CAHAYA Lingua E. Sadtonocahayasurya.ac.id/jurnal/file/p.sadrono edit.pdfCAHAYA Lingua Vol. 01, No....

CAHAYA Lingua Vol. 01, No. 01, September 2012 E. Sadtono

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STBA Cahaya Surya Kediri

1. Introduction Language across the curriculum (LAC) or

English across the curriculum (EAC) refers to the use of the target language (e.g. English) as a medium of instruction to teach content subjects to improve the teaching of the target language as well as to prepare students to expand their knowledge through the target language. Another name is CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) which is used in Europe and many other parts of the world (Deller & Price, 2007:3).

However, as can be seen in the mind-map above, the challenge of LAC/EAC is

overwhelming and it seems that Indonesia

is not well-prepared to face the challenge yet. The stake is really high, and substantial amount of money could be wasted. The major components of EAC are objectives, students, teachers, medium of instruction, materials, class size, methods, facilities, and time allotment. It is assumed that the objectives are clear, now about

students: are they ready to be taught in English? Would they be using English inside and outside the classroom? Teachers: are they proficient enough in English so that they can teach using English as the medium of

ENGLISH ACROSS THE CURRICULUM: An Uphill Battle

E. S a d t o n o

Ma Chung University

[email protected]

Abstract

Language across the curriculum is premised on Krashen’s idea that foreign language learners will acquire the L2 most effectively through sizeable input which they can understand whereby the conscious focus is on meaning, not form. In other words they can learn much better by concentrating on learning the content of an academic discipline through the foreign language, instead of focusing on the language per se. The ramifications of EAC are complex; many of them are beyond the control of the teachers. The discussion in this paper is focused on the question of potential success or failure of EAC as practiced in Indonesia. EAC is in fact an uphill battle in Indonesia.

Keywords: language across curriculum (LAC), English across the curriculum (EAC)

language learning success, failure


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instruction? Medium of instruction: is it fully in English, or is it interspersed with Bahasa Indonesia or code-switching? Materials: are materials in English? Are they authentic materials or teacher-made materials? Are they easily available and affordable? Class size: is the average class around 20? Methods: do teachers use a specific method or an eclectic one? Facilities: what facilities do the students have? (labs, learning resource center, library, etc.). Time allotment: Is the time allotment and frequency of meeting sufficient?

If all the answers to the questions above are satisfactory, schools claiming to be ‘international’ would run smoothly, otherwise they would end up in failure.

It is worth noting here that success in EAC in one country may be failure in another simply because the extent of the underlying factors differs from country to country.

2. The Uphill Battle The uphill battle refers to the schools

using English as the medium of instruction, especially their teachers who have to teach content-subjects in English when their own proficiency in English is still questionable. In addition, students also fight the battle against their own lack of English. The battle is also waged against the inadequacy of materials, and the question whether to use authentic, semi-authentic, or non-authentic materials, and whether they should be graded and ungraded. Fighting a losing battle is waged against the linguistic environment as Indonesian as language is already strongly established in all disciplines and all walks of life making Indonesians reluctant to learn a relatively difficult foreign language and its benefits are remote for the majority of people. Indonesian as a tool of communication is sufficient to satisfy their primary, secondary, even tertiary needs. In other words, the linguistic environment is not conducive to English language learners.

In addition, there seems to be universal complaints regarding EAC (Deller & Price, 2007:7) as follows:

“It’s so difficult for me to explain in English”

“My students don’t like listening in English”

“My students find it hard to read in English”

“I have to write most of my own materials”

“The book I’ve got is so boring”

“I can’t get my students to participate in English.”

These complaints also sound familiar in Indonesia.

