Proficiency In English Case Study

English is the only foreign language which is given a special status to be learnt as a compulsory subject at schools and universities in Indonesia. This status is officially stipulated in the government regulations. English at schools started being taught in 1968 based on the decree of the Ministry of Education and Culture No.096/1967 which regulated the recommendation of teaching English as a compulsory subject in junior and senior high schools. At the university level, English is taught according to the Government Regulation No.19/2005 article 9 which states that the curriculum in higher education for undergraduate students should include religious education, civic education, Indonesian and English. In spite of the fact that English has officially

For instance, Lowenberg (1991) has reported that some factors might contribute to the problem of the low level of English proficiency encountered by students learning English. The first factor is the problem within the curriculum and syllabus. The second one is the Indonesian classroom situation which is still generally overcrowded and noisy. The third factor is that there are many teachers who are still lacking in proficiency in English or still need more training in language pedagogy. In addition, Alwasilah (2007) also has found some weaknesses in the English courses at the college level that make the students’ communicative competence low: (1). No needs analysis conducted to find that the course does not meet the students’ expectations. (2). The entrance levels of the students in the class are relatively heterogeneous. (3). The course is taught by inexperienced teachers. (4). There is repetition of what has been taught at secondary schools. (5). There is no selection and classification based on competencies and students’ needs. (6). There is no coordination among intra-and inter-institutions. As a final point, we can at least identify three major causal problems of the college students’ low English communicative competence i.e. the first: problems associated with curriculum and syllabus which are designed without needs analysis, the second: problems related to the overcrowded classrooms, and the third: problems associated with unqualified