English curriculum needs improving

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