Teachers’ View on English Language Professional ...repository.uksw.edu/bitstream/123456789/3479/2/ART_Rismawati S...the teachers’ critical opinions on English development program

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English Edu Vol.11, No.1, January 2013: 20-33

TEACHERS’ VIEW ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN AN INTERNATIONAL-STANDARD PILOT

PROJECT SCHOOL (RSBI) IN TEMANGGUNG

Rismawati SusetyaningtyasSMK Negeri 2Temanggung

Christine ManaraAtma Jaya Catholic University

Jakarta

INTRODUCTION

In the last few years, bilingual type ofschools such as International-Standard PilotProject Schools (RSBI) and “national-plus”school has become a phenomenon in Indonesianeducation. These schools start growing innumber in the hope to prepare their students toface the globalization era, especially since theissuing ofUndang-Undang Republik IndonesiaNomor 20 Tahun 2003, BAB VII, pasal 33, poin

3 (Republic of Indonesia Law Number 20 Year2003, chapter 7, article 33, point 3). Thispolicyallows foreign language to be used as amedium of instruction at certain educationallevel to support students’ foreign languagecompetence. In the last few years, thegovernment encourages selected public schoolsin Indonesia to be transformed into International-Standard Pilot Project Schools (Rintisan SekolahBertaraf Internasional or RSBI) and International-Standard Schools (Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional

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Teachers’ View on English Language Professional Development in... (Rismawati Susetyaningtyas and Christine Manara)

or SBI) in the hope that these type of schoolscould prepare learners to be able to competeacademically at international level. Theseschools have often been viewed as sekolahunggul or top schools. These types of schools,however, are often simplistically associated tothe use of English as the medium of instruction.By using English as medium of instruction, it ishoped that their students can compete in thisglobalization era that requires everyone to useEnglish. This view is strengthened by thePeraturan Menteri Pendidikan NasionalRepublik Indonesia Nomor 78 Tahun 2009, BABII, bagian ketiga, pasal lima, poin 3 (Ministerof National Education Regulation No. 78/2009,chapter 2, part third, article 5, point 3). It is statedthat International–Standard Schools (SBI) canuse English and/or other foreign language usedin the international forum as the medium ofinstruction for particular subjects.

Even though International-Standard PilotProject Schools (RSBI) and International-Standard Schools (SBI) are mushrooming, notall teachers from senior and junior high schoolsin Indonesia are able to use English as themedium of instruction. One of the requirementsfor teachers of RSBI and SBI is described by thePeraturan Menteri Pendidikan NasionalRepublik Indonesia Nomor 78 Tahun 2009, BABII, bagian keempat, pasal enam, poin 3 (TheRegulation of Minister of National EducationNumber 78 Year 2009, chapter 2, part fourth,article 6, point 3) as follows:

pendidik mampu mengajar dalam bahasaInggris dan/atau bahasa asing lainnya yangdigunakan dalam forum internasional bagimata pelajaran/bidang studi tertentu,kecuali Bahasa Indonesia, PendidikanAgama, dan Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan,Pendidikan Sejarah, dan muatan lokal[educators are competent in using Englishand/or other foreign language which isused in international forum to teach certainschool subjects, except Bahasa Indonesia,

Religion Education, and Civics, History,and local content subjects]

The policy requires the teachers and administrationstaff to master English as the language ofeducation. In order to achieve this goal of Englishmastery, the government and the stakeholdersoften hold a professional development programin the form of English development program forteachers and administration staff to be able touse English in their classroom and administrationtasks.

For non-English subject teachers, learningEnglish in teaching their subject matters is a newexperience. This study is, therefore, aimed toexplore the teachers’ (especially non-Englishteachers’) opinions on English developmentprogram that is held in their school and teachers’opinions on teaching their subject matters usingEnglish. This study also explores their opinionson International-Standard Pilot Project Schools(RSBI). The scope of this study is in oneInternational-Standard Pilot Project School inTemanggung. By knowing the teachers’ opinionson English development program, teaching theirsubject matters using English and International-Standard Pilot Project Schools (RSBI), thegovernment and the stakeholders will understandthe teachers’ critical opinions on Englishdevelopment program and RSBI. It is hoped thatthe findings of this study will provide someinformation to be used to evaluate the works ofEnglish development program and RSBI.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Teacher’s Professional Development

Lange (1990) as cited in Bailey, Curtis, andNunan (2001, p. 4) defines teacher developmentas “a term used in the literature to describe aprocess of continual intellectual, experiential, andattitudinal growth of teachers”. Villegas-Reimers(2003, p. 11),using the term professional develop-ment, explains that it refers to “the developmentof a person in his or her professional role.” Theconcept of professional development has often

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been related to growth. As Richard and Farrell(2005, p. 4) says that “development generallyrefers to general growth not focused on a specificjob.” They also added that “professionaldevelopment serves a longer-term goal and seeksto facilitate growth of teachers’ understandingof teaching and of themselves as teachers.” Thisgrowth may include their knowledge, teachingbeliefs, and teacher identity. Richard and Farrell(2005, p. 4), also provide some examples of goalsfrom a teacher development perspective: (1)understanding how the process of secondlanguage development occurs, (2) understandinghow our roles change according to the kind oflearners we are teaching, (3) understanding thekinds of decision making that occur duringlessons, (3) reviewing our own theories andprinciples of language teaching, (4) developingan understanding of different styles of teaching,and (5) determining learners’ perceptions ofclassroom activities.