According to Musni Umar (Kompas.com.4/26/2010), the head of SMA Negeri 70 Committee Jakarta, there were more disadvantages than advantages of the international schools, and the main reasons to reject the international schools were firstly commercialization of education, as such only the rich could enjoy the good schools, secondly it is superfluous and futile because the dream of the majority of senior high school students is to enroll at UI, UGM, ITB, etc. and not to go overseas, and thirdly the assumption that English should be used as the medium of instruction at the international schools is wrong. He further mentioned that developed countries such as Japan, France, Finland, Germany, and Korea use their own national language, not English, as the medium of instruction if they want to internationalize their schools. He suggested that we should orient our schools to our own national education, not to a foreign system such as Cambridge.

3. Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) a. Terms used for Languages Across the

Curriculum are LAC (Languages Across Curriculum, used mainly in the US), LUAC (Language for Understanding Across the Curriculum, Australia), and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning, Europe and some other countries). But for Indonesia, the term should be changed to English Across the Curriculum (or EAC).

b. LAC and EAC should be distinguished because in countries where English is L1, LAC is actually English used to teach content-subjects for children of migrants living in those countries. The teachers are native speakers of L1, so there is no problem of the English proficiency of the teachers, whereas in Indonesia the teachers’ English proficiency constitutes a major problem.

c. Language across the curriculum is premised on the following:

i. LAC is based on the premise that “language is acquired most effectively through rich comprehensible input with the


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conscious focus on message, not form” and foreign language proficiency “can improve by concentrating on learning the content of an academic discipline through that language” (Krashen’s input hypothesis.) (Kecht, 1999: 17-22)

Comments: The statement above

is conditional upon the English

proficiency of the teachers. ii. Students can use language to learn

and teachers can organize language in the classroom to assist learning.

Comments: Content-subject

teachers may find difficulties in

organizing language in the

classroom to help them teach

their own respective subjects.

Actually it is the job of English

teachers to organize language

used in the classroom to help

teaching. iii. Language development is the

responsibility of all areas in the curriculum.

Comment: Agreed. But can

content-subject teachers develop

the English of the students? iv. Different areas of learning involve

highly specialized language styles, technical vocabulary, text types and illustrations.

Comments: This is a big problem for

Indonesia. The teachers’ English is

still general English, they still need

to learn specialized language styles,

technical vocabulary, text types and

examples. Furthermore, teachers

need to have materials relevant to

the subjects taught. Technical

vocabulary would be difficult to get.

Authentic materials in the form of

textbooks may be expensive if not

prohibitive in price. v. Teachers need to understand how

language is used in the content areas and share this understanding with learners.

Comments: Indonesian teachers still

have to struggle with general

English, and now they should also

learn the content-area through

English and teach their students the

content in English. The task is

certainly overwhelming. vi. Because language is the key to learning,

all our teaching, in all subject areas, needs to have a language focus.” (LUAC Strategies Handbook, p. 5)

Comment: Well understood and fully

agreed. d. Assumptions underlying LAC

In the era of globalization, the global language is English, so it is expected that school graduates should be able to use English effectively.

Science and technology develop fast and the language used is English, as such school graduates are expected to be able to keep up to date with science and technology.

Students learn English better if they are taught using English which is really meaningful to them, so they will be more motivated. It is presumed that the separation of teaching English as a subject and teaching content-subject in Bahasa Indonesia is not as good as when English is used to teach the content-subject whereby the students would feel the relevance of English.

Globalization. In the era of globalization, the lingua franca is English as such we should teach English successfully if we are to survive in the era of globalization, otherwise we will be superseded by other countries.

Even if LAC is successful, the following are sour notes from the US

The fate of teaching foreign languages in the US:

a. “We expend almost all of our national resources for foreign language learning on first-time, low-level language learning among high school and college students, then watch those minimal skills decay and disappear through lack of use or reinforcement.” (Lambert, 1991). The statement was made in relation to the conditions in the US which are much better than the school conditions in Indonesia.

b. “With the exception of students who major in languages or area studies, or who study abroad, college graduates in the United States typically possess less non-English language proficiency than they had when they entered college. Even students with advanced proficiency seldom develop bilingual skills and intercultural knowledge sufficient to meet their professional career


