Some Problems of ELT Practice in Indonesia:

A Personal Reflection

Abstrak
Pengajaran bahasa asing di Indonesia terutama bahasa Inggris tampak
selalu bermasalah. Berbagai macam persoalan ini selalu menjadi alasan
kenapa kemampuan dan prestasi siswa tidak meningkat.

A. Introduction
Individual growing and living in given societies require, to varying degrees, a new
languages (second languages) after they have learnt their first language. The various
reasons which prompt second language have aroused an effort to help society cope with
this necessity. In general it is called language teaching. The concept of language
teaching has been defined as the activities which are intended to bring about language
learning (Stern, 1984: 21). It is necessary to consider that the concept of language
teaching is more widely interpreted than instructing a language class. There are various
aspects fall within the concept of teaching. They may range from instructions’ type, the
use of media, preparation of teaching materials, as well as making the necessary
administrative provision.
Since language teaching is defined as the activities which are intended to bring
about language learning, a theory of language teaching always implies concepts of
language learning. It is hardly possible to find a language teaching theory which is not
also a theory of language learning. A good language teaching theory would meet the
condition and conditions of learners in the best possible ways. It is the failure of
language teaching in this respect that is often criticized and has led to the demand for a
greater concern for understanding the learner.
How English was chosen as the main foreign language taught in secondary school
has a long history. During the period of the country’s independence in 1945, education
escaped the central government’s attention, including foreign language education. In
1950, Indonesia’s political situation was relatively more stable and steady and thus the
government was also ready to choose a foreign language to be taught in schools. Even
though many people were more familiar with Dutch, English was eventually selected as

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the first foreign language because Dutch was considered as the language of the
colonialist and because it did not have the international status of English
(Dardjowidjojo, 2000; Nur, 2003).
This writing is intended to present a view about some problems of ELT in
Indonesia. It is obvious that discussion about the practice of ELT in Indonesia refers to
a complicated matter because of involving many factors. Thus to specify this writing,
the discussion will deal mainly with the problems due to curriculum’s change, teachers’
competency, and facilities. Most of the idea is based on the reflection that the writer has
experienced.

B. Some of ELT Problems in Indonesia

Foreign language education in Indonesia, particularly the teaching of English,
seems to be always problematic. The continually-revised curriculum does not seem to
take into serious considerations factors such as suitable qualifications for teachers, time
availability, numbers of students, or available resources and facilities, nor does it
provide strategies and alternatives should problems related to English language
education occur. What really happens in English classrooms, is not addressed either in
the curriculum guidelines.
1. Problems due to curriculum’s change
It is a fact that curriculum plays an important role in education. It is a part by
which educator may determine the needs of a group of learners; to develop aims or
objectives for a program to address those needs; to determine an appropriate syllabus,
course structure, teaching methods, and materials; and to carry out an evaluation of the
language program that results from these processes (Richards, 2001: 2). A firm and
established curriculum is needed to have a solid and sustainable teaching practice. Any
change toward curriculum, surely will affect the practice of teaching. Regard to
curriculum developed in Indonesia thus it can be stated that the curriculum has been
changed regularly. Yet the change seems, for many parties, tend to external factor of
teaching rather than improvement of teaching system itself. Curriculum in Indonesia has
changed due to the development of language teaching, Indonesian government
changing, and science and technology as well as the information development.
First, development of language teaching. When the linguist’s view is still
influenced by structuralism then all teaching activities were directed based on the
structuralism’s principles. The changes in language teaching methods throughout
history have reflected recognition of changes in the kind of proficiency learners need,
such as a move toward oral proficiency rather than reading comprehension as the goal
of the language study; they have also reflected changes in theories of the nature of
language and language learning (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 3). This approach has
been a long-lasted model for many teachers in Indonesia. It creates a deep belief toward
our teachers that a good language teaching must be a structural based one. The
condition contrasts to development of curriculum design directed by government.
Though the newest curriculum has been oriented toward constructivism, our teachers
still apply what he ‘knows’ about the curriculum (language teaching and learning
program based on structuralism principles). So, there is an expression among the
teachers that ‘curriculum may change but the way of teaching is still the same’. For
example through the teaching learning process, many English subject teachers still teach
English sentence structure as the main focus of teaching rather than develop their
student’s competency through various learning activities. They drill their student solely
without any other technique equipped in their teaching process.
Second, changing of government. To note the curriculum’s problem concerns
English Language Teaching as Foreign Language in Indonesia cannot be separated from
the government affairs policy. It is true that no one method or approach has been
applied is perfect, yet they have their own strength and weaknesses. But this fact is not
fixed with the sustainable curriculum. The government attempt’s as the policy maker is
not accompanied with another attempt to cover those some ‘failures’ through the
language teaching program. It is shown by another expression well known among the
teachers that ‘a curriculum has been changed because of changing in education of
ministry’. For some people it seems as a curriculum development ‘project’ which is
directed by ‘whom’ and ‘what is the orientation’ of the curriculum designer is.
Third, development of science, technology and information. The global world has
obliged people all around the world, including Indonesia, to communicate with the
others in another country so that there is a need to reset and review the subject’s
curriculum in Indonesia. Concerning the necessity to prepare a resist human resource
through the global era so that education, including foreign language, must be able to

