1.

Definition of EFL

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is the term used to describe the study of English by
non-native speakers in countries where English is not the dominant language. This is not to be
confused with English as a Second Language—also called English as an Additional Language—
which is the practice of learning English in a predominantly English-speaking country.

The case of English in Indonesia is a unique one because experts can't quite agree on
whether English should be considered a foreign language or a second language in this Asian
country. The reason why has to do with how English came to be spoken and how it is primarily
used.

The movement towards English as a foreign language began at independence, and

English is now the main foreign language being learned in Indonesia. English is taught for eight
or nine years from primary school (from Grade 4 or 5) through high school (Renandya, 2000).
The main objective is to provide reading skills to enable Indonesians to read science-related
materials in English," (Bautista and Gonzalez 2006).

2. The History of EFL in Indonesia

The Dutch Period

TEFL was taught from junior high school (MULO) to the senior high school. At junior
high school, English was a compulsory subject given three or four times a week. In
addition, the students still had to learn Dutch every day. Textbooks and suplementary
readings were plentiful, so they could improve their English fast by reading a number of
books. The teachers were well-paid. At the end of the third year they had to have written and oral
examinations. As a result, MULO graduates could speaks, read and write good English.

The Japanese Period

During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia for three and a half years, Dutch and
English were totally banned, and all the books in those languages had to be burned. The
education system was radically changed. Instead of Dutch, Japanese was taught intensively
as it was designed to become the second language of Indonesia. The Indonesian language
was nominated to become the national language. Linguistically, the Japanese occupation was
a blessing in disguise for bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). A lot of books were translated into
Indonesian, and from then on Indonesian has developed phenomenally. Ironically, the
rapid development of Indonesia later poses an isurmoun-table obstacle for the success of tefl
in Indonesia. When bahasa Indonesia can meet all the primary and secondary needs of Indonesia,
it would be very difficult for a foreign language to share a place in society as another
medium of communication.

The Independence Period (1945 –Up To Present).

With the Japanese gone and Dutch books burned, there was a considerable paucity
of English textbooks and dictionaries. English was taught beginning from the junior high
school (Sekolah Menengah Pertama) using course books, one of them was called step by step
used in the Dutch era, and the method of teaching was grammar-translation method.

Most of the dictionaries were English-Dutch dictionaries, so it was a big problem

for the junior high school students as they did not know Dutch. The method of teaching for
senior high school is as well as junior high school. Most English classes were virtually
grammar classes, reading was not very musch emphasized, and the teachers virtually paid
no attention to speaking and writing as they themselves were not proficient in those skills.

The Dutch returned to Indonesia after world war II and occupied this cities and
towns. Guerrilla schools were set up in remote village and teachers were university students.
The lessons were often interrupted by the Dutch troops patrolling the country side. When
the Dutch left Indonesia for good in 1949, the educational situation began to improve slowly.

English textbooks began to appear and English –Indonesian dictionaries were gradually
available. The teaches also were getting better as they were graduated from the so-
called B-I course.

The central inspectorate of the English instruction paved the way to improve TEFL
in Indonesia In 1953 –1957, a committee was established to be in charge of developing
syllabi for the secondary school English language instruction and teachers manual.
In 1958, the English language materials development project was set up to prepare new
instructional materials for the junior and senior high schools.

By 1962 it had developed into three co-ordinated sub-projects: The materials

development board, the English language testing centre, and the English language pilot
project. The ford foundation played a vital role in all these projects. Due to a number of
reasons logistical, political and financial, these materials were later discontinued.

In the 1968, the Ministry of Education set up an English language project to

address the problems of English instruction in schools.

The project consisted of two sub-projects; the English Teachers Upgrading Projects
(ETUP) and the English Materials Development Project (EMDP). The main objective of the
ETUP was to upgrade the junior high school teachers; whereas the EMDP was to prepare
materials for the senior high school (Djojosoekarto, 1973: page: 17-23)

Since then, a number of projects on in-service teachers training and materials

development in the Ministry of Education have come and gone, and sometimes blunders
are made and conflicts of interests arise such as two similar projects under the same
directorate went on with different bosses, text books with millions of rupiahs (at that time)
had to be thrown away due to innumerable typographical errors reflecting the
incompetence of the administrators in charge of the projects.