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needs by the time they graduate. “ (American Council on Education, 1989)

c. “Although language instruction is widespread in the United States, it typically does not lead to a high degree of proficiency or specialization. ………………. fail to mandate continued use of those skills after students have demonstrated intermediate level proficiency. “ (Stephen, 1998: 1).

d. “The lack of foreign language competence is as much a fact within academic disciplines as in the society at large ……… at the graduate level, language requirements are notoriously underenforced across the humanities and the social sciences ….. Four-year language majors often graduate with disappointingly low levels of linguistic ability…” (MLA (undated) p.4)

The phenomena above happened in the US

where everything is available and good: teachers are qualified and well paid, classrooms are good, class size is not as large as it is in Indonesia, and in other words the situations are conducive. The fact is foreign language is painstakingly slow to learn, but it quickly disappears when not used. Those learners may not have achieved the threshold level, the time when they can be independent from the teacher and continue learning without teacher’s guidance.

Based on the statements above, we should realize that foreign language teaching is complex and difficult to carry out successfully.

4. The role of language across the

curriculum in general First, let us discuss language in relation to

curriculum. Language is dynamic, as such it changes continuously and is unstoppable. In addition, it is also cultural and culture shapes our way of thinking, mostly through language, and thus shapes our world view also. Most of our learning is achieved through language, and each area of learning has special language demands, so we have genre, it is also a means of empowerment and exclusion or inclusion.

Language is an issue. Firstly, it is the main instrument for teaching and assessing in schools. Secondly, each student has their own different language backgrounds and needs; therefore ideally they need individual treatment which is impracticable, knowing the average class size in Indonesian schools is big. Thirdly, if language is focused on teaching,

learning will become easier as the most important tool for learning is language.

If focus on language is implemented at all times, it will certainly bear fruit; it is the best when starting new courses or topics, during the gathering and processing of new information, and during assessment.

Language –focused teaching can be achieved through several ways. First, we should provide students with pre-teaching activities, such as an overview of a new topic, so that they would be able to see the overall picture of the topic. In this session, they can also ask questions; the teachers can also ask them questions on the topic as some of the students may already have schemata of the topic which would facilitate their understanding. Secondly we should also plan time for discussion and negotiation to find out whether the topic is too easy or too difficult, or whether it is interesting or boring and so we can change or modify it accordingly. Thirdly we should provide support for new challenges. For example if they have no background knowledge about the topic to be discussed we can provide them with the background knowledge and we also suggest that students should get the background knowledge from materials in the internet. In addition, we can also explain the meaning of difficult vocabulary items as well as terminology used in the text. Fourthly, we should create a classroom environment which values approximations and feedback. It would be better if we could also bring realia, pictures, video clips, etc. which would enhance the understanding of the topic. We can even assign students to bring any of those to class because by so doing the class would be much more interesting and they would be more motivated. Whilst-teaching activities are conducted using the foreign language as the medium of instruction. Last but not least, in the post-teaching activities we should provide time for reflection and learning. This can be done by asking them to write their reflection in their portfolio about what benefits they have gained or things which should be excluded.

CLIL (Deller & Price, 2007:8, 12, 14) is implemented by applying the following principles:

The process of teaching – learning is highly interactive.

Depending on the subject and level of proficiency, sometimes students are given more talking time and sometimes teachers talk more especially when they deal with complex subjects.


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When the class is being interactive, teachers talk less in front of the class.

Lessons are made more interesting and involve more activities.

Texts are simplified by o shortening by removing any

redundancies o shortening by removing any

unnecessary information o shortening sentences into simple

structures o replacing more complicated vocabulary o avoiding passive voice o avoiding idiomatic expressions o avoiding phrasal verbs

Texts are made more visual

Analysis of the language supports students needs

Activities are adapted to different subjects The place for LAC implementation:

depending on the topic and content, LAC can be implemented in the classroom or outside. Outside the classroom can be more challenging, especially if there is a place where the topic matches the place. It will be much more memorable if it can be conducted in real life situations.

