demanded to obtain good quality and capability in performing their professional functions especially those related with the international donors.
The May 27 earthquake that struck D.I. Yogyakarta Province and Klaten, Central Java have made the two provinces points of attention. Quite a number of
international NGOs have come to the two provinces, especially D.I. Yogyakarta Province, to give aids during the emergency phase as well as the recovery and
reconstruction phases. PHO as the government agency in provincial level has been coordinating all the aids and hosting regular coordination meetings. Most of the
NGOs members do not speak Indonesian. They are accompanied by their interpreters, but during the meetings at PHO, where they are hosted by PHO
staffs, it is PHO’s responsibility to make the meetings as well as communication run smoothly. One main constraint in dealing with those foreigners is then the
language. It is quite unpractical both for the foreigners and PHO staffs when they communicate via interpreters. This is not to mention some misunderstanding
which often happens since the interpreters do not always know about specific terminologies in health. It would have been a good and smooth communication if
PHO staffs obtain good capability in the language. Therefore, a research which investigates the PHO staff’s need to improve their communicative competence in
English so that they are able to perform their professional functions with their international colleagues is quite urgent.
B. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Yogyakarta Provincial Health Office consists of several divisions and sub- divisions. As a government agency in provincial level, PHO organizes and
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coordinates most of the health programs. The health programs are not established by the Ministry of Health, RI, but also those established by the province as well as
the districts municipality. In the official relation with international agencies, PHO also serves as the coordinator and facilitator. Since PHO organizes and
coordinates most of the health programs as well as its international official relation with the international agencies, the human resource of PHO is demanded
to obtain adequate quality and capability in performing their official activities especially those related with the international agencies.
However, the most common constraint encountered by the health officials in maintaining their international relation is that of the language, especially
English. Some of the officials of the international agencies do speak Indonesian, but many others do not. This language constraint impedes the smooth running and
well established communication because then many items being communicated are not exchanged well and results in misunderstanding and miscommunication
quite often. For that reason, the staffs need to improve their communication ability in English so that they are able to perform their professional functions in their
international relation and communication successfully. Furthermore, the language constraints occur due to lack of grammar knowledge, including when to use
certain structures, lack of competence in communication using the language and lack of essential vocabularies technical terms in English for each division.
C. PROBLEM LIMITATION
Yogyakarta Provincial Health Office PHO is one of government’s agencies in public health services. Some of its functions are organizing and
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coordinating most of the health programs as well as foreign official relation with the foreign agencies. The established organizational structure of PHO consists of
the leader of the office, the leaders of divisions, the leaders of sub- divisions and staff. Among those organizational elements, the leader of the office and the
leaders of divisions hold the major role in dealing with the international relation. Therefore, the research will limit its discussion on the professional functions in
international relation performed by the division leaders and their core staff as well as the competences which are required to perform the international relation
and communication successfully. In the following discussion the term “health officials” is employed to address the leaders of the divisions and their core staffs
who serve as the research participants.
D. PROBLEM FORMULATION
