English as A Medium of Instruction at Vocational High School in Indonesia (original) (raw)

WHY THEY ACT THE WAY THEY DO?: PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES OF EXPERIENCED VOCATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN INDONESIA

International Journal of Language Education, 2020

This study was aimed at revealing pedagogical practices of experienced vocational English language teachers, focusing on their lesson planning as well as teaching and classroom management practices, and to understand why they act the way they do. Data were collected through interviews with 5 selected experienced vocational English language teachers and 28 sessions of observations. The results indicated that, in terms of lesson planning practices, they designed potential lesson content from various sources, identified specific linguistic goals, and made appropriate decisions about time sequencing. In terms of teaching practices, they employed a wide variety of techniques (scaffolding, discussion, games, presentation, writing/drawing, and individual task), focused on speaking skills, used handouts, and utilized colourful markers and whiteboard. In terms of classroom management practices, they organized students into groups/pairs, moved around the classroom, arranged classroom in traditional way, addressed misbehaviour, and gave reward and punishment. The pedagogical practices were able to promote effective learning and give positive impact on the students' behaviour. The results of this study can be used by relevant stakeholders as one of the platforms to understand the current pedagogical practices of experienced vocational English language teachers in Indonesia.

English Teaching in an Indonesian Vocational High School Majoring Industrial Machinery Engineering

AL-ISHLAH: Jurnal Pendidikan

Theoretically, teaching English in Vocational High Schools (VHS) should relate to and support specific skills required by students based on their major. In reality, teaching English in Indonesian VHS is mostly similar to general schools. Discussions on this issue have been long contested by many researchers in diverse contexts, yet, little focus was given to the Industrial Machinery Engineering major. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the actual needs of students in industrial machinery engineering in learning English. By administering questionnaires to 200 students at a VHS in Medan, this mixed-method study seeks the students' comprehension of the types of English language skills they used, the purpose of learning these skills, their ability to use the skills, and the basic English language skill they must acquire as part of their English language course arrangement. To scrutinize deeper investigation, in depth-interviews were also employed with ten students in t...

The Challenges of English Language Teaching in Indonesia

International Journal of English and Applied Linguistics (IJEAL), 2021

The widespread use of English worldwide has brought about a significant impact for human beings to date. In the education sphere mainly, many studies have been conducted to discover the issues in English instruction. Moreover, English teachers in Indonesia were highly encouraged to figure out the best method to teach and cope with any problems encountered by the students to achieve the best learning outcomes. Besides, the government had also tried its best endeavors to accustom the curriculum to the needs in this globalization era. However, the results have not always been as expected since teachers and students possessed divergent points of view linked with the implementation of English language instruction. Therefore, this scientific literature review discussed some issues related to English which included; English in Indonesia, English Language Teaching for Education, Teachers’ Strategies to English Language Teaching, Problems of English Language Teaching, and Students’ Perceptio...

Perspectives on the Use of English as the Language of Teaching in Indonesian Schools

After independence from Dutch colonial rule, Indonesia adopted Bahasa Indonesia (BI) as the national language spurred growing nationalistic, political and practical concerns. Consequently, BI has overtaken Javanese and Sundanese as the nation's lingua franca for administrative, education, trade, culture, science, technology, and mass media purposes. However, the dawn of globalization and internationalization has imposed English language on many facets of contemporary Indonesian society. This has raised salient questions about the proliferation of English and by extension the fate of BI in Indonesia. Consequently, the main objective of this paper is to identify, examine and highlight the prospects and challenges of adopting English language as the medium of teaching in Indonesian schools. The paper finds that the challenges of adopting English as a medium of teaching and instruction is hampered by political, socioeconomic and most significantly historical factors due to colonialism and the Sumpar Pemuda proclamation of 28 th October 1928. In spite of this, the author considers English adoption in schools has several Socioeconomic, Cultural and Geopolitical benefits. The paper concludes that training the nation's future leaders in bilingual or multilingual curricula will strongly position Indonesia on the path to greater socioeconomic growth and sustainable development.

Developing and Using English Teaching Materials in Vocational High School

English Education, 2019

This article describes a study on the process of developing and using English teaching materials by English teachers in a vocational school. The study was initiated by observing the classroom activities which focused on how teachers used the teaching materials. Beside the observation process, the data also gathered through an interview between the researcher and the two teachers. The result of data analysis showed that the process of developing teaching materials consisted of two major steps; 1) student’s need analysis process and 2) materials adaptation process. Meanwhile, the developed materials such as pictures, videos, course books, and direct listening materials were applied in the arranged discussion activity. It can be sum up that the teachers developed teaching materials by considering student’s needs. The teaching materials were developed by adapting several existed teaching materials. They were then used mostly in the discussion activity and used as a brainstorming for stu...

