Are we ready for IFL teaching?

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.