TEFL in schools : discrepancy persists between curriculum and classroom teaching
The teaching of English in schools in Indonesia have taken different discourses as Natonal Curriculum keeps changing over time. However, those changes do not necessarily have any impact whatsoever on the way teachers deliver their lessons in the classroom. The governement seems to be too much preoccupied with a ‘label’ or a ‘grand concept’ such as ‘KBK’ or until recently ‘KSP’ but has repeatedly failed to shed light on how a concept can be translated into day-to-day classroom methods and techniques. Teachers in general lack the knowledge of how such concept as ‘communicative’, ’student-centered’, ‘ life skills’ or even ‘fun /enjoyble’ can be transformed into real classroom-based activities. Sadly speaking, this issue has never been seriously addressed by the government or those concerned with education. Although there have been numerous workshops and seminars designated for teachers, teachers are still at lost. Why ? Because those workshops very often serve nothing more as ‘formality’ , meant to ‘meet the agenda’. They often center around issues which do not contribute at all to the very practical and fundamental problems in classroom teaching such as ” How can I make my teaching focus on students instead of me as a teacher? , ” How can I engage my students in a ‘life-skill’ activity? How can I design teaching materials which would make my students speak English naturally and at the same time have fun doing it ? ”
It is no wonder that not much has changed as far as TEFL in schools is concerned. The teaching of English in school still bears the old characteristics: “dry”, ” teacher-centered”, “grammar focused” and ‘far from being fun”. Teachers would normally start with a grammatical label, its structure/form, and meaning using Indonesian translation, then move on to excercises in the book or at best ask students to recite a dialogue from the book. A particular structure is usually introduced without the presence of a meaningful context. Students would sit back and listen to their teacher explaining at great length. Then they would be asked to do excercises afterwards. As a result, this kind of teaching has been successful in making students have their minds fully stuffed with all kinds of grammatical labels but without the competence to recognize its funtions and let alone use them in real life situations. This is because students tend to learn more “about English” instead of learning “how to use/speak English” . There is a big discrepancy between what has been taught or what is expected by the curriculum and what level of competence students can really achieve. Whereas the teaching of English should allow students as much time as possible to practice communicating in English and at the same time to learn with maximum comfort and ease.
ILS has long worked on practical issues related to classroom teaching and would be very pleased to share ideas with school teachers. We are planning to hold a “real” workshop on classroom teaching to offer you a breakthrough to your reccurrent problems of how to translate some noble concepts in teaching English as suggested by National Curriculum, into day-to-day real classroom techniques and activities. Contact us at 0361 811763 if you are in Bali or 0353 884282 if you are in Bojonegoro.