The definitions above can be said to be ageneral perspective of teacher professionaldevelopment. Teacher development is also oftenviewed from the institutional perspective.Teacher development can directly or indirectlyimprove the performance of the school or theinstitutional as a whole. Richard and Farrell(2005, p. 10) state that “improvement of theschool as a whole can make the school moresuccessful, attract more students, and achievebetter learning outcomes.” Sandholtz andScribner (2006) claim that teacher professionaldevelopment is “an essential component inefforts aimed at improving student performance”(p. 1104). Richard and Farrell (2005, p. 11) addthat from the institutional perspective,professional development activities do not onlyimprove the teacher’s performance, but alsogives benefit the school as a whole. As aconsequence, if a school wants to be successful,there needs to be some professional developmentplans and programs for the teachers and otherstaffs.

According to Mevarech (1995, p. 151),“professional development programs, whetherthey are intended for the individual, fordiscipline-based groups of teachers, or for allschool personnel, are assumed to be importantstimuli for teachers’ professional growth.”Professional development programs aims tomotivate teachers in growing his or herprofessional work and life. However,professional development program often “hasbeen thought of as something that is done byothers for or to teachers” (Johnson, 2009, p. 95)instead of something that is generated by theteachers themselves.Ganser (2000), as cited inVillegas-Reimers (2003, p. 11), explains thatthere are two types of experiences in teacherprofessional development program: (1) Formalexperiences (such as attending workshops andprofessional meetings, mentoring, etc.) and (2)Informal experiences (such as reading professionalpublications, watching television documentariesrelated to an academic discipline, etc.).The idealmodel for teacher development program iscertainly one that covers both experiences.

In this study, the professional developmentprogram that I would like to focus on is theEnglish development program. In preparing tobe an International-Standard School (SBI), anInternational-Standard Pilot Project School(RSBI) obliges the teachers to join Englishdevelopment program that aims to help teachersto teach their subjects using English. Previously,the relevant study on teachers’ opinions onEnglish development program had beenconducted by Wati (2011) in Rokan Hulu District,Riau province, Indonesia. The participants werefifty five elementary school English teachers.They attended English development programs.To collect the data, Wati used questionnaire tofind out the effectiveness of English developmentprogram. In her research entitled The Effectivenessof Indonesian English Teachers TrainingPrograms in Improving Confidence andMotivation, the findings showed that English

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language training program was highly effectivein terms of overall effectiveness and in improvingteachers’ confidence and motivation and theteachers who joined the training claimed thatthey needed longer training program(long termtraining). From this study, I am interested toexplore teachers’ opinion on the Englishdevelopment program in my context (Temang-gung) from a qualitative study perspective. Thisstudy, therefore, was guided by the followingresearch questions:1. What are teachers’ opinions on International-

Standard Pilot Project Schools (RSBI)?2. What are teachers’ opinions on English

development program?3. What are teachers’ perceptions on teaching

their subjects using English and how do theyfeel when they have to teach using English?

THE STUDY

For the purpose of confidentiality as anethics requirement in conducting this study,pseudonyms will be used. This study took placeat a Senior High School which was located inTemanggung, Central Java. It is an International-Standard Pilot Project School (RSBI) inTemanggung which was selected by the govern-ment in 2009. This school received financialsupport from the government to be upgraded intoan RSBI. This school uses English as a mediumof instruction in teaching and learning process forall levels, from 10th grade to 12th grades. The focusof this study was in English development programthat was held in this school. This program hasbeen running since 2009. Every fiscal year, thisschool held English development program. ThisEnglish development program is conducted withintwo months. This program consisted of 10meetings for the whole one fiscal year. The lengthof each meeting was two hours. All subject matterteachers from this school joined this program asscheduled.

