Is there such a thing as 'Indonesian English'?

By A. Chaedar Alwasilah

JAKARTA (JP): Globalization has had a remarkable impact on language policies and language education. People are now facing global competition in all walks of life -- politics, economy, and the service industries. To survive the competition, they have to be able to communicate in English, the most widely used language of global communication.

Non-native speakers of English have been estimated at over 300 million, outnumbering native speakers. Most international communication takes place between non-native speakers with different language and cultural backgrounds.

More people now realize that their first and national language is far from sufficient for technological advancement, international communication, and other areas. Many vernaculars will eventually lose their vitality, and will only attract researchers.

In Indonesia we anticipate the rapid demise of minor vernaculars and only the eight major ones will survive: Javanese, Sundanese, Maduranese, Minangkabaunese, Bugisnese, Bataknese, Banjarnese, and Balinese. To anticipate this linguistic competition, we must redefine our policies and education regarding language.

It is not realistic at all to invest energy and money in maintaining the minor vernaculars. It would be wiser to invest them in developing the major vernaculars, Indonesian, and global languages, especially English.

Global and intercultural communication intensifies as more people get access to information technologies such as the Internet, television, etc. People's nationality, language, culture, and profession are major factors that shape the character of a variety of global languages.

Such interactions definitely stimulate the creation of mixed English. Thus imposing a "standard" defined by native speakers is impractical. The shared "nativized Englishes" including Indonesian English, "must be accepted from within, rather than be felt as something imposed from outside," said the linguist Pride in 1982.

Linguists say that foreign language learners develop a language variety called "interlanguage" characterized by a number of features such as systematicity, approximation, transitional competence and idiosyncrasy. In discussing English as a global and localized language we need to critically review this theory.

Language is no longer used merely for communication, but for "fast" communication. People are invariably under pressure to respond to various problems without delay. When e-mailing, they do not have enough time to edit messages. Minor mistakes are consciously left uncorrected. Obviously, proficiency is the first and foremost, accuracy second.

Therefore Indonesian English has its own right to develop internally and externally. Over the years this variety of English will be established, not fossilized -- a systematized variety of English specific to Indonesians.

From the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic arguments for recognizing Indonesian English, the following questions are: What materials are to be taught? And how to teach them?

The current teaching of English in Indonesia from elementary to college level is far from the ideal: obviously this is not a problem of variety or genre of English, but more of learning and teaching. Given the current educational policies and circumstances, the teaching of any recommended variety of English will end up with similar results.

Common problems include unskilled teachers, poor facilities, and unfavorable learning environments, to mention just a few.

Recognizing the emerging Indonesian English does not necessarily mean teaching it as a new school subject. Rather, it would mean our anticipation and professional judgment of the emerging variety of English, which slowly develops over a relatively long period. An "Indonesian English" could be established when the following conditions are fulfilled.

First, the existence of school graduates who are bilingual in Indonesian and English, which presupposes "English as a foreign language", where learning and teaching oral proficiency are emphasized across the curriculum -- more or less similar to the situation in Singapore.

Second, university graduates, especially college professors, who are productive enough to publish in English. Yet to our dismay, most do not know how to write even in their first language!

Admittedly, Indonesian English would be a variety of the "standard" English, based on the grammar of English -- which has long been overemphasized in school.

Indonesian English as a by-product of bilingualism and its establishment is thus a matter of consequence: no need to develop a specific curriculum, methodology, and textbook, except for experimental purposes.

Today's "English for specific purposes" program for undergraduate non-English majors is a review of the high school English grammar, plus reading and translation exercises based on texts relevant to the field of study. This repetition is telling evidence of the failure of English teaching at high school levels. This ESP course does not seem to generate any type of seemingly acclaimed academic Indonesian English.

A particular language variety, including the emerging Indonesian English, will noticeably be recognized for certain social functions, such as to indicate formality and informality. One theory of communicative competence says that being communicative implies one's ability to use a certain variety of language.

Thus, students must be taught the sociolinguistic principles, namely the who, what, when, why, and how of the emerging Indonesian English. By way of comparison, Singaporeans would be taught when they should not use the lah particle, though it adds a colorful quality to the "low" variety of Singapore English.

Any nativized English allows deviation from the standard English. Recognizing Indonesian English suggests allowing the use of its own linguistic criteria accepted by its speakers. Therefore, it would be a big mistake to judge Indonesian English with reference to standard English.

In view of the resources at hand and the fact that not all Indonesians need to master English for global competition, users would be classified into two groups: the extraordinary and the ordinary. Group 1 constitutes the cream of the cream who master English, both oral and written. They could be graduate students and professionals.

Group 2 would be the majority, including high school leavers who might never use English for their career. A very good mastery of Indonesian and basic English is adequate for this group.

Indonesian English is not yet as established as Singaporean or Malaysian English. Attractive though it may sound in theory, we do not yet have a very clear idea of just what it entails. It will be some time before we could document findings of research on its emerging patterns, variations, and use. These findings are important for developing a sound language policy of English vis-a-vis Indonesian and vernaculars.

History witnesses that we have tried different policies, approaches, and curricula -- which have all seemed to fail. Caution would be needed to improve the present teaching of EFL in Indonesia, instead of jumping onto the latest bandwagon of any particular suggested approach.

The writer is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bandung, West Java.