“English Native Speaker is The Best English Teacher”. Seriously?

“English has become a lingua franca to the point that any literate educated person is in a very real sense deprived if he does not know English”. (Burchfield)

English Teaching as Exceedingly Lucrative Enterprise Around The World

The quotation above taken from the book “Linguistic Imperialism” by Robert Phillipson implies the superiority of English as a tool of global communication and an instrument to get educationally high social standing in a global society. Nevertheless, the book also said that as an unqualified generalization, this statement is flagrantly fallacious regarding there are many millions of highly erudite people in the world who are happily and quite justifiably ignorant of English (Phillipson). However, I would say that this second statement is not enitrely true. In fact, the industry of English teaching has been always a promising business all around the world.

Previously speaking, having proliferated under variable circumstances to assorted regions of the world prevailingly through “the joint outcome of Britain’s colonial expansion and the more recent activity of the US” (Graddol 1997: 9), English formerly and currently benefits from international acknowledgement and vitality. At this point, Crystal (1997: 139) perceives that “there has never been a language so widely spread or spoken by so many people as English. Therefore, there are no precedents to help us see what happens to a language when it achieves genuine world status” (Anchimbe). In accordance with this phenomenon, as the occurrence of advanced communication technologies permit freedom of transferring information and ideas, the usefulness of an international language or lingua franca just like English is highly needed in order to facilitate an effective trans-cultural, cross-cultural, and world-wide communication and spread of information. Therefore, in order to be globally and informatively literate, a good English proficiency is inextricably required. Here, the English Language Teaching (ELT) industry has currently become a major cross-cultural, trans-cultural, and world-wide enterprise in order to fulfill the demand of people who want to improve their English proficiency to survive in this highly informatively and communicatively literate global society. That is to say, when distance now does not necessarily matter, with the vanishing of national boundaries, and the precedence of regional and transnational economies, the prospects for widespread of primary lingua francas—English—have immensely increased (Anchimbe). As a result, as English becomes a linguistically constant gravitation for the world, the ELT enterprise has been a timeless and die-hard pedagogical enterprise.

Tenet Two: The Ideal Teacher of English is a Native Speaker—A Deep Analysis

It is generally known that most of the people believe that English native speakers will make ideal English teachers in ELT, both at English as A Foreign Language (EFL) and English as A Second Language (ESL). It is perceived that ‘at the outset it was the native speakers who were taken for granted as the automatic best teacher, and all other teachers looked up to the native speakers’ (Strevens, interview) (Phillipson). In reality, this belief is reflected through several examples. Firstly, in Indonesia itself, having English native speakers as the teachers in one’s English course institution is usually projected as a commercial instrument to attract English learners. There are many English course institutions emphasizing their native-speaker teachers in their advertisements, which imply that this is a very special feature that distinct them from any other English course institutions. Not only that, it is also used as a source of gaining more income for the institution. English course taught by native speakers differs in fee, which is relatively more expensive. That is to say, it posits in a higher position than any English course taught by non-native speakers.

Concerning all of the phenomena mentioned above, we have come up to one simple question: what is the underlying reason of these people thinking that native speakers will automatically make the most ideal teachers of English? I might say that the answer is strongly related to the power of originality.

What makes people more attracted to native speakers is their originality. Regarding their originality, the major assurance behind the native speakers is that they can at anytime provide valid and steady judgment on their own language. They are capable of detecting false grammatical expressions in their own language regardless of whether they can explain exactly why they are ill-formed (Chomsky, 1965) (Anchimbe). If we analyze why presumably native speaker is rudimentarily better qualified than non-native in teaching English, it is associated with original and inherited English comprehension. They have greater facility in demonstrating fluent, idiomatically appropriate language, the ‘received pronunciation’ (RP), in appreciating the cultural connotations of the language, and in being the final arbiter of the acceptability of any given samples of the language (Phillipson). Furthermore, it is generally considered that excellent proficiency in English is strongly determined by excellence in speaking. Therefore, by having not only good English fluency but also perfect pronunciation, thus native speakers are more preferred by English learners.

What You See Ain’t What You Are Getting

However, as it is mentioned by Phillipson, regardless of those beliefs, this tenet has no scientific validity. ELT actually warns against over-reliance on the native speakers. ‘A teacher is not adequately qualified to teach a language merely because it is their mother tongue’ warns the UNESCO monograph on the use of the vernacular languages in education (UNESCO 1953: 69). This report was also assembled by experts in bilingualism and foreign language teaching. In the European foreign language tradition, the best teacher has near-native-speaker competence in the foreign language, and comes from the same linguistic and cultural background as the learners. Thus, in this case, non-native speakers can also make a good model of English teacher with their obtained English competence.