Participants

There was a total of 43 teachers whojoined this English development program. Therewere 19 male and 24 female teachers. However,only 9 teachers (5 male and 4 female teachers)volunteered to join this research as the participants.The age range of the teachers was 28 to 59. Theteaching experiences was between 4,5 years to27 years. To keep the confidentiality of theteachers’ identity, pseudonyms were used inpresenting the participants’ background informationbelow:

Teacher Educational background Teachingexperience

Ibu Diana Biology(Master degree)

24 years

Ibu Bela Mathematics(Bachelor degree)

7 years

Bapak Agus Physical Education(Bachelor degree)

26 years

Bapak Burhan Physical Education(Bachelor degree)

24 years

Ibu Ayu Bahasa Indonesia(Bachelor degree)

6 years

Bapak Wahyu Geography(Bachelor degree)

8 years

Bapak Eko Civics(Bachelor degree)

27 years

Bapak Hendra Theology(non-degree Diploma)

English from A ForeignLanguage Academy

27 years

Ibu Listi Japanese(non-degree Diploma)

4,5 years

Instrument of Data Collection

This study is working under a qualitativeresearch framework. According to Creswell(2008):

Qualitative research is a type of educationalresearch in which the researcher relies on theviews of participants; asks broad, generalquestions; collects data consisting largely ofwords (or text) from participants; describes andanalyzes these words for themes; and conductsthe inquiry in a subjective, biased manner. (p.46)

Similarly McMillan and Schumacher (2006,p.315) describe qualitative research as “inquiryin which researchers collect data in face-to-facesituations by interacting with selected personsin their setting (e.g., field research).” They also

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add that this research “describes and analyzespeople’s individual and collective social actions,beliefs, thoughts, and perceptions.” The kind ofthis study was a qualitative research that requiredthe writer to collect data by interacting andasking some questions to the participants (e.g.,interview). The data of this study was in the formof participants’ opinions and thoughts that shouldbe described and analyzed based on themes.

Therefore, I used interview as the datacollection instrument. Interview was chosen withthe goal ofgaining richer information aboutteachers’ opinions on the English developmentprogram. The participants’ selection usedpurposeful sampling method. According toFraenkel and Wallen (2006, p. 101) purposivesampling is the sample that the researchers usetheir judgment to select a sample that they believe,based on prior information, will provide the datathey need. In this sample, based on Wiersma andJurs (2009, p. 342) “the researcher selects a sampleto meet the purpose of the research”. Wiersmaand Jurs (2009, p. 342) also add that “the logic ofpurposeful sampling is based on a sample ofinformation-rich cases that is studied in depth.”The participants are non-English subject teacherswho joined the English development program thatwas held in their school.

The type of interview that I used was aone-on-one interview. “One-on-one interview isa data-collection process in which the researcherasks questions to and records answers from onlyone participant in the study at a time.” (Creswell,2008, p. 226). Whereas, the type of interviewquestions is semi-structured questions in whichthe questions allow individual responses andusually it is an open-ended question but is fairlyspecific in its intent. (McMillan & Schumacher,2006, p. 204). The interview was conducted inBahasa Indonesia so as to get better understandingand clear answers from the teachers. Before theinterview session, the teachers were also askedto fill in a participants’ bio-data form.

Procedures of Data Collection and DataAnalysis

Prior to interviewing the teachers,permission letter to the school headmaster of anInternational-Standard Pilot Project School inTemanggung was sent. As permission to conductthe research was approved by the schoolmaster,explanatory letters were distributed andvolunteered teachers were contacted to set theinterview time. The interview took about 15-30minutes. The interview was audio-recorded. Forethical reasons, the participants were asked tochoose pseudonyms. The interview data wastranscribed, translated into English, and analyzedby grouping the data based on emerging themes.

DISCUSSION

Teachers’ Opinion on International-StandardPilot Project Schools (RSBI)

When the teachers were asked about theiropinions on RSBI, they tend to firstly explaintheir understanding of RSBI. This explanationis best presented by Bapak Wahyu and Ibu Bela.Bapak Wahyu explains that RSBI is a form ofresponse towards the globalization era by thegovernment. He said:

[It is a form of] preparation for the globalizationera. Besides, there are foreign schools that havebeen established in Indonesia. So, thegovernment develops RSBI with the purposeto prevent the expansion of these foreignschools so that the schools in Indonesia cansurvive. About the foreign schools, Indonesiansociety still assumes that the products fromoverseas are better than the products fromIndonesia. Moreover.. people still consider thatstudying abroad is better than studying inIndonesia. But the reality, we don’t know. Inthis globalization era, these foreign schools, asthe Head of Directorate General just said, cantake over schools in Indonesia. That’s whyRSBI is established. The main purpose is tomake RSBI to be able to compete with theseforeign schools, although it needs enormoushard work.

