Individual Assignment of Complete Essay (Introduction,Body,Conclusion,References)

"TEACHING ENGLISH AT HIGHER IN INDONESIA"

INTRODUCTION

Now English is an international language; therefore, it is needed by everyone who wants to be involved or to take part in the global world. Mastering English will be a passport for someone to enter the global world. Without mastering English, one may get difficulty to compete with others in the global level. Friedman (2005) as cited in McKay (2012:32) argues that competent human resources is only economically rewarding in the global context if they speak English. As an example he takes India that has few natural resources. Its economy is growing because India has educated its elites in the science, engineering, and medicine so that a surplus of English-speaking engineers is found there.

Higher education graduates are potential human resources. However, not many graduates in Indonesia can speak English well. If they want to compete in the global world, English is one of the main requirements. Since the world is global now, the attention to the teaching of English cannot be ignored. It must be seriously managed.

The English teaching in higher education has been determined as a compulsory subject (BSNP, 2010). However, it just weighs 2 credits. It is not enough to make graduates proficient in English. Although some universities have added more credits for English, the government needs to be more serious by making clear regulation/law related to English teaching at higher education so that we will have graduates that can compete in the global world.

This paper discusses the English teaching at Indonesian higher education. It is started by studying the government policy on higher education, the English teaching on higher education, and will be closed by a kind of recommendation to the government in a form of a proposal of change.

       English teaching in Indonesian higher education

In Indonesia, the status of English is a foreign language. According to Stern (1983:16) foreign language learning is conducted with some different purposes. It can be to travel abroad, to communicate with native speakers, to read of a foreign literature, or to read of foreign scientific and technical work. He further states that a formal instruction is needed in foreign language learning due to the lack of exposure in the environment of the learners.

       Teaching reading of English scientific text is not easy. Besides the reading skill itself, the teacher must understand the subject knowledge. The students need to learn technical terms too. Both teacher and students have to learn more things than when the subject is general reading. According to Grabe and Stoller (2011:7) reading to learn from texts typically occurs in academic context. This type of reading requires abilities to:

a. remember main ideas as well as a number of details

b. recognize and build rhetorical frames that organise the information in the text

c. link the text to the reader’s knowledge base

They further state that this type of reading makes stronger inferencing demands than general reading to connect text information with background knowledge.

Considering the characteristics of suggested reading above, it is difficult if lecturers just have 2 credits for that. There are linguistics elements that students have to master before they gain the ability to find main ideas, recognizing and building rhetorical frames. They have to understand sentence patterns, vocabulary, discourse, etc. Therefore, based on observation it is found that more departments in faculty give more credits for English subject. They have more than 2 credits for English (see table 1).

Still referring to the standard of content of higher education, the government policy says that higher education students learn English as a compulsory subject for 2 credits during their study. Based on a brief observation on several curricula in 10 higher educations it is found that some universities allocate 2 credits for English, others 3 to 5 credits, each depends on the internal policy of the university.

       The emphasis of teaching English is given on reading. In Israel higher education, the English teaching is set in the form of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course. The course is started by conducting a placement test. Based on the result of the test, students will be grouped in different level. The level consists of Basic/ below level, Intermediate 1 and 2, Advanced I and II, Proficient/Exemption level. Each level will take 60 hours and students learn English 4 times a week. Students belong to basic level have to take matriculation; students belong to proficiency level are freed from taking the course. As students may be placed in different level, how long each student learns English will be varied. The better the test result, the shorter time the students will learn English.

Body

      Language is a vehicle for human communication. Through the language of the message and intent that one wants to convey is acceptable and understandable to another. Language plays a role so important that it may be said that language is an asset for life. In Indonesia there are a variety of verbal languages that are characteristic of individual peoples. As for connecting with different peoples peoples, the unifying language is Indonesian. As a unifying language, it is used in daily life especially in large cities of diverse peoples. English education is an important subject for instruction in the society of all peoples. Therefore, English education is not only for formal education but also for people in many parts of Indonesia. It is seen from the condition of indonesians that is part of the world's country where we will one day be confronted with the people of the world. Especially in 2015, there was already a government program to make Indonesia an asean economic community (mea). The program opened a barrier between countries in southeast Asia. So we are practically required to master international languages, one of which is English.

Conclusion

      The recent English teaching at higher education in Indonesia is not yet satisfying.  Since students learn English in limited time, it cannot make students have the ability to use  English to compete in the global world. This condition must be changed. There must be a policy that facilitates the students to learn English in more meaningful and useful way. The government needs to change the former regulation and prepare a well planned program  for teaching English at higher education in order that the graduates are ready to compete in this global era. Besides adding the number of hours to learn English, the government needs to have definite program for the English teaching at higher education level.

Reference:

http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/selt/article/download/6793/5332