Furthermore, another thing that doubts this tenet is related to the standardization of English language taught and used in teaching. With the native speakers without professional English teaching background, there is no standard. While the native speakers may be deemed ideal for ELT, it is far from saying they are free from fallacy. This is because “most native speakers of English in the world are native speakers of some nonstandard variety of the language” (Trudgill 1998: 35, see also Mufwene 1997) (Anchimbe).

As it is believed by Hocking (1974), the writer of “All what I was taught and other mistakes: a handbook of common mistakes in English”, being a native speaker is no guarantee for excellent competence in communication. Communication itself is far more dormant that the words used in the process. This is because in the case of teacher and learner who have different cultural background, there will be an inevitable cultural distance in the communication. That is to say, there is a large infrastructure of social and cultural components that determine what must be said and how it should be said. Not only that, from a grammatical perspective, even in native domains, poor and inefficient speakers are still found. Error analysis in linguistic study did not emerge from the study of non-native speakers, but from the study of native speakers. Pettman (1913), the writer of Afrikanderisms, in a statement on the use of English by fellow Britons in South Africa lament: “It gives an Englishman, who loves the sentence that is lucid and logical, a shock to hear his native tongue maltreated by those who are just as English as himself (qtd Görlach 1995 :19). Therefore, any ELT exertion that is mainly based on native-speaker origins without solid ELT training is not safe from error-free language transmission.

Furthermore, we also need to consider the issue of correctness regarding the rules of the language. Language is so complex that being a native speaker does not automatically succeed one as a proficient speaker. There are some several factors determining this; language revolution or change, dialect variations, socio-cultural contexts, professional backgrounds, cultural variations and so forth. Thus, in ELT, which we have known that it currently has moved far-fetched from the borders of the UK, the US, and Australia and with the emergence of several regional norms of the language, the socio-cultural component is really crucial (Anchimbe).

The Role of Non-Native English Teachers

As we see nowadays, English is not only restricted to the language itself, but it is related to the use and communication. It involves geographical and socio-cultural context as there are a lot of various “Englishes” that are far beyond the borders of English speaking countries. Thus, learning English with people who are culturally and geographically fitted-in is more appropriate for the learners. Having native teachers with different cultural background will create cultural distance which can impede the absorption of English knowledge. Universal norms of English teaching, therefore,(as in the UK or US) can no longer be applied in global ELT. For most people and most purposes, national or local intelligibility should be the target of ELT (Kachru1986a: Chapter) (Phillipson). Conclusively, what at the highest stake of ELT efficiency and effectiveness is the language and teaching comprehension and cultural adjustment of the teachers. That is to say, to be fluent and excellent in English, we do not necessarily need to have native speakers as our teachers. In fact, with appropriate skills and comprehension, non-native teacher can be much better.

 

References:

Anchimbe, Eric A. “The native-speaker fever in English language teaching (ELT):Pitting pedagogical competence against historical origin.” 2006. http://www.linguistik-online.de. 29 December 2010 <http://www.linguistik-online.de/26_06/anchimbe.pdf>.

Burchfield. Linguistic Imperialism. Ed. Robert Philipson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Mahboob, Ahmar. “Beyond the Native Speaker in TESOL.” Linguistik online (2006): 63.

Phillipson, Robert. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Defining Happiness: What Money Can’t Buy

Almost all people in the world have different measurement of what is considered to be “happiness”. In other words, they have their very own definition about happiness. For impoverished people, happiness is when they have money to buy basic necessities and keep themselves fed. For a kid whose ice cream falls down, happiness is when he/she gets a new ice cream. For the lonely, happiness is when they have family to come home to. For the one-sided romantic affairs, happiness is when the person they love, love them back. For the employees, happiness is when they have considerable position at their work fields and earn greater salaries. For the runway models, happiness is when they can keep their size at two. For undergraduate students, happiness is when they can finish their study and hold a bachelor degree. For people who have cancers, happiness is when they get their cancers cured. For people in some parts of Africa and Middle East, happiness is when their countries remain at peace.

