English curriculum needs improving

Recently in my Applied English Linguistics class at Atma Jaya University we had a discussion on English pronunciation. It happens that our lecturer, Prof. Dr. Anton M. Moeliono, is very concerned about his students' pronunciation. Each of us was asked to read a passage to see how near a native speaker we pronounced the words. Out of twenty students, it turned out that only one was considered to be able to read and speak near the level of a native speaker of English. The rest apparently need improvement.

The students are Javanese, Batak and Chinese-Indonesian who all speak Indonesian in addition to their respective mother tongues, which, to a certain extent, have some influence on their English pronunciation. In my case, my Chinese accent comes out every time I venture to speak English. The same is true when I speak Indonesian. It seems that I do it subconsciously and it is difficult to correct. Habits die hard, it is said.

In this case our English curriculum is to blame. I don't remember having any pronunciation lessons in high school English. The curriculum considers the subject of English to include only English grammar, meaning that to learn English is only to learn its grammar. I think this is wrong and should be corrected.

Native speakers may be able to understand utterances that are grammatically incorrect, but they may not be able to understand utterances pronounced incorrectly. That is why correct pronunciation is very important, but it is not included in the curriculum.

I hope the government, in this case the minister of national education, will look into the curriculum for English and consider the importance of including pronunciation.

ADRIANUS HIYUNG TJUNG

Jakarta