian both overseas and in Indonesia needs absolutely sound proficiency in English to enable them to communicate until the foreign students demonstrate reasonable fluency in Indonesian.

Fourth, professionalism is developed, empowered and recognized through a professional association. The birth of this association is long awaited and is expected to play an important role in promoting Indonesian, vis a vis Indonesian culture, overseas. As the world's fourth-most populated country, Indonesia has the potential to make its language go international. Almost all former ministers of education and culture were optimistic about Indonesian going international. Nevertheless, their optimism was more political and emotional rather than professional. Frankly, no minister has been serious about it.

Fifth, professionalism needs support from numerous institutions, especially the government. Unfortunately, the promotion of IFL is not handled professionally. Respondents to a survey on IFL reported that the major obstacle faced in running IFL programs was the uncooperative, complicated and inflexible attitude of immigration officers toward international students.

To promote Indonesian overseas, the respondents made the following suggestions.

* Indonesian embassies and consulates should promote the language vis a vis its culture. The cultural diplomacy spearheaded by former foreign minister Mochtar Kusuma-Atmadja in the 1980s seems to have overlooked language promotion.

* Universities should develop IFL curricula and supporting facilities so as to accommodate different groups of IFL students.

* Universities should establish autonomous units that are empowered to handle IFL programs. The existing departments of Bahasa Indonesian are not effective enough to manage them.

* Teaching Indonesian as a foreign language should be perceived as a manifestation of language planning and realization of Indonesia's foreign policy. To be successful, it needs understanding and commitment at all levels, from the national authority to the individual classroom.

The writer is a lecturer at the Graduate School of the Bandung Teachers Training Institute in West Java.