Statements of the Problems Purpose of the Study

10 seven in the first class of 1929, who wished to identify themselves with the white ruling elite Plechtige Opening van het nieuwe Seminarie, Uden, 1929: 67. After Indonesia proclaimed her independence in 1945, Dutch was abolished from the curriculum of the new independent state. Soon after, English replaced it as the main foreign language to be learned at the minor seminary. From early 1950-s to the 1960-s, the English teachers in the institution were native speakers from the United States, at least from countries such as the Netherlands and the Philippines where practically everybody speaks English with some ease. This time the participants who were from different local language backgrounds, mostly from the Ngadha-Lio language grouping of which the Nataia is a member, also turned out to be fairly good speakers of English. Stephanus Djawanai, a former student of the seminary, recalls how the fourth year students of his generation were often asked by their English teacher to make a short speech or even a sermon in English. “Father Garger also asked us to make daily notes on who we spoke to, what we talked about and how long we made a conversation in English,” Djawanai wrote in “Learning a Language, Opening Up a Horizon 2004: 99”, an article in memory of his unforgettable years in the seminary. Djawanai, now a professor of linguistics, also recalls that his former English teachers such as William Pop, a Catholic missionary from Chicago, the United States, were very flexible and creative. Though grammar-translation was the method in vogue at the time, he noted, his teachers did not hesitate to try out a more communicative approach. He also noticed that his teachers applied an 11 integrated approach in which “listening and comprehension, speaking, reading and comprehension, and writing” received a relatively balanced treatment. Unfortunately, the glorious years of foreign language learning in the seminary are now said to be history. In a way, the national policy of the Indonesian government seems to have played a part in the sad story. In the early 1970-s, the Department of Religious Affairs now Ministry of Religious Affairs issued a xenophobic decree that offered two difficult choices for every foreign missionary: become a holder of an Indonesian passport or leave the country immediately. Also xenophobic, F.M Parera 2004:15 notes, was a regulation that all the foreign aids for religious purposes should first be notified to the department. In the aftermath, most white missionaries fled this country. Devoted native speakers of English on duty in the seminary were gone. Also gone were English textbooks and graded story-books that had regularly entered the shelves of the library of the institution. To sum up, the seminary has witnessed the ‘rise and fall’ of three foreign languages. Initially, it was Dutch that was abolished from the curriculum for reasons of nationalism. Then, Latin was relegated from the church service and the curriculum of the seminary, owing to the decree of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960-s. The decree stipulated that Latin be no longer ‘the one and only’ language of service of the Catholic Church. Finally, English has been staggering all along for a number of reasons. Rano Aoh, a student of the late 1990-s, for instance, poured out his disappointment at the failure of the seminary to maintain the old tradition of good foreign language performance. “We missed the English speaking skill which had always been the pride of the previous generations.