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Bapak Wahyu refers to the Head ofDirectorate General of National EducationDepartment in explaining his understanding ofthe reason of the establishment of RSBI.According to the Direktorat Jenderal ManajemenPendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, KementerianPendidikan Nasional (2010) [General Directorateof Secondary and Elementary EducationManagement of the Department of NationalEducation], there are 4 social backgrounds ofthe establishment of RSBI: (1) In 1990s, thereare a lot of schools which are established by thefoundation that uses international identity butthey do not have clear standard and quality; (2)There are a lot of parents with higher socio-economic background choose to send theirchildren to study overseas; (3) There has not beenany law that regulate the implementationinternational schools; and (4) There is an urgentneed to establish qualified schools (as a centerof excellent education). Bapak Wahyu’sstatement shows current development inIndonesian education in which some schools areadopting foreign countries school curriculum(usually from country like Singapore, Australia,Malaysia, and others). It also explains the statusof English as the language of globalization andhow Indonesian people has become so wellaware of mastering this language by putting theirchildren into schools that uses English as themedium of instruction. Similar opinion was alsoprovided by Ibu Bela:

When I went to Bogor, it was explained to methat the reason behind RSBI establishment wasto decrease the number of students fromstudying overseas. But, I think if it is[established] in a big city like Jakarta, maybe itcould work. There are many people who havelots of money there. But, for local region, whatis it for? Or perhaps to stop students fromstudying out of town, like students fromTemanggung, for example, usually want tocontinue their studies to the big cities likeYogyakarta.

Ibu Bela also refers to a session on RSBIthat she attended and explained how thegovernment shows a deep concern aboutcondition of the education in Indonesia and howstudents prefer to study abroad rather thanstudying in Indonesia. However, Ibu Bela has adifferent perspective about the establishment ofRSBI across Indonesia as suggested in thePeraturan Menteri Pendidikan NasionalRepublik Indonesia Nomor 78 Tahun 2009, BABV, pasal dua puluh empat, poin 2 (Minister ofNational Education Regulation No. 78/2009,chapter 5, article 24, point 2). It is stated that theprovince government carries out and/or facilitatesthe implementation at least one Junior HighSchool, one Senior High School, and oneVocational School of international standardwhich is held for the society in each regency/municipality in their region. Ibu Bela questionsthe necessity of having an RSBI all over Indonesiafor two reasons. Firstly, RSBI seems to onlyaccommodate the upper-class who can pay a highamount of money for this kind of school. Forexample, in one RSBI school (public Junior HighSchool) in Central Java collect the school feefrom the students’ parents with a minimumamount of Rp 250,000 per month. In addition,the school development fee is a minimum amountof Rp 2,500,000 every academic year (Wijana,2010). This numbers can be compared with non-RSBI schools (general public Junior HighSchools) that the school fee is usually subsidizedby the government through Biaya OperasionalSekolah (schools’ operational cost) (Turmuzi,2012). It is not surprising that only students ofhigher socio-economic background are able tostudy in this kind of school. It is considered thatRSBI can cause social gap between the havesandhavenot. Even though there is a 20 percentquota from all of the number of the students forstudents of lower socio-economic backgroundto study in RSBI (Turmuzi, 2012), the parentsfeel reluctant to send their children to RSBI. Theexpensive school fee of RSBI creates caste of

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education in society. Secondly, RSBI may notbe suitable for smaller regions that may havedifferent educational needs.

The participants also convey their opinionon the implementation of RSBI in their school,eight of nine participants thought that it was notimplemented optimally. One of the reasons thatthey provided was the planning and preparationstage of the implementation such as teachers’qualifications development and teaching andlearning facilities that met the standard forestablishing an RSBI. These matters were bestrepresented in Pak Wahyu’s and Pak Eko’sresponses:

The problem is that this RSBI paradigm hasshifted. When it [RSBI] was firstly socializedto us, it is a MUST to teach bilingually. Butnow, it is said that we don’t have to use a foreignlanguage as the medium of instruction. The[RSBI] program is suggested to be social-friendly. So, if the students haven’t been ableto communicate in English, don’t force it. Then,to improve the human resource, the governmentgranted a huge amount of funding but.. it hasnot yet been used optimally. It depends on thesituation and condition of the context. If onlyRSBI was established from scratch, RSBI canrecruit qualified human resources that fit theschool, this would run optimally. One regencyonly needs to have one RSBI school. (BapakWahyu)Basically, RSBI is a good idea, I think. Eventhough the teaching becomes harder than beforesince the requirement of RSBI is quite high,such as at least 30 percent of the teaching staffneeds to acquire a master degree. Then, therequirement of teaching and learning facilitiesthat sometimes do not fit the school’s currentcondition. Perhaps, it is because RSBI isestablished by upgrading an existing publicschool. But, RSBI certainly needs accom-modative facilities that fit the school’s teachingand learning needs. So, it needs more work suchas development of multimedia room andlibrary. (Bapak Eko)

Bapak Wahyu points out that there is agradual shifting of conception on RSBI. In hisunderstanding, when RSBI were first established,English was expected to be used all-the-time inthe teaching learning process in class. Now,however, he views that English does not have tobe used all-the-time in teaching the subjectmatters. Therefore, it creates confusion on whatRSBI is. Both Bapak Wahyu and Eko emphasizeson the importance of identifying local educationalneeds and institutional readiness (namelyteachers’ qualifications, teaching contexts, andlanguage use) of a particular teaching context.Ignoring these aspects may lead to an ineffectiveimplementation of RSBI school.