5. Implementation of EAC in Indonesia a. Full EAC

Schools where English is used as the medium of instruction for all subjects seem to be successful, but the success is costly. That is the tuition fee is high, teachers are qualified to use English, teachers salary is relatively better, there are expat teachers whose salary is higher than the local teachers, class size is relatively small, English textbooks are provided, the school atmosphere is conducive for using English all the time because of the presence of foreign teachers, and facilities are more complete. The negative side is that it can go overboard, that is some students are poor in Bahasa Indonesia and that it is an elitist school, only the rich could afford to send their children to such schools.

b. Partial EAC It is a bilingual school in the sense that not all subjects are taught in English, only math and science are taught in English. In this case probably we should learn from Malaysia. Malaysia used to practice the same policy, but such a

policy will be abandoned, so beginninng in 2012 math and science will be taught in Bahasa Melayu, not English. The decision must have been based on the fact that using English to teach math and science has been proved unsuccessful, whereas the conditions in Malaysia as a TESL country are much more conducive to using English as a medium of instruction than it is in Indonesia. Instead they will increase the number of hours for general English (see further discussion below).

c. RSBI (Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional – Path-finding schools to achieve international standards) At RSBIs English is theoretically the medium of instruction for most subjects. The following are comments on RSBI schools provided by four doctoral students of the graduate school (Dwi Ima, Fathorrasyid, Tanzil Huda, Aan, April 8, 2010), The State University of Malang, who are conducting their research on the teaching of English across the curriculum at RSBI Schools and by writers in Kompasiana website (2010):

Some schools forced themselves to implement RSBI because the funds to run it is enticing, that is Rp. 500 million (formerly Rp. 300 million), even if they were not actually prepared to run it.

The teachers of such schools complained that they were not given additional remuneration for their extra hard work, for example they have to work until 6 pm.

Because of the stress of hard work, some of them wanted to leave the job or retire prematurely.

SMP students in a city complained because they had to go to school twice a day, that is they had to go to school to attend classes in English in the morning, and they had to go back to school in the afternoon to attend the same classes using Bahasa Indonesia as the medium of instruction. In other words, they learned the same things twice by means of two languages. The underlying idea is that if the students still do not understand the materials given in English, they would understand


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them when they are given in Bahasa Indonesia.

Most of the students who are good at English at RSBI schools turned out to have attended English private courses, so their English is good despite the teaching at school.

One of the requirements to be content-subject teachers is that they should have a TOEFL score of 500. This is well and good, but to achieve such a score is difficult and very few teachers indeed would be qualified. In comparison, the average score on TOEFL (paper based) of undergraduate English Department students is around 460, that is a result of four-year full time study in English. Thus such a requirement is overly ambitious.

There is a contradiction in the implementation of RSBI. The process of teaching-learning is conducted in English, but when the students have to sit for the national final examination, the exams are in Bahasa Indonesia. No wonder therefore that their scores are lower than those of regular students (Kusumah. 5 Nov.2009).

Schools are willing to become RSBI because they want to increase their social status or image

The English of the RSBI teachers is still poor, the breakdown is as follows:

Basic Competence Test (TOEIC PREDICTION) of A Public Senior High School teachers, Surabaya, 21April 2010 (Widayanti, D.C.)

In other words, the majority of teachers are still poor in English. From the theoretical viewpoint, RSBI is not feasible. To upgrade the English of the teachers would take a long time and the training should be continuous until they reach the threshold level. As far as I know, such a thing is not possible as teachers are already overburdened with other tasks; and adults are notorious for poor attendance at English upgrading courses for various reasons, and their attitude is usually lukewarm, they are diligent at the begining, but their attendance dwindles during the course.

