Designing 21st Century Language Learning Scenario in Indonesia: A Perspective from Computer-Assisted Language Learning

Lala Bumela

doi:10.24235/ijas.v2i1.6106

Abstract

The integration of international quality assurance standards into Indonesian higher education curricula, together with the enactment of the New Standard of Higher Education (NSHE), are creating new and significant pressures on the curriculum renewal as well as the reconstruction of course syllabus design in foreign language departments in Indonesian universities. Just like any other units (courses) in foreign language departments in Indonesia, Academic Writing course at English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) is impacted by the new government policies. Latest research suggest that both curriculum renewal and syllabus development project are integral part of the quality assurance system where it focuses on the transparency and accountability in curriculum design and delivery. The key elements of the course syllabus that are made transparent and accountable, for instance, gives hints at the shifting knowledge structures, the use of new technologies, the emphasis on the development of students’ skills, and the extended responsibility being placed on students for their own learning development. This paper reports how these key elements are inserted into a learner-centred pedagogy of academic writing at ELTE department in Indonesia in order to meet the requirements of the 21 st century learning that are individual, personalized, adaptive, modular, integrated, and non-sequential. The establishment of computer-assisted language learning environment combined with the new pedagogy of academic writing, in essence, opposes the existing traditional approaches to language learning and literacy pedagogy in Indonesia. The entire story presented in this paper is a significant excerpt from the preliminary phase of experiment of a PhD research project conducted in Indonesia. The insights presented in this paper should trigger a holistic reform in language teacher education in Indonesia.

Highlights

This paper reports how these key elements are inserted into a learner-centred pedagogy of academic writing at English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) department in Indonesia in order to meet the requirements of the 21st century learning that are individual, personalized, adaptive, modular, integrated, and non-sequential
Academic writing course in undergraduate English language teacher education (ELTE) programs, and just like any other courses offered at foreign language departments in Indonesia (Arabic, Germany, French, Korean language departments, etc), are currently integrated into the international quality assurance standards as outlined in the country’s higher education curricula (MORTHE, 2015)
In each Verbotonal exercise, each student was exposed to both filtered intonation and non-filtered intonation of academic writing and the samples were taken from the corpus of academic English

Summary

Introduction

Academic writing course in undergraduate English language teacher education (ELTE) programs, and just like any other courses offered at foreign language departments in Indonesia (Arabic, Germany, French, Korean language departments, etc), are currently integrated into the international quality assurance standards as outlined in the country’s higher education curricula (MORTHE, 2015). The New Standards of Higher Education (NSHE) require that on the completion of their studies, undergraduate students demonstrate higher order thinking skills that reflects the students’. The New Standards of Higher Education (NSHE) enacted by Indonesian government in 2015 precisely ties with the Boyer Commission Report issued in 1998. The report offers 10 amendments for the university to embrace: (1) make research-based learning the standard; (2) construct an inquiry-based freshman year; (3) build on the freshman foundation; (4) remove barriers to interdisciplinary education; (5) link communication skills and course work; (6) use information technology creatively; (7) culminate with a capstone experience; (8) educate graduate students as apprentice teachers; (9) change faculty reward systems; and (10) cultivate a sense of community The Boyer Commission emphasizes that the ecology of the university should be based on a profound and long-lasting understanding that inquiry, investigation, and discovery are the core activities of universities (p. 18), and that each freshman students must learn how to express the results of their academic works effectively both orally and in writing (p. 27)

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