Another issue that is being brought up isthe balanced between ‘the input’ and ‘theproduct’ of the RSBI.This issue may becomeanother reason why RSBI have to be re-evaluatedby the government. This can be seen from IbuListi’s response:

RSBI is the abbreviation of Rintisan SekolahBertaraf International [International-StandardPilot Project School]. Therefore, the input[students’ entrance selection] has to be good too.I mean the well-selected ones from the entrancetest, or from final rapport grades, and otherselection methods. Ideally, if a school wants tobe an RSBI, it has to pay attention to the input,so that the expected output would also be good.To Ibu Listi, if the goal of RSBI is to be a

school that can produce learners who cancompete at international level, then, the ‘theinput’ [the students] needs to also be competitive.In this way, the potential students who graduatefrom RSBI are those who are competent andready to compete at international level. It isimportant for RSBI school to establish a systemthat accommodates a decent competitiveacademic atmosphere.

Similar to Ibu Listi, Bapak Burhan seeksthe clarity of the goal of RSBI by trying to definewhat kind of ‘output’ that RSBI expects toproduce. He shows his concerns as follows:

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In my opinion, RSBI is not implementedoptimally. What is the measurement foracademic success? Can RSBI guarantee 100percent graduation? No, that’s not the fact. Forexample, a non-RSBI school like SMA 3 has a100 percent number of graduation, whereas anRSBI school like SMA 1, two students failedand did not graduate.Bapak Burhan’s response underlines the

academic success measurement of RSBI fromthe number of graduation. According to him, anRSBI does not guarantee the level of number ofgraduation. Bapak Burhan’s and Ibu Listi’sresponses show that there are still some unclearunderstanding and socialization of what RSBIis and the characteristics and goals of this typeof school. The implementation of RSBI seemsto be done with lack of preparation and carefulplanning.

Another interesting reason why RSBI wasconsidered as not optimally implemented wasprovided by Bapak Hendra as follow:

In my opinion, it is like.. RSBI in Indonesia islike a nice wrap paper. It means the focus isstill on the outside appearance [infrastructure].From the more substantial aspects, I reallycannot see what the ‘international’ characteristicis. Or I can say that it is still very Indonesian-like. If it is international level, it should... atleast the teachers could teach the students to bemore open-minded and respectful of variousknowledge, perspectives and materials. I meanat least the goal is to have an open-mind. I thinkthis is one criterion for people who want to beengaged in a global or international level.

Bapak Hendra points out that the implementationof RSBI tend to focus on the infrastructure ofthe school (e.g. the building, facilities, tech-nology, etc.) instead of the substantial aspectsof an international level education. One exampleof the substantial aspects is the mentality of theteachers (the human resource) who need to alsothink and ready to educate their students to beable to compete in an international level and tohave an open-mind towards the development ofknowledge and globalization. This open-minded

character means having the will to learn newthings and to respond towards change in thisglobalization era. Bapak Hendra, similar to IbuListi and Bapak Burhan, questions the conceptof “international” in the idea of Rintisan SekolahBertaraf Internasional that seems vague andunclear.

Teachers’ Opinion on the School’s EnglishDevelopment Program

All participants (nine teachers) welcomedthis kind of program and attended the English classregularly. The teachers view the Englishdevelopment program as a media to learn newknowledge (in this case, English). However, someof the teacher points out the timing of the programsometimes do not agree with their school’s duties.This suggests that the development program canbe optimally conducted when it is carefullyplanned accordingly to the teachers’ schedule andworking load.

Although all participants provide positiveresponses to the English development program,several teachers share their anxiety in attendingthis program.This can be seen from Bapak Agus’response:

I’m happy but also worried because my Englishis not yet fluent. During the program, I alwaysattended all sessions. But.. with my age now, Ithink it’s rather difficult to understand Englishand the English development program. I meanI have to learn and understand it in a slow pace.

Bapak Agus’ displays his mixed feeling towardsthe program. On the one hand, he feels thenecessity of mastering English for his teaching.On the other hand, there is the pressure of timein acquiring English to be used as a medium ofinstruction in such a short time.

Overall, most the teachers explained thatEnglish development program that they joinedgave a lot of advantages. Five from nine teacherssaid that it helped them to communicate withthe students using English, to understandbilingual books or bilingual literatures, to

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increase English vocabularies, to practiceEnglish in the classroom, to follow the globalinformation that was provided in English, andto understand the use of English in the classroom.These matters were presented by Ibu Ayu:

I think there are a lot of advantages [in joiningEnglish development program], especially, Ilearned how to use English [in the classroom].Moreover, we need to follow the fast flow ofinformation. We have to keep ourselves up-to-date with the newest [information]. And, mostof the information is not only in BahasaIndonesia, [but also in English]. So, I think it isvery important for everyone or every teacherhere to master English in order to keep up withthe current information.

