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English Teaching in Indonesia

SOENJONO DARDJOWIDJOJO
Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta

If we use Kachru's (1992) classification ofEnglish users in the world, we willfind

that Indonesia belongs to the third category, the 'Expanding Circle' - that is a circle
in which only asmallpercentage ofthe people speak the language, andnon-natively.
No figures are available atthe momentas to the number ofthese speakers inIndonesia,
but if it is even as little as 5% of the total population, it still amounts to over
10,000,000people as Indonesia has apopulation of210, 000, 000. With afigure for
speakers almostfive times larger than thepopulation ofSingapore, Indonesia represents
a huge potential market for the teaching ofEnglish. Despite the need to learn this
international language, however, we cannot say that Indonesia has been successfuL.
The present paper is anattempt to describe the ELTsituation in Indonesia andthe
problems that we arefacing.

Linguistic Background
Indonesia has more than 500 mutually unintelligible languages spread over 3,000 inhabited
islands. In many parts of the country, there can be more than one language in one island.
To communicate with people from different language backgrounds, we use the national
language (Bahasa Indonesia), and forinternational communication we use a foreign language.
We can, therefore, classify the languages used in Indonesia into three categories: (1) the
vernacular languages, known as bahasa daerah (regional languages), (2) the national language,
Bahasa Indonesia, and (3) the foreign languages.

Young children in regional areas, but not in cosmopolitan cities like Jakarta, learn their
vernaculars first and onlybegin to learn the national language at school age. The vernaculars
are also used by people in their respective regions as family languages and for social
communication. For formal and business communication, and to communicate with people
from different language backgrounds, people use the national language.

In the 1950s, the foreign language offered at the junior high school was English. At the
senior high school, the students were grouped into three different streams: (1) Stream A,
the Language Stream; (2) Stream B, the Sciences Stream, and (3) Stream C, the Economics
Stream. In all the streams the students were to take the national language and English.
Those in the language stream were also to take either French or German. In Central and
East Java, the students in this stream were also to take ModernJavanese and Old Javanese.

22 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1
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The educational system has now changed. The academic year is divided into three terms.
Students are still grouped into three divisions but under the names of (a) Jurusan Sosial
Budaya, the Socio-cultural Stream (SCS), (b) Jurusan Ilmu PengetahuanAlam, the Natural
Sciences Stream (NSS), and (c) Jurusan Ilmu Pengetahuan Sosial; the Social Sciences Stream
(SSS). English is compulsory for all the streams and allotted four contact hours per week
for Grade 1. For Grades 2 and 3 the time allotment is different across streams. The SCS,
NSS, and SSS are respectively allotted 11, 5, and 5 contact hours per week, each contact
'hour' actually being45 minutes. Studentsin the SCS arealso to takeone of the following
foreign languages (as offered by the school): Arabic, Chinese, French, German, orJapanese.

At the university level, students in non-language departments are to take English for two
semesters and for two contact-hours (lOO minutes) a week. The kind of English taught is
ESP since the goal is to assist the students develop their reading ability in the fields theyare
studying. For those majoring in a foreign language, the university curriculum is designed
to develop language skills as well as theoretical knowledge. Foreign language majors are to
finish between 144-160 credit hours to get a bachelor's degree. The time span given to
obtain the degree is between 4-7 years.

Historical Background
\ Although Indonesia proclaimed its independence from the Dutch on August 17, 1945,
matters pertaining to national development could not be tackled immediately, despite
the fact that in the area of education, for example, the situation was very depressing.
Statistics for the year 1930 show that the literacy rate was only 6.4% and in 1940 there
were only 37 senior high schools in the country - compared to 15,744 in 1997 (Tilaar,
1995; Ministry, 1998 ). Education, including the teaching offoreign languages, escaped
attention until 1950 when Indonesia was more politically tranquil and able to decideon
the kind of republic suitable for the new nation. Prior to the independence, it was only
natural that the foreign language taught at schools was Dutch, albeit this'was limited to
certain groups of people.

After independence, when the time came to choose what foreign languages were to be
taught, Dutch was not selected as one of them.There were two reasons: (a) Dutch was the
language of the colonialist, and (b) it did not have international stature. English was then
chosen as thefirstforeign language. This term must be understood in a specific way, because
most Indonesians, with the exception of some who live in cities and onlyspeak the national
language, are bilingual, with Indonesian as the national or second language and a vernacular
as the mother tongue. The statusof English as the first foreign language remains todayand
guides the government in determining policy. The other foreign languages selected were
French and German. Later, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese were also chosen.