In terms of educational projects, the demography and the condition of Indonesia

dictate that any project dealing with elementary and secondary education should be
carefully deliberated and continually monitored as it entails financial risks of enormous
proportion In 1985, the PKG approach (PKG -Pemantapan Kerja Guru or the
reinforcement of teacher’s work) in ELT at the secondary school was launched (tomlinson,
p.1)The World Bank and the United Nation’s Development Program (UNDP) funded the project
and the directorate of basic and secondary education carried it out.

Basically the PKG approach was a combination of the total physical response, Krashen’s
monitor model and the communicative approach, and their motto being “from the teacher, by the
teacher, and for the teacher”--a truly radical approach. As it was a bottom-up approach, teachers
seemed to enjoy it. One of the negativeaspects of this is the abuse of power by the local
eduction authorities, that is they frequently forced the teachers to make use of materials of their
choice which implied kickbacks from the writers or publishers.

The Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) officialized English as a local content
subject through the Decree No. 060/U/1993. This means children from Grade 4 onwards can
learn English in a primary school as long as the society requires it and there are qualified
teachers and proper facilities. In the early 2000s there was a strong demand for early English
instruction. This led to the proliferation of primary EFL education as tens and thousands of
schools offered English instruction despite not having qualified teachers and facilities (Lestari,
2003). The Ministry of National Education (MoNE) was aware of the situation and released the
Decree No. 22/2006 about The Structure of National Curriculum. The decree gives freedom to
schools to teach English earlier than Grade 4 for 2 x 35 minutes per week and requires teachers
to teach English based on the guidelines in the Curriculum Developed at Educational Unit
(Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan - henceforth KTSP) (Departemen, 2006).

It was announced in 2012 that a new curriculum, called Curriculum 2013, was going to
replace KTSP. The full implementation of Curriculum 2013 means the removal of English from
the primary school timetable nationwide in the 2016/2017 academic year. MoNE feared the fact
that schools opt for making room for English in the timetable instead of local language(s) might
contribute to language loss (Hadisantosa, 2010). Thus, it piloted Curriculum 2013 in 2,598
model primary schools and removed English from these school’s timetables, while some
provinces also banned regular schools from teaching English. Parents and teachers disagreed
with the decision; they went on demonstrations to voice their concern (Wahyuni, 2014).

When MoNe changed into Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) in 2014, the
MoEC Minister called for a revision of Curriculum 2013, and soon thereafter he exhorted
schools to teach Indonesian as the national language, a local language of the school’s choice and
English as a foreign language in preparation of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian
Nations) Economic Society. This is in alignment with parents’ views that upgrading English
language mastery is vital in the enhancement of their children’s competitiveness as well as their
participation in a globalized economy. However, the exhortation was also made in relation to the
aspiration of the Minister himself to implement the Act No. 24/2009 that stipulates the necessity
to teach the national language, the local languages and foreign languages (Zein, 2016a).

The exhortation has not materialized in any form of policy decree, however, since a
recent cabinet reshuffle occurring in August 2016 saw the departure of the MoEC Minister from
the office. It is unclear as to whether the recently appointed MoEC Minister would follow up the
previous Minister’s political stance in primary EFL because he has not made his views public. It
also remains obscure as to whether and when the educational funding and resources that have
insofar been made available to secondary English education will reach the primary level.

The government requires teachers to use the guidelines of the KTSP curriculum in the
development of their syllabi. The syllabi need to conform to the curricular objectives in the form
of Graduates Competency Standards as endorsed through the Decree of Ministry of National
Education No. 23/2006. These Standards place an emphasis on learning competencies, stressing
the need on what students are expected to know and do in terms of linguistic competencies
(Departemen, 2006). For example, in terms of speaking, students are expected to be able to
verbally express the meaning of simple interpersonal and transactional discourses in the form of
instructions and information within the contexts of classroom, schools, and the neighborhood.