The measurements mentioned above prove that the notion of happiness is strongly related to desires, pleasures, expectations, other people, and of course, the existence of evidences to the contrary. Nevertheless, in this modern and virtual world, most of us still reckon of ourselves to be in a state of happiness when we are financially secured and able to buy things we want. Therefore, often the quest of our illusory regarding happiness is equated with the gain of profits and incomes, and the accumulation of ever increasing amount of money (timarr, 2010). Unfortunately, this perception is not entirely true. In fact, there are a lot of cases of people with abundance of wealth but poor in the feeling of contentment. Take an easy example, who does not know the extremely popular Pop princess, Britney Spears? From the surface, we suppose to think that she must be happy and content. By possessing billions of money, she can buy everything she wants. With her popularity, we always reckon that everybody likes her. However, as we have seen in media exposure, Britney often got her life problematic and chaos. Her distress regarding her divorce and unhappy relationships has made her to suffer from psychological ailments causing her to be in a long-term psychological therapy and rehabilitation. The paparazzi even worsen her life by making her private life has become public consumption and underestimation. By considering this, does anyone still think she is absolutely happy? I believe the answer would be no.

For stronger example, we can see researches conducted to scrutinize the connection between happiness and richness. Daniel Kahneman in his research working paper in 2006 entitled “Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer?” stated that most people believe that they would be happier if they were richer, but survey evidence on subjective well-beings is largely incoherent with that belief. Surveys in many countries accomplished over decades show that, on average, reported global verdicts of happiness have not changed much over the last four decades, in spite of large increases in real income per capita. Moreover, it is stated that increases in income have been found to have only a transitory effect on individuals’ reported life satisfaction or happiness.

So, what actually happiness is? In what occasion we can be happy and content? In life, we sometimes see how simple things can make people happy. For example, in a financially poor family, the family members themselves rarely feel discontent with it. In fact, they can still smile whole-heartedly overtime and having harmonious relationships. More surprisingly, they reckon themselves to be so blessed and consider not need to have abundance of more money to live their current life. For them, life is satisfying enough when they have each other to face life.

To conclude, happiness is relative. Our internal condition and attitudes toward life are the main determinants. Too often, we always associate happiness to have things we can not have at the moment and leave ourselves in yearning and wondering. Too often, we associate life satisfactory with possession of a great deal of money, popularity, and titles. Too often, we suspend our happiness with other people and forget to think about the goodness of ourselves. Starting from now, take a deeper consideration. Start to be grateful of things you already have, because too many times, people does realize what they actually have when its gone. By being grateful, you will feel contented and even more motivated to live life to the fullest. If you eventually can not decide to be happy, make other people happy. This too, can work for you because happiness can be contagious. By realizing how meaningful you are to someone, you will be happy in the end. Finally, as it is quoted from Margaret Lee Runbeck, in life, happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. Stop thinking that we only can be happy if we have accomplished our goals of life. Life is about process, because you will understand life from it and figure out yourself.

 

Pendekatan Feminis Terhadap Wacana

Dalam tulisan berjudul “Pendekatan Feminis Terhadap Wacana: Sebuah Pengantar” dalam sub-bab buku yang berjudul “Analisis Wacana: Dari Linguistik Sampai Dekonstruksi” terbitan tahun 2002, Melani Budianta memaparkan kontribusi aspek feminism terhadap praktek-praktek diskursif, yakni wacana.

Dalam konteks Barat, khususnya Amerika Serikat, Julia Kristeva mengkategorikan tiga fase feminis; Feminisme Liberal yang memperjuangkan kesetaraan hak, fase Feminisme Radikal yang menolak tatanan simbolik yang didominasi pria demi mengukuhkan perbedaan itu sendiri, dan fase Feminis Ketiga yang menggoyahkan dikotomi antara maskulin dan feminin. Ketiga fase ini mempengaruhi bidang sastra yang dapat dikelompokkan atas sumbangan pemikirnya dari latar belakang budaya dan negara yang berbeda, seperti feminism Amerika, Inggris, dan Prancis yang memiliki “warna” yang distingtif. Pendekatan feminis dari masing-masing negara itupun sangat majemuk baik dalam metode maupun penekanan, dengan mengambil landasan teori sastra dari New Criticism, strukturalisme, psikoanalisis, dan teori-teori post-struktural, termasuk post-kolonial. Pada intinya, pendekatan feminis merupakan suatu kritik ideologis atas perspektif yang mengalienasi masalah ketimpangan dan ketidak-adilan dalam pemberian peran dan identitas sosial berdasarkan perbedaan jenis kelamin.

Konsep Dasar:

1. Gender dan Jenis Kelamin

Secara umum gender dapat didefinisikan sebagai pembedaan-pembedaan yang bersifat sosial yang dikenakan atas perbedaan-perbedaan biologis yang ada antara jenis-jenis kelamin. Jadi, bisa dilihat di sini dikotomi gender merupakan sebuah konstruksi sosial.

