"English Language Teaching In Indonesia: A Continuous Challenge In Education And Cultural Diversity" by M. Marcellino
Riviewer : Vinni Nasrul
The article "English Language Teaching In Indonesia: A Continuous Challenge In Education And Cultural Diversity" by M. Marcellino that Published by Universitas Katolik Atma Jaya, Jakarta in 2008. Marcellino presents that “The study which reveals the substantial unconstructive influence of the students' cultures and the non-conducive language environment affecting their language acquisition”. (Marcellino, 2008, p.57)
Marcellino endorses that this article gives some practical suggestions to cope with the problems from the success of English teaching in Indonesia which cannot be freed from the students' cultural backgrounds, values, customs, and beliefs as well as the political standpoint of the government regarding the foreign language.
As Marcellino said in this article based on his research findings that the implementation of CBL model at five schools under his investigation failed. Many aspects and variables bring about a very negative impact on the learning outcomes between the students and their teacher.
Why Marcellino thinks the CBL is vital in his research? Because he knows the CBL has many advantages to support students' proficiency in English, but unfortunately CBL is not practiced by teachers to students in Indonesian schools. Because of several reasons that make a challenge for the students are better in English learning and speaking.
On pages, 63 to 66 Marcellino contends that the reason why the CBL is a failure in Indonesian school and make the students' English ability is bad and not dynamic. The first fails to apply the CBL in Indonesian schools is The teachers who always use Indonesian to discuss the topic and, to a great extent, to explain grammatical aspects of the target language (TL) because of their poor mastery of English. Then, the second fail is because Several teachers tend to quickly slip back into the role of traditional teachers that teach English using the Audio Lingual Method (ALM), an approach that has a set of different principles and beliefs from that of CBL. Another barrier that makes fail is a monotonous teaching technique still depicts the teachers performance in classroom practice. The questions raised do not encourage the students to respond to various language expressions instead of pushing them into a stiff and passive atmosphere in the classroom. Finally, the last barrier deals with the class size and time allocation, in which the class holds more than forty students with the time allotment of forty-five minutes for an English lesson.
In my opinion, this article is good because it gives me to think that the Indonesian curriculum is indeed good and can improve English proficiency, but due to several hindering aspects, it makes the level of English of students in Indonesia far from standardized. Not only the influence of students backgrounds but also practical activities at school between students and teachers also have a major influence on the success of learning English in Indonesia. To get rid of all obstacles, it is necessary to work hard from all levels ranging from the family environment, school, and others to start conversational activities in English even though English is not Indonesia's mother tongue.
