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with fluency, grammar, or pronunciation. They are expected to be accustomed to hearing different dialects accents, pronunciations, styles,
and even mistakes. In other words, they are encouraged to respect one another. This can be related to another learning principle identified by
Brown: Learners should be encouraged to initiate communication and their
risky attempts to communicate should be positively responded Brown, 2001, p. 56; see also Appendix B. The teacher should also be aware that
the teaching-learning process and the learning indicators are in line with self-actualization major principles, such as
equity, creativity, tolerance, learner-centeredness, and freedom of expression.
Of course, the teacherlearning designer can also directly refer to one or several major self-actualization principles, such as learner-centeredness,
equity, and freedom of expression, and then designs the objectives and process. The most important point, however, is that heshe can still use
familiar communicative or perhaps traditional techniques and activities, but, while planning, heshe is AWARE of the major self-actualization
principles outlined in section B above and tries to apply them either directly or indirectly.
D. Application of Self-Actualization Principles to Language Education
The general self-actualization principles above belong to the educational-cultural viewpoint in general, which functions as the context of
the language learning curriculum. The following are “narrower” educational
statements or descriptions related to language education. The descriptions can be considered as examples of how general educational principles can
be implemented in language education. As examples, there will be almost endless topics, statements or descriptions that can be included. Here are
some important examples summarized and concluded from a number of sources relevant to English language education Bismoko, 2011; Fahim
and Pishghadam, 2009; Ramadhan, 2008; Richards and Rodgers, 2001.
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1. The demise of a method The concept of a “grand” method e.g. the Audio-Lingual Method,
the Total Physical Response is put into question because it assumes that a method is generalizable across different groups of students around the
world. The teacher should, therefore, pay attention to local learning material, strategies, activities, and techniques. This is in line with the
following self-actualization principles: locality, creativity, empowerment.
2. The development of local material The development of local, contextualized material is encouraged. A
dialog between a foreign tourist and a local guest at a hotel in Yogyakarta may become the starting point to develop speaking material and learning
objectives at schools in and near Yogyakarta. A big consequence of this statement is that language teachers themselves become language learning
designers to produce their own material and, to support that, do classroom action research. This is related to
locality, constructivism, learner- centeredness, empowerment, and creativity principles.
3. The teacher and learners’ empowerment The teacher and learners are empowered. Language material found
on the Internet, for example, is so varied and vast that this is an excellent chance for them to be creative material developers. Doing classroom action
research and developing hisher own classroom treatments, e.g., by adapting and contextualizing material from the Internet, may empower the
teacher. Students are empowered if they are given a right to partly decide their learning objectives and materials, which do not come from the
program or the teacher only. This is closely related to empowerment,
constructivism, and learner-centeredness principles. 4. The re-vitalization of pair and group work
As a consequence of constructivism and learner-centeredness, activities done in pairs and groups are seriously planned. Grouping
categories and techniques found in Cooperative Language Learning can be
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utilized. Making use of effective, communicative pair and group work, the teacher bears
diversity, creativity, and freedom of expression in mind. 5. English as an international lingua franca
Different English dialects and pronunciations are found around the world. This is a logical consequence of the global status of English as an
international lingua franca. While English is used and studied around the world, at the same time each region develops a new dialect of English
absorbing local vocabulary and sounds. This “regionalism” is recognized,
not avoided. Instead of limiting ourselves to British English and American English dialects, we find various English dialects that learners can be
attached to. This is related to decentralization and diversity principles.
6. Language learning tasks Language learning tasks are very important techniques to be used in
the language learning process because they give learners opportunities to use the target language, collaborate with others, negotiate meanings, and
do autonomy-oriented activities. By doing such language learning tasks, the learners’ different learning styles, attitudes, levels, and interests are
recognized. This is in agreement with creativity, equity, diversity, learner-
centeredness, and emotional development principles. 7. The pragmatic teacher
As a consequence of locality and decentralization, the teacher can be more pragmatic, making use of any learning theory suitable for the
learners. The teacher is empowered because he can theorize from hisher own practice and practice language learning principles that heshe believes
to be effective and contextual. Because many learners are interested in making use of the Internet, the teacher can start with a reading passage
taken from the Internet and then explore the material further. This is related to
locality, decentralization, and empowerment principles. Those seven topics above are examples of how self-actualization
principles influence the concepts, learning objectives, techniques and
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activities, assessment types of language teaching and learning without abandoning the established practice of language education.
II. BRIDGING STAGE
In designing a learning program or a lesson there must be a plan to bridge the gap between theory and practice. In books of language learning
methodology the bridge is often called design, the function of which is to
bridge the gap between approach and procedure Richards and Rodgers,
2001, p. 20. In developing a learning program, the designer must bridge the gap by first writing the
objectives of the program. After the objectives are stated, a
syllabus type is mentioned and explained and the types of process or
learning activities are discussed. An assessment type is also included. The
roles of the learner and teacher are also discussed. The following are the components of the bridge that a designer of
self- actualization language learning should pay attention to. Here self-
actualization language learning can be pragmatically defined as communicative language learning that
‘mobilizes’ principles of self- actualization education in its design process.
A. Objectives
