Entering the new millennium, the issue of globalizing
information and technology has brought profound challenges for developing countries.
Various steps such as accelerating the improvement of human resources,
providing the infrastructure for educational accessibility, and increasing the
budget allocation in the education sector have become dominant matters of
discussion. In Indonesia, the enthusiasm of governmental policy to welcome the
Information Age can be identified by the evolution of the educational system
from a centralized policy to one of regional autonomy. This policy has been stipulated
through the Indonesian Educational Reform Act 22 of 1999 , number 22 of 1999
concerning the regional autonomy and number 25 of 2000 act concerning the government
and provincial autonomy (Departemen Dalam Negeri, 2001).
Besides committing to a regional policy of autonomy, the
other strategic commitment towards accelerating the improvement of human resources in
Indonesia was the introduction of English language teaching in schools from the
primary level through the universities. This consideration was taken to modify
the previous decree of the Minister of Education and Culture (now called the
Ministry of National Education) number 096 of 1967, which stipulated English as
the first foreign language for secondary education through university levels
(Septy, 2000).
The modification of the governmental policy is meant to
acknowledge the role of English as a means of global communication and as the
language that is most commonly used to communicate about science and
technology. Data indicates that 61% of the world information is written in
English, French, and German. Seventy-two percent of the above group (about 44%
of world information) is in the English language (Alwasilah, 1996). To further
emphasize the importance of English, Graddol (2000) predicted that in the year 2000
there were about a billion English learners, but a decade later, the numbers
will have doubled.
Similar to Graddol’s and Alwasilah’s work, Jarvis (2004)
studied classroom computer applications in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses
in Higher Education. His research indicated that over 80% of the courses stored
on the Internet are in English. He then questioned the implication of his
findings about there being more non-native than native speakers of the English
language. Diversity of context in terms of learners’ age, nationality, learning
background has become a defining characteristic of English Language Teaching
(ELT) today. It means that the only way to provide Indonesian students with the
skills necessary to pursue information in the world is to teach them to master
English as an international language.
Artikel Lengkap Klik Database Artikel Dr. Muhammad Yaumi
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