Teaching english in Indonesia: Whose rules should be followed?
Teaching english in Indonesia: Whose rules should be followed?
Setiono, Jakarta
Who owns the English language? Americans, the British,
the Canadians, New Zealanders or Australians? There was a time when
such a question proved to be well-founded. For the non-native
English countries studying the English language, they were once
compelled to refer to either British or American varieties as a
standard norm (exo-normative standard) that was to be adhered to.
Malaysia, for example, took the former, and the Philippines took
the later, for different historical reasons in each case.
Nevertheless, times have changed. With the rapidly increasing
number of non-native countries speaking English both as an
international communications tool and as local varieties, the
above question seems to have lost its validity. Braj B. Kachru, a
renowned professor of linguistics from Urbana-Champaign,
estimated that in terms of the number of speakers and their
demographic distribution, the 300 million native English speakers
are now outnumbered by 400 million non-native speakers of
English, who are spread all over the world.
The global spread of English is seemingly effected by the
power of transmutation that this language possesses: English is a
symbol of modernization, elitism and prestige in almost all
domains; English is the linguistic gate to international
education, business, science and technology; and English serves
as a "window on the world", through which one can
internationalize and modernize one's outlook.
English is now the global language and is used all around the
world. To claim that English is only associated with "Mother
English" (American and British varieties), and that one has to
refer to either of these when using English, is already an
outdated perspective. It seems that every country all over the
world owns the English language. We have, for example, such
familiar terms as Singlish (Singaporean English), Japlish
(Japanese English), Spanglish (Spanish English), and Hinglish
(Hindi English). The emergence of these new "World Englishes"
gives rise to what Kachru calls the Third World varieties of
English, with each having their own norms (endo-normative
standards).
In non-native English speaking countries such as India,
Zambia, Ghana, Singapore and Malaysia, where English has been
institutionalized, codified and virtually nativized, there seems
to be no major problems of developing and nurturing local English
norms in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary items (choice of
words), cultural nuances, and possibly grammar.
The innovations in lexis and grammar have been very rich, and
have indeed gained acknowledgement from native English speakers.
See, for example, Indian English and Singaporean English.
Communication in English among the societies in these countries
will not be distorted even if they do not use the exo-normative
standards. In fact, their utterances, to a large extent, are
still intelligible to native speakers of English.
As English has been used as an auxiliary language in non-
native English speaking countries, it has undergone a
transplantation in non-American and non-British situations.
Consequently, new varieties, styles, registers, and rhetorical
models of thinking inevitably emerge, and their authentic and
appropriate use in daily conversation cannot be determined and
judged by reference to English native speakers, who have become
outsiders from the Third World "Englishes".
The case of Indonesia, where English is used as the first
foreign language (not as a second language), is rather different.
English is used primarily as an object of study -- a compulsory
subject -- in a pedagogical domain, the objective of which is to
attain native-like proficiency. English is not, however, used as
part of the Indonesians' linguistic repertoire. As such, in order
to acquire English proficiently, an exo-normative model (either
the American or British varieties) is always resorted to. The
strict adherence to these models should not be flouted. Not
following these model can be considered deviant or erroneous.
It thus comes as no surprise to learn that much of the content of
the textbooks used in teaching English in Indonesian schools does
not necessarily conform to either the American or British
varieties, whether linguistically or culturally. If observed
carefully, one may find that the books contain structural
patterns that are grammatically well-formed, but unacceptable
from the English native speakers' vantage point. That is, English
native speakers won't say it that way in their day-to-day
interaction.
Furthermore, the books' contents are loaded with examples and
reading passages depicting the learners' local culture rather
than that of the Americans' or British.
In terms of pronunciation, it is interesting to note that the
distinction between American and British pronunciation seems to
be no longer valid. Although, prescriptively, these two varieties
are always recommended in the teaching of English in non-native
speaking countries, both Indonesian teachers and Indonesian
students do not really pay serious attention to the accents
associated with these two varieties. They instead learn to
communicate in English using their local accent, which is
typically labeled as "non-English" by English native speakers.
After all, as one learns and acquires a new language to
communicate, the intelligibility of an utterance becomes the
prime consideration.
From the above discussion, it seems that English has undergone
a process of both linguistic assimilation and linguistic
acculturation in the Indonesian context, resulting in what one
might wish to dub, by analogy with the "World Englishes", as
Indonglish (Indonesian-English).
The process of assimilation and acculturation in a new
situation is indicative of the English language as a natural
language that never operates in a socio-cultural vacuum. This is
an inevitable process that is both linguistically and culturally
justifiable.
The writer is a lecturer in the English Department at the
School of Education, Atma Jaya Catholic University.