Time for a reality check!

In response to the letter of Mr. Maik Hinganaday (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 19) concerning the low level of education of "native speaker" teachers of English in Indonesia, perhaps he would care to explain, both to the government and the general public, the following: Why, since the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Manpower have regulations which require that all native speaker teachers of English have acceptable tertiary qualifications, did he employ "waiters, wall painters and craft cleaners", who clearly did not have the required qualifications, to teach English in his institution? Every professional school in Indonesia abides by these regulations, so it is regrettable that Mr. Hinganaday should so irresponsibly imply otherwise. One cannot but question his motivation.

Were he to conduct serious research into this matter, instead of scaremongering with an anecdote based on his own incompetence as an administrator, he would find a great range of qualified native speaker teachers in Indonesia, from certificated English teachers to those with Bachelor's degrees, and also Master's and doctorates in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL), linguistics and the like.

Furthermore, it is also not clear why, suddenly and without proper context, a vague diatribe about TOEFL was introduced into the letter. Mr. Hinganaday's understanding of TOEFL, and indeed all standardized testing such as GMAT, GRE, SAT etc., needs clarification. TOEFL is an American designed standardized test of Educational Testing Services of New Jersey, the United States. Since ETS's purpose is to create a uniform and hence reliable tool for gauging the English competence of those about to embark on tertiary studies in America and other English-speaking countries, the areas of language performance that it tests are very predictable. These tests are so predictable that many books, CDs and language school programs have been created to focus on the very specific areas of language being examined, and also the way in which the test works.

Consequently, professional and credible approaches to TOEFL focus not only on the predictable language skills required, but also on understanding how the test is created in order to develop appropriate strategies. This is not to demean nor discourage a lifelong approach to language learning, but simply to deal with the reality of standardized testing.

In conclusion, Mr. Hinganaday's rather overgeneralized experience sounds as though it occurred quite a while ago, so my advice to him is that it is time for a reality check!

JOHN HONEYBEN

Jakarta