Global Challenges and Local Contexts

Connecting ELT in Indonesia to the world

Christian Duncumb christian.duncumb@britishcouncil.or.id

Itje Chodidjah Itje.Chodidjah@britishcouncil.or.id

British Council

The context of English – a changing world

Globalisation

Growth of English

Educational Revolution

But, when we say teaching and learning English we can mean many different things.

A post-method world?

“There is no single way of teaching English,

no single way of learning it,

no single motive for doing so,

no single syllabus or textbook,

no single way of assessing proficiency and, indeed,

no single variety of English which provides the target of learning”

Graddol 2006: 82

ELT in INDONESIA

•Where English is taught?•Who the English teachers are? •Who the English learners are?•What teaching methodology is applied at schools in general?•What instructional materials is used?•How much time do learners have to learn? •What assessment is applied?•What Teacher Training and Development scheme is applied?•What about the Development of technology?

WHERE ENGLISH IS TAUGHT

•UNIVERSITY MAJOR IN ENGLISH

Faculty of Letters Faculty of Education College of Foreign Languages etc.

NON ENGLISH MAJOR

• SMP ; SMA; VOCATIONAL SCHOOL –

STATE AND PRIVATE

• PRIMARY

• NON FORMAL EDUCATION

Graddol’s trends

But, there are some clear trends which have evolved and are

emerging and which represent a considerable departure from

standard EFL and ESL models.

•English for Young Learners (EYL)•Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)•English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

EYL

Age at which children start with English is lowering and being introduced with greater compulsion

Idea that it is easier for young children to learn languages

It gives students longer to learn English over their school careers

Provides a potential transition to CLIL at secondary school and English medium learning later

EYL dangers

•Needs specialist teachers who understand child development and are good at English. There can be a lack of such teachers

•Expansion must be met with corresponding changes elsewhere in the curriculum

•Will result in a very mixed abilities entering secondary school

•Children need to be motivated for 10 years or more

•Failure at the early stage might have profound implications later

•So, “the expansion in TEYL signals a potentially major shift in ELT that needs to be taken seriously” (Cameron 2003: 106)

EYL in Indonesia

EYL in Indonesia is booming at the moment although it is still

nationally an optional subject to teach in schools

In reality most primary schools in big cities teach their students

English earlier and earlier.

It is now included in the national guidelines (new curriculum)

Is it a good sign? a threat? an unpredictable future?

What are the major challenges?

• Teachers : Are they trained to teach EYL? Is their English proficiency at the right level to teach YL? Do teachers get teacher training?

• Materials : Are they written by writers of EFL specialists? Are there any teacher’s guideline to accompany the

textbooks?

• Schools and parents understanding about learning

English for primary school students

What can be done?

• In – service training: should there be regular short

courses on TEYL, or TEYL workshops on various

teaching techniques, materials selection and

development, instructional media, and assessment at

school level? Provincial or National level?• Pre – service training: should TEYL be included as a

separate subject? • Should the government set up minimum standards or

guidelines for instructional materials, teacher

qualifications, assessment and evaluation?

CLIL

Combining language and content can help give more space to language

to achieve ‘critical mass’

Growth in English medium education has dangers

CLIL is different – focus on both content and language learning

Can be seen as the ultimate communicative methodology and fits in with

global trends

But…..

Relies on basic language skills having been learned, usually at Primary level

Requires different skills of teachers

Dangers if not done effectively. Students may end up not learning content and

language

Potentially excluding

CLIL in Indonesia

• some big schools in big cities have started to

introduce the use English as medium of instruction for

some subjects

• It is decided that next year each district and city in

Indonesia (appr. 440 ) should have international oriented

schools and use English as the medium of instruction for

some subjects

Challenges

•Are we ready with teachers who can deliver the lesson in

English?•Are we ready with the instructional materials which can be

easily accessed by the schools/teachers?•What about schools which are in remote areas? How can

they keep up with the development?•Do supervisors and members of local authority have clear

understanding of teaching other subjects in English?

What can be done?

At school level•School – based professional development should be encouraged•Setting up the atmosphere to trigger all members of schools to realize that English is a means of communication, i.e. a medium of instruction and learning.

At national / provincial level•In – service trainer and teacher training done regularly through the existing institutions•Minimum level of English required to teach other subjects in English• What about the role of English in non English Department in pe-service teacher education?

ELF

Fewer global interactions in English now involve a native

speaker.

New target models – the fluent bilingual speaker

Search for a lingua franca core

ELF

The ‘th’ sounds as in ‘thin’ and ‘this’

The contrast between long and short vowel sounds

Weak forms such as the words ‘to’, ‘of’ and ‘from’.

Stress timing

Nuclear (or tonic) stress

ELF

Change in materials and syllabus content

Change in expectations – intelligibility not native-speaker

accuracy

The death of the native-speaker?

ELF

•Fewer global interactions in English now involve a native speaker. •New target models – the fluent bilingual speaker•Search for a lingua franca core•Change in materials and syllabus content•Change in expectations – intelligibility not native-speaker accuracy•The death of the native-speaker?

ELF (English as Lingua Franca)

• The direct impact of the use of English as a lingua

franca can be seen in big cities and tourism areas

• The impact ELF in the English classroom is not

significant yet

The English escalatorA

ge

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary

Pre-school

Increase in English-medium

university courses

School-leavers needs higher English

proficiency

English increasingly used to teach

curriculum at secondary school

English introduced earlier and earlier

at Primary school

Some long-term implications of trends

Teachers working with ever younger learners

The recent growth of English medium-courses at Universities will move down to secondary school.

Increasing use of CLIL at secondary school

Ultimately English teachers may ‘lose’ their subject

English is increasingly seen as a basic skill

There are dangers in not keeping up

There are dangers in not implementing effectively

“ The key to understanding the impact of global English

probably lies in how well and how strategically its

implementation is managed in each country. There is

scope for great success but also for great disaster.”

Graddol 2006: 120

Where is Indonesia then?

• Indonesia has been on the move to fit itself in the

development of ELT in the world.• Indonesia still has time to catch up with the trends•Indonesia has opportunity to learn from other countries

and find ways to prepare for the global change

What might be the challenges to face ?

•Awareness of the importance of follow up of education policy at the

provincial and national levels•Awareness of local needs•Trainer Training design•Teacher training design •The design of instructional materials to suit the need of each level •The design of instructional materials to suit the need of different

purposes in different regions •Coherence in terms of materials and methodology between school

levels

Highlight

The importance of consistent follow up of education policy at the provincial and national level

RESEARCHMONITORING

TEFLIN ROLES

Other professional association