Focusing on English teaching in RI

Focusing on English teaching in RI

By Simon Marcus Gower

JAKARTA (JP): At the forefront of the minds of any genuine
thinkers on the subject of language teaching ought to be the
realization that teaching and/or learning a language is a highly
practical consideration -- one in which learners of the language
need to be equipped with the skills required to actively use the
language.

As a consequence, language teachers ought to be helping to
provide their students with the skills they require to actively
use the targeted language -- whether such use be receptive
(listening and reading) or productive (speaking and writing).

Recent articles in The Jakarta Post by Setiono (on Dec. 28)
and A. Chaedar Alwasilah (on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9) have both, from
varying viewpoints, offered critiques of the existing approach to
English language teaching in the Indonesian education system.

From these previously published articles, it is apparent that
Indonesia has, since the application of the 1994 curriculum,
sought to apply what is termed a communicative approach to its
teaching of the English language. However, there seems to be
doubt as to the success that has been achieved in applying this
approach.

The adaption and application of such an approach is entirely
reasonable within the wider world of English language teaching
and learning internationally. Indeed such "communicative uses" of
the language as an approach to language acquisition have long
been established and utilized.

Over 100 years ago, Harvard University in the United States
was already applying admissions tests in which students were
required to read and respond to a short essay.

Similarly, early in this century, the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology was introducing courses into its programs that
emphasized the communicative use of the language when considering
the development of the skills. This notably included reading and
writing, skills which would perhaps be less associated with the
"communicative approach" as often this approach is misconceived
as solely and simply being concerned with the conversational
skills involved in speaking and listening.

Though these relatively early developments toward a
communicative approach may not have been entirely successful and
widely applied they do illustrate the length of time over which
the "communicative approach" has been considered and applied. It
is not surprising that the Indonesian education system should
have attempted to move in this direction.

However, "the movement" in this direction appears to have been
applied too abruptly without ensuring that those most directly
concerned with this shift in direction -- namely the teachers --
were sufficiently well trained and thus prepared to actually
apply the thinking and achieve the objectives of such a
curriculum.

Second language learning has, thankfully, progressed from and
beyond the work of behavioral scientists -- such as Pavlov and
Skinner. Their work underpins the thinking behind the audio-
lingual method of language teaching in suggesting that language
works within a system of habits. Though audio-lingual methods may
still have a part to play as part of the overall teaching
procedure, it is clear that they cannot be relied upon as a sole
means of achieving any real degree of linguistic competence.

More sophisticated thinking on language learning was achieved,
most notably by Naam Chomsky, in which it is recognized that the
acquisition and use of language is far more of a creative
process. This "creative" process being consequent to the ability
to develop an awareness of the "rules" that govern a language
(i.e the grammar), combined with the creativity to then use such
"rules" to generate the huge variety of linguistic communications
that are commonplace in the everyday usage of the language.

This, then, may well be the crux of the problem for English
language teaching in Indonesia. A communicative approach is not
about students learning "frozen phrases" that they are required
to memorize. Such an application would be wholly lacking in
attaching the vital ingredient to language learning of
comprehension.

An approach that is more likely to meet with success is one in
which the students are taught to achieve accuracy but are then
coached toward achieving fluency. Here, then the students would
be made aware of the "rules" that govern the language and then be
given plenty of opportunities in which to practice what they have
learned in the pursuit of fluency.

Practice and active use of the language are vital ingredients.
It is not sufficient to dissect, in a cold, mechanical and/or
scientific manner, the language to see how it is constructed.

Language is constantly changing and being changed because it
is a human tool -- a tool for communication that fundamentally
makes us human through our use and appreciation of it. Thus
language may also be seen as a living entity -- if it is being
used, it grows and develops. If it is not being used, it will
wither and die.

All over the world, there are examples of how a language has
been kept alive by people actually using it. The Cajun people in
the Swiss town of Louisiana, though officially prevented from
using their French dialect by the state schooling system, kept
their language alive through use in the home and social settings.

In the United Kingdom a significant vehicle for the revival of
Welsh in Wales has been a Welsh language television channel.

Thus, through whatever means, languages can be kept alive and
developed provided people are actively using them.

In Indonesia the challenge for English language teaching and
learning is similar. All would agree that English is the most
prominent of the international languages, thus its life is
assured. But within Indonesia it is critical that learners and
teachers alike are activated to be users of the language.

We live in the information age, (and the language of this
"age" is English) and thus the ability to comprehend, think
analytically and critically about the abundance of information
that may bombard us each day will, increasingly, be an invaluable
tool. In order to compete and succeed in our economy and world,
which are evermore being exposed to "globalization", greater
analytical and critical skills will be required.

If English language teaching in Indonesia is to play a role in
preparing its students (and by definition the nation's future),
to succeed in this ever and speedily changing world, it will be
critical for there to be the pursuit of higher degrees of
flexibility and sophistication in the modes of teaching that are
applied. Merely being reactionary to what has gone on before will
not suffice. It is necessary for teachers to activate themselves
and their students, so that they may function appropriately,
purposefully and successfully within the English speaking world.

The writer is a director of Academic English at International
University Transfer Programs in Jakarta.

Window: Practice and active use of the language are vital
ingredients. It is not sufficient to dissect, in a cold,
mechanical and/or scientific manner, the language to see how it
is constructed.