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similar principles taken from post-modern, constructivist language learning writings fill in the concrete activity and procedure columns. Besides, f
rom Borg and Gall’s model and Dick, Carey and Carey’s model it is essential for the designer to have a needs
analysis at the initial stage because finding learners’ needs reflects the view that a teaching-learning process should contain down-to-earth local objectives and activities.
In other words, it reflects locality and diversity. Borg and Gall’s three stages of testing
and revision and Dick, Carey, and Carey’s formative evaluation and revision are indeed important because they encourage the designer to augment the significance of locality
and diversity.
3. English Language Education
In this part the writer presents a review of the position of English in the ‘expanding circle’ a term quoted by Graddol, 2006, p. 110, communicative
competence as the general goal of English education, and the English education system that works.
a. English in the Expanding Circle In a number of sections Graddol states the changing role of English as a
foreignsecond language in different parts of the world. English is studied around the world as many people study it to seek advancement in job markets and governments
support the use of it to win competitions in global markets and this phenomenon may create a new paradigm of Global English Graddol, 2006, p. 107. Quoting the
sociolinguist BrajKachru, Graddol states that there are three circles in the global community of English speakers. Native speakers later revised as highly proficient
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speakers of English are found in the inner circle. The outer circle is composed of second-language speakers in countries like India. The third, called the expanding circle,
the people who learn English as a foreign language Graddol, 2006, p. 110. As the name suggests, the number of people studying English as a foreign language is
continually increasing. Related to the proficiency level the three circle lines may become blurred because the terms native speakers, second-language speakers, and
foreign-language speakers will not be relevant today with regard to English use. High proficiency and low proficiency levels may be used to the replace the traditional terms.
The consequence of these changes may affect the policy of English teaching around the world. For example, since the recruitment of native speakers of English who
are trained to teach English to speakers of other languages is difficult and very expensive, local teachers who are highly proficient in English may be trained and
recruited. Graddol even states that native speakers may, culturally and pedagogically, become an obstacle to the development of global English 2006, p. 114. Besides, to
speak English like a native speaker is becoming irrelevant; highly proficient speakers may speak English with a local accent in order, among other things, to signal their
nationality through English 2006, p. 115. The conclusion that is drawn here is that this study deals with English in the
expanding circle. In Indonesia English is considered as the most important “foreign”
language. Since there are many proficiency levels – from low to high proficiency, it is
expected that the designer of English learning should be aware of different proficiency levels and not aspire to a native speaker-like proficiency as the ultimate goal. Local
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features such as local accents in pronunciation and local vocabulary items are not supposed to be eradicated. They enrich the
learner’s proficiency.
b. Communicative Competence as a Goal of English Language Education in Indonesia Why do people, especially the young, study English? There are a number of
reasons, such as to find a more competitive job, to continue their study abroad, or to negotiate business deals with people from other countries; each individual may have a
different reason, but the first reason is that English is a required subject from grade 4 of the elementary school to the first two semesters of the universitycollege. In general, we
find a common purpose of studying English: the attainment of ability to communicate with other people. It is useful to describe this ability to communicate or communicative
competence as consisting of four dimensions Canale and Swain 1980 quoted by Richards and Rodgers, 2001: p. 160. The first is grammatical competence, which refers
to linguistic competence. This is grammatical and lexical capacity. The second is sociolinguistic competence,
which refers to knowledge of the social context of the communication including the roles and the communicative purposes of the
communication. The third is discourse competence, which refers to knowledge of interconnectedness of text elements. Strategic competence is the last dimension, which
refers to the ability to initiate, maintain, repair, and redirect communication. Learning English in formal education is done by all students in Indonesia from
the primary school level to the university level. In general, the goal of learning English is to reach the ability to communicate in English
– at a different competence level for each educational level
– both in the spoken and written modes. The processes to
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achieve the goal vary considerably, but the grand approach is supposed to be Communicative Language Teaching CLT and its applications activities and
techniques in real classes are done in many different forms due to the diverse conditions of schools and different abilities of teachers throughout Indonesia.
For the past six years English learning in schools have used a competency-based curriculum CBC. The ultimate goal of a CBC is communicative competence.
