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English teachers aiming to up their game
As the majority of English language teachers in Indonesia lack competence, more than 500 teachers from all over the country are meeting in Jakarta to exchange knowledge and experiences, involving their counterparts from the region and native speaking countries
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s the majority of English language teachers in Indonesia lack competence, more than 500 teachers from all over the country are meeting in Jakarta to exchange knowledge and experiences, involving their counterparts from the region and native speaking countries.
'The speakers and presenters at the three-day conference are expected to offer input, based on their research and experience, on how to improve the teaching of English as a foreign language in Indonesia,' the president of the Association of Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN), Fuad Abdul Hamid, told The Jakarta Post after the opening ceremony of the conference recently.
The 60th TEFLIN International Conference, presented 10 main speakers in general sessions and 316 presenters in parallel sessions. The speakers and presenters come from various universities in Australia, the UK, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the US.
The conference was organized by the TEFLIN, in cooperation with the University of Indonesia's (UI) Faculty of Humanities and Universitas Siswa Bangsa Internasional.
Fuad acknowledged that even though English language teachers in Indonesia were required to have teaching certifications, most of them were poor in English proficiency, making their teaching ineffective.
'The government, therefore, should improve the requirements on English language proficiency in certifying English language teachers,' Fuad said.
Keynote speaker Grace J Wiradisastra, who is also an English language lecturer at UI, said teaching certifications should be able to be used as measurements for teachers' proficiency in English and their competence in teaching.
'Because they are poor in proficiency and teaching competence, many teachers focus their teaching merely on helping students pass examinations, not on training their students to use English for daily interactions,' Grace said.
She added teachers should make students comfortable and confident in using English.
'Besides guiding the students to be more active in class, teachers should be innovative and creative in developing their students' ability to use English,' she said.
TEFLIN vice president Sisilia Halimi said the government should facilitate English language teachers in improving their language proficiency and teaching competence by providing more training for them and offering scholarships for further studies.
Sisilia suggested English language teachers improve their teaching by encouraging students to increase their exposure to the language through reading, movies and music. (ian)
