PROMOTING KUPANG MALAY IN THE LOCAL CURRICULUM

AT THE PRIMARY AND UNIVERSITY LEVELS IN EASTERN INDONESIA

Languages of Nusa Tenggara Timur and Timor Leste

Kupang Malay (KM)

Kupang Malay is a creole Malay-based around 200,000

speakers calqued on local

vernaculars unique grammar and

lexicon

From Jacob 2001a,b ‒ KM is:

a well-organized linguistic system

several types of simplification from standard Malay in phonology, morphology and grammar

has calqued on local languages in phonology, lexicon and grammar

has a complex community of native speakers

has important roles in home, interethnic communication, for communicating local solidarity, ethnic identity, vitality and stability

functions in a post-creole continuum, with Indonesian functioning as the “high” or acrolect.

Jacob & Grimes, 2003

much vocabulary shared with standard Malay different phonology significant semantic shift

in a number of Malay items significant borrowing from local languages

The problems of expectation – KM is:

not a real language had no legitimate

status as a language a broken language of

Standard Indonesian or “bad Indonesian”

inappropriate to use informal language in a formal written context

ignored and often despised not only by some of its own speakers, but also by many teachers, government officials, and church leaders who have a tendency to look down on it as a stigmatized language

Some considerations:

Literacy is best learned in the mother tongue

Creoles and stigmatized languages need special attention

Developing awareness of both the creole and the standard improves students' performance

Ignoring creoles in education can inhibit students' performance

Bilingual education with a creole does not interfere with students' acquisition of the standard variety

Bilingual education with a creole enhances students' acquisition of the standard variety

A “standard-only” approach to education may not meet the intellectual and educational needs of creole-speaking children

Policies on language in education

The Indonesian Constitution of 1945 guarantees the use and development of non-dominant languages and encourages people to use, develop, and preserve their local languages

Law no. 20 of 2003 Section 2) states that a mother tongue other than Indonesian can be used as the language of instruction in the early stages of education, if needed in the delivery of particular knowledge and/or skills

Policies on language in education

Indonesian educational policy recognizes three types of language:

1) the national language of unity—Standard Indonesian (SI),

2) vernacular languages, and

3) foreign languages, with official status given to English

The 1945 Constitution (article 36) and subsequent policy documents protect languages that are maintained by their communities

Similar allowance is made for the use of vernaculars as the language of instruction, along with SI, particularly in the first three years of elementary school.

Policies on language in education

Since 1994, up to 20% of the curriculum and materials may be developed locally to accommodate the need for knowledge about local history, culture, technology, and other issues.

What language these local materials are written in, however, is not explicitly addressed (DEPDIKBUD, 1994).

Survey(2011) on the use of KM in primary schools:

Regardless of their awareness of policies, for practical reasons many teachers find they need to use KM to explain material to the students, and to relate to the students

The results : 1. Teachers report using SI to

teach in the classrooms. However, they often explain material using KM.

2. When teaching Indonesian as a subject, they often have to explain it using KM.

3. When students answer

teacher's questions, they try to use SI as their target. However, when they talk to their schoolmates (both in and out of class) they use KM.

4. As soon as class is over, SI is no longer used, and both teachers and students communicate with one another in KM.

5. Outside the classroom, students use KM regardless of the presence of the teachers.

Survey - Recommendation:

Given that KM is a legitimate language distinct from Indonesian, that official policies allow bilingual education and materials in local languages, and that many teachers are already informally using a bilingual approach to educating students in Kupang, several things are needed to improve students' performance.

A. Awareness program of bilingual education official approval and support reference materials training seminars

B. Materials and curriculum development orthographies, creative writing workshops, workshops on developing teaching

materials, training on various aspects of materials

development on-going training seminars C. Further research

University – starting point:

”…local communities (students) can play an essential role in providing local language education for their own people”

What the university has:

Faculty of Teacher Training

and Educational students are native speakers of their own languages

Students study linguistics, sociolinguistics, and educational pedagogies

New university

curriculum update follow 1994, 2003 and 2013 educational curriculums

Bilingual/MLE as elective subject

What the university has:

Students’ core researches correlate with their mother tongues, and the use of mother tongues in education

Students produce materials in Kupang Malay and other local languages

What the university has:

University students try out the materials on site to see the attitude of children towards Kupang Malay

University students on teaching practices at schools use Kupang Malay story books as teaching materials

What the university has:

University students recognize the importance of culture on primary students’ lives

When university students graduate, they can apply what they have learned that they are able to shape the attitudes of individuals and groups

University students can serve to mobilize particular cultural practices and are highly pedagogical in their attempt to produce specific knowledge, values and desires

What the university has:

Primary students are being empowered by university students emotionally, socially, and intellectually to transcend the negative portrayals of Kupang Malay

Most primary students go to school with positive expectations of their ability to learn and be successful regardless of their cultural background

Summary:

Siegel (1999: 710–711) summarizes the results of successfully using the students' own language in education. Similar results is expected for Bilingual/MLE program in Kupang:

“In summary, all the available studies and reports described above demonstrate various positive results of making use of the students' own varieties of language in education:

greater participation rates, higher scores on tests measuring reading and writing skills in standard English, and increases in overall academic achievement. The results of these studies clearly contradict claims that using a stigmatized variety in the classroom exacerbates interference and is detrimental to the acquisition of the standard. In fact, these studies seem to show the opposite.”