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feed adequately otherwise the school’s output cannot participate in various academic
activities, social, economic and so on which basically is the realization of modern life
style. This ability to participate actively in life is formulized as competencies.

2. Problems due to teachers’ competency

The term competency refers to an observable behavior that is needed to
accomplish daily task successfully. From this point of view, the output of learning
should be formulized due to some parties’ expectation as they will recruit the school’s
output so the formula deals with the task and task the students will do. The success of
curriculum design is relied on so much to its implementation in classroom by teachers
as they deal directly with the students. In implementing curriculum and teaching
planning, teachers have a very crucial and strategic role as they are the planning
transferors and reformer toward the children. Marks (1990: 9) defined Pedagogical
Content Knowledge as: a class of knowledge that is central to teacher’s work and that
would not typically be held by nonteaching subject matter experts or by teachers who
know little of that subject matter. We can say that teachers are the main human
resources involved in teaching learning process without ignoring any other stake
holders’ role.
First, the low proficiency of English teachers. In order to teach language well, a language
teacher must have good knowledge about the language. It is hard for an English teacher
transfers his/her knowledge if he/she does not have a good understanding about the knowledge.
Furthermore, to manage a good class activity will not work unless teachers know what kind of
class activity is good for the class. Surely, teacher can not be a model for the students if he/she
has a bad pronunciation. These considerations show how a good proficiency influences the
success of the teaching. From the Certification Test conducted by National Education Agency
we can see the knowledge of majority English teachers. The test shows that only a little of them
can pass though the materials of test is about what they have taught for years and how they
present their classroom in form of lesson plans.
Second, non English-graduated teachers. There are many English language
teachers are not graduated from English department. There are many small private
schools with small budget to allocate more teachers for running the English language
teaching program. Another example is coming from the idea of teaching English for
elementary school conducted by some elementary schools. Elementary school teachers
in Indonesia are ‘super’ teacher. He/she can be any teacher due to the schedule. It
comes from PGSD program as the education and teaching training with no specific
subject targeted. Therefore, when he/she passes the study he/she has ability to teach any
subjects including English instead of their educational background.
Third, the lack understanding about students’ language development. It seems
that teaching English for elementary school will minimize the problem of English
language teaching for the following years (Junior High School up to university level).
But when the main ‘actor’ is not well prepared, the program may create another
dangerous problem. Many English teachers at elementary school do not have sufficient
knowledge about child language learning. The result is obviously, the teachers ignore
many aspects of their children learners. It seems they ignore those children as the
subject learners have different characteristics compared to adult learners. For the sake of
simplicity, the teachers assume similar language teaching for adult which they have
been familiar with. The teacher may present a complicated structural rule and explain
the function as they give to adult learners. They forget that children do not like this kind
of boring and serious material presentation.
Fourth, a teacher at some schools. In Indonesia being a teacher means nothing as
a teacher only earns a small amount of money. To fulfill his/her needs, a teacher can not
focus in one school but some schools for the sake of daily needs. This kind of
profession will give bad effect toward the classes he/she teaches. How can a teacher
prepare a good language lesson planning, if his/her time is only used for teaching and
teaching without concerning the difference and characteristics of each class?

