English Language Teachers towards ASEAN Community 2015: Are we ready yet?

English Language Teachers towards ASEAN Community 2015: Are we ready yet?

By: Wildan M Muttaqin

Presented on The International Seminar 'ASEAN COMMUNITY 2015' UNISRI Surakarta 

(October 2014)

Abstract

The paper aims to convey the development of English Language Teaching in Indonesia and the readiness of English Language Teachers towards ASEAN Community 2015. One of the statements on ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) blueprint is to promote the use of English language, because English will become the language of the ASEAN Community. Since the New 2013 Curriculum has been implemented in schools, it is very important then to know and see Teachers’ preparations to take the challenge to ASEAN Community 2015. They have to link and match between their ways (methodology) in teaching and ASCC blueprint. In addition, higher education system in Indonesia must be strengthened into coming up with concrete strategies on how to be able to address this challenge. The quality of the English Language Teachers should also be improved and English Language Teachers have to participate actively in promoting Concept of ASEAN Community 2015 to their students.

Keywords: English, ASEAN community, and teaching

Introduction

English was the first foreign language obliged to be taught at junior and senior high school as determined by central government policy since independent in 1945. It is prioritized over other foreign languages such as French, Arabic, Chinese and others (Dardjowidjojo: 2000). In 1967, the Ministry of Education reviewed that teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia was intended to equip students to read textbooks and references in English, to participate in classes and examinations that involved foreign lecturers and students, and to introduce Indonesian culture in International arenas. This general objective was represented in the high school English curriculum 1975, 1984, and 1994. The objective in the 1967 decree actually was to teaching English as to prepare students for the function at the tertiary level (Fuad Hassan in the Jakarta Post, 2001 as cited by Jazadi, 2008). In other words, English teaching and learning in Indonesia was dedicated to academic purposes. English teaching in Indonesia has been based on the curriculum designed by the central government throughout provision of curriculum policies. English Language Teachers plays an important role in teaching and educating their students. They have to be aware on the development of their students and the latest curriculum. Technological modernization, vocational development, and freedom on education are now promoted, the ability to communicate in international language should be improved and they have to become fluent in English language as it is the official language medium of the ASEAN community members.

The 13th ASEAN Summit held in Singapore on 20^th November 2007, agreed to develop ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) blueprint to ensure that concrete actions are undertaken to promote the establishment of an ASEAN. The ASCC Blueprint represents the human dimension of ASEAN cooperation and upholds ASEAN commitment to address the region's aspiration to lift the quality of life of its peoples. The ASCC is characterized by a culture of regional resilience, adherence to agreed principles, spirit of cooperation, collective responsibility, to promote human and social development, respect for fundamental freedoms, gender equality, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice.

The blueprint also states that ASEAN will enhance the well-being and livelihood of the people of ASEAN by providing them with equitable access to human development opportunities by promoting and investing in education and lifelong learning, human resource training and capacity building, encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, promote the use of English language, ICT and applied science and technology in socio-economic development activities.

The ASEAN Community 2015

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok by the five original member countries. They are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined on January 8, 1984, Vietnam on July 28, 1995, Laos and Myanmar on July 23, 1997, and Cambodia on April 30, 1999, resulting in a ten-nation cooperation framework. The ASEAN region has a population of more than 600 million people, has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$1.8 trillion with total trade valued at $2 trillion among the countries.

During the 9th ASEAN Summit in 2003, leaders of member countries resolved to establish the ASEAN Community. It aims to develop a place where all the ten countries come together to build a better place to live for everyone. In 2007, at the 12th ASEAN Summit, the Heads of States affirmed their strong commitment to establish the ASEAN Community by 2015. It has three pillars: ASEAN Political- Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community, and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community forming the roadmap or ASEAN Community 2015. In constructing an ideal ASEAN Community, a Regional Identity needs to be cultivated by the Member States and its peoples. To achieve this goal, the Member States shall reinforce not only mutual interest and interdependence economically, but also understanding and appreciation of the Community’s diversified cultures and ethnics; a unity in diversity. That is to say, the Member States and their peoples should have respect for the different cultures, languages, and religions of their associated countries.

English and ASEAN

English was chosen as the official lingua franca of ASEAN in 2009. The choice had in fact been in place before then. As pointed out by Kirkpatrick (2007:155), English had been the de facto lingua franca of ASEAN right from the founding of the organization, and the choice had been made naturally with neither objections, nor debates from all parties.

In Thailand, English has taken on its significant roles, mainly in sectors such as education, tourism, and business. In this regard, a great number of English programs (EP) have been offered as an alternative in schools, and universities in recent years. Moreover, the existence of several international’ schools and universities are also evident to the increasing popularity of English in the country. However, English is by far perceived as the language of the educated and elite, not people in general.

Since English is the lingua franca of ASEAN, Thai Education Ministry has tried to promote the language by allowing the integration of English in school curriculum at every level. Despite the educational sector’s attempts at promoting English in Thailand, students of non-EP programs usually do not have opportunities to actually use English outside their classrooms. This owes to the fact that Thailand is a monolingual country, and as such English has never taken on a central role in the same way it has in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, or the Philippines.