Referring to Canale and Swain’s four dimensions above, the essence of communicative
competence is discourse competence. A person who has this competence is able to participate in text creation. The text created e.g., a short conversation between a guest
and a hotel receptionist, a written message sent to a colleague has to make sense and become a unified whole. Students have to attain other types of competence: linguistic
competence, actional competence, socio-cultural competence, and strategic competence. Celce-Murcia et al. added actional competence as the fifth dimension of
communicative competence quoted by Agustien, 2006, p. 1 However, discourse competence becomes the hub around which the other types are attached to. In a CBC,
competences must be defined first and then material, activities, and assessment are developed based on the chosen competences.
In recent years, English teachers in most schools have been encouraged and trained to use different learning teaching strategies like Contextual Teaching and
Learning CTL and PAIKEM. CTL emphasizes the importance of the students’
learning contexts, including personal, social, and cultural contexts. Through real life contexts students will be motivated to learn actively and in an integrated manner.
PAIKEM stands for active, innovative, creative, effective and fun learning. It is a
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further development of CTL and it combines a number of learning strategies, such as task-based learning, problem-based learning, constructivist learning, and multiple
intelligences. It is theoretically a learner-centered strategy that aims to develop the learner’s creativity. In practice, CTL has not been consistently applied in schools due to
the diverse conditions of education in different parts of Indonesia. Character building has also been re-emphasized and integrated into the
curriculum. School subjects like English are expected to integrate character building into their goals and processes. The Indonesian National Qualification Framework
INQFKKNI admits that the affective domain, in which character building is situated, should become the hub of the learning outcome wheel whose parts consist of science,
knowledge, know-how, skills, and, at the center, affection. In general, the affective domain includes processes that enable the learner to act as a citizen who loves hisher
country and supports world peace, who has high social sensitivity and concern, who appreciates a variety of regional cultures, points of view, beliefs, religions, and other
people’s opinions, and who respects law enforcement and has the spirit to prioritize the interests of the nation and society. English teachers are challenged to integrate these
affective factors into English classes. The processes of the attainment of communicative competence at different proficiency levels are enriched by the re-emphasis of character
building in schools. The conclusion that can be drawn here is that while English education
proponents and authorities have long recommended theoretically sound approaches, a wide a gap between theory and everyday practice is still wide. It is the duty of English
learning designers to narrow down the gap by providing learning materials which are
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more practical, easy to access, and in accordance with each local condition. Character building that is in line with self-actualization goals will certainly give variety,
enthusiasm, and challenge e.g., in using contextual resources and in creating groups for projecttask-based activities to both teachers and students in reaching the goal of
communicative competence. c. Making English Education System Work
Bismoko 2011, p. 4 in his paper suggests that to make the English education system work in accordance with current 21
st
century perspectives – in this case a post-
modern perspective combined with the modern concept of efficiency – one should need
an approach called the system approach, which combines the systematic approach which consists of three levels: the thinking level or concept, the planning level or
design, and the doing level or operation and the systemic approach which consists of three elements: goal, process, and content. The relationship between the two
approaches is that at each level of the systematic approach, the systemic approach is applied; that is, one must elaborate the goal, process, and content at each level of the
systematic approach. The systematic approach then acts as the main framework while the systemic approach fills in the systematic frame by elaborating the goal, process, and
content of each different level. All together they make up the system approach. The following are examples basically
from Bismoko’s paper. At the CONCEPT level, the goal
“what for” of post-modern English language education is to participate in improving life quality. To prepare for the future world, learners participate the
process ”how” in building the future world of English education. English
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content ”which” here is not British or American English, but international English or
English as an international lingua franca. At the DESIGN level, the ultimate goal of post-modern English education is that
the learner is expected to become self-actualizing personally and socially. The process is based on constructivist learning, in which basically the learner constructs his or her
own knowledge – individually and collaboratively. The content consists of things that
help the learner acquire English himself or herself, such as course design, syllabus, portfolio, references, and handouts.
At the OPERATION level, the systemic system becomes concrete “marked by the presen
ce of empirical evidence” with a more operational goal in the form of operational objectives derived from the goal of the design written in a lesson plan. We
can observe all the interactions as the process group presentation, group discussion, assessment, written portfolio, which use equipment progress report, laptop, viewer,
Power Point, etc. as the content of the operation level. The conclusion that can be drawn is that when designing learning materials, the
designer has to be systematic and efficient. The design begins with the concept level first, and is followed by the planning design level, and ends with the concrete
operation level. At each level it is necessary for the designer to state the goal, process, and content.
4. Review of Related Research