Teachers’ Beliefs in Developing English Materials for Vocational Schools

Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 2021

This report is part of a larger study concerning teachers’ belief towards materials development and their effectiveness in professional development (PD) in Indonesia. This case study attempted to explore how the Indonesian teachers’ beliefs towards materials development for vocational school students in Indonesia. Seven out of thirteen English teachers of vocational schools in Indonesia are involved in this project and were interviewed and observed. They are developing materials for vocational schools. Findings show that teachers believed that they had some considerations to check what has contained the textbook's development. Their beliefs were influenced by some factors such as experience, needs, situation, students’ interest, students’ ability, workshop, and references. Also, the teachers' deficient time and different views were two major problems faced by the teachers when conducting materials selection and analysis—implications for how teachers’ perception toward Englis...

The Analysis of English Textbook for Vocational School in Parepare Indonesia

International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP), 2021

This article analyses the English textbook content entitled "Practice Your English Competence for SMK/MAK Grade XI" based on the English syllabus of the 2013 curriculum. It evaluates the English textbook using an evaluation checklist to decide the textbook is ESP (English for Specific Purpose) or EGP (English for General Purpose) and appropriate for vocational school students. This study applied qualitative content analysis and applied the descriptive, evaluative design to evaluate the whole parts of the textbook based and measure the result against some evaluation checklist as standardization of the learning objectives. The findings show that the textbook "Practice Your English Competence" for Grade XI Vocational High School students is appropriate with the syllabus. The last is the textbook evaluation. It can be inferred that the textbook is categorized as "good," it cannot be excellent because of some reasons, first is the textbook preferred provided the language as a grammatical system, not as a communication system, the textbook gives no opportunity for the students to increase their speaking skill. However, all over the book can fulfil the learning materials based on the English syllabus. Therefore, the textbook also cannot be included as an ESP textbook.

The Teaching Constraints of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia: The Context of School Based Curriculum

Sosiohumanika, 2011

: This article presents the teaching constraints of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the Indonesian Senior High School context outlined by the development of recent English curriculum (school based curriculum). It discusses teaching constraints of EFL speaking in recent school based curriculum, constraints on understanding learners’ differences, constraints in learning material resources, constraints on classroom activities, constraints on teaching methods, and constraints on speaking assessment. Based on the discussion, this article also provides some solutions on what teachers of EFL speaking can do in order to achieve a higher quality of EFL speaking teaching and to improve the speaking skill of EFL students in Indonesia. Finally, the issue of the contribution of inserting learners’ differences in curriculum design to promote independent or successful learners becomes important in the implementation of school-based curriculum as current curriculum with focusing on learner c...

Teaching English for Specific Purposes in Vocational High School: Teachers' Beliefs and Practices

2020

This study reports the result of a qualitative case study research design. This study aims to explore teachers' beliefs about teaching English for Vocational school, to investigate how those beliefs are reflected in classroom practices, and to explore that affect the shaping of teachers' beliefs in the teaching and learning process. The participant of this study were six English teachers from three different vocational high schools in Majenang. The data was taken using a semi-structured interview, documentation, and classroom observation. Then the data was analyzed using line by line analysis. Teaching English in Vocational High School is believed different from Senior High school (SHS) as it belongs to English for specific purposes (ESP) and demands different knowledge of material, method, and strategies. The result shows that the teacher’s beliefs are not always realized in their classroom practices for a variety of potential reasons. The inconsistency between belief and p...

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN INDONESIA

The linguistic situations and conditions in Indonesia are quite complex by their own natures as more than seven hundred vernaculars with their various dialects from a great number of ethnic groups have been used as media of communication in the country. Accordingly, the success of English teaching in Indonesia cannot be freed from the students cultural backgrounds, values, customs, and beliefs as well as the political standpoint of the government regarding this foreign language. English language teaching has then undergone more than four changes in its curriculum since the country s independence and brought no significant impact upon the learning outcomes. This study reveals the substantial unconstructive influence of the students cultures and the non-conducive language environment affecting their language acquisition. Other aspects related to the teachers performance and class preparations equally contribute to the ineffective classroom interactions. This study offers some practical suggestions to cope with those problems.