English teaching needs total revision: Seminar
JAKARTA (JP): English teachers here called for a total revision of the out-of-date high school curriculum on the subject to prepare the next generation for the free trade era.
In a seminar on Thursday, teachers lamented the ineffective teaching method and syllabus, which fails to motivate the students to use the language regularly.
The teachers pointed out that the guidelines given by the government only focus on grammar and not on the language as a means of communication. Worse, the curriculum contains too much material for students to digest in the limited time available for learning, which is only about three hours a week.
Teacher Toni Sudaryanto from Vocational High School Makarya I on Jl. Ciputat Raya in South Jakarta said that students failed to respond to or understand the subject.
"Their marks in English are the worst. Students at my school are from the middle and low economic classes, so they cannot afford English courses to improve their language.
"But they still cannot get anything out of their studies if they depend only on the curriculum at school," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the seminar, held by the Indonesian American Foundation's Foreign Language Institute (STBA-LIA).
Tony claimed that he had used various methods to help students understand the language better, including reading English stories, but without success.
Itje Chodijah, head of research and development at STBA-LIA, argued that there was a gap between what was taught in class and what the students actually needed.
She said that many graduates complained that the English they learned was not applicable to universities, which uses many English textbooks, or places of employment, where workers need to be able to communicate with foreign clients.
Many university students chose translated textbooks rather than reading them in English.
"Our region will be in the free trade era starting in 2003, and there will be an unrestricted influx of human resources," she told the Post.
"In conclusion, the teaching of English in the school system needs a complete overhaul, (we need) a syllabus which concentrates more on the language's functional use rather than the knowledge of it."
At state-run schools, English is introduced at the junior high level.
Former minister of education Fuad Hassan, who was the keynote speaker at the seminar, said the current purpose of English teaching in high schools was to enable students to read university textbooks.
He said that the method of teaching could not be called a failure, although there should be certain changes made to improve students' language skills, including introducing auditory methods to make students more familiar with the language.
"To change the method of teaching means we have to change the curriculum's aim. We may have to start introducing the language to students at an early age," Fuad said.(bby)