6. English for specific purpose

Virtually, the language that is used for each subject matter is English for Specific Purposes (ESP), or to be more specific it is called EAP (English for Academic Purposes). Each EAP is in fact a genre, that is each has its own characteristics with regards to jargon and language style. For example science uses a number of passive voice and a host of technical terms whose meaning is different from the meaning of the vocabulary item in general. The language of science is usually more straightforward than the language of social science. For example the language used in the journal of marketing is befuddled with jargons and complicated sentence constructions. ESP in some content subject is not very far different from general English, so it is not too difficult to learn. The difficulty mostly lies in the understanding of the terminology used, especially if it deals with abstract thinking, for example the term ‘construct’ in psychology has no equivalent in Indonesian, so it must be explained lengthily. Even the concept the word ‘despite’ needs lengthy explanation.

The job of the teachers is thus to study the specific style and the jargon used in each respective field, and then share the knowledge with their students. It is explaining in English so that students can understand what is being explained that is difficult. This requires good proficiency in English and the art of teaching on the part of the teachers.

a. The English proficiency of the

teachers The following are standards of English proficiency B1 and B2 adapted from EURO –standards (Council of Europe, CEF, undated) which should be the minimum standards for teachers of content subjects


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in Indonesia if they are to be good teachers using English as the medium of instruction.

B1 standards of intermediate

proficiency

“Can understand the main points of

clear standard input on familiar

matters regularly encountered in work

at school. Can deal with most

situations likely to arise whilst

teaching a content-subject where

English is used. Can produce simple

connected text on topics which are

familiar or of subject matter interest.

Can describe theories and related

events in the respective discipline and

briefly give reasons and explanations

for opinions and plans.”

B2 standards of advanced proficiency

“Can understand the main ideas of

complex text on both concrete and

abstract topics, including technical

discussions in his/her field of

specialisation. Can interact with a

degree of fluency and spontaneity that

makes regular interaction with native

speakers quite possible without strain

for either party. Can produce clear,

detailed text on a wide range of

subjects and explain a viewpoint on a

topical issue giving the advantages and

disadvantages of various options.”

To achieve this level is not at all easy. As teachers are also models for their students, ideally they should be really good in English, especially if some of the students are proficient in English as they have taken an English private course, or they come from schools using English as the medium of instruction, or they learn English from TV and DVDs, or they attended schools overseas, they may be critical of and able to judge the English of their teachers. Teachers should also know about English in the era of globalization, such as knowledge about different Englishes, particularly British, American, Australian, Singaporean, Filipino, and Indian English varieties as expats using these Englishes are found in big cities in Indonesia. Teachers should know especially about the sound system and the spelling, because students are critical of differences. Teachers themselves are not

expected to speak like British or American native speakers, but are expected to speak like ‘educated native speakers,’ meaning their English can be generally speaking easily understood anywhere. This of course means the ability to use correct grammar and appropriate choice of words. To facilitate the language used to teach, teachers can learn classroom language and academic phrases. The classroom language is used to conduct the teaching-learning process in class, such as asking the students to keep quiet, to open a book, etc. The academic phrases are used to explain the subject being taught including functions and cohesive devices, such as phrases for similarity, contradiction, etc.

b. Classroom language Classroom language is a genre that is used to manage classroom, language that is used for routine purposes in class, such as greetings, roll calling, correcting student’s mistakes, etc. Classroom language is not difficult to learn, the following are some examples of classroom language (Deller & Price, 2007: 141ff.) 1. Preparing to start the lesson:

a. Settle down quickly please, let’s

get started

b. Let’s just recap on what we did

last lesson

c. What were the main things we

worked on last lesson?

2. Giving out material

a. Take one copy and pass them

round. Does everyone have a

copy?

b. Pass any spare copies to the

front. Thanks.

c. Share these copies, one between

two.

3. Giving instructions

a. Take a piece of paper. Watch me.

