Language Planning and the Influence of IT in English Language Teaching and Learning; in the context of ITB.

Abstract

The status development of English as a subject changes from time to time. In the past English was taught at ITB for only 1 semester with 2 credits. Due to the limited time allocation, only reading comprehension was taught. The writer assumes that most of the universities in Indonesia apply the same policy to the undergraduate non English department. In this paper the writer is going to share the experience of language policy at ITB, this policy was the one described by Cooper (1989) “… refers to deliberate effort to influence the allocation of functions among a community’s languages.” The changing policy from 1 semester (2 credits) reading comprehension to 3 semesters with 8 credits was such an interesting process to be shared. Now the first year students have to take a placement test (TOEFL like is used), and are placed in reading comprehension, presentation skills or academic writing class (2 credits). In the second year or third year they have to take technical writing (3 credits) and seminar presentation skills (3 credits) and 2 semesters with 8 credits (Critical Reading and Writing) for first and second semester of School Business and Management ITB (S1 program).The above language policy change was very much influenced by the use of IT in the teaching and learning of English. The role and the influence of interactive web exercises, mailing list and online learning will be discussed.

Introduction

The role of English language is so important in Indonesian universities, because most of the textbooks, journals, and other sources of learning are written in English. Some universities in Indonesia are aware of the importance and give special attention to the teaching and learning of English; for instance by establishing a language centre, student English forum and giving more credits to English as a subject. However some universities in Indonesia still consider English as a minor subject, especially in the non English departments, similar to other humanities subjects such as religion, ethics ‘pancasila dan kewarganegaraan’, ‘sosiologi industri’ and anthropology. Alwasilah (2000) mentioned eleven characteristics of English in the preparatory year, which is known as ‘MKDU’: ”(a) it has been part of the system for a long time, (b) it is a compulsory subject, (c) it is 2 credits, (d) taught in 1st or 2nd semester, (e) the classes are relatively large and heterogenic, (f) they are taught by junior lecturers who do not have enough experience in teaching, (g) it is not a prestigious subject, (h) there is no inter and intra institution coordination (i) lack of facilities, (j) the material has already been given at high school and (k) there is no placement test or classification according to students’ ability and there is no needs analysis” (Alwasilah, 2000). Considering the importance of English and the need for change, the writer will elaborate the changes in English teaching policy at ITB. It will mostly based on what has been done by the English unit and Language Centre at ITB.

The teaching and learning of English in the 1980s at ITB

English is a compulsory subject for the first year students at ITB. As there are more than 1000 students taking English each year, English has become an important subject. It is important because students are expected to be able to read English texts during their study. So there is an expectation from the institution that the English Unit’s program will bring students up to the level of competence required to read those texts.

English was given for only one semester in all departments which was about 32 hours of instruction. In the late 1980s, the English unit compiled its own teaching materials to cater for the needs of the institution. The texts were selected from various sources ranging from mining to mathematics, followed by reading comprehension questions. Lists of words (related to science and technology) were also given. Essential grammatical items were included in the texts. The assumption was that by reading scientific texts and understanding some grammatical items and vocabulary the students would be able to cope with the texts related to their study. The compilation was influenced by the beliefs that;
- comprehension of written material is inescapably intertwined with vocabulary.
- students must learn the rules of formal syntax in order to become fluent reader.
- students may lack knowledge of English grammar.
- students encounter too much unfamiliar vocabulary to grasp the overall concept conveyed in the sentence.
- students are challenged when reading idiomatic expressions and unfamiliar grammatical constructions.

The number of students was around 80 to 100 from various departments in one class. Explanation about the reading texts followed by the vocabulary, grammar explanation and reading comprehension questions was a standard delivery. This teaching methodology was very similar to how they were taught in high schools and they were bored in class. Alwasilah (2000) pointed out the causes of the failure of such programs; “...the texts are not challenging for students”, and “…there is no clear benefit of reading the texts provided by the lecturer” (Alwasilah, 2000). Some of the students made use of their senior’s English textbook, where the exercises have been done so they were not really paying attention to the lesson. Some of them even did other work such as calculus, mathematics or other subjects. Moreover the heterogenic English ability of the class made it really difficult to handle. Some students were really advanced compared to others. They had usually have memorized a great deal of English vocabulary words and acquired a certain reading level before entering ITB due to the competitive entrance exams. They came to class just for the sake a ticket to sit in the final examination and obtain the final grade, which required only 80% attendance,