In the attempt to start educating the people, the new Indonesian government faced a big
problem. On the one hand, they realized that English had to be learned, but, on the other

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 23
hand, the manpower and other means to teach this language were not available. The first
attempt by the Indonesian government, through its ambassador to the U.S., Ali
Sastroamidjojo, was to approach the Institute of International Education for assistance.
Through grants from the Ford Foundation, Indonesia began to embark on an In-service
English Teacher Training Project in October 1953 in ten cities throughout Indonesia. The
goal of the project was to introduce English language teaching into schools as speedily,
effectively, and extensively as possible (Gregory, 1964: 21). By the end of the project in
July 1955, a total of approximately 1,025 teachers had been trained.

To meet the growing demand for more English teachers within a relatively short time, the
government established two-year English teachers' training institutes known as Kursus B-1
(B-one Course), the most prominent of which was the Ford Foundation-financed Kursus
B-1 Rencana Baru, more popularly known as the Standard Training Center (STC). There
were only two STCs, one in Yogyakarta, Central Java, established on September 27, 1954,
and another in Bukir Tinggi, Central Summa, established in October of that year. These
institutes introduced the Oral Approach in Indonesia. Acceptance into these two schools
was very selective with only about 50 new students being accepted every year. The Ford
grantalso provided thirtyscholarships for the best STC students to study for the MA and
Ph.D degrees in theUSA., mainly at Indiana University, the University ofMichigan, and
the University ofTexas. Many of the graduates are now senior linguists.

In[anuary 1959, theFord Foundation grant also setup a project to develop English language
materials. The purpose was to prepare teaching materials using the Oral Approach.
Employing new graduates from the STC, a group of American linguists embarked on
preparing textbooks for high schools. The resultant series ofEnglish textbooks were known
as the Salatiga textbooks, as they were prepared in the town of Salatiga in Central Java.
With the completion of these textbooks the Salatiga project came to an end on July 15,
1962 (Gregory, 1964).

The British Council also became involved in ELT in the early 1950s when it set up
headquarters in Bandung, West Java. It switched its focus laterfrom schools to assistance
at the university level. Other countries such as Australia and New Zealand also participated
in developing the new nation through the Colombo Plan by which Indonesian teachers
could get a scholarship for non-degree training either in Australia or New Zealand.

The Curricula and Approaches Adopted

Mter independence, Indonesia had no choice but to continue using the method of teaching
left by the Dutch: the grammar-translaton method. Textbooks such as Abdurachrnans
English Grammar, Tobing's Practical Exercises, and de Maar and Pine's English Passages for
Translation were widely used at the senior high school level.

24 EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1
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When in 1953 the Ford Foundation provided a grant to revamp the teaching of English,
the gate for the then popular Oral Approach was opened, The establishment of the B-1
Courses, particularly the New Model, the STC, as stated above, further facilitated the
spread ofthis approach. Englishfor the SLTP, the official name for the three series ofSalatiga
textbooks, prepared between 1958-1962, were complemented by the series for the senior
high schools, English for the SLTA, written between 1968-1972, printed in 1973 and used
for the first time in 1974 (Nababan, 1982, 1988). These two series of textbooks can be
considered as the embryo for what was then known as 'the 1975 Curriculum'. The four
skills aimed at were listening, speaking, reading, and writing - in that order.

New trends in theoretical linguistics always influence language teaching. The shift of
philosophical outlook from empiricism to nativism in the late 1950s and the sociological
flavor thatbegan to seep intolinguistics in the 1960s brought about changes in our teaching
methodologies. With language viewed as a social phenomenon, people began to look at
language teaching more from language use than language usage (Widdowson, 1978). In
the area of applied linguistics, applied linguists seemed to be siding more with Hymes'
definition of competence than with that of Chomsky's. The Communicative Approach,
(CA) began to penetrate Indonesian territory. The Oral Approach which had been
, dominating the Indonesian scene since the 1950s began to bedoubted and theCAgradually
came in as a replacement. It culminated in thechange ofcurriculum from theOralApproach
1975 Curriculum to the Communicative 1984 Curriculum.

Strangely enough, the 1984 Curriculum never really got off the ground. Although the
curriculum was called communicative, the points of departure in the guidelines were still
very structural. Textbooks resulting from the curriculum, therefore, reflected this structural
orientation (see Departrnen, 1988). Besides, the 1984Curriculum did not provide a clear
explanation on how to incorporate the pragmatic concepts into the teaching materials.
Many of the textbooks were 'misguided' and treated pragmatics as a separate topic in the
form ofchapters rather than being incorporated in thefourskills (Purwo, 1990). Although
the four skills remained as the targets for learning, the order was changed. Apparently, the
Ministry began to realize that, for the majority ofIndonesians, English was not a language
for oral use. Therefore, the order of priority was changed to reading, listening, speaking,
and writing.

