Start Your EFL Teaching Career in Indonesia: Recognizing EFL Students in Indonesia

By: Rida Afrilyasanti

Indonesian students

English is part of the national curriculum in Indonesia so it is rare that Indonesian students are complete beginners. Moreover, Indonesian uses the Romanized alphabet so there are no difficulties with regards to teaching a new script. Based on the standard competency, it is said that language teaching targeted for the students to be able to communicate orally and written well (BSNP, 2003). It means that the language teaching in Indonesia emphasis the language teaching which is based on context, for daily use. Students are taught to be able to use the language for communicating with others. Furthermore, English language teaching in Indonesia is aimed to develop students’ language skills orally and in written in order to cope with information and technological development and globalization era. It involves the ability to use English as a means of communication and to understand oral and written English in order to understand information and technology.

The language teaching, moreover, is purposed to be done by connecting the materials to students’ daily or context. Furthermore, the competence standard of English language teaching in Indonesia is elaborated on the basis of each skill/basic competence in language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. It implies that students have to be able to master all the four skills in English. Therefore, in relation with the teaching process, teachers are supposed to teach all those four skills in balance.  However, in fact, language teaching in Indonesia is mostly still focused on the teaching of writing and reading only. Many teachers use most of the time to teach writing and reading.

There are some reasons for the teacher not to balance the teaching of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The reasons are: language teaching in Indonesia tends to gear students to have readiness for the test especially national examination, in which the questions in the test are mostly about reading and writing and some listening. It does not even include speaking. It is explained that there are two essences of national education standard; content standard (Standar Isi/ SI) and passing score competence standard (Standar Kompetensi Lulusan/ SKL). The standard of national SKL in Indonesia is national examination, so that the purpose of language teaching in Indonesia is quite different from its authentic purpose.

Additionally, Applebaum (2007:266) says that most teachers and lecturers in Indonesia are still using teacher-centered approaches in their classrooms. Teachers are afraid if students become silent and do not become active participants when they conduct speaking class because students are still afraid to use their English. Moreover, teachers are not able to find interesting activities to motivate students in their speaking class; teachers tend to use dialog for their speaking class so that it creates students’ boredom in speaking class.  On the other hand, the teachers are afraid to lose control of their students and do not have class management if they conduct speaking class, because students start to talk and make noise. Applebaum (2007:266) adds teachers often conduct speaking activities that usually involve students giving a short speech or reciting some material. These activities are considered to be boring and inauthentic for students. Moreover, although students would be able to say the sentences accurately in the classroom, they would be unable to use the target language in a real situation outside the classroom. For those many reasons, teachers use most of the time to teach writing and reading. Therefore, orally, students become inactive participants; they are able to understand the language but they are not able to use and produce it.

For the students’ attitude, compared to European teenagers, Indonesian teenagers are well behaved and a pleasure to teach. Lately, Indonesian students tend to embrace English and are particularly interested in western culture. Some status is attached to being able to speak English and frequently Indonesian celebrities use a smattering of English as a trend to demonstrate how cultured they are when being interviewed by the Indonesian press. This has real advantages as an English language teacher.