Ibu Ayu’s response shows her understanding ofthe position of English as the language ofglobalization. The importance of keeping up-to-date with the latest information brought byglobalization means that she needs to learnEnglish. This idea is also shared by other teachersin the interview. This shows how teachers havehigh awareness of globalization and the statusof English in this globalization era.

Despite the fact that most teachers havehigh awareness of English and globalization, fourout of nine teachers, however, show theirdissatisfaction of the program. They feeldissatisfied because the English developmentprogram did not pay attention to what theteachers really need in teaching their subjectmatters in English. Here are several reasons thatwere provided by the teachers:

The advantage of the English DevelopmentProgram? I haven’t really felt it [the effects]. Imean the teachers who have joined this trainingmay not necessarily become confident inspeaking English in front of the students. I thinkit hasn’t bring any significant contribution or Idon’t know, maybe the teachers themselveshave to work on their confidence.. because Ithink the percentage of teachers who teach, atleast to open and close [the lessons] usingEnglish, is still a few. (Ibu Bela)

In practice, this English development program,in my opinion, it is not effective as a professionalprogram. It was conducted in a very short time,and then the end-product of this program is themeasurement of language ability, TOEFL. Imean, of course, our result [TOEFL] was notvery good. (Ibu Diana)

Ibu Bela and Diana view that this program isless beneficial for the teachers. Ibu Bellameasures the effectiveness of this program fromthe level of confidence in using English. This isprobably due to the short-term duration (2months) of the program, as mentioned by IbuDiana, which was only conducted once in theirschool. Teachers who have taught many yearsusing Bahasa Indonesia are expected toimmediately use English in their teachingpractice through one short-term program. Similarwith Ibu Bela, Ibu Diana thinks that this one-time program cannot change the teachers’ long-formed behavior. She is also disappointed withthe progress indicators which used a TOEFL test.She views that TOEFL is not suitable to evaluatethe progress of their English learning in teachingtheir subject matters. This suggests that there hasbeen a generalization of using TOEFL as the“only” evaluation tool to test language abilitywithout considering local context needs.

Bapak Wahyu also views that this programgives no significance advantage. Bapak Wahyuresponded as follows:

The materials of English development programwas on TOEFL. TOEFL, I think, is not reallyrelated to the materials of our subject matter. Ithink what we need is the language instruction,and the English materials have to be suitablewith each subject matter we teach. For example,English for Biology, Geography, Mathematics.That’s why what the teachers can do now isonly using English for greetings, to open andclose the lessons but not for giving instructionduring the lesson. So, there’s not much benefit.

Bapak Wahyu shows his disappointment in theEnglish development program that was orientedto TOEFL materials that have no relation with

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their subject matter just like what Ibu Dianapointed out. Teachers were not taught on how touse English in teaching and explaining theirsubject matter in class. He thinks that the Englishdevelopment program needs to look at thedifferent English needs of each subject matterteachers. His response is suggesting Englishdevelopment program that is oriented to Englishfor Specific Purposes which is adjusted to eachsubject matter.

Another opinion on the English developmentprogram was also provided by Bapak Hendra.Bapak Hendra thinks that the Englishdevelopment program is not suitable for theirneeds in their teaching context. Nevertheless,Bapak Hendra views that there is still somethingpositive to be gained from it:

In my opinion, since I teach Catholic educationand the focus is more on the content and thesubstance of the teaching material, the focus isnot on how I use English. From a substantialperspective, it does not really fit with my needs.But, if the focus is on getting students accustomto listen or read in English,.. perhaps it [theEnglish development program] is needed. Soit is relative. But, to say that it is absolutelyneeded, I think not.

Although, to Bapak Hendra, the Englishdevelopment program does not fit with histeaching needs, he supports the idea of providingEnglish exposure to his students by sometimesusing English in the classroom. This showsBapak Hendra’s beliefs that the acquisition ofEnglish can be obtained from exposing learnersto the target language.

Teachers’ Opinion of their Teaching Needs inan RSBI Context

When the teachers were asked whether theEnglish Development Program fits the teachers’teaching needs in RSBI, four from nine teachersresponded positively. Nevertheless, five teachersresponded that the English DevelopmentProgram did not fit their teaching needs. Ibu Belapointed out this matter as follows:

I think, for the implementation, actually I wantthis kind of program to have a clear goal. LikeEnglish for communication, or for TOEFLpreparation, for example. But, for TOEFLitself, I think it is not useful here [for myteaching purpose]. What is it for? I meanbecause we’re not going to further studyabroad. If we want to continue study abroad,we need to study TOEFL. …What needs? Ithink it is still lack of.. because if it is aboutthe teaching needs, then, it’s not TOEFL [whatI need]. I think, I need teaching practice inEnglish, like, speaking, I think.