Fold it in half and fold it in half

again.

b. Don’t start until I give the signal

c. Each team must appoint: a time

keeper; an answerer; a

messenger; a walker; a speaker;

a recorder.

d. I need two volunteers

e. Number yourself from one to four


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f. Mix up your slips of paper and

share them out

g. Take it in turns to ...

h. Sit facing your partner.

c. Academic lexicon and phrases:

Any discipline has its own lexicon or

jargon and style or genre. For example science uses impersonal style and a number of passive voice constructions. The following is an example of general language, specific language, and technical language (WIDA, 2007: RG-46):

This is not easy for the teachers because they have to find the specific and the technical language which are not easy to find, however the internet is always a great help.

d. Functions:

„Functions in English’ refers to how we express our ideas to fulfill some task or function, using certain phrases appropriately. Some examples of functions are disagreeing, contrasting ideas, making complaints, asking for information, giving advice, guessing, saying ‘No’ nicely, offering help, giving warning, etc. For example when we want to offer help, we should say:

1. May I help you?

2. Can I help you?

3. Are you looking for something?

4. Would you like some help?

5. Do you need some help?

6. What can I do for you today?

In disagreeing, we had better say:

I wouldn’t do that, I would …

But if we ….

I’m afraid I’ve to disagree with you

………

Don’t get me wrong ………….

Even so, if ……………

Don’t forget that ……………

Very true, but …………………..

(Beare, 7/04/2010)

e. Cohesive devices : Cohesive devices function as ‘glue’ to bind ideas in a paragraph or a discourse together resulting in a text that is solid and easy to follow. For example two ideas which are contrary are expressed using the phrase ‘on the contrary,’ ‘in contradiction to,’ etc. Similar ideas are expressed using ‘similarly, ‘in the same vein,’ etc.

In addition teachers should also have a dictionary of terminology in their own respective field. The dictionary of terminology can be downloaded from the internet and is also available in the market as a book as well as an electronic dictionary (Besta and Alfalink).

If the English proficiency of the content teacher is still at the intermediate level, it would be better not to force him/her to teach in English as the result would be disastrous. Efforts to improve the English of the content-subject teachers are good but the result is doubtful as improving foreign language proficiency of adults in a short time so that they can master the four skills and use them to teach is practically impossible. A significant improvement in a foreign language is a continuous enterprise and takes a long time, and it will decline quickly once it is not used.

To meet the growing demand of teachers who

can use English as the medium of instruction, the curriculum of the Faculty of Teacher Education should be revised such as preparing teachers of various disciplines to learn English well, for example the whole eight semesters at the undergraduate level; or it can be made optional and the graduates will be awarded a certificate of English proficiency. Actually, it is already too late if the in-service teachers have to learn English as they are already overburdened with their daily tasks and as mentioned elsewhere an English upgrading course for in-service teachers is futile and met with resistance especially by senior teachers.

0.7. The English proficiency of the students. In order to be able to follow instructions in English, experts are divided. One group of experts think that the students should be good at English first, another group suggests that students will succeed in learning English if English is used as a medium of instruction to teach content subjects. The second opinion is aligned with the iron law of time and frequency of meeting, that is plenty of time and high

Standards General

language

Specific

language

Technical

language The

language

of math

in all total sum

The

language of

language

arts

person character protagonist

The

language of

science

knee kneecap patella

The

language of

social

studies

people population demographics


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frequency of meetings. Most of the private international schools in Surabaya meet this criterion. This is a heavy challenge for the teachers as they have to teach English as well as their respective content subject. The suggested solution would be team teaching consisting of a content-subject teacher and an English teacher, but this will be complicated. The ideal solution is if the content-subject teacher can teach English as well, or the English teacher can also teach the content-subject. In fact both systems have been used in a number of international schools in Surabaya where they employ overseas teachers. Generally speaking the result so far is good. The problem is if the school is a bilingual school, the level of proficiency of the students is usually low and explanation in English may meet with resistance; or the content-subject teacher is not proficient in English so s/he finds it difficult to explain the content in English. In the end both

the students as well as the teacher give up.

