Developing Indonesian Culture-Based EFL Materials: A Case against Standardization

 

 

A. Chaedar Alwasilah

 

 

 

Indonesian college students are commonly required to take two or three credit hours of MKDU Bahasa Inggris, i.e., ESP-based college English for non-English majors, where students are provided with reading materials about their field of study. The focus of instruction is on developing reading skills, translation into Indonesian, and sometimes on writing in English. As the entry level of most students is very low, this ESP-based English class is a grammar and translation class. Most ESP programs have failed to develop fair proficiency in English.

 

As an alternative, I propose an Indonesian-culture based approach to college English. Contrary to ESP standards, students are provided with reading texts about Indonesian cultures such as becak, wayang, dangdut, and batik. In this paper I want to share the findings of evaluation of Culture-based English for College Students (2003) – a publication sponsored by the Australia Indonesia Institute – piloted in six colleges in Bandung. Contrary to the opinion of most MKDU instructors, the materials were positively responded by most respondents. Following the respondents’ suggestions, we are now revising the textbook.  

 

 

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Alwasilah, A. C. (2003, October). Developing Indonesian culture-based EFL materials: A case against standardization. Paper presented at the 51^st TEFLIN International Conference, Bandung, Indonesia.

 

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