Teachers’ Decision Making on Using L1 in EFL Classrooms in Indonesia

Issues in Teacher Training in Indonesia: Solutions for a Better Future

Nilawati Hadisantosa

Michael E. McCoy

The reality of teacher training programs at institutions of higher learning in Indonesia is clearly one that has continually produced etachers of English for junior and senior high schools who are in large numbers unqualified to teach the skills required by the national curriculum. the reasons for this are varied and complex. Solutions that would break this cycle of accepting students into teacher training programs with skills below the level necessary, allowing them to matriculate and graduate without demonstrating adequate teaching skills or English proficiency, have been elusive to date.

Among the problems related to the ineffectiveness of English language teaching and learning and also the failure of many teacher training programs is the economic reality of teachers’ pay. This problem alone creates a plethora of other realities that inhibit the teacher’s professional development and cerativity, a limited number of qualified teacher trainers, institutional constraints on the content, methods, and materials used in various institutions, and a common perception that teaching is not a profession but a job and that teachers are users of knowledge, not procedures.

This paper will examine these realities and posit some possible solutions that may enable these barriers to English teaching, teacher training, and the student’s ability to learn real life English skills to be broken down over time. The propositions presented here will enable educators and administrators at teacher training institutions to re-focus educational priorities and goals that are economically feasible and can be integrated into any institutional setting in Indonesia, where educators want to make positive changes.

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Hadisantosa, N., & McCoy, M. E. (2006, April). Issues in teacher training in Indonesia: Solutions for a better future. Paper presented at the 41^st RELC International Seminar, Singapore.