English Environment in Pesantren

English Environment in Pesantren
People have bad impression about Pesantren. Pesantren is kind of Islamic boarding
schools in Indonesia. They consist of pondok, mosque, santri -how the students in islamic
boarding schools are called-, teaching of classical Islamic texts and Kyai. Many of people see
Pesantren as an old-fashioned school whose students are left behind. Some others also might
think that the students are gross because they live in a traditional dorm. But nowadays, Pesantren
is different. Not only the building is more modern but also the environment educates the santri to
have a good bilingual skills with a polite personality. These are some of the strengths that santri
have.
Talking about language, there are two main languages santri usually talk with; English
and Arabic Language. English language becomes mandatory language in Pesantren where all
santri are required to speak with it at all time. No matter where they are, as long as they’re in the
dormitory area, they cannot speak in other language but English or Arabic. These two language
become the santri’s main identity beside mastering Islamic knowledge. Arabic language becomes
so important to islamic boarding school as the basic skill to learn the islamic books while English
language becomes so matter as it is international language the santri has master.
Santri nowadays are no longer left behind. One of the reasons santri has to get used to
talk in English language as there are many geaduatees of Pesantren who prefer to continue their
education abroad. There are also some international pesantren who provides opportunity and
scholarship for the high achiever santri to study in Middle Eastern Countries such as Egypt,
Yaman, Morocco, Jordan or even Turkish, Australia, USA moreover some European Countries
such as Germany, Netherlands, France, etc.
This bis opportunity makes the management of pesantren think of how to increase the
quality of the santri. So one of the ways is to make the santri talk in two main languages; English
and Arabic. Beside that, pesantren also provides a precious activity where the santri can get used
to talk in public. It’s a public speaking activity that is held twice in a week. The santri have to
deliver a speech about a specific theme in either Arabic or English Language. Not only it
improves their language skill, but also it helps them to master themselves in controlling their
anxiousness in front of the public.
Furthermore, there are also some other activities to help the santri improve their language
skill such as listening session, vocabulary memorization, drama contest with the two main
languages, speech contest to let the santri learn and compete, etc. These various activities mixed
with art project will make the santri not only master the languages but also make them learn with
fun. So the statement of ‘pesantren is boring’ is no longer accepted. From the attitude toward
languages, the mechanism and dynamism of a society will be known by other people (Rampton,
2004:2).
Research done by Suhardi (1991) investigated the attitude of students in university

toward Indonesian language, mother language, and foreign language. It is very board
explanation because many languages that he compared in his research. In this research, the
writer is only concerning himself with the attitude toward one foreign language that becomes
global language namely English language, because in their process of studying English
language, they learn about general English without being separated into different accents, and it
may concern itself with American English as almost curriculum taught in Indonesia.
Practice that is carried out continuously will make it easier for students to remember the
material in the brain (Abu Bakar, 2016; Fatah, 2011). This statement really fits the
implementation of English practice in Pesantren as the dormitory area is kind of a fully foreign
languages environment. Also, seeing from the research done by (Muhammad Darwis, Nailatul
Maizura, 2022), they found a result that the effort used by the teachers are quiet many such as
keeping the students’ motivation up, managing the application of the learning methods and the
class, driversing the santri’s ability and following up the santri with lack of motivation and
discipline.
From here we know that not only santri can contribute in religious matter but also in
international affair. However, they cannot be seperated from challenges such as the fast
development of digital nowadays. As we know that pesantren is limited from technology, it is
quiet hard for the santri and the school staff to keep updating on the digital life. But beside the
challenges, we can see the plus point and the significant improvement from pesantren by making
it an English environment.
References
Adjie H. (2007) Santri’s Language Perception toward English and Arabic Languages in
Pesantren. Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya.
https://repository.unair.ac.id/117403/4/4.%20BAB%20I%20PENDAHULUAN.pdf
Darwis M., Mazura N. (2022). MULTI-LANGUAGE METHODS OF SANTRI ON THE

DEVELOPMENT OF ARABIC AND ENGLISH AT PONDOK PESANTREN. Journal of
Education and Teaching, Vol.1 No.2,
https://ejournal.staidu.ac.id/index.php/taklimuna/article/view/36

English Environment in Pesantren

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English Environment in Pesantren

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English Environment in Pesantren

Research done by Suhardi (1991) investigated the attitude of students in university

Darwis M., Mazura N. (2022). MULTI-LANGUAGE METHODS OF SANTRI ON THE

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