In the late 1980s with the growing emphasis on ESP, the departments at ITB demanded different English teaching materials for ITB students. The English unit tried to respond to this demand by selecting reading materials from their particular fields of study. The exercises using specialized vocabulary were constructed by the English teachers. As a result several handbooks for students from various departments were compiled. It was assumed that by teaching reading in a particular content area students would understand English texts in their field of study and would be motivated to study English because they would be working with materials on topics with which they were already familiar. The process of compiling, reviewing, and revising the materials took longer time than expected. There was no chance for teachers to review each other’s materials as they were in different specialized areas and because of lack of time. This dilemma was to the one described by Johns (1991) :“ … teachers find themselves in a situation where they are expected to produce a course that exactly matches the needs of a group of learners, but are expected to do so with no, or very limited, preparation time" (Johns, 1991, p. 91). There was a particularly acute problem at this stage concerning the preparation of materials for the students of certain departments whose number of students was small. The department of astronomy, for example, had a very small number of students. Therefore, since it was not feasible to cater for these students, they were put together with the students from other departments. The handbook was therefore a compilation of texts of 2 or more fields of study.

During the instruction the students felt at ease at the beginning because of their familiarity with the material. Later on they got bored as they could understand the material very easily because of their background knowledge. This phenomenon is described by Hudson (1991:86) as “technical content schema,” a term defined as knowledge of content from subjects that students have already mastered. Technical content schema of science seems to play a greater role in students’ comprehension of scientific texts than their language background. Furthermore, the teachers had the psychological burden of having to learn a lot more about a certain field of study. Consequently they had to consult subject teachers, particularly for some very specialized terms. The coordinator of the English program had difficulty finding replacements for teachers who were absent for one reason or another because each teacher specialized in only one particular field of study. There were also problems with both mid-term tests and the final tests. Each teacher had to make two sets of tests during the semester. The ability to construct a test varied among the teachers. The levels of difficulty of the tests, therefore, varied too. As a result we could not make a standardization of test scores, because an A in one department was not necessarily equal to an A in other departments. Besides, the students’ performance on the test might be explained their background knowledge, not by their competence in English. So there was a question whether we were testing the students’ mastery of the content or that of the language.

The role of ITB Language Centre in the 1980s

The Language Centre was established under the Vice Rector I (Vice Rector of Academic Affair) in the response to the demand of pre-departure training courses for ITB young lecturers before continuing their studies in English speaking countries. With the help of the British Council, the centre was developed. The most significant contribution to the changes in teaching methods, materials and English language teaching in general, was the involvement of a teacher specialist from the British Council. The teacher specialist was deeply involved in developing the teaching materials, methodology and resource centre for Self Directed Learning. Weekly workshops on materials developments, how to compiled materials from different sources to meet the students’ need and the target language were conducted, involving those who were teaching the undergraduate program. The communicative approach and other teaching methods were introduced to the teachers. New teaching activities such as pair work, group work, and discussion were introduced and slowly changed the teachers’ view of teaching. Other important events were the academic link with Leeds University and Universitas Gajah Mada, started in 1991 to 1997. Eighteen language teaching specialists from these two institutions visited Leeds through the link and nine visits to Indonesia were made by Leeds staff. Joint research was carried out, and several joint presentations were made at international conferences. Teaching materials for students and reference materials for teachers were developed through these links.

The teaching and learning of English in the 1990s at ITB

One outcome of the academic link with UGM-Leeds has resulted in the changing of teaching materials used in the undergraduate program. Some research in material development was done by giving samples of skill-based teaching materials and the activities to students. The results showed that the students liked the materials and so the teachers were challenged to do something different. The idea of changing the teaching material was also inspired by two seminars which were held by ITB in collaboration with the British Council Jakarta and University of Leeds; in 1995: Teaching English to University Undergraduates in the Indonesian Context: Issues and Developments, and in 1997 English in High Schools and Universities in Indonesia; Bridging the Gap.

