104 As mentioned in the above statements, some students at the School of English
Education at KUM prefer fun, friendly, and communicative teachers as they are considered to be helpful to the students. In addition, the students feel more comfortable
in class and enjoy the teaching and learning if the teachers are fun, friendly, and communicative. In other words, some students of school of English education at KUM
value competent, friend, fun, and kind teachers. Accordingly, if the teachers are able to follow the rule in their field by having the characteristics the students want, they then
have dominant position in the field and attain more capital. Consequently, the teachers are able to “play the game” in their field. The next section of this chapter discusses the
students at the School of English Education at KUM.
4.4.4 Students
As previously mentioned, the School of English Education is attended by more students compared to other schools at KUM. In 2011, the total number of students
enrolled at the school was approximately 1998, as shown in Table 9 below:
Academic Year Capacity
Number of Students Participate in the entrance
examination Admitted
2007 250
230 220
2008 450
365 348
2009 500
515 515
2010 540
537 536
2011 540
425 379
Total 2280
2072 1998
Table 9: Number of students enrolled in school of English education of KUM Source: the accreditation Borang of school of English education, 2011
105 The above table shows that in 2010, the School of English Education had the highest
number of student enrolments from 2007 to 2011. In addition, student selection is not competitive. In 2010, for instance, 537 of the 537 student applicants were admitted. In
2009, 515 students applied for enrolment in the School of English Education and all were accepted. Since the School of English Education does not administer a test to the
select the student candidates, it encourages heterogeneous classrooms in which the students have various strengths and abilities in English. However, it creates a problem
for teachers to select the level of teaching material they give to the students. This point is acknowledged in the following statement by Nina Interview 1, 01062012, one of
English teachers:
KUM should concern more on the input of the students and should have more criteria to accept the students itself. The students in the class have various inputs
that can be significantly different from each other. Some of them have high input but some are low. As a result, I find difficulty on how I should teach them.
If I adjust my teaching materials for low input students, it will be boring for high input students. Meanwhile, if I adjust my teaching materials for high-input
students, the low ones cannot follow it.
As mentioned in the above statements, the low input of students influences the instructional methods used by the teachers during lessons. Teachers must find
appropriate materials and activities that are suitable to the students’ learning needs otherwise the students will be passive throughout the teaching and learning process.
Through the lens of Bourdieu’s field theory, this indicates a clear rule for teachers of the School of English Education for playing the game. Acceptance of this rule is a marker
of being a good teacher of English and facilitates access to attain capital in the field since “each field is characterized by an internal struggle for resources or capital”
Brosnan, 2010, p. 644. Furthermore, the following comments indicate the English teachers at KUM
perceive the input from the students to be a concern as most are still at the low level ability in English:
I can see that KUM now has huge number of students and can be competitive with other good private universities in Malang. However, I can also see that
KUM really needs to improve the quality of the students. In other words, KUM should focus not only on the quantity but also the quality Heru, Interview 1,
01062012.
106 I can say that the majority of students of school of English at KUM still have
low English abilities. In one class, for example, there are around 35 students and among them, only around five or eight students have good English. I do not
know what should be improved. The curriculum of school of English is already good I think because it has facilitated the students to learn more about English
skill courses. The input of the students could be the issue Ira, Interview 1, 02062012.
KUM could improve the quality of its students by holding a more competitive entrance test. However, as mentioned in the previous section, tuition fees are one of the major
funding sources for KUM, so holding a more selective entrance test would mean reducing the funding source. KUM is therefore in a difficult position. Since KUM does
not have competitive admission requirements, it is not difficult for the students to be admitted.
Most English students decide to study at KUM because they are not admitted to a state university. In addition, most of the students decide to major in English education
because they love English. This is revealed in the following comments from three of the students:
I decided to choose English education as my major because I love English. Moreover, I ever won in English debate in my school, so that my parents really
supported me to choose English as my major. I hope that I can be a professional English teacher after I graduate from KUM Soni, Interview 1, 03062012.
I love English That’s why I choose English as my major. My parents even sent me to English private course when I was still in elementary school and at that
time, not many children were as lucky as me. I want to improve my English and I hope KUM can help me to do that Nita, Interview 1, 03062012.
I love English since I was in senior high school. At that time, I thought that if I can speak English well, it means I’m cool. Moreover, I really want to go abroad
one day so that mastering English is a must. I’m now working part-time at a hotel at Malang and I find that English is useful in my workplace Ima,
Interview 1, 03062012.
The above statements suggest that English is widely recognized as an important language to learn in Indonesia and has a special status among the foreign languages. In
107 the Indonesian context, English is “presently the only foreign language which is a
compulsory subject in schools” Lauder, 2008, p. 13. By mastering English, an individual is seen to have a certain amount of prestige. It, therefore, enables himher to
access symbolic capital. Further, many types of employment in Indonesia require the knowledge of English so that a number of students make a priority to learn it.
Overall, a number of crucial issues in the School of English Education identified in this section include the need to provide an office for English teachers, allocate more
classrooms to the School of English Education, improve the maintenance system of the school facilities, provide more multimedia language laboratories, create channels for
student feedback, and improve the linguistic and academic quality of students. Paying attention to these issues is crucial to improving the effectiveness of teachers’ practice
and students’ learning that, in turn, might improve KUM’s capital and increase the student enrollment.
4.5 Summary
This chapter has discussed the social field relevant to my case study teachers. The chapter started with a discussion of the general field of higher education in
Indonesian; that is public and private institutions. The discussion then focused on the more specific field of the School of English Education at KUM. Public HEIs in
Indonesia are widely perceived to have better quality and attain more symbolic capital than the private HEIs. As a result, a larger number of students compete in the national
public university entrance examination to gain entry. If students are not successful, the secondary option is to enroll at a private university. KUM is one of fast growing private
universities in terms of student enrolments. To attract the student enrollment, KUM creates a brand that is famous for its multiculturalism. However, KUM requires more
teaching staff that are more highly qualified, as only a small number of teachers have
doctoral degrees.
It was also established that the School of English Education at KUM has the largest student enrolment numbers compared to the other school at the university that
provide the school with more capital. The students are generally motivated to learn English however the school must improve the effectiveness of the English teachers’
instructional practice as an effective strategy to maintain and improve its capital. Furthermore, even though a more challenging entrance exam may reduce student
enrolment numbers and therefore reduce funding based on tuition fees. This is a
