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