Teaching Entrepreneurship Through English in School

*Aziza Restu Febrianto

It seems impossible to talk about entrepreneurship in school. Up to now, entrepreneurship is still considered a career for those who have problems with their formal education. Most successful entrepreneurs who focus on their careers consider that formal education is not the only factor that leads them to success. Bill Gates, a Microsoft founder drops out from his formal education, at Harvard University to focus on the project and computer software business. He got his Bachelor's degree when he was 40 years old and often goes to work without a jacket, much less a tie, and lives outside Seattle in a $30 million mansion. The other successful entrepreneurs are Japanese businessmen such as Soichiro Honda, the founder of the car company of the same name, and Akio Morita, the driving force behind the success of Sony. Konosuke Matsushita, who started a workshop with his wife grew into the world’s leading maker of consumer electronics.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is very necessary. By becoming an entrepreneur, we could possibly be independent and promote independent economic development for people. The country's economy grows up quite faster and people become welfare. Nevertheless, success in formal education should not be forgotten. We should pay more attention to our education while focusing on the business. Unfortunately, the education system in our country doesn’t support this sort of view. Entrepreneurship is not yet included in the teaching and learning programs in school. In addition, the students are never taught about how to become a success in business and self-economic independence in the future.

Involuntarily, school students are led to be employed by companies after they graduate. And ironically, most of these companies are owned by those who do not have better formal education as the employers do. Concerning this phenomenon, professional education experts, deputies of the education department, and teachers are expectedly to consider some steps or strategies they probably take to promote entrepreneurship and people self economic independence. One of the prominent steps to realize this is including and implementing entrepreneurship education in schools. Teachers have an important role to give some lessons and practice to the students about entrepreneurship when the curriculum system doesn’t still have something to do with it. They can probably find some innovative ways how to encourage the students to become creative to develop their businesses.

English is considered one of the most important subjects that students have to master. Nowadays, English is used as an international language in which most people in the world use it for their global communication. However, the curriculum doesn’t give the possibility for teachers to teach English subjects effectively in school. Most English teachers do not understand how to create a good circumstance that motivates the students to get fun and satisfaction while learning English in class. Therefore, there should be a new alternative method for solving this problem. Naturally, most people especially students like business because they could earn money with it. Getting money can be such reinforcement for the students while learning in school. And exactly, English can possibly become a business medium to develop the students’ entrepreneurship skills. “English for Business Purposes.”

There are lots of advantages taken from English to develop business. First, since the business objects are Indonesian people, sometimes they find English difficult to learn independently. They must need a guide or a course to learn it faster and more effectively. They also suppose that Learning English should be done as early as possible. As a result, they often ask their children to learn it since they are still kids. Here, the English teachers could encourage their students to hold a profitable English course, English conversation club, or something for children. The students can be the instructors to guide them in learning this foreign language. Second, in our lives, we are often expected to understand many various English readings or information to get global views of the world. And of course, those who haven’t learned English find it so difficult. 

The students must then need an English expert to help them translate the English written information they are reading. In this case, they  can be encouraged to make an English translator team. They will always get translation jobs and gain some money. Third, conducting an English culture exhibition and bazaar is also possible for the students to develop their skills in business and creativity. In the English Cultures  Exhibition, they could possibly perform their English skills creatively such as writing and reading poets, making an English Magazine wall, performing English drama and arts, etc. Those activities will result in several various creations that can be sold and exhibited at very expensive prices.

Some alternatives above are actually an explanation of what English and teaching and learning can do to develop the Entrepreneurship skill of the students in school while this skill is never implemented in most formal educations nowadays.