A Research On English Education In Indonesia

Apart from Indonesian, English is the most important foreign language in Indonesia, and English education has gained more and more attention from Indonesian. Fluent spoken English has even become a symbol of important social status. The emergence of English in Indonesia can be traced back to the15th century——the colonial period of Indonesia. At that time, Indonesia had been invaded by Portugal, Spain and Britain. Holland had ruled Indonesia for as long as more than350years, but didn’t provide the Indonesians with any kind of education. While Britain colonists ruled Indonesia for much shorter time but had English spread to some extent, and left some cultural heritages as the earliest trace of English which can be found in Indonesia. English didn’t appear as a foreign language course in the educational system until in1945when Indonesia gained independence.The status of English in Indonesia is higher and higher with its developing international status. Currently, English is taught to more and more preschool children. And English has appeared in the curricula of primary schools as a compulsory course. Even university students majoring not in English cannot graduate smoothly without accomplishing certain English learning tasks. The school forms of English education in Indonesia are diversified gradually, apart from schools run by the government, kinds of private schools emerge. Besides, curricula arrangement is improved, stressing the practical use of English in social lives but not the structural language forms. Educational system needs to be guided by policies, and there are clear legislation hierarchies which are in progress to make policies for English education. While in the particular progress of teaching, many problems need to be solved in terms of teachers, facilities, curricula arrangement and examining methods. This paper will focus on these topics to give detailed discussion, and analyzes to provide solutions to these problems.Up to now, there is a short of systematic study of Indonesia English education in China, some literary works in relation to Indonesia just mention Indonesia English education with a few words, so much research space needs to be fulfilled by further research and detailed study in this field. Most of the references come from literary documents in Indonesian and some English materials relating to Indonesia English education. This paper cannot be accomplished without the help of some Indonesian students studying in Guangxi Normal University.This thesis consists of six parts:The first chapter is introduction, presenting the intention and significance of the research, the innovation of this study, as well as the literature review.The second chapter is the historical review of English education in Indonesia. In addition to the emergence, the development and the current situation of English in Indonesia, the evolvement of English education in Indonesia is also included in this chapter.The third chapter mainly tells the present status of the English education in Indonesia, elaborating its concrete school forms, curricula provision, and the related policies, as well.The fourth chapter analyzes the problems existing in Indonesia English education, from the aspects of teachers’qualities, curricula provision, examination system, teaching and equipment construction.The fifth chapter focuses on the solutions of the problems mentioned in the former chapter, and forecasts the outlook of Indonesia English education.The last chapter is conclusion, summarizing the whole thesis, pointing out the limitation of this thesis and the potentialities in this field.Indonesia English education has experienced a long process. Though it is developing comparatively fast currently, with higher and higher recognition and popularity among many social classes in Indonesia, its development is not going smoothly because of restrictions from many factors.