English language teaching in Indonesia

As early as 1950, when a foreign language to be chosen for the school curriculum nationwide (either Dutch or English), pol­icy makers in Indonesia were well aware that English could serve a very important role as a tool in the development of the country, both for international relations and scientific-technological advancement. English was chosen over Dutch despite the fact that the Dutch had colonized Indonesia for three and a half centuries. As is very well recorded in our history, the

official status of English in the country has been "the first foreign language" and the political stance of Indonesia's govern­ment is quite firm: "English is not and will never be a social language nor the second official language in Indonesia" (Sadtono, 1997:7).

With English being given this status, the objective of English language teaching (ELT) in Indonesia is to equip students with a working knowledge of the lan­guage. While this instructional objective may appear self-explanatory, in the con­text of formal schooling, the notion of "working knowledge in English" has been approached in different ways throughout the history of ELT in Indonesia. The condition of Indonesian government which issues the policy of decentralized system has made many educators and teachers urge for the role presence of local authority in designing curriculum.

The 2006 KTSP curriculum was implemented as a response to many input toward curriculum correction. However, the 2006 curriculum had several problems; (a) too many subjects being learnt by students and many competences were overlapping each other ignoring the cognitive development of the students, (b) curriculum was not fully based on competency, (c) competency did not holistically reflect domain of knowledge, skills and affective behavior, (d) some competences were not accomodated such as character building, active learning methodology, (e) the equilbirium of developing soft skills and hard skills, (f) standard of learning process is still teacher-oriented, (g) standard of assessment and evaluation still neglects process and end product, and (h) KTSP was still open for multi interpretation by many educators and teachers in real practice (Diknas, 2012).

Responding to some above constraints, the Indonesian government has decided to rethink, reformulate, and redesign the curriculum into the 2013 curriculum. To this date, the government has succeeded in producing curriculum documents that served as frameworks and syllabuses in all subject from primary level to senior high level. After being launched for public review, this curriculum has been implemented in many schools in Indonesia. In context of ELT in the 2013 curriculum, the time allotted for English subject at schools is reduced. This surely brings about several consequences for language teaching and learning process in Indonesia.

The readiness of English Language Teachers towards ASEAN Community 2015

Although the curriculum plays important role in maintaining standards in ELT and the new 2013 curriculum is designed to improve the quality and standard of ELT in Indonesia, most of the major problems still exist. Both Dardjowidjojo (2000) and Nur (2004) agree on five common problems such as big class sizes, teachers with low level of English proficiency, the low salary of government English teachers which encourage or even force many to moonlight, the lack of sufficient preparation to teach the new curriculum and the culture barriers for teachers to leave the role of master and to accept or to adopt the new role of facilitator. They also claims that the large class sizes and unqualified English teachers are two obvious factors that contribute to the ongoing problems in ELT in Indonesia.

Musthafa (2001) also lists other reasons for the problems such as limited time allocated for teaching

English; lack opportunity to actually practice speaking English in the classroom due to focus on grammar and syntax and the use of L1/ mother tongue; less authentic materials and lack opportunity to socialize English outside the classroom. ELT in Indonesia seems to be always problematic before and after decentralization era. The continually revised curriculum does not seem to consider factors such as suitable qualifications for teachers and numbers of students nor does it provide strategies and alternatives.

In addition, Dardjowidjojo (2000) assumes that the number of hours a student spends in secondary school and the optional hours in elementary school should at least have resulted in a high ability in English by the time she/ he graduate from senior high school. The outcome, however, is far from the expectation. It seems that a high school graduate is unable to communicate intelligibly in English. The number of hours of learning English at class in the new 2013 curriculum is less than that of previous curriculum. This brings a big challenge for both teacher and students to work harder in achieving the learning goal in a limited time. The integrative topic in some subjects in learning process is the main point of 2013 curriculum. Other points are thematic and scientific characteristics. In addition, schools should also be aware of a condition in which opportunities for additional English learning and exposure could be one effort to improve students’ learning mastery of English. The current policy of teachers’ certification program is hoped to improve the quality of the teachers.

Nevertheless, Dardjowidjojo (1996, cited in Kam, 2004) claims that the lack of students motivation, poor attitude of students in learning English and shortage of teachers with adequate English language competence are the contributors of the low ability in English.

Regarding with the problems above, a broader strategic objective of ensuring the integration of education priorities into ASEAN’s development, the English teachers have to advance and prioritize education then focus on:

·    preparation to teach the new 2013 curriculum intensively

·    practicing speaking English in the classroom due to focus on grammar and syntax and minimize the use of L1/ mother tongue

·    using more authentic materials and improve the opportunity to socialize English outside the classroom

More than that, students’ empowerment should also be encouraged by teachers to know the essence of new curriculum. Bringing students into the right conception about the language being learnt is essential for achievening language learning target as students and teachers would have the same perception about their target of language teaching and learning. Then, the implementation of new curriculum that changes the teacher from being information center to be facilitator toward their learning should gear the concept of student-centered classroom. Learner-centeredness should be embraced since it could maximize the learner’s focus on form and meaning and their achievement (Reilly, 2000). Teacher-centredness should be left behind since the teacher often dominates the class hours. In this sense, students are inclined to be passive listeners for teachers’ explanation. The ability to manage class or classroom management ability is required in this case, so that the teachers can easily lead the class without any frustration to find their classrooms are noisy in some extent.

