global challenges and local contexts connecting elt in indonesia to the world christian duncumb...
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Global Challenges and Local Contexts
Connecting ELT in Indonesia to the world
Christian Duncumb [email protected]
Itje Chodidjah [email protected]
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