Teachers' lack of skill hampers English teaching

JAKARTA (JP): Poor communication skills among most English language teachers in Indonesia is undermining the teaching of English in schools, a linguistics expert said.

"English teaching in Jakarta is facing a great number of difficulties because of a lack of qualified English teachers here," Gerda K. Wanei, dean of the Education and Teaching Department of Atmajaya University, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

Under the revamped 1994 school curriculum, English is taught from the fourth grade of primary school until senior high school.

"Actually the goals of the curriculum, to teach English from an early age, are very good.

"Children aged between six and 13 find it very easy to learn a foreign language because their sense of encoding, storing and retrieving is very strong," Gerda said. "They can absorb vocabulary and practice active language communication."

The new method of English learning puts greater emphasis on communication ability and less on grammar.

"Little kids must be taught to learn English in an enjoyable way. The teachers must be articulate and full of ideas," she said during a seminar, titled Psychological Pedagogic Aspect of Primary School English Teaching, held at Atmajaya University on Saturday.

Gerda said the most common hurdle to developing an effective method of learning English was that teachers did not have the appropriate teaching background.

"Most English teachers here come from a variety of backgrounds, including mathematics teachers, student dropouts and retirees. They are asked to be English teachers just because they can speak a little English. This only makes things worse."

Less than 10 percent of students who graduate from the teaching department become teachers, she said.

"Many of my students choose different careers, such as marketing or public relations."

Rita Johan, another speaker from the university, told the Post that the learning material for primary school students has to be as simple as possible.

"How can the students learn English if the teacher does not understand what they're talking about?"

"Singing, dancing and games will raise the children's curiosity and increase their desire to learn more because they love English.

"Don't ask children to memorize vocabulary because it will only make them learn English like robots."

The teachers have no choice but to improve their skills due to the growing use of English, she said.

"They can't implement a conservative method of teaching any more. Children are smart. It is embarrassing if little kids are smarter than their teachers."

Rita said the government's decision to introduce English into the primary school curriculum came rather late.

"I still remember in 1976 when the government officials chased away teachers who taught English in the primary schools. It was a kind of 'forbidden thing' just because it was not included in the curriculum."

Some 70 teachers from 65 public and private primary schools in Jakarta attended the seminar which featured a presentation on how to teach simple English to children.

"Hopefully, this kind of training will help overwhelmed teachers to prepare better material for their students," she said. (07)