Presenting Paper 2

Is CLIL an Effective Approach Implemented in Indonesia?

(A Case Study in the Secondary Level Class of Permata Bangsa School Semarang)

 By Aziza Restu Febrianto

 Presented at the International Conference on Teacher Education and Professional Development (InCoTEPD) 2016

17 - 18 May 2016, Yogyakarta Indonesia

Abstract

Today, in some countries, English as a global language is used for all subject materials learned in academic context. As English becomes an international language, there have been inevitably a lot of materials and resources written and delivered in English used in schools. Being able to understand the materials which are written in English, students can gain wide knowledge and learn particular concepts used in global contexts. They will then be able to comprehensively formulate and explain the concepts internationally based on the authentic resources. In fact, it is also important for them to be well- prepared to face the global challenges in the future by mastering English language in all subject materials being learned.

Considering the importance of English usage as mentioned above, private schools offering international curriculum have been introduced in Indonesia nowadays. Some of the schools implement a bilingual method named CLIL in teaching-learning process. CLIL which stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning involves teaching a subject through the medium of a second or foreign language (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010). Learners acquire knowledge about the content of the subject and language at the same time. Here I conducted an observation on how CLIL is implemented in Permata Bangsa School as one of International Schools endorsed by the Cambridge International Exam (CIE) in Semarang. In this school, all teachers are Indonesians who are graduates of Indonesian universities. However, not only meeting all the Cambridge standard qualifications during the recruitment process, as an international teacher, they are also obliged to constantly participate in the teaching workshop and training conducted twice in a week. Having trained by a professional Cambridge program director (Experienced Native Speaker), all subject teachers are expected to be able to teach their lesson in bilingual class effectively referring to the standard curriculum designed by CIE.

On the other hand, when it comes to the implementation of CLIL, apart from its ideal benefits on students’ content mastery and communication skill, many challenges are found. In an EFL country like Indonesia, subject teachers are not yet well trained of using English for their teaching instructions. In CLIL, all subject teachers especially Math and Science teachers must be able to use and deliver the classroom instructions in English. Meanwhile, in EFL learning context, students and teachers are not accustomed to using English in the teaching-learning process. In fact, most of the material resources such as books and the other learning support are not written in English. The other challenge faced is that the English proficiency of teachers and students in Indonesia is considered low, especially compared to other South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. According to the research of English Proficiency Index (EPI) conducted by EF (English First) in 2014, among the 63 non – English speaking countries, the English proficiency of Indonesian people were placed 28^th. Sweden where CLIL concept was firstly introduced stayed in the first position.

By drawing a conclusion from my one-year observation in Permata Bangsa School Semarang, in my presentation, I would like to share on how effective CLIL is when implemented in Indonesia and its challenges.