To Ibu Bela, in an RSBI context, she feels thatshe needs speaking skill course to teach hersubject matters using English. As what Ibu Dianaand Bapak Wahyu had mentioned earlier, TOEFLmaterials that were given during the Englishdevelopment program in their school did notincrease their contextual English ability.Moreover, the TOEFL test that was administeredin the English development program did notinclude English speaking ability. Therefore, thereis no guarantee that if someone gets a high scorein TOEFL, he or she can perform well in teachingthe students using English. Therefore, Ibu Belabelieves that speaking or communication skillis more needed in preparing her to teach usingEnglish in the classroom.

In addition to English for Specific Purposes(ESP) and English communication skills,almostall of teachers answered that computerdevelopment program is needed for RSBI whenthey were asked about what other developmentprograms they needed. Ibu Listi gave the bestresponse on this matter:

Besides English [development program], Ithink, computer or IT training is urgently neededsince now we are an RSBI school, each class isfacilitated with LCD. I think it would be veryhelpful for me in teaching. When we [teachers]need to teach using this teaching and learningmedia but we don’t even know how to operatethe computer. For example, it would be difficulttoo. So, I think computer training would be veryuseful.

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Ibu Listi points out the need for the teachers toalso keep-up with the development of the schoolinto an RSBI school with various teaching andlearning facilities (LCD, computer, audio-video,internet connection, and others).As Haryana(2007) explains, the teaching-learning processin an RSBI school should meet three criteria.One of the criteria is RSBI schools should applythe learning process based on ICT (Informationand Communication Technology). Therefore, theinfrastructure development of the school needsto also be balanced with the teachers’ ability toutilize the teaching and learning facilities of theschool. Ibu Listi, therefore, views that masteryof computer technology is really needed forRSBI teachers in order to provide an effectiveteaching learning process. Besides computerdevelopment program, several teachers point outmaterial development and teaching methodologiesdevelopment program are needed for RSBI’steachers. This can be seen from the response ofBapak Burhan:

In my opinion, it is not just providing English[training].. English is still important as alanguage of instruction.. but also there needsto be a development program for each subjectmatter teacher like getting more knowledgeso that we could develop our knowledge.Teaching methodology, for example. How tomake our teaching method more attractiveand dynamic for the students.

Bapak Burhan thinks that teacher developmentprograms need to support teachers’ growth inorder to achieve the teaching and learningqualities that RSBI expected.This means that itincludes not only in terms of English develop-ment program but also other teaching andlearning aspects such as teaching methodologiesand material development. This kind of programcan increase the teaching methodologiesknowledge of the teachers that consequentlyaffects students’ learning. He also believes thatan attractive teaching methodology will makethe students interested in the lessons. Therefore,

it will influence students’ achievement ingeneral.

Teachers’ Perceptions on Teaching TheirSubject Matters Using English

When the teachers were asked about theirperceptions on teaching their subjects usingEnglish, five from nine teachers stated that theythought that teaching their subject matters usingEnglish was not that important although theyteach in a RSBI school which requires Englishas a medium of instruction. This matter waspresented by Ibu Bela’s response:

I think it is not important. For Mathematicsitself, English is not used that much. In Math,the vocabulary in English is not that much,because the focus is more on counting orplaying with numbers. Usually it is like that.But, working with math problems is alreadyhard for the students, they don’t like usingEnglish in learning Math. If we have the test,they usually ask whether the questions are inEnglish. I mean, the English is simpler [thanother subjects], right? Like, ‘find the solutionto this math problem’ and the rest [of the testitem] is just numbers. Although it is very simple,the students refuse to use English in learningMath. That is the fact that I experience.

To, Ibu Bela, Math deals more with numbers andlogic thinking than with language competence.Therefore, she thinks that there will be less useof English in teaching Math.The students’timeduring the lesson will mostly be used inunderstanding and looking for the solution to themath problems taught in the classroom. Thisprocess of understanding and logical thinkinghas taken so much space of their mind. Demand-ing students to also do their learning anddiscussion activities in class in another languageis felt by Ibu Bela to be an unnecessary task.The students themselves are still struggling withunderstanding the content of the subject matterin their own first language. Expecting them tostudy this in English will affect their anxiety levelto the learning process. Ibu Bela’s opinion is in

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line with a study done by Hernatias (2012), inher research entitled Students’ Attitude towardBilingual Classes in one Junior High School inSalatiga. Hernatias finding shows that 69 percentof the 222 students prefer to study Mathematicsand Science in Bahasa Indonesia. She explainsthat studying Mathematics and Science wasalready difficult in Bahasa Indonesia and Englishwould make it more difficult.

From nine teachers, only four teachers whothink that teaching subject matters using Englishis important. Bapak Hendra has his own opinionabout this:

I think, to increase students’ vocabularies,listening skill, English speaking skill, in orderto make them accustomed to listen to English.This is important. Moreover, I myself oftensuggest them to master English, at leastreading [in English].. because, later, when theycontinue their education to the university,maybe, the references used are in English. Itis better if they read the original book inEnglish rather than the translated book. Thetranslated book.. sometimes depends on thetranslator’s competence in translating thebook. So, perhaps the translation may missthe original meaning. That’s what I told mystudents.

