Ethnic literature helps inspire learning and writing

Ethnic literature helps inspire learning and writing

A. Chaedar Alwasilah, Bandung

Globalization, despite its positive effects, does not
necessarily generate any integrated or hybrid culture that
improves the quality of traditional cultures. In fact, it has
marginalized their function in developing society.

This hypothesis explains why ethnic literature -- Indonesian
literature as well -- is not fully appreciated in schools. In the
Indonesian context, as a matter of fact, long before
globalization issues surfaced about 10-15 years ago, ethnic
literature and ethnic culture in general had already been
marginalized. Apparently, globalization will worsen the problem.

A survey involving 179 undergraduate English majors -- nearly
all were Sundanese (mainly from western Java) -- has shown that
they are more proficient in English than in Sundanese. The same
observation would likely also apply to other ethnic and minority
groups throughout the archipelago.

Many educators, and especially decision makers, underestimate
the significance of literature that usually extends beyond the
esthetic realm. Empirical knowledge may be acquired through
reading novels or seeing plays.

Fiction is sometimes a more valuable source of information
about the natural world than even scientific textbooks. When
textbooks fail to arouse students' curiosity about science,
literature may be a solution.

During a semester in 2004, I experimented with an ethnic
literature-based composition course in the department of English.
The assignments consisted of writing responses to self-selected
Sundanese poems and fiction. The responses ranged from emotional
impression to scholarly literary criticism.

The students did the assignments collaboratively in groups,
where they worked on multiple drafts, edited, revised and finally
published in the form of portfolios. Evaluation was based on the
quality and quantity of responses in the portfolios.

Toward the end of the semester, a survey was conducted to find
out what they had learned. Statistics show that the students (61
percent) blame the present education system for neglecting ethnic
literature. They (53 percent) also reported that reading
Sundanese poems and fiction helped them to develop ideas for
writing short stories in English. Alas, as expected, the majority
of them (77 percent) reported that writing poems and short
stories in Sundanese was much more difficult than in English.
This suggests that they are more proficient in English than in
Sundanese.

Presenting ethnic literature as a focus in college curriculum
will not lead to ethnocentric and myopic ways of thinking.
Instead, it develops critical thinking through persistent self-
questioning of cultural identities long forgotten as a result of
sheer ignorance. Reading Sundanese novels and poems for
reproducing English short stories serves critical functions as
follows:

First, we must reinvigorate local wisdom, long buried due to
the government's negligence of ethnic literature in particular,
and ethnic culture in general.

Second, there is a need to sensitize the students about the
esthetic value of ethnic literary pieces. Incorporated into
writing classes, they are seen as artifacts amenable to a range
of critical theories or as models of writing to be emulated.

Being the object of literary criticism, ethnic literature is
exposed to a larger audience and is subject to critical
interpretation. This interpretation is essential for revitalizing
ethnic literature. In this enterprise, the students became
critical of what is ascribed and what is achieved. Ethnic
literature is not simply a heritage, but an object of inquiry to
generate the process of getting meaning.

Third, it is necessary to offer alternative material that will
trigger better writing.

Some bluntly blamed school teachers for not introducing
Sundanese culture and not teaching them how to write poems and
fiction in Sundanese or Indonesian. This model, to a certain
extent, has encouraged students to be multilingual in their
ethnic language, Indonesian and English. This model is also
consistent with the long-held traditional wisdom, which states
that teaching should proceed from easy to difficult, from here to
there and from familiar to unfamiliar.

Fourth, the theory underpinning this model is reader responses
to literature, namely writing in response to reading literature.
The writing of responses in the form of portfolios not only
creates the basic conditions for meaningful learning, but also
plays a role in developing creativity by helping them construct
new meaning. In other words, in this model, writing is defined
as a creative act of making meaning.

From the discussions above, I have drawn the conclusions and
suggestions as follows:

It is time to redefine the current language policy of ethnic
languages and their literature. The teaching of ethnic
literature, in itself, is valuable and constitutes a practical
way of preserving the local "wisdom." Besides, they have the
potential to be used as a trigger for sharpening student
appreciation of national and foreign literature.

Success in teaching English literature to a certain extent is
dependent on the success in teaching ethnic literature and
Indonesian literature. For that reason, appreciation of local
literature should be developed first before that of foreign
literature.

While ethnic literature and Indonesian literature are not
adequately appreciated in high schools, they can be incorporated
into English classes and other foreign language classes. This
would enhance the appreciation of ethnic and Indonesian
literature as they also learn to appreciate foreign literature.

Students learn not only how to write, but also how to
appreciate their ethnic literature. Through well-designed
assignments such as reading for reproduction and writing literary
criticism, students gain a heightened appreciation of the
richness and vitality of the ethnic literature, and at the same
time develop a high level confidence in writing in a foreign
language.

The essence of cultural revitalization is preserving the
essentials of culture, which is basically an act of documenting
cultural facts, artifacts and texts for effortless access in the
future. Our national education system should be redesigned to
shift the long-established oral culture to the critical literacy
culture. This reconfirms the significance of promoting Indonesia
as a nation of writers, by overhauling the language arts
curriculum.

The writer is a professor of language education at
Indonesian University of Education (UPI), Bandung. He can be
reached at chaedar@bdg.centrin.net.id