Dealing with the preparedness of English language teachers to take challenge of ASEAN community 2015, they have to link and match between their ways (methodology) in teaching and ASCC blueprint. The school or institution should support the English teachers in delivering the materials where they teach, as like:

·         Creating a knowledge-based society;

·         Achieving universal access to primary education;

·         Promoting early child care and development; and

·         Enhancing awareness of ASEAN to youths (students) through education and activities to build an ASEAN identity based on friendship and cooperation.

ASEAN Community is to pilot free labor market in 2015, thus higher education system in Indonesia must be strengthened into coming up with concrete strategies on how to be able to address this challenge. The following actions are deemed necessary in achieving the desired goal in higher education among ASEAN community:

·         Increase Usage of English Language

Language is a key towards the development of ASEAN community. Workers should realize the importance of being able to communicate in English as an important tool for the realization of ASEAN Community 2015 so that they will not face a handicap to benefit from the fruits of the ASEAN community. In this case, teaching English for specific purposes should be improved. It can be in the form of materials and teaching methodology.

·         Universal Education (access, equity and quality)

Not all ASEAN countries are able to provide free education like Brunei Darussalam, which is free for all citizens from the age of five to the university level. Many developing countries in Asia have had tremendous success in expanding access to primary and secondary schooling. However, this is now fueling a spike in demand for post-secondary opportunities.

·         E-learning/Online learning/Distance Learning/Open Learning

To increase access at the higher education, a number of countries in the region are increasing the number of open universities. This open learning system is not only for university and, but also for teacher training programs. Conducting webminars and online learning are the ways to improve the quality of teaching. The development of technology (esp. using internet and skypes) makes no limit to discuss the ways in continuing professional developments among the English Teachers in ASEAN regions.

·         Improve Quality of Education

Asian countries need to improve the quality of their education systems as many graduates lack the skills needed in today's rapidly changing workplace. "The shortage of skilled workforce in the Asia-Pacific Region, male and even more so female, has been a major bottleneck in economic and social development," The report called for greater emphasis on technical and vocational education and training (China View 2008).

·         Scholarship for students/Faculty Exchange

More programs on scholarships grant on students from all the regions are now being practiced in most ASEAN countries. The Scholarships aim to provide opportunities to the young people of ASEAN to develop their potential and equip them with skills that will enable them to confidently step into the enlarged community. Another medium of attaining the quality of education is by educating the teachers, school principals and other educational personnel and upgrade their professional competency. Teachers should continuously update their knowledgeable and be innovative, strongly motivated and dedicated. Programs can be introduced that focus on talent management, leadership selection and review of teachers’ workload. Various initiatives, from faster promotion prospects to awards can be introduced, to acknowledge the role teachers play, and raise the image and morale of the profession.

·         Regional Skills Competition

Encourage the participation of higher education institutions and in skills competitions such as the ASEAN Skills Competition to support workforce development and to achieve regional standards competency. It will contribute towards the advancement of quality and skills of workers in all ASEAN Member Countries

·         Regional Accreditation (APACC)

Accreditation is very important in higher education. It is viewed as both a process and a result. It is a process by which a university/college or technical and vocational training institution evaluates its educational activities, and seeks an independent judgment to confirm that it substantially achieves its objectives, and is generally equal in quality to comparable institutions. As a result, it is a form of certification, or grant of formal status by a recognized and authorized accrediting agency to an educational institution as possessing certain standards of quality, which are over and above those prescribed as minimum requirements by the government. One accrediting mechanism that harmonizes education and training systems in the region is the Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC). It aims to accredit and certify institutions through a common quality framework that would facilitate the mobility of workforce across national borders in the region.

·         Unified Education Framework

Intergovernmental Organizations establish ASEAN standards for HEI’s including curriculum. Consequently, revising curriculum and delivery modes in all programs are still on the process to meet labor market needs. Thus, a unified curriculum in the ASEAN region is highly recommended to achieve the desired goal of one community. The focus should be on learning outcomes.

Conclusion

Some common ELT problems in Indonesia and the preparedness of English language teachers to take challenge of ASEAN community 2015 are also discussed. The implementation of 2013 curriculum seems to be promising if Indonesian government put maximum efforts through policy and budgeting to really resolve many constraint in Indonesian ELT practices. The integrative topics in some subjects in learning process as one of the main point in new curriculum 2013, and textbook provision as designed on the basis of new curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Culture have brought certain resources to the development of the quality in English language teaching in Indonesia. Regarding with the preparedness of English language teachers to take challenge of ASEAN community 2015, they have to link and match between their ways (methodology) of teaching and ASCC blueprint. Moreover, English Language Teachers have to participate actively in promoting Concept of ASEAN Community 2015 to their students.

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