The Access English EBE (English for Bilingual Education) Symposium will be held on 8 – 11 June, 2009, in Jakarta. What are the challenges pertaining to this bilingual-teaching method?
It is a grilling hot day in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. The heat, however, does not reach the room where seventh-year students of SMPN 19 (19 State Junior High School) are studying. The air-conditioning system is buzzing. There are also multimedia and Wi-Fi devices in the room. One can immediately see that the class is different from the class in other Indonesian schools in general. Moreover, the teacher is using English as the medium of instruction.
The teacher is Zauki. Today, he is explaining about photosynthesis, or how plants produce oxygen. His English is rather fluent, although with a strong Indonesian accent. Every time he finishes explaining something, he will ask, “Understand?” The students stay silent until Zauki poses his question again—this time in Indonesian. “Kids, do you get it?” The students immediately reply in unison, “Yeeeees.”
In Zauki’s class, the students seem passive. After the class, however, a student named Anindita states that she is happy being taught in English. “I don’t have any problems,” she says, rather embarrassedly.
In another place, at the Model Islamic Village Elementary School, Tangerang, one also encounters such a sight. In a first-year class room, a math teacher introduces numbers in English. In the fourth year, another teacher is explaining about magnetic field: the negative pole is at this end; at the other end, the positive pole. The teacher, Nelly, also carries a battery as an instructional device. Ms. Nelly’s students are quite active. When she asks them what batteries are for, the children are vying to give their answers, “Car toys! Calculator!”
The learning process with English as the medium of instruction has been going on for quite a while in several Indonesian schools. To be exact, it was introduced in 2005, when the Ministry of Education, through its Directorate General of Basic and Secondary Education (Dikdasmen), launched the program of “international standard schools” in Indonesia. From around 450 schools that had set the system in place, 112 have been selected and then established as R-SBIs (Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional, or Indonesian School Pilot with English-medium stream Pilot).
In R-SBI schools, English is no longer taught as a foreign language but is also used as the language of instruction in mathematics and science classes. This system is commonly called the “English-medium teaching of Mathematics and Science” or EMMS.
The objective is clear. Indonesia does not wish to be left behind in a world where English proficiency is becoming increasingly important. Indonesia is not alone in applying the bilingual system of education. Other Southeast Asian nations such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam have also taken a similar measure.
Considering how EMMS is a relatively new system, its implementation on the field is yet to comply with its initial scenario. The teachers at the Model Islamic Village Elementary School, Tangerang, for example, mention about the different capabilities among their students. The Indonesian language, therefore, is still used, although the emphasis is still on English. They also feel that their month-long English course was far from enough. “It should’ve been a constant, ongoing course,” says Azizah, a math teacher.
To handle the problem, the teachers regularly meet once a week. They produce worksheet and a manual of sorts. Aware that some of their students might speak even better English than they do, the teachers are not hesitant to include their students’ inputs in their manual.
The one thing that they agree as taxing is the issue of teaching materials. The teachers often have to use their own resources to find appropriate teaching materials. Azizah, for example, states that the materials for the subject of fractions that she has received from the Ministry of Education are not simple enough. “Books published in Singapore are not as complicated,” she pronounces. Besides, the exams create another problem. The subjects are tested in Indonesian, while the language of day-to-day instruction is mostly English. As a consequence, both teachers and students become confused. Parents have varying attitudes regarding the system of bilingual education. Siti Juhariah, a Jakarta resident, claims that she has no problem whatsoever with the selection of English as the medium of instruction for her children. It so happens that her two children, who studied at the acceleration class at SMAN 8 (State High School) in Jakarta, have been accepted at Bandung Institute of Technology as they graduated from the high school. Meanwhile, Retnowati, who lives in Depok, initially intended to send her teenager to an “international standard” or “SBI” state high school. She, however, became doubtful as she learnt that the teachers in the school had just finished their elementary English courses.
Education consultant Itje Chodijah believes that bilingual education system, at the one hand, has a lot of advantages for the students—in terms of the cognitive aspect, creativity, linguistic and cultural awareness, ability to master another language swiftly and efficiently, and also in terms of the added value when the students enter the professional world. The bilingual education system, however, can only be effective if the facilities are ready, too: in terms of the fluency in English, mastery over the language, and adequate text books.
“Who, for example, will be responsible in checking the quality standard of English that the teachers use?” asks Itje. For her, a high TOEFL score is not adequate, because for the students to understand the subjects well, teachers should apply the active learning method, which stimulates the students to think independently. Meanwhile, the active learning method has not been adequately understood even when the teachers use Indonesian as the language of instruction.
Itje thinks that simultaneous steps should be taken so that the International-Standard School program can go as desired. Aside from providing text books and training programs for the teachers, there should also be improvements in the curricula in pedagogical universities, to make sure that they are harmonious with the needs on the field. This would be improvements at the source, as it were. No less important, Itje believes, is the requirements for the International Standard Schools, which should be more realistic. She thinks that the subjects of maths and science would be too burdensome to be taught in English. “Why don’t we try using English for sport first, for example?”
With the above-mentioned problems serving as the background illustration, the event of Access English EBE (English for Bilingual Education) Symposium, to be held on 8 – 11 June, 2009, in Jakarta, is worth waiting for. As the institution that cares a lot about improving English learning and teaching, we would like the event to be successful in helping to inform key individuals from Ministries of education and univeristies around the region. In this symposium, practitioners who are our partners from the Southeast Asian region will gather and share their experiences. There are general challenges, and there will also be specific problems for different countries. The practitioners will also discuss important issues pertaining to the planning and implementation of effective EBE programs, and also formulate the next steps to improve English teaching and learning.
It is expected that the symposium will bring about a thorough understanding about matters related to EBE, such as greater understanding among the education ministries about the available scope of EBE programs, as well as the implication of EBE programs for teachers, trainers, and students.
One of the speakers in the event is John Clegg. At the end of 2007, Clegg has conducted a brief research in Indonesian schools about the implementation of EMMS. At the time, he has provided several recommendations, for example about the selection of several schools as the model schools. It will be interesting to observe what he has to say in the symposium this year.
Check the result of the symposium from this article
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