HISTORY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN INDONESIA

Chapter two is begun with a brief history of foreign language teaching in the world. Stern (1983)
divided the history of foreign language teaching into five periods.
1. Middle Ages (VIII-XV) and Pre Middle Ages
2. The end of XIX Century to WW I
3. Period of the WW I to 1940
4. WW II up to 1970
5. Period 1970 up to Present

History of ELT in Indonesia

The teaching of English in Indonesia can be classified chronologically into three major phases.
The pre-independence phase covers the period before 1945, and the early independence phase
includes the years 1945 to 1950. The third phase, the development period, covers the years from
1950 onwards.

1. Pre-independence
a. Dutch Collonialism
Starting from the early 1600s, the Dutch ruled Indonesia, formerly called the
Netherlands East Indies, for about three and a half centuries. The teaching of English,
however, can only be traced from early 1900s when there was a move to abolish
French as a subject in the Europesche Lagereschool (European primary schools) and
to replace it with English (Groeneboer, 1998). English was also taught to students in
the meer uitgebreid lager onderwijs (MULO, or junior secondary schools) as a
compulsory subject for three to four classes a week. The teaching of English at this
time was successful in the sense that many of the MULO graduates could speak, read,
and write good English.

b. Japanese Occupation
In early 1942, the Japanese armies ousted the Dutch. As a result, the teaching of
Dutch was banned in the entire archipelago, as was that of English (Thomas, 1968).
 Books and other materials written in Dutch or English were burned. Instead, the
Malay language, later on called Bahasa Indonesia, was taught extensively in addition
to the Japanese language. Thus, during this period, no formal teaching of English took
place.

2. Early Independence Phase

During this early period of independence, however, the teaching-learning process in
schools was not effective and in many cases the schools were closed for some periods
because the students joined the revolutionary battles under a body called Tentara
Pelajar (Student Soldiers; Mestoko, Bachtiar, Sunityo & Arif, 1986). Only after the
Netherlands government acknowledged the sovereignty of the nation on December 27,
1949, did the students return to schools.
One important step taken by the Ministry of Education was the establishment of an
Inspectorate of English Language Instruction in charge of the supervision of the English
language teaching (ELT). Mr. Frits Wachendorff, a Dutchman who remained in
Indonesia, was appointed to head the body and he first spelled out the objective of TEFL
in Indonesia: English was to be a foreign language and it was not and would never be
either a social language or a second official language in Indonesia (Sadtono, 1997).

3. Development period
Indonesia badly needed English teachers but the government's efforts to train new
teachers were hampered by the tremendous lack of teachers who could train new
teachers. To address the problem lacking of English Teacher number, there were some
program initiated. There were also many aids from The USA, Australia, Canada, United
Kingdom such as USAID, AIDAB.

a. A second-year university students of any major were recruited to teach in secondary

schools (Sarumpaet, 1963). In addition, 2-year evening courses, B-l courses as they
were named, were established in a number of cities throughout the country in August
1950 with financial and technical assistance from the Ford Foundation. The courses
 were to train noncertified teachers who had been teaching in junior secondary schools
to become certified teachers.
b. In 1954, Standard Training Centres (STC) were established in Jogjakarta (Central
Java) and Bukittinggi (Sumatra), with the aim of producing more qualified English
teachers. The students were taught English literature in addition to the English
language itself (Thomas, 1968). In the same year, the Ministry of Education and
Culture (MEC) also launched the regular formal day classes
called PGSLP and PGSLA (Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Lanjutan Pertama and
Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Lanjutan Atas respectively). The former trained the
students to be teachers for junior secondary schools and the latter, for senior
secondary schools (Mestoko et al., 1986). At the tertiary level, also in 1954, three
programs called perguruan tinggi pendidikan guru (state teacher training colleges)
were set up in Malang, Bandung, and Batusangkar. By 1961, each of these colleges
became a fakultas keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan (FKIP; faculty of teacher training
and education) when linked to the nearest university. At this time, too, all types of
teacher education including the B-l courses, STC, PGSLP and PGSLA were
integrated to the faculty of teacher training and education (Ministry of Education and
Culture, 1970).

Indonesian Policy Language

Indonesia has three language categorizations, namely (1) national language, (2) regional
languages, and (3) foreign languages. Bahasa Indonesia is the national language and the
language of the nation and serves as a means of national communication state. The function of
regional languages is as a regional identity and communication tool within a tribe, while foreign
languages are a means of communication with other countries and a tool to obtain science and
technology for national development.
One of the policies that have been determined by the Indonesian government - the Ministry of
Education and Culture - is the implementation of foreign language learning in Indonesia as an
effort for the Indonesian people to be able to get and follow developments in science and
technology in the world, as well as ways to enter the global community (Santoso, 2014).