In preparing the materials, books related to reading and reading skills in which the exercises were provided were used as models. As the workbook was prepared by the teachers as a team, each teacher prepared only one chapter to two chapters instead of one whole workbook. Later the teachers reviewed into each other’s material and made necessary changes. The aim of preparing the new workbook was to give the students the opportunity to learn other skills apart from knowing how to answer comprehension questions in their own field. In the new workbook the students are trained how to make predictions, to skim and scan a text, to find main ideas in paragraphs, etc. The compilation was influenced by the beliefs that;
- reading skills such as making predictions before reading, skimming, scanning, getting the main ideas, note taking are very important aspects in reading.
- the reading skills mastered by the students in Indonesian language should be utilized.
- outside the English classroom different reading purposes are inherent students encounter a variety of situations.
During the instruction the teachers are challenged to be creative and the students have opportunities to apply the reading skills which they are acquiring when reading their textbooks. The teachers have to prepare supplementary materials for exercises to be done spontaneously in class. These supplementary materials can also be used for quizzes, and assignments. In addition, the students are asked to submit a text in their own field with their notes on it such as its main ideas, etc. The students are given the skills to be applied when reading texts in their own field. The teachers consult each other on the content of the book. They are able to help each other by taking each other’s class in case one of them is absent for some reasons. The efficiency in teaching is also higher because one teacher can teach in more than one class.

The role of the ITB Language Centre in the 1990s

In the early 1990s the Language Centre not only ran pre-departure courses but also courses for the public. In running the pre-departure courses, which was very intensive, (from 08.00 to 16.30 over the period of three months) the courses were designed by the teacher specialist from the British Council together with the ITB English teachers. There were BELT (Basic English Language Training), and EAP 1 (English for Academic Purposes). As mentioned earlier, the teacher specialist gave training on various methods of teaching and material development to cater the students’ need. The teacher specialist was also involved in the development of the resource centre, and guided the design of the learning activities.

The resource centre is equipped with books, magazines, news papers cassettes, videos and other home made-materials designed for facilitating self–directed learning. At the beginning of Self Directed Learning sessions of the pre-departure program, a workshop with the participants is always conducted to give an overview of SDL, followed by a series of workshops to find out about individual needs, choice of individual learning techniques, setting goals, specifying objectives, use of learning contracts and other matters related to SDL. Self-directed study involves various activities and resources, such as self-guided reading, participation in study groups, internships, and reflective writing activities. It is expected that individual learners can become empowered to take more responsibility for various decisions associated with the learning endeavor. (Hiemstra, R. 1994). Along with the increasing number of courses offered for the public, the Language Centre is also a pre-departure training centre for BAPPENAS and DIKTI.

By the end of 1994, the formal support from the British Council ended. The Language Centre now has to support its own activities without the help of a teacher specialist. However; other types of collaboration with the British Council continues up to now. Testing and Evaluation in the Context of Undergraduate English Language Teaching in Indonesia, the third national conference in collaboration with the British Council and university of Leeds was held in February 2000.

The teaching and learning of English and the role of Language Centre in 2000 up to the present at ITB

After the seminar on Testing and Evaluation in the Context of Undergraduate English Language Teaching in Indonesia, ITB decided to change the ‘English class’ to ‘academic writing class’, ‘presentation skills class’, and ‘reading class’. New students are tested using TOEFL like test, conducted by the Language Centre and students with the score of 500 or above have to take the academic writing class (2 credits), 475 to 499 presentation skills class (2 credits), and 474 or below reading class (2 credits). The academic writing handout has been prepared at the Language Centre and focuses on how to write. It starts with how to write a topic sentence; then various types of paragraph; and ends with essay writing. Similar to the academic writing handout, the presentation skills handout has also been prepared at the Language Centre. Even at the beginning some of the classes were conducted at the Language Centre which has the facilities. The presentation skills class requires a video, to show a model of a presentation, and a video recorder to record students’ presentations. The maximum number of students in this class is twenty. The writing class requires OHP with a maximum of twenty five students in a class. The number of students in a reading class is approximately 40 – 50.

The blooming of internet gives special color to the teaching and learning of English at ITB. Through www.lc.itb.ac.id students are able to search for information related to their particular needs in learning English; do online grammar, vocabulary, writing, reading exercises and many more. With the advance of Information Technology (IT), teaching and learning can effectively change the way students take advantage of IT to gain new and wider resources of information. (Leong 1999) Using the World Wide Web (www), students can search through millions of files around the world within minutes to locate and access authentic materials (e.g., newspapers, magazines, book excerpts) exactly tailored to their own interests. For example in conversation class at the Language Centre, a teacher can ask the students to search their favorite singers, or film stars using search engine (www.google.com) in the resource centre, study the files and share the information orally with the rest of the class. Another common use of a search engine in the internet is in teaching reading where students can find their own text and discuss the text with the teacher or other in the class. www.lc.itb.ac.id is not only for students who are studying at the Language Centre but also for ITB students who are taking English class at the English unit.

