Bilingual Education:
Ella
Masita
Marzul
Hidayat
In this paper, we discussed the
necessity of English literacy education to develop the human resource to
prepare for this global era. We then highlighted the bilingual education
program, one of the efforts made by the Ministry of National Education to
increase English literacy in
The design of the study was
descriptive. The data were collected through observation, interview, and the
students’ realizations under the assigned topic. The result of the study
revealed that most of the students were in a functional literacy level, the
level which should be acquired by the junior high students (SLTP) In Indonesia
as stated in the Curriculum 2004, and only few of them were still in performative
literacy level. However, as evidenced in the students’ spoken and written
realization tests, the language they used still contained linguistic errors. It
is assumed that some factors such as limited exposure to the authentic
materials and limited English competence of bilingual teachers’ for science to
provide models in English may contribute to these problems. In fact, that all of the students enjoyed
being in the bilingual program class and showed their great enthusiasm in
learning English might signal that bilingual education program could be an
alternative program. This program can provide more English exposure to students
within the very limited time available to study English at school, so that the
optimal expectation of learning English at school can be achieved.
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Masita, E., &
Hidayat, M. (2005, September). Bilingual education
A way to promote English literacy? Paper presented at 1st International Seminar
on Literacy Education in Developing Countries,
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