The Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

in Language Teaching: An Overview in Indonesia

Agustina Sinta Erlina

A student of English Education Study Program, Sriwijaya University

Indonesia in the status quo is now facing a global situation where the citizens are
required to have a higher qualification of skills in order to compete with the
foreigner workers due to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that has been
implemented since 2015. One of the skills that need to be mastered is the
communication skill of the International standard; the ability to talk in
Multilanguage such as English, Mandarin, Arabic, and etc. Thus, the demand of
learning language, especially English, in Indonesia is increasing significantly, in
line with the data from International Education Company English First (EF) in
2016 about the English Proficiency Index which shows that Indonesia ranks 32nd
out of 72 countries in Asia (Jakarta Post, 2016). The demand of learning language
is also supported by the improvement of technology that is being one of the pillars
to conduct the teaching-learning activities. However, those two scenarios are not
supported by the internal motivation of students to learn language and the misuse
of the technology applied to support the teaching-learning activities. Thus, this
paper will discuss about how well the implementation of ICT in language teaching
in Indonesia is.

As we know that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a wide

topic to discuss, so in this case we refer to the ICT that teachers use in language
teaching such as internet-based classrooms (edmodo, quipper, socrative, etc),
media and tools (laptop, LCD Projector, Smart board, educative DVD for
listening, etc), and the internet which supports teaching-learning activities (search
engine, online presentation, etc). Through these technologies the idea of language
teaching, the process whereby teachers share the knowledge and shape the ability
to speak a language to students, is expected to be more effective in several
aspects. Hence, the Indonesian government put a well attention towards this
condition by making some legal rules of the use of ICT in educational sector.
The newest Indonesian curriculum, 2013 curriculum which is a student-centered
learning, stated that the use of multimedia or ICT in teaching is a must in order to
conduct a more effective classroom. In specific, the integration of ICT in English
subject is aimed to promote student’s learning autonomy and communicative
development. That is why both parties (teachers and students) are being pushed to
use the technology. This condition leads to a better technology literate at first.
However, according to Hidayati (2016), the employment of the new concept in
learning process about the teachers’ perception on attitude towards the
implementation are not linear with the purpose due to lack of qualifications,
readiness, and resource.

Since the implementation of ICT use in supporting the language teaching, there
are advantages and challenges that are faced in Indonesian educational sector.
According to Yunus (2009), as we are living in a millennium of the internet and
the World Wide Web (WWW), the integration of ICT in language teaching is
somehow bringing many advantages for the students. The internet provides a
variety of specific learning opportunity for students that they can choose
themselves. This includes the material for grammar exercise, reading test,
comprehension, vocabulary test and so on. In other words, the implementation of
ICT in language teaching erased the limitation of resource to enhance the
communicative skills. Students have no more limited access on what they wanted
to learn just like when it is used to be; using textbook only. The variety of the task
to support the 4 English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is also
going to have a good tendency in students’ improvement. For example the use of
making a video blog (vlog) in speaking class would somehow increase the
student’s confident.

However, the implementation of the ICT use is still having a huge gap between
schools in urban and rural area. Those who live in the center of the city are
provided with well education and easy access to the technology. Meanwhile, those
who live in remote area are not experiencing the same thing. We cannot deny that
most of the places in Indonesia are still under privilege where technologies are not
yet touching it. This situation is becoming one of the national challenges in
implementing the integration of ICT in language teaching. For example the
readiness of media in classroom just like LCD projector, laptop, and internet
access is still very low in most of the school in rural areas. So, we can say that
although the curriculum says the use of ICT is a must, in fact the facility is not
ready yet and it is the reason why teachers are not using ICT in their classroom
(Salehi, 2012).

Not only that, the human resource is also matter in using the technology. As one
of the aspects that affect the use of technology is age, we can say that
Indonesian’s government is still bios in implementing the ICT in language
teaching due to the teachers’ qualification. The domination of the veteran teachers
who are technology illiterate brings a new problem in teaching the language. In
one side, the teachers are required to use the technology, in another side they are
illiterate in technology and need to learn how to use it first. It is the same with
learning how to drive a car by someone who only knows how to drive a
motorcycle. It leads to a situation where using ICT in language teaching is just as
a formality and the teachers start to teach with the old method. It is way confusing
for the students to begin with.

Of course the old language teaching method vs. the modern language teaching
method has their personal specifications in teaching. We cannot say one is best
and one is worse, but we can see how the modern method upgrades the way
teaching-learning activities occur in the classrooms, gives more variety in
teaching, and easier. For example the e-learning methods that can make students
learn anywhere, anytime, and without requiring a face-to-face meeting with
teachers.

In contrast, for those capable areas where technologies support is already exists
and everyone is technology literate, the problem is now the students’ behavior and
their internal motivation to study. Teachers are having problem with monitoring
the students’ activity through the internet. The main problem is student tried to
access their social media or games instead of the related content of the materials.
Students also tend to be lazier to study as they think they can do it later in a short
time. As this occurs every day, the internal motivation of students to achieve the
goal is decreasing. It is a crucial thing to begin with as it will kill every aspect of
teaching-learning atmosphere such as student’s creativity skill. If this is happening
continuously, then the aim to have an effective classroom is only being an
expectation with blur reality.

Government in this case should really pay attention in the goal that they have been
creating so far and how they have support the educational sector in order to
achieve it. The gap between technologies in every school should be narrowed
significantly before creating compulsory rules of using ICT in the curriculum.
Government also need to have a better human resource by making more capable
trainings towards every teacher (both veteran and new teacher) in order to create a
minimum standard of technology literate just like teacher professional
development project.

In conclusion, ICT in language teaching in Indonesia is legally written in the

curriculum but the implementation of it is still blur due to the lack of teachers’
qualifications, gap between technology existence, and students’ behavior. Hence,
the hope of having a better education should always be the aim of Indonesian
government and try to achieve it by improving the educational sector day by day.
 References

Dang, Xuan Thu. Factors Influencing Teachers’ Use of ICT in Language

Teaching: A case study of Hanoi University, Vietnam. La Trobe
University: Australia.

Hidayati, Tuti. (2016). Integrating ICT in English Language Teaching and

Learning in Indonesia.

Melor Md Yunus, Lubis, M and Lin, C. (2009). Language Learning via ICT:
Uses, Challenges, and Issues. WSEAS Transactions on Information
Science and Applications. 6(9):1453-1467

Salehi Hadi, Zainab Salehi. (2012). Integation of ICT in Language Teaching:

Challenges and Barriers. Islamic Azad University. IACIT Press:
Singapore.

Valentina, Jessicha. (2016). Indonesia ranks 32nd in English Proficiency Index.

The Jakarta Post: Jakarta.