Job Discussion Forums

[martinphipps]

I am writing a book about teaching English in Asia, but my experience only relates to Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Tell me about teaching English in Indonesia. I have some specific questions.

Do you work with a local teacher? Is she in the classroom with you or does she teach the same class at a different time? Is he or she considered your boss or your equal or does this depend on how much experience you have?

When in Indonesia, do people expect you to learn the local language or are they surprised whenever you use Indonesian at all? Are you forbidden by your school owners from using Indonesian in class? Do the students seem to expect you to understand Indonesian and get frustrated when you don't understand Indonesian?

Do most people work in private cram schools or in government sponsored public schools? Do they provide you with textbooks and a syllabus or is that entirely up to the teachers? Do you get in trouble for using Thai in class or by not playing enough games or are teaching methods left up to the teacher to decide?

If it isn't you who makes the decision as to how to teach your class then who's decision is it? Your co-teacher? Your supervisor? The owner of the school?

What is the biggest problem that Indonesian students have? How does the local language affect the way they speak English? Are there any words they especially have trouble pronouncing?

Thank you.

Martin Phipps,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Applied Foreign Languages,
Chungtai Institute pf Health Sciences and Technology,
Taichong, Taiwan

[Chester]

Can we get commission for our contributions? I think thats fair. -very pagan but fair.
god bless those pagans

[martinphipps]

This research is expected to be funded by the government of Taiwan. The main purpose is to learn about teaching English in Taiwan. I just want to know if my conclusions could be applied to other countries in the region.

Martin

[ls650]

This is based on my own personal experience, teaching at a private language school in the outskirts of the cesspool known as Jakarta.

> Do you work with a local teacher? Is she in the classroom with you or does she teach the same class at a different time?

In lower language levels, yes. He/she taught the first/second half of the course, I the remaining half of the course.

> Is he or she considered your boss or your equal or does this depend on how much experience you have?

Equal.

> When in Indonesia, do people expect you to learn the local language or are they surprised whenever you use Indonesian at all?

Surprised.

> Are you forbidden by your school owners from using Indonesian in class? Do the students seem to expect you to understand Indonesian and get frustrated when you don't understand Indonesian?

No. And not really, but sometimes.

> Do most people work in private cram schools or in government sponsored public schools?

The former - though I've never heard the phrase 'cram' schools before.

> Do they provide you with textbooks and a syllabus or is that entirely up to the teachers? Do you get in trouble for using Thai in class or by not playing enough games or are teaching methods left up to the teacher to decide?

The textbooks and syllabus were provided. And I don't think I would have gotten into trouble for using Thai in my Indonesian classes - but I would have received some strange looks....

> What is the biggest problem that Indonesian students have? How does the local language affect the way they speak English? Are there any words they especially have trouble pronouncing?

Definitely, verb tenses first and foremost. Use of correct prepositions. Use of articles. Pronunciation.

[Cardinal Synn]

I agree with most of the previous. For a little variety, I'll answer your questions too!

Do you work with a local teacher? Is she in the classroom with you or does she teach the same class at a different time? Is he or she considered your boss or your equal or does this depend on how much experience you have?

Yes, I work with a local teacher but she only deals with lower levels - usually kiddies classes, handing over to the native teacher about a third of the way through the course. She's my equal, but I'm not sure how equal she feels as her pay is much much lower than mine.

When in Indonesia, do people expect you to learn the local language or are they surprised whenever you use Indonesian at all? Are you forbidden by your school owners from using Indonesian in class? Do the students seem to expect you to understand Indonesian and get frustrated when you don't understand Indonesian?

Generally, locals can judge if your a newbie or a longtermer by the level of your Bahasa Indonesia. I haven't encountered much surprise at my being able to speak the language in my two plus years in Jakarta. It's not forbidden to use Bahasa Indonesia in class, but it is heavily frowned upon. The students use BI to whisper amongst themselves, and are more frustrated by the fact that I can understand what they are saying.


Do most people work in private cram schools or in government sponsored public schools? Do they provide you with textbooks and a syllabus or is that entirely up to the teachers? Do you get in trouble for using Thai in class or by not playing enough games or are teaching methods left up to the teacher to decide?

Private schools are by far the most popular. The school provides the books, but the teacher is free to be creative with his/her own materials provided it fits with the syllabus.

If it isn't you who makes the decision as to how to teach your class then who's decision is it? Your co-teacher? Your supervisor? The owner of the school?

It's up to me really, but there are periodical evaluations (observed classes) by the DOS to make sure you're doing the right thing.

What is the biggest problem that Indonesian students have? How does the local language affect the way they speak English? Are there any words they especially have trouble pronouncing?

Grammar is big problem. BI has a lack of verb tenses, so that tends to cause a lot of problems for them. Trying to understand how and when to use participles really screws with their heads.

Hope that helps

[guruengerish]

Yes, I'd go along with all that has been said so far. I taught in four different schools in Java, and they differed a lot.

EF in West Jakarta has a lot of students, mostly nice kids, but very small classrooms; there was hardly room to move, once we were seated around a table, and classes were held in that environment.

In Bandung, the head of the school there insisted that we used activities to reinforce what had been taught. It was very successful, and the large classrooms allowed us to run, squat, work in groups or whatever. There was a good library of English games and activities available. We had a separate little theatre for using VCDs/DVDs. DVDs with English text was quite helpful as Indonesians are used to watching foreign movies with Indonesian text, so it was no effort. They made lists of new words and we discussed these later.

Computer Assisted Language Learning was also very popular, and most schools have a good range of activities.

Most teachers spoke Indonesian outside the school, but we tried not to use it in the class. However, it was often quicker to explain the meaning of a word in the students' own language, than go into long detailed discussions.

I once asked the students not to use Indonesian in the class, so they immediately switched to Javanese!

[willy]

Teaching in Indonesia is totally different than Taiwan that's why I left Taiwan the �cram� schools main use is to cram the owners pocket with cash and most white teachers are there to make a $ and don't know or care about teaching.

Here we have some schools like EF that have a bad rep but are still much better than the cram school.
I think about 70 � 90% of the privet schools here really try to better than students English if you want more you can Email me or use MSN

[TEAM_PAPUA]