The Ministry of Education revised the 1984 Curriculum by producing the 1994
Curriculum. This latest guideline is also communicatively oriented but the official term
used is not komunikatif but kebermaknaan - 'meaningfulness.' Writers and publishers
started publishing textbooks for the junior and senior high schools. Financed by a loan
from theWorld Bank (IBRD Loan No. 3887-IND) thegovernment embarked on procuring
textbooks that were available on the market. In 1996 a national committee called the
National Textbook Evaluation Committee (NTEC) was set up. (The author has been the
English textbook consultant since 1999.) The NTEC intends to procure textbooks for all

, EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1 25
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the fields taught at the high schoollevel. InJanuary 1999, theNTEC invited publishers to
submit their English textbooks for junior high schools to be evaluated and eventually
purchased bythe government. Through its Technical Committee, consisting of universi ty
lecturers and high school teachers, the NTEC decided on the best textbooks to purchase.
This processs starred in Febuary 1999 and it isstill underway.

In a nutshell, Indonesia has changed its curriculum five times using three different
approaches since independence:

1945 : Grammar-translation Approach

1968 : OralApproach
1975 : Audio-lingual Approach
1984: Communicative Approach
1994 : Communicative Approach

The Students
For the academic year 199511996, there were 8,408,017 and 4,753,549 students at the
junior and senior high school levels respectively. Percentage-wise, 17.95% of people aged
13-15 were studying at the junior level, while 9.99%, aged 16-18, were studying at the
senior level (Ministry, 1997a). Since English iscompulsory for these two levels, we can say
thatthere are now over 13,000,000 young people studying English annually through formal
education. There are two types of students, however, who learn English: (a) those who
have to, and (b) those who want to: The first group are the young people above who attend
formal classes.

Prior to 1994, students studying at the elementary school were not taught English. English
was introduced only at the juniorhighschool level. For each year English was allotted 136
contact hours (Pusat, 1994). By the end of the third junior high school year the students
will have studied English for 408 contact hours, each contact hour being 45 minutes.
After passing the government examination, students continue to study at the high school
level. They continue their English study for the same number of hours. By the time a
student graduates from the senior high school (s)he will have studied English for 808
contact hours - or 606 real hours.

Since 1994 the Ministry of Education has allowed elementary schools to offer English to
their fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students, if the school can afford the cost. Students in
the fourth and fifth grades are annually given 68 contact hours each, while those in the
sixth grade, 64 contact hours. Unlike the high school students, those at the elementary
school study English to communicate orally. Thus, the order of emphasis is speaking,
listening, reading, and writing (Deparremen, 1994).

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26
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The curriculum is not onlynational, it is also compulsory. If a textbook writer or a publisher

wishes to have his books used by the schools in the country, (slhe has no choice but to
include all the materials stated in the curriculum. This includes the themes, the grammar,
the functions) and the vocabulary items to be learned.

English classes are not treated differently from other subjects. The number of students
in a class is) therefore) large) with between 40-50 students per class. Many are not happy
with what they get through formal schooling and those who want to seriously study
English usually take private courses. One of the most famous private schools for English
is Lernbaga Bahasa LIA. In Jakarta alone) LIA has 48,820 students enrolled every term
(LB-LIA Report) 2000).

In the past) people associated English with England and looked down on theAmerican, or
any other, variety. Political and economic domination) however, seem to have changed this
attitude. People do not seem to have anyperference, oneway or another, although Australian
andNew Zealand varieties have not gained popularity as much as the British ortheAmerican
dialect. The government has no special policy on the variety to betaught. The onlyguideline
used isthat it must be consistent. If authors choose American English, theyare expected to
use the American variety all the way) grammatically and lexically. The variety of English
taught in formal and informal schools is very much determined by the textbooks being
used and/orbythevariety the teacher speaks. Unlike Singapore) the Philippines) or Malaysia)
Indonesia is not within what Kachru called the Inner or Outer Circle. Therefore, there is
no variety (like 'Singlish' in Singapore) that we promote or tolerate. However, with the
current emphasis on fluency rather than accuracy, people have begun to accept non-native
sounding English.

The Outcome
If we look at the number of-hours a student spends at the junior and senior high schools
and the optional hours at the elementary school, we would expect that a high school
graduate would be able to use English fairly well. This is, however, far from the truth.
With few exceptions, generally a highschool graduate isnot able to communicate intelligibly
in English. Those who are can be suspected of having taken private courses or come from
a certain family background.

Although curricula certainly playan important role, most of the major problems seem to
lie elsewhere (see Dardjowidjojo, 1997a). The class size isdefinitely one. It does not matter
how good the curriculum is) an excellent teacher will not be able to perform well in an
English class with 40-50 students in it. Second, many of our English teachers have not
themselves mastered the language they are teaching. Recent research indicates that many
of our teachers are still poor users of the language (Hamied, 1996; Ridwan at al., 1996).
Since the research was conducted in Java, we can assume that the situation in remote
places outsideJava is much worse. Third, the lowsalary compels teachers to moonlight,

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1 27

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thus dividing their attention to more than one place. Fourth, in most cases teachers
are not familiar with the new curriculum. They use the new books but still apply the
old concepts. Students' autonomy and classroom interaction have not been fully
implemented. Fifth, there is a cultural barrier for teachers to leave the role of masters
and assume the new role of facilitators (Kirkpatrick, 1995, 1996; Dardjowidjojo,
1997b).

