Developing Standards Efl Indonesia
Developing Standards Efl Indonesia
Developing Standards Efl Indonesia
Teaching Reform
Suwarsih Madya
State University of Yogyakarta
One can hardly deny that English plays a very important role in the major aspects
of life in this globalized era. It is the most widely spoken language in the world, with
more than 300 million speaking it as the first language, more than 200 million people
speaking it as a second language, and more than one billion people speaking it as a
foreign language (Crystal, 1997). It is, therefore, ready to assume its role as the global
language. Its influence is increasing with the advancement of information technology,
which has evidently accelerated the .explosion of knowledge, increased the speed of
communication for various purposes, and gradually created a global culture. A claim
that this global language will contribute a great deal to one's success in this information
era is then not an exaggeration.
In the Indonesian context, a good mastery of English will indeed help accelerate
the development of the country for two major reasons. First, the development should be
supported by the mastery of science and technology. To the writer's observation, most
of the books of science and technology are written in English and much scientific
information available on electronic media is also presented in English. Second, English
is one of the international languages used for various international communication
purposes trading, diplomacy, politics and education. So a good mastery of English can
be said to be a prerequisite for the success of developing this country.
Unfortunately, the teaching of English in Indonesia has so far been unable to
achieve its declared goals despite the many efforts made to improve its quality. A
layman's observation has indicated that secondary school leavers who have learned this
language for 6 years, with almost 900 hours of school teaching, are unable to use this
language for communication purposes. This phenomenon can also be observed among
university graduates and even among faculty members.
This situation should be improved in the context of decentralization in which the
probability of success might be greater due to greater freedom to meet the students'
needs. Under the school-based management, the teaching of English can be designed in
such a way as to meet the learning needs of the students. However, to ensure that the
school helps its students to learn English to reach a level of performance publicly
recognized, a `standard' for English should be formulated. The standard should be the
main reference for benchmarking.
This paper focuses on the discussion of the formulation of standards for English
for Indonesian secondary schools.
A lot of efforts have been made to improve the quality of EFL teaching in
Indonesia. A new policy was made in 1994 to allow primary schools to teach English to
their fourth, fifth and sixth graders. The syllabi were revised four times in line with the
revision of the school curricula so that there were four syllabus documents, i.e. the
1968, the 1975, the 1984 and 1994 versions. In addition, a supplement to the 1994
syllabus was made in 1999 in response to the teachers' demand for easy reference and
the global demand for communicative skills.
To support the success of the TEFLIN development and improvement, other
related programs were carried out. In-service EFL teacher education programs were
offered to teachers of junior and senior secondary schools. The Universitas Terbuka
(Open University) and other LPTKs (teacher education institutions) offered continuing
education programs to EFL teachers. In-service and continuing education programs for
EFL faculty members were also carried out. The former was through the P3G (in-
service teacher education programs) and other forms of in-service training programs and
the latter through postgraduate programs either in the country or abroad. New textbooks
were also written and more equipment was provided. All of this was made possible by
foreign loans.
These educational efforts have to some extent been fruitful. A great number of
EFL teachers have learned new approaches to EFL teaching and learning, and quite a
number have got postgraduate degrees. Some change has also occurred in the EFL
teaching practices, i.e. moving away a little step from language focused practices to
more communication-focused practices.
However, observation has indicated that what has been achieved in TEFLIN so far
has not significantly been reflected in the results of EFL teaching. Many people
complain that EFL teaching at school has failed to develop the students' English
communicative skills. In the global context in which international competition is very
strong, the EFL teaching situation is a very disappointing and even frustrating one.
Although one's command of English alone is certainly not sufficient since he/she still
needs to have expertise, it is indeed an indispensable requirement for going
international. Besides, it also a vital tool for absorbing science and technology of which
the role in this country's development is unquestionable. Therefore, it stands to reason
to assume that the failure of EFL teaching might to some extent have contributed to the
low rank of Indonesian competitiveness and higher education. Data presented by the
Asia Week (30 June 2000) indicated that only four Indonesian universities could be
categorized as good in Asia-Australia, but ranked 61" (University of Indonesia), 68th
(Gadjah Mada University), 73 rd (Diponegoro University), and 75th (Airlangga
University) respectively among the 77 universities being surveyed. Since the first two
have been considered as the best universities in Indonesia, the data were quite
shocking. Still another piece of unpleasant news struck Indonesian people. That is,
Indonesian competitiveness ranks 37`h as reported in Global Competitiveness Report
1999 published by the World Economic Forum, Sweden. The above data have certainly
caused teachers, teacher educators and educational scientists alike in Indonesia to
realize how poor the quality of Indonesia's education in general, including that of EFL
teaching. In the context of this paper, it can be said that the EFL teaching in Indonesia
has so far failed to achieved its declared aims.
So, what has been wrong to the whole business of education in Indonesia,
particularly that of EFL teaching? The first to blame has been the adoption of a
centralized system of education, which is mainly characterized by uniformity. This is
certainly in contradiction to the diversity characterizing Indonesia. The shift from the
centralized system to the decentralized one as has been legally mandated by Law No.
22, 1999, is therefore worth appreciating.
The decentralized system, partly implemented through school-based management,
is quite promising if followed by appropriate policies, in this context, of EFL teaching.
Looking Ahead to the Future
To ensure true improvement of education in general and of EFL teaching in
particular, the decentralized system should be translated into appropriate policies, with
diversity being the first for consideration--diversity in cultural, linguistic, and natural
environmental background. In addition to such diversity, differences in students' needs
and capability as well as educational aspiration should be the next for consideration.
All of this, however, should be within the framework of national unity.
With the global challenge facing us today, we have to think and work very hard
and responsibly in seeking for the fundamental solution to the problems of EFL
teaching and learning. Since people are the greatest and most valuable asset for any
country, the development of education, which means the development of human
beings, should receive the greatest attention. This is because once the educational
development is successful in the true sense, the Indonesian people will be quite ready
to solve their own individual, local and national problems and improve their standards
of living, while at the same time contribute to the solution of world problems.
Considering the data on Indonesia's competitiveness and higher education quality cited
above and the challenges posed by the global era, it is indeed high time for us to carry
out EFL teaching reform in line with the educational reform now being formulated
through the Educational Bill by Commission VI of the Parliament, supported by
Komite Reformasi Pendidikan or the Educational Reform Committee.
The reform is indeed in the direction of answering the question concerned with
the characteristics of the coming era and possible problems to be encountered. The
technological society has been identified as having the following 6 characteristics as
cited by Lange (1990) from Mulkeen and Tetenbaum (1987) Tetenbaum and Mulkeen
(1986) as follows: (1) The twenty-first century will be knowledge-based; (2) The
twenty-first century will see an increased information flow; (3) The twenty-first
century will see rapid change and impermanence; (4) The twenty-first century will see
an increase in decentralization of organization, institutions, and systems; (5) The
twenty-first century will be people-oriented; (6) The twenty-first century will see major
demographic shifts. The implications of these characteristics, according to Lange
(1990) are concerned with recruitment of prospective teachers, the shift from the
teacher-centred to the learner-centred approach, lifelong learning, autonomous learners,
autonomous teachers, the needs for minority students.
In the context of this paper, we have to give special attention to application of the
learner-centred approach to EFL teaching. With this approach, the individual learning
needs of the students should receive much more attention than ever before; thus more
freedom for the teachers to respond to the students' learning needs. With this freedom,
teachers will have ample opportunity to be creative. Creativity will meet the demand of
diversity. To ensure that the teaching and learning of English is directed towards a
certain goal benefiting the students, it is necessary to have standards for which all
parties will strive.
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