Part I

English Language Teaching In Indonesia : Problems, Challanges, Prospects

1. Introduction

English has become regarded as a global language whose special role is recognized in every country (Crystal, 2003). It is a tool of communication among countries as they have engaged with the rapid growth of the world, particularly in political and economic development. This significant growing of English, according to Crystal (2003).  In terms of the number of people speaking English, Pennycook (1994, p. 7-8) asserted “the rough calculation regarding the number of speakers of English worldwide between 700 million and one billion covering native speakers of English, speakers of English as a second (or intranational) language, and speakers of English as a foreign (or international) language”, whereas Crystal (2003, p. 61) estimated “between 1.1 billion and 1.8 billion, with 320 million to 380 million who are native speakers of the language. Graddol (2006) predicted the total number of English speakers in the next 10 to 15 years up until about 2020 would reach up to 2 billion. Crystal also noted in 2008 that the highest estimate number of people speaking, listening, reading and writing in English could be already 2 billion.”

The number of English uses increased rapidly to  learn that in 2005 the estimation of the user was between 840 million to 1,34 billon. According to Chodidjah, 2015, p. 41) “ there are at least 16 million students formally learning English at school involving at least 75,000 English teacher in about 50,000 state and private schools, spreat out across a system or more than 390,000 school in 4122 districts and more that 90 cities”.

English has been defined as ‘(1) native language (primary language of the great majority of the population), (2) second language (the official language but not the main language of the country), and (3) foreign language (not used or spoken very much in the daily life but learned at school)’ (Kirkpatrick, 2007, p. 27). McKay (2002) further defined English as an international language used for wider communication both among individuals from different countries and between individuals from one country. This international status was accompanied by four central features (Brutt-Griffler, 2002), namely (1) development of the global world market together with the business community, together with global scientific, cultural, and intellectual exchanges, (2) establishment of a local language in multilingual contexts, (3) it is learnt by various levels of society, and (4) it is learnt by individuals acquiring the language. In summary, as Kachru (1998) pointed out, English has become a widespread means of international communication not only for countries in the inner and outer circles but also in the expanding circle in which countries increasingly it has become a tool for people to communicate, including in Indonesia whose official language is Bahasa Indonesia.

To be continue....