These linguistic and non-linguistic factors certainly contribute a great deal to the 'failure'
of the teaching of English in Indonesia. There is no need for pessimism, however, since
this kindoffailure isnot exclusively Indonesian. Any country that teaches foreign languages
to all its young is bound to have a result of this kind. No one has yet heard of a country
that boasts of its foreign language teaching at the high school level!

References

Abdurachman, Nj. K..(1951. English Grammar. Djakarta: Jajasan Pembangunan.

Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono.(1997a). English policies and their classroom impact in some

ASEAN/Asian countries. In George [acobs, ed., Language Classrooms of Tomorrow: Issues
andResponses. Singapore: RELC, 1997.

Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono.(1997b). Cultural constraints in the teaching of English in

Indonesia. Paper given at theTEFLIN Conference, Bandung, 1997.

Departernen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.(1987). Kurikulum Sekolah Menengah Umum

Tingkat Atas. Jakarta: Depdikbud.

Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.(1988). Bahasa Inggris untuk SMA. Jakarta:

Balai Pustaka.

Departernen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.(1994). Kurikulum Muatan Lokal Pendidikan

Dasar Sekolah Dasar: Bahasa Inggris. Jakarta: Kanwil Wilayah Jakarta.

de Maar, Dr. H.G. and E. Pino.(1960) English Passages for Translation. Djakarta: EN.
Pradnja Paramita,

Hamied, Fuad Abdul. (1997) EFL program surveys in Indonesian schools: towards EFL
curriculum implementation for tomorrow. In George Jacobs, ed., Language Classrooms of
Tomorrow: Issues andResponses. Singapore: RELe.

Gregory, O. Dean.(1964). Three Projects in English Instruction in Indonesia. Jakarta: No

publisher's name.

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 Kachru, Braj B.(1992). World Englishes: Approaches, Issues, and Resources. Language
Teaching.

Kirkpatrick, Andy.(1995). Language, culture, and methodology. In M.L. Tickoo, ed.,

\ Language andCulture in Multilingual Societies: Viewpoints andVisions. Singapore: RELC,
I Anthology 36.

Kirkpatrick, Andy.(1996). The changing face of English teaching: principles and practice.
Hanoi: International Conference on Higher Education in the 21 Century: Mission and
SI

Challenge in Developing Countries.

Ministry ofEducation and Culture.(1997a). Indonesia: Education Statistics in Brief 1995/

1996. Jakarta: Ministry of Education and Culture.

Ministry ofEducation and Culture.(1997b). Education Development inIndonesia. Jakarta:

Ministry of Education and Culture.

Nababan, P.W].(1982.). Indonesia: the language situation. In Richard B. Noss, ed.,

Language Teaching Issues inMultilingual Environments inSoutheastAsia. Singapore: RELC,
Anthology 10.

Nababan, P.W]. (1988). English language teaching profile. Unpublished paper.

Purwo, Bambang Kaswanti.(1990). Pragmatik dan Pengajaran Bahasa: Menyibak Kurikulum

1984. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius.

Pusat Pengembangan Kurikulum dan Saran Pendidikan.(1994). Kurikulum 1984: Garis-

garis Besar Program Pengajaran SLTP: Bahasa Inggris. Jakarta: Depdikbud.

Ridwan, Evy C; Willy A. Renandya, and Anita Lie.(1996). On being reflective: a survey
of EFL teachers in Indonesia. Paper given at the RELC Seminar., Singapore.

Tilaar, H.A.R.(1995). Lima Puluh Tahun Pembangunan Pendidikan NasionaI1945-1995.

Jakarta: Grasindo.

Widdowson, H.G.(1978). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford University

Press

EA JOURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1 _ 29
 Soenjono Dardjowidjojo received his MA in EFL, Universiry of Hawaii,
1964, and his PhD in linguistics, Georgetown Universiry, 1967. He was
Lecturer at Victoria Universiry, New Zealand, 1968-1970; and Professor at
the Universiry of Hawaii, 1970-1982. His major interests are in morphology,
syntax, psycholinguistics, andEnglish language teaching. In addition to books,
he has also published articles in the International Journal of the Sociology of
Language, Pacific Linguistics, Oceanic Linguistics, RELC Journal; andJournal
on the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN).
Dardjowidjojo is currently Professor of Linguistics at Atrna Jaya Catholic
Universiry, Jakarta, and Visiting Professor at the State Universiry of jakarta
and the Universiry ofIndonesia.

30 _ EA]OURNAL VOLUME 18 No 1