Bapak Hendra seems to be very supportive ofthe mastery of English. His response shows hisbelief of establishing a learning habit throughproviding English exposure. By listening andreading in English all the time, it is hoped thatthe students will master English and be preparedfor their further study in the university level.Bapak Hendra’s response also shows his viewabout English as an international language. Heviews that more knowledge from across theworld can be gained from reading English books.

When the teachers were asked about theirfeelings when they have to teach using English,most teachers express their nervousness andanxiety in teaching their subject matter usingEnglish. The best reason was provided by IbuBela as follow:

When I had to teach Math in English for thefirst time, from the opening to the closing ofthe lesson, I also felt nervous. I felt.. unconfidentwith my pronunciation. Was my pronunciationcorrect? Sometimes I felt like that.. I don’t feelconfident. The fact that when I was there [inAustralia], the pronunciation was not the focus.But, I still felt nervous. When I had to teachMath all in English.Teaching a subject matterin English is certainly something new to theteachers who have been teaching in BahasaIndonesia for many years. Ibu Bela’s responseshows how her teaching performance wasdisturbed by her worry in mispronouncingEnglish words instead of focusing on deliveringthe content of the lesson. It is very common tofeel nervous and afraid when non-Englishteachers have to teach their subject usingEnglish. It is because they are not familiar withEnglish. Most teachers, during the interviews,expressed the same fear of making mistakes inpronouncing English words. This shows thatthis expectation of teaching their subject mattersin English interfere their best teachingperformance in class. So far, the teachersadmitted that English was only used in opening(e.g. greetings) and closing the lesson. Forclassroom instruction, the teachers still usedboth English and Bahasa Indonesia. It meansthat English is not yet fully used as a mediumof instruction in the classroom.

CONCLUSION

The general aims of this study are exploringthe teachers’ (especially non-English teachers’)opinions on English development programin anInternational-Standard Pilot Project School andteachers’ opinions on teaching their subjectmatters using English. This study also explorestheir opinions on International-Standard PilotProject Schools (RSBI). The first major findingof this study (based on the interviews) showsthat the teachers realize the status of English asthe language of globalization and howIndonesian people has become so well aware ofmastering this language by putting their childreninto RSBI that uses English as the medium of

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instruction. However, several teachers argue thatRSBI may not be suitable for smaller regionsthat may have different educational needs.Moreover, the teachers also realize that the RSBIprocess of joining the globalization developmentcosts a lot of money that may create a gap ofsocial status in society. Almost all of the teachersclaim that the implementation of RSBI is notimplemented optimally. Therefore, the decisionto have an RSBI in different area in Indonesianeeds to consider the suitability of the teachingand learning context, socio-economic conditions,human resources development, and teaching andlearning facilities.

The second finding shows that mostteachers respond positively towards the Englishdevelopment program. They state that Englishdevelopment program as a media to learn newknowledge helped them to communicate withthe students using English, to understandbilingual books or bilingual literatures, toincrease English vocabularies, to practiceEnglish in the classroom, to follow the globalinformation that was provided in English, andto understand the use of English in the classroom.Nevertheless, several of them point out theunsuitability of the materials (TOEFL oriented)for the teaching needs. The TOEFL materialsgiven during the English development programin their school did not increase their specificEnglish knowledge and competence. Theteachers specifically suggest that they needEnglish speaking or communication skill to teachthe students using English. In addition, they alsosuggest that other professional developmentprograms that they need in RSBI are computerskill and teaching method development.

Lastly, the teachers also indicate that sofar teaching their subject using English is notyet effectively implemented. The teachersmentioned various reasons. Most teachers sharedthat they are still struggling in learning English.This, of course, implies their limitation in usingEnglish in their teaching practice. Several teachers

experienced anxiety in speaking English in theclassroom. Several others see that their studentsprefer to learn their subject matters in BahasaIndonesia to focus more on the content. Theteachers’ responses indicate that they support thenecessity of exposing their students with English.Yet, to change their teaching and learning methodfrom one language and culture into another(English) is difficult to be done in a short time.

Since the context of this study is limited tospecifically an International-Standard Pilot ProjectSchool in Temanggung, the result of this studycannot be generalized for other places andcontexts. Nevertheless, the result of the study ishoped to give some contextual insights on theimplementation of RSBI and the Englishdevelopment program. Therefore, further researchcan be done in other teaching context to find outmore contextual knowledge on an Englishdevelopment program in other RSBI schools. Thisstudy implies the importance of taking intoconsideration of teachers’ and students’ need inRSBI schools before designing any developmentprograms for the teachers. In terms of the Englishteacher development program, materials andcourse developers could firstly find out thesubject-matter teachers’ needs of English in orderto accommodate them in their teaching. In relationto the implementation of RSBI, it is suggestedthat the school decision makers could also exploreother development programs that may help theteachers in achieving effective teaching in anRSBI context.

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