International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 171

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
Philippines in 1900, the American language policy saw the total rejection of the Indigenous
Languages and English was immediately introduced as the language of instruction in all
schools.66 The choice of English was therefore clearly motivated by the cultural negotiation
of the U.S, but also by the tempo in which the imperialistic aspirations had to be realized in
education.67 The campaign of English language teaching in Indonesia occupied a central
place in the policy developed by the U.S to counteract the influences of communism during
the Cold War.
FKIP Universitas Airlangga Malang (altered presently as IKIP Malang, and then
UNM—Universitas Negeri Malang) developed a project in August 1960, The English
Language Teacher Training Project (ELTTP). The Ford Foundation backed the project by
sending American professors to teach there as well as financial and technical assistance. The
program was to promulgate the core of English language teachers who would serve as the
basis of ELT in Indonesia. They were sent to America to study and obtain an overseas degree:
No wonder that those who went to the U.S could get their maste r and doctoral
degrees without too much difficulty. A number of ELTTP graduates now hold high
positions in different parts of Indonesia, four are currently Rectors (Dr Muhammad
Diah, UNRI Rector, Drs Agus Kafiar MA, UNCEN Rector, Dr Moh Ansyar, IKIP Padang
Retor, Dr Nuril Huda, IKIP Malang Rector.68
These graduates were becoming prominent people in the education system in Indonesia. It
was reported that the two prominent U.S professors in charge of the program were pure
linguists who had never been to Indonesia, so their program was arcane, unrelated to the
needs of TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) in Indonesia. The Ford insitute sent a
new American professor who had sufficient knowledge of TEFL to improve the situation.
Ford assisted further the development of English syllabi, instructional materials, and
manuals for secondary schools which were then published in 1956.69 The dawn of a more
widespread English language teaching movement in Indonesia was thus developed largely
under the auspices of the U.S. Despite the alien factor, English language has played a major
role after the World War II in Indonesia’s foreign language sector, especially with the arrival
of the mass communication era. Indonesia could not deny or escape these powerful
influences in the international arena. This has led to Indonesia’s decision to maintain the
teaching of English in formal schools which had been stamped by the Dutch junior high
school system. Until the 1980s, German and French were still taught in the senior high
schools as optional subjects. The world-wide-web internet wave since the 1990s has further
strengthened the emergence of English as the International language.

66

Groeneboer, Op. Cit., 5-6.
Ibid.
68
Sadtono, Op. Cit., 11.
69
Thomas, RM, “Indonesia: The English-Language Curriculum” in Thomas et al, Strategies for Curriculum
Change.
67

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