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Indonesia: Free Voluntary Reading is the panacea

david — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:30:47 +0000

Indonesia: The Jakarta Post notes that like other countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan where the first language is not English, Indonesia is also suffering from a so-called English fever. The symptoms are clear — a strong desire to learn English at an early age. The popular remedies often sought to cure English fever in the country and elsewhere are: Adding English for young learners in school curriculum, sending children to bilingual schools, hiring native speakers as tutors and sending children abroad. There is nothing harmful about these options if one wishes to develop his/her English proficiency. Yet, there are serious impediments. To overcome these problems, Free-Voluntary Reading (FVR), or recreational reading, is proposed as the most effective remedy for dealing with English fever.

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When teachers don’t speak English

david — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:10:45 +0000

Indonesia: Effective foreign language learning in school requires the presence of a good teacher and textbook combined with appropriate methodology, suggests Jan E. Dormer in the Jakarta Post. Qualified English teachers are lacking in Indonesia, therefore, schools will often use teachers who have very limited English language skills. The textbook then becomes the only language source in the classroom.

If language is learned solely from a book, we can assume that only reading and writing skills in the target language will be learned. Speaking and listening will not be taught, thus, students will not learn to communicate orally. Furthermore, locally produced English textbooks frequently contain many errors. But the greatest drawback in the classroom is when the teacher does not speak English and fails to engage their students in speaking practice. English then becomes a drudgery of bookwork and grammar rules instead of a way to communicate interesting ideas.

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Teachers of English urged to increase students ‘practical proficiency’ in Indonesia

david — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:48:34 +0000

Teachers of English in Indonesia should teach practical English rather than mastery of the language , educationist Prof Arief Rachman said here on Friday. “The shortcoming of teachers of English in Indonesia is that they only strive to increase their students` competence in English but not their practical English skill,” Arief Rachman said.

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