Since the KTSP curriculum places emphasis on the mastery of learning competencies,
paper-based tests with multiple-choice questions emphassing on syntactical and lexical
knowledge are the norms of assessment, conducted typically at the end of each semester. The use
of paper-based tests has been criticized as contributing to: 1) lessons being designed for test-
preparation; 2) discrepancy between the objectives of learning and teachers’ pedagogy; and 3) a
counterproductive learning environment that places pressure on children and damages the
development of their communicative competence (Lestari, 2003; Hawanti, 2011).

3. EFL Classroom

EFL classroom is a class where students learn English as a foreign language. According Harmer
(2007: 19) declare that, EFL classroom described situations where students are learning English
in order to use it with many other English speaker in the world when students might be tourist,
when they visited another countries around the world. In short, EFL classroom is a class where
English is not dominant language. Here students share the same language and culture. Besides
that, the teacher may be the only native language English speaker they exposure to. Outsides of
the classroom students have very few opportunities to use English because in EFL classroom
ideally the language that should be used is only English not 10 other, in order that the learners
can improve their ability in English. But for some learning, English may not have any obvious
practical benefits Kuo (2006: 216). Moreover, students who often study EFL classroom in their
own county, or sometimes on short courses like in Britain, USA, Australia, Indonesia, Canada,
etc. So, EFL students here are describe as usually living in a target language community.
However, many students of EFL use English in a global context, also when using English for
international communication, especially on the Internet, it is means that the students are in the
fact is part of a global target language community (Kuo, 2006: 217). Furthermore, it can be
summarized that EFL classroom is a class that may provide learners with explicit knowledge of
the target language system and also the atmosphere that should appear in this classroom is
English in order that students can be master in English. Furthermore, in EFL classroom using the
target language here is very important because it cans master students’ skill in English.
Moreover, in this globalization era, English language is still needed to communicate with other
people around the world. So, in English classroom the teacher here should encourage the
students used the target language as much as possible in order to they can facing the
globalization era and also realize how important English in their life.

4. Own Language in EFL Classroom

Related the fact today that own language is still debated and became popular issue in the world
since it influences whether the learning process is successful or not. According to Hall and cock
(2013: 8) declare that, using own language in EFL has positive effect to explain unclear meaning
and also explain about the grammar structure. Moreover, Mahmutoglu and Kicir (2013) argue
that native language is necessary to used in EFL classroom because by using this language the
students are easy to communicate with the teacher in teaching and learning process. In addition,
Spahiu (2013:244) supports that using students’ first 11 language is very helpful in explaining
the complex idea and also grammar. Besides that, students’ native language is helps the learner
who has lack understanding of English. Furthermore, Harbord (1992: 352) declares that using
students’ native language in the classroom is the right choices because the native language here
is facilitate teacher and students’ communication and also facilitating learning. Then, Atkinson
(1987: 242) suggests that, the native language is the appropriate language to give the motivation
to students, because by using this language students are motivated to learn in the classroom. In
addition, Cole (1998) argues that “L1 is most useful at the beginning and low level because it is
very helpful especially if the students have little knowledge of English”. Finally, Cameron
(2001: 201) states that there are the uses of the native language which has the function of the
used of first language that is found in the EFL classroom are lists below:

5. Teachers’ Use the native language

 Clarification the purpose

 Giving instruction
 Translating words or sentences
 Disciplining and control
 Explain grammatical concept
 Explain how to pronounce correctly
 Explain vocabulary
 To correct students mistakes
 Getting contact with individual students
 To give example
 Reviewing the lesson
 Checking students understanding
 To give motivation
 To make a conclusion
References :

 Bautista, Maria Lourdes S., and Andrew B. Gonzalez. "Southeast Asian Englishes." The
Handbook of World Englishes. Blackwell, 2006.

Asriyanti E., Sikki A., Rahman A., Hamra A., & Noni, N. (2013). The competence of primary
school English teachers in Indonesia. Journal of Education and Practice 4(11), 139-146

Sadtono, E. 1988. Problems and progress in teaching English as a foreign language in

Indonesia. In Sadtono, E. (ed.) Malang: Penyelenggaraan Pendidikan Pascasarjana, IKIP
Malang. 1-28