The big change

The big change in the English teaching and learning at ITB was initiated by the physics department. The physics department proposed an idea of running a technical writing class (3 credits) and seminar presentation (3 credits) to the English unit. These two new subjects are compulsory subjects in the department and the students must take these subjects in the third or fourth year. The syllabus and handout for both were compiled by English teacher and subject teacher from the department of physics. The classes are also handled by English teacher and subject teacher. The English teacher teaches the writing skills or presentation skills and the subject teacher helps the students having problems with technical terms, having difficulties in generating ideas for writing or presentation, or having problem in developing technical concepts. Due to the limited sources for technical writing, students are encouraged to visit http://www.lc.itb/links/writing.htm and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/. At the http://www.lc.itb/links/writing.htm students can visit several links related to writing and http://owl.english.purdue.edu provides handouts, materials and resources for students and teachers including: general writing concerns, grammar, spelling and punctuation, research and documenting, professional writing, practice exercises and many more. In handling homework, mailing list fisika2000@yahoogroups.com is used so that the class discussion and feedback can be broadened into cyber interaction. An e-learning website was prepared to handle intensive cyber interaction http://shinchan.lc.itb.ac.id (still under construction). With the rapid development of IT, ITB Language Centre in collaboration with the British Council and university of Leeds, organized the fourth national conference on Autonomy: Perspectives from the English Language Classroom, Challenges for English language Teaching Organizations in 2002.
With this big change, physics students should take 2 credit of either academic writing, presentation skills, or reading class, depending on the TOEFL like score, at the preparatory year, 3 credits of technical writing and 3 credits of seminar presentation, total 8 credits. Electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mathematics, and biology department follow the path of physics department in initiating technical writing class and seminar presentation class. These departments offer 2 credits for technical writing and 2 credits for seminar presentation, so students in these departments should take 6 credits of English during their study.

English at ITB Postgraduate Program

Started from the year of 2000, students taking post graduate program (S2) at ITB should take TOEFL like test at the Language Centre. Those who were scored lower then 475 should take a TOEFL preparation class and should obtain 475 or above at the end of the program. Those who could not get 475 at the end of the program should follow the next similar program. The idea of increasing the TOEFL score and English ability using this kind of program was not successful since so many students could not get 475 or above. The number of the participants is getting bigger and bigger, the Language Centre does not have enough classroom and teachers to handle the classes. Started in 2004, those who were scored lower then 475 should take an English class at the English unit, which is reading and writing and they do not have to get 475 TOEFL score or above instead they will get mark ‘A’, ‘B’, C’ or ‘D’. Unlike S2 students, the S3 students (doctorate program) if scored 474 or lower should follow intensive program at the Language Centre (320 hours). This intensive program is very similar to pre-departure program, concentrating in study skills, reading and writing.

English at School of Business and Management ITB (S1 program)

In the year of 2004 ITB opened a School of Business and Management ITB (S1 program). In this new program English, Critical Reading and Writing, is given for 8 credits in 2 semesters. Critical Reading I (4 credits) is given in the first semester and Critical Reading II (4 credits) is given in the second semester. In the two semesters the students will be taught specific strategies for critical reading, thereby enabling them to analyze thoughtfully the readings in their texts in their other courses. It is assumed that the SBM students should learn to think and read critically and that as they become better readers, they will also become more effective writers. Instruction in reading, writing is also taught, helping the students to understand and manage the composing process – from invention through planning and drafting to revision. Since English is used as the language of instruction in most of the subjects, the following key skills and competencies will be encouraged; critical thinking through analysis and discussion of ideas from reading texts or video; writing skills requiring the organization of ideas and their development in stages of the writing course; cooperative learning through working in pairs and small group discussions; critical reading skills through guidance in relation to specific texts to be read and how they should be read; and basic competence in making use of learning resources such as libraries and the internet.

Conclusion

The changes of English language learning and teaching policy at ITB was very much influenced by other institutions and the use of IT. The long and intent collaboration of the Language Centre with the British Council and university of Leeds has gradually changed the practice of English language learning and teaching toward the better at ITB.

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