Guide to language training business

Guide to language training business

By John Phillips

This is the first of two articles on English teaching in Indonesia.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): I first came to Indonesia to become a language education consultant at a government project under the nominal supervision of a private school. The school seemed to be a legitimate organization as it held several government contracts and employed native English teachers. They also represented themselves as education experts.

The trouble was that this was a gross misrepresentation of the truth, and the same was true of most other private schools. The problem which has not changed much is the unprofessional and ineffective language education foisted on the government and the public by shady operators of language schools.

They often employ native-English speaking teachers who are not trained teachers at all, but a motley crew of itinerant backpackers, culture vultures, unemployed cooks and used car salesmen with one thing in common -- they wanted to live in Indonesia and profit from their unearned status. Their only qualifications for well-paid employment and ownership of language schools was their native English.

Many schools consistently abuse visas, so as to obscure the qualifications of their teachers. One school manager boasted of forging credentials of teachers by the liberal use of "tip-ex" on official documents.

Teachers who had never before taught received the proper working permits through the guided intervention of paid procurers and the imaginative invention of school managers. Some of these "expert" teachers had not even graduated with a first degree. In fact, some native English speakers had thick dialects which were extremely difficult to comprehend, while others were not really native speakers of English but merely looked the part. I should add that many of these backpackers became good teachers and good members of the community, but, I wonder at what expense for Indonesian people and their development?

Schools not only manipulated visas to hire unqualified native speakers to act as teachers, they also used the system to abuse them as well as other more legitimate teachers.

If a teacher complained about work conditions or instructional quality, they were not only summarily dismissed, their visas were canceled and they were escorted out of the country by immigration officials. Worse yet, the curriculum used to teach English was pieced together from "pirated" books of questionable quality and curricula were made teacher "proof" since so few of the "teachers" knew what to do in the classroom.

But, most harmful was the reprehensible treatment of Indonesian English teachers. They were paid only a fraction of what backpackers received and they had few opportunities to improve their language and teaching skills so as to be hired for better jobs. No wonder, they were not highly valued by so many students.

These conditions have continued to a degree up to the present, particularly in the preference for native speakers despite the fact that in many learning situations an Indonesian English teacher may be more effective.

For example, Indonesian English teachers may be in a better position to identify the specific language learning problems of Indonesians, they often have better knowledge of grammar rules than do untrained native speakers, and they are particularly effective with low-level students who are unable to truly "benefit" from having a native English-speaking teacher.

Also, genuine native speaker experts are misused to the extent that they take the place of Indonesian teachers, thus delaying the development of the large numbers of English teachers needed here if Indonesia is to continue develop fully in the future.

So, it is a little bewildering that there is such a premium paid for these untrained teachers. Even if the number of Indonesian teachers is insufficient to meet Indonesia's needs or even if many of them need to upgrade their language and teaching skills, it is still very clear that the system must be reformed to insure that Indonesia has enough English teachers. One obstacle to doing this is the continued employment of unqualified foreigners. The question is: Why are so many willing to pay so much for so little?

The answer is unfortunately that Indonesian consumers demand it! There is an old saying that "He who pays the piper, calls the tune". In this case, Indonesian consumers are the ones who are willing to pay for native English-speaking teachers whether trained or not.

Even Indonesian English teachers with native-like fluency may still be discriminated against because they do not look the part. Apparently, just as beauty is skin deep, so is quality for Indonesian consumers.

The reason why is not for me to answer, but I suggest that in large part it is because the public has few means of determining quality and is so easily misled by image. On the other hand, language schools can hardly be faulted for bowing to the market place. Those schools not using native speakers have fewer high paying customers regardless of their quality. And, while some language schools may have improved the quality of their curricula, curricula are not substitutes for qualified teachers.

Also, many of the shady operators are still in business, still preferring to hire unqualified native speakers, and still cutting corners at the consumer's expense. Of course, trained and experienced native speakers are extremely valuable resources even for these schools, but can Indonesia as a country afford to waste such resources on select individuals or groups who can afford to pay? And even if this is an acceptable price to pay in order to develop small groups of Indonesians with advanced skills needed for such things as international diplomacy or commerce, is there an alternative which would help develop domestic resources?

Also, how can consumers determine if they are getting quality instruction from qualified instructors? How should genuine native speaker experts be employed? And, finally, what measures can be taken so that Indonesians not only get what they think they are paying for but that all Indonesians benefit from having foreign "experts"?