Some scholars suggest that in a bilingual school, students can benefit lessons using English as the medium of instruction if they have reached a certain standard of proficiency in English. Standards of proficiency in English are still divided according to skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), grade, and discipline (WIDA, 2007), so the description is more accurate but a little more complicated. A Ma Chung high school alumnus in the 1960-ish told the writer that when he studied at the school, there was a teacher from the US teaching science and the teacher did not know Indonesian or Mandarin at all, and the textbook used was also in English. The students had to struggle to understand the teacher’s explanation as well as his textbook. After six months they could manage to understand both the lessons as well as the textbook. If this is a unique situation that cannot be generalized, at least it is a truth worth considering. 0.8. Materials Opinions are also divided with regards to materials. One group of experts suggest that the teaching materials should be graded according to the proficiency level of the students, using Krashen’s formula i+1, that is the materials should be just a little more difficult than the current proficiency of the students. Being a little more difficult, the students will be challenged to

read them comprehensively, because if they are too easy students will not be challenged and can get bored. On the other hand, if the materials are too difficult, students would feel hopeless and discouraged. The other group of scholars, on the other hand, suggest that we should use authentic materials, on the ground that the materials are the real thing that students will encounter in real life. They will struggle hard at the beginning, but sooner or later they will get used to them and can overcome the problems. If we follow this system, the onus is on the teacher to handle the textbooks in such a way that students can understand the text clearly. This is extremely taxing for the teacher who is not an English teacher. There are, in fact, authentic transitional materials which we can use, they are materials intended for young children such as Encarta Encyclopedia for children. They are good and very interesting. 0.9. The environment The environment in Indonesia is, generally speaking, not conducive to learning English because outside the classroom, in society at large, English is rarely used. It implies that there is practically no reinforcement so important in language learning. The unfavourable condition is compounded by the fact that Bahasa Indonesia has been so strongly established in all walks of life and all disciplines that we can learn virtually anything without having to know English. The powerful environment of Bahasa Indonesia is impregnable, and in fact only highly educated people need English for their career. The phenomenon that people can survive well using Bahasa Indonesia psychologically demotivates students in learning English, particularly at bilingual schools. 0.10. Lesson from Malaysia: Will we ever learn? Perhaps we should learn from Malaysia where the use of English as the medium of instruction for teaching Mathematics and Science will be abolished by 2012, the main reason probably is that they have failed. On the other hand, they will have increased hours of English lessons per week by 2011 (TESLmy.teslmalaysia.com . 29/4/2010). If Malaysia as a TESL country will dispense with the use of English as the medium of instruction for teaching Maths and Science, we as a TEFL country should seriously consider our policy of teaching the same subjects using


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English as the medium of instruction. As Malaysia and Indonesia share more or less the same culture, comparison is justified and we should learn from their lesson, rather than making the same mistake and wasting millions of dollars. Ong and Tan (2008) reported their study in Malaysia as follows: The rationale: mastery of English is regarded as an important mechanism for direct acquisition of knowlege in the field of science and technology The objective: to enable students to acquire proficiency in English while learning science. Teachers are still struggling with the implementation of the policy of teaching Math and Science in English. Three factors affect how quickly teachers can carry out the transition from teaching in Bahasa Melayu to teaching in English. First factor, the prior educational background of teachers (Malay educational background or English educational backgound). Teachers from Malay educational background naturally found it difficult to teach Math and Science using English. Second factor, the linguistic environment in schools is not conducive to improve their English. Third, the linguistic ability of the students is a problem; their English is not up to par yet to tackle materials written in English. Great concern among parents and educators on the quality of Mathematics and Science education as both teachers and students are not proficient in the English language. The lack of good Science textbooks. 60% of Mathematics and Science teachers are not proficient in English; only 45% are comfortable in using English to teach. In-service English upgrading course is not effective in terms of improving teachers’ language proficiency as it is a one-time event; what is needed is an ongoing learning experience. Iron laws in language learning. There are iron laws in language learning which are conditio sine qua non or simply ‘musts’ if the teaching is conducted in the classroom. Whatever method is used if the iron laws are violated, no success can be expected. The first iron law is time allocation and frequency of meeting. The time allocated must be plenty depending on the objective of learning, and the frequency of meeting should be high, three times a week is minimal, in fact the ideal frequency is everyday and each time it can be only one hour. An extremely ideal time is three months of intensive course (everyday and each time is