3. Problems due to facilities

There are some problems of ELT in Indonesia in terms of facilities. The
Implementation of foreign language education curriculum with competency-based must
be supported with various means and sufficient infrastructure. In Indonesia, only a little
amount of school will be able to meet the condition. There are some points to note
about these problems of facilities in teaching English in Indonesian context.
First, poor condition and management of facilities. Unless the school is private
and supported by abundant fund, which is mostly located in big cities, a state school
built by government will only have standard means and infrastructure. Many schools’

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building with the classroom, tables, chairs, and other equipments are in poor condition.
Laboratory and library are merely a building for placing old fashion state textbooks and
equipments as well as their poor management.
Second, the lack of foreign language learning infrastructure. Besides those
facilities above, the products from information technology and communication
development can be used in learning foreign language. This communication technology
can be printed media cetak such as newspaper, magazines, books, brochures, posters
and so on or electronic media such as computer, TV, radio, internet, VCD, parabola,
and others. But once again, only a small numbers of teacher can use these modern
infrastructures while most of our teachers still depend their classroom teaching by
blackboard and papers. Moreover to have sufficient facilities in order to in line with the
world’s change will cost a lot of money.
Third, uncreative usage of learning facilities. Those schools that are lucky to
have such modern facilities still face the other problems. Not all of the teacher can use
these facilities to improve teaching and learning process. Only one or two teachers will
use internet to gain various actual information in foreign language as a learning aid to
improve the students’ competencies in listening, speaking, and reading. For many
teachers, TV and radio are only ordinary tools to enjoy entertainment. Not many of the
teachers can use these tools to improve students’ ability in listening. One about not
least, computer as a must-facility in this era is still a ‘strange’ and difficult facilities for
many of our teachers even in big cities. These kinds of teachers will have a problem in
terms of having no idea about using it as learning media to develop four students’ skills
at once? Once again, maybe the best teaching media for them is a textbook with its all
exercises.

C. Conclusion
Since it was first taught, there have been problems in the teaching of English as a
foreign language. The changing of curriculum and approaches along with the changing
of the Minister of Education was not uncommon. The problems are worsening by the
lack of facilities that will support the teaching learning. There are even more problems
appear within the process. For future, it is hoped that every stake holders involved in the
education process, not only in language teaching, will work hand-in-hand to cope with
any problems so that the education will produce a better bright generation.

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 Bibliography

Brinton, D.M. (2001). The use of media in language teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M.

(Ed.). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Boston: Heinle &
Heinle.

Dardjowidjojo, S. (2000). English teaching in Indonesia. EA Journal, 18 (1), 22-30.

Marks, R. (1990). Pedagogical content knowledge: From a mathematical case to a

modified conception. Journal of Teacher Education May-June, 3-12

McDonough, J., and Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teacher’s
Guide. Oxford: Blackwell.

Musthafa, B. (2001). Communicative language teaching in Indonesia: Issues of

theoretical assumptions and challenges in the classroom. Journal of Southeast
Asian Education, 2 (2), 1-9.

Nur, C. (2003). English language teaching in Indonesia: Changing policies and

practices. In Kam, H.W., and Wong, R. (eds.). English language teaching in East
Asia today: Changing policies and practices. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