around three hours), especially at the beginning. This is intended to lay a strong foundation of the language. During the time, the beginners learn oral English for daily communication. Once they have finished the rigorous training, the teaching-learning process can be continued as usual. The second iron law is that the class should consist of maximum 15 - 20 students, as bigger class will make the teaching learning process not effective as each student would not have sufficient time to practice the language. As language is a skill which needs continuous training in order to achieve a satisfactory result, practicing the language is also a must; and if the practice is insufficient, the skill will also be imperfect. The third is the teacher’s English proficiency and good classroom management. The teacher is the model for the students, and if the model is poor, the students will be worse. (“Guru kencing berdiri, murid kencing berlari” is an apt proverb to describe the situation). In addition, to keep a good classroom management, teachers should also be creative and sensitive to the class condition, as many times they should create something to avoid class boredom. In relation to this, teachers should also create rapport between the students and the teachers. A rapport is an invisible relationship between the teacher and the students when the teacher is teaching. When the teacher is teaching, the students should be enraptured. Those mentioned above are the major iron laws, and there are minor iron laws which are not discussed here. If any one of those laws is violated the chances that teaching of English will be successful are only a dream. Conclusion and suggestions Realizing the major obstacles which should be overcome, EAC is extremely difficult to implement for a variety of reasons: Ideally, two major components should match, that is the teachers’ English proficiency should be compatible with the students’ English proficiency, so there will be a good communication and interaction. If the ideal situation is not possible, the English of the teachers should be correct and comprehensible to the students. Otherwise, mutual understanding would be awfully difficult. We should learn from Malaysia, as they also have teachers who are not proficient in using English as those teachers have been so used to using


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Bahasa Melayu to teach content subjects that using English is extremely difficult (Ong & Tan. 2007). (See above) The Malaysian lesson of abandoning the teaching of math and science in English in 2012 should be seriously looked into. Malaysians must have gone through many difficulties in implementing their program for a couple of years and finally they give up. The proficiency of the teachers is questionable as less than 10 % of them could use English as the medium of instruction. Class size is big; it is a major obstacle for effective teaching. Team teaching may not be effective. Authentic materials are expensive, unless they are developed by our own teachers, a collaboration between the content-area teachers and English language teachers. Even then the quality of the product is questionable. Some teachers are already stressful and demotivated trying to teach content-subjects using English. The following suggestions are no guarantee of success: Teachers should be given incentive as they work much harder (however, giving incentive did not work in Malaysia). The number of students in a class should be reduced to around 20; a bigger number of students are not usually effective and class management becomes difficult. Unfortunately, big classes are one of the major stumbling blocks in Indonesian schools. Teachers’ English proficiency should be improved continuously all the time. The improvement of the teachers’ English should ideally start when they attend the teachers’ college (pre-service training) and it is meant for students of all disciplines for the whole eight semesters, two or three times a week. However, we should realize that not all students are predisposed to learning a foreign language successfully, therefore only those who have the motivation to learn English are given the opportunity, and they should be awarded with a certificate which they can use when they apply for a job later. Teaching-learning materials should be carefully developed. In the teaching-learning process, more student activities should be conducted as the activities will also motivate them, and language learning is best when the learners participate actively using their body and mind.

Prevent demotivation at all costs. Demotivation can be due to overly difficult materials, teachers’ negative attitude, etc. A sour note: Efforts to improve the English of in-service teachers are too late, a waste of time and money, thus useless. When they have become teachers they are already overburdened with administrative as well as academic tasks and have no more time to learn English. Moreover, after an upgrading course, if English is not regularly used it will be quickly forgotten. In addition, English up-grading courses for adults are usually in vain as the number of participants dwindles for a variety of reasons. It is a universal phenomenon. School internationalization in Indonesia is indeed an uphill battle and whether we are willing to learn from other countries is questionable. Usually we turn a deaf ear to good suggestions.

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