Richards, J.C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching (2nd edition). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Stern, H.H. (1984). Fundamental Concept of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Yuwono, G. (2005). English language teaching in decentralized Indonesia: Voices from

the less privileged schools. Paper Presented At AARE 2005 International
Education Research Conference. Retrieved October 21st, 2008, from
http://www.Aare.Edu.Au/05pap/Yuw05050.Pdf.
 In line with the concept of communicative competence, the following factors
should therefore be present in an English language classroom:
• Fluency and acceptable language is the primary goal (Richards & Rodgers,
1986). This implies that the teacher him/herself should be a fluent English
speaker.
• Students are expected to interact with other students in order to communicate in
the target language (Richards & Rodgers, 1986; Freeman, 2000). This implies
that the tasks should include pair and group work, and those activities like role
plays, language games and problem-solving tasks are encouraged.
• Students should be given enough opportunities to get to know the authentic
language (Freeman, 2000). Therefore, authentic materials are important in an
English classroom.
• The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator in communication (Richards &
Rodgers, 1986; Freeman, 2000). It implies that the amount of teacher talking
time should not be a barrier for students for using the target language
(McDonough & Shaw, 1993).
• The role of students’ native language should be minimal (Freeman, 2000).
English should be used most of the time.
• Non-technical and technical media are important tools for language learning
and teaching, particularly for carrying out language tasks (Brinton, 2001). Non-
technical media include: blackboards, posters, maps, pictures, or photos.
Technical media include: tape recorder, CD/Video/DVD player, or overhead
projector.

Recent curriculum in English language education in Indonesia focuses only on the

teaching of English at junior and high school levels as English is not compulsory at
elementary level. The curriculum adopts so-called communicative competence as its
model of competence (Depdiknas, 2003). Communicative competence itself can be
summarized as skills needed for communication, which consists of four important
components. Those components are: grammatical/linguistic competence, sociocultural
competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence (Richards & Rodgers,

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1986; Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thurrell, 1995).
Whether or not English teaching and English teachers in Indonesia have met the
‘ideals’ as stated above, remain a question. What is stated and expected in the recent
curriculum document might be implemented differently in the real English classrooms
due to many unexpected factors, such as limited resources, facilities, and funding, and
unqualified teachers. The virtues behind so-called communicative competence as
recommended by Richards and Rodgers (1986), McDonough and Shaw (1993),
Freeman (2000), or Brinton (2001) to name a few, are still too difficult to be
implemented in many English classrooms in Indonesia let alone in less-privileged
schools. In the era of educational decentralization in which schools are forced to be
more autonomous and independent, the condition could be worse.
School-based management impacts on public schools, particularly in Indonesia
whose previous system was always centralized. However, for non-public schools, this
new direction in education also affects them, particularly because the government still
conducts a standardized national examination. While in the past the competition among
schools was not so high, today’s school autonomy forces schools to always perform
better than others. With such a competition, public and non-public schools now have to
be able to perform better and offer better service for their customers, for the sake of
further school promotion. Schools are often forced to be ‘selfish’ as well.
In the era of autonomy, schools have to compete to get as many students as
possible by achieving good results in the national evaluation and by promoting some
‘plus point’ programs, one of which is by offering their improved English language
programs. Unlike in the past when schools in one district used to have a kind of sharing
and networking spirit, nowadays they are reluctant to uncover what their programs are
as this virtuous act could backfire if other schools decide to imitate or adopt them.
Since it was first taught, there have been problems in the teaching of English as a
foreign language. The changing of curriculum and approaches (Dardjowidjojo, 2000;
Nur, 2003) along with the changing of the Minister of Education was not uncommon.
The big class sizes and teachers with poor mastery of English are two obvious factors
that contribute to the ongoing problems in English Language Teaching (ELT) in
Indonesia (Dardjowidjojo, 2000). Other reasons for the problems are: (1) limited time
allocated for teaching English, (2) students do not have enough time to actually learn to
speak English in class because the teacher is more concerned to teach the grammar and
syntax, (3) the absence of good and authentic learning materials, and (4) the absence of
the social uses of English outside the classroom (Musthafa, 2001).
ASSIGNMENT on
SEMINAR OF ELT PROBLEMS
Lectured by Asrudin B. Tou, Ph.D.

SOME PROBLEMS OF ELT PRACTICE IN INDONESIA:

A PERSONAL REFLECTION

by:
HERY RAHMAT
07706251009

APPLIED LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT

GRADUATE PROGRAM
YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
2009

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