2. Esensialisme dan Konstruksi Sosial

Terkait dengan poin pertama, perspektif tersebut otomatis bertentangan dengan esensialisme; cara berpikir yang mengaitkan segala sifat-sifat yang ada pada suatu hal dengan esensi atau hakikat yang secara absolut ada pada diri hal tersebut. Esensialisme menganggap bahwa bahwa ada suatu sifat-sifat yang melekat pada hakikat diri perempuan maupun laki-laki secara umum. Perspekif esensialis terlihat dalam penggunaan istilah “kodrat” atau “takdir” yang seringkali dipakai dalam diskursi normatif (agama, moral-etika) untuk memberikan pembenaraan yang dianggap sacral dan tidak dapat diganggu gugat atas pembedaan-pembedaan yang sebetulnya merupakan konstruksi sosial.

3. Patriarki dan Falogosentrisme

Patriarki didefinisikan sebagai sistem yang melalui berbagai macam tatanan sosial, ekonomi, dan politik memberikan prioritas dan kekuasaan bagi laki-laki. Falosentrisme didefinisikan sebagai kecendrungan memakai sudut pandang lakilaki sebagai referensi untuk memandang kehidupan dan mendefinisikan segala sesuatu. Dicetuskan oleh Jacques Derrida, falogosentrisme adalah gabungan dari falosentrisme dan logosentrisme (ideology yang memprioritaskan kestabilan makna didukung oleh rasionalitas manusia dan penekanan bahasa lisan). Jadi, falogosentrisme adalah pola pikiran dan bahasa dalam sistem patriarki.

4. Wacana, Representasi, dan Resistensi

Wacana, sebagai medium untuk menyuarakan dan mengaktualisasikan pengetahuan, secara langsung atau tidak langsung menghasilkan kekuasaan beserta resistensinya. Dalam kaitannya dengan wacana inilah, para feminis memberikan penekanan terhadap peran berbagai produk budaya lainnya dengan melakukan “representasi” atau konstruksi imaji-imaji atau pengemasan fakta dalam bentuk visual dan verbal, yang menyiratkan makna dan ideology tertentu. Kajian-kajian feminis menyorot bagaimana media masaa mengkonstruksi berbagai stereotype tentang perempuan sekaligus mempelajari bagaimana teks-teks tertentu melakukan resistensi terhadap ideology falosentris yang dominan.

5. Feminisme, Pendekatan Ras/Gender, dan Postkolonial

Penekanan terhadap masalah konstruksi identitas dalam teori post-kolonial banyak memberikan inspirasi kepada para feminis untuk melihat hibridisasi konstruksi ras/etnisitas dengan permasalahan gender. Hal ini bisa dilihat melalui adanya isu gender yang bervariasi di beberapa wilayah yang berbeda, seperti perempuan di negara dunia ketiga. Di satu pihak, sebagai wilayah yang dijajah oleh Barat, perempuan mengalami penindasan yang paling berat karena ia menjadi objek seksual eksotis dari Barat, dan di sisi lain mengalami penindasan dan mendapatkan kedudukan subordinatif oleh “laki-laki” dalam sistem patriarki bangsanya sendiri. Pendekatan feminis post-kolonial menyorot permasalahan ini dari berbagai arah dan sudut pandang, termasuk persoalan subjektifitas dan identitas budaya yang kompleks.

6. Penerapan: Kritik Feminis atas Pembacaan Dominan

Salah satu pendekatan yang sering dilakukan oleh kajian feminis adalah melakukan “pembacaan ulang” terhadap teks-teks yang selama ini telah diberi makna dalam kerangka pikiran falosentris. Pembacaan ulang ini bisa mendekonstruksi ideologi falosentris (seksisme) dalam teks, atau menunjukkan perlawanan yang tersembunyu di balik teks itu.

 

Sumber:

Budianta, Melani. (2002 ). Pendekatan Feminis Terhadap Wacana: Sebuah Pengantar. In I. D. Aminuddin, Analisis Wacana: Dari Linguistik Sampai Dekonstruksi (pp. 199-217). Yogyakarta: Kanal.

Peny Rahmadhani: Life is An Adventure, and Investigative Journalism is One of The Thrilling Ways to Prove It

Focused, determined, and adventurous: they are definitely the three words that best describe the self-challenged student of University of Indonesia Peny Rahmadhani, affectionally called as ”Peny”. Once given a simple but significant question regarding her future life “what do you want to be?”, resolutely she answered, “I want to be a devoted investigative journalist”.

Being a female investigative journalist is not the most common dream, especially for female students majoring English literature like Peny. However, for this 20-year old young woman, she has her own reasons for choosing investigative journalist’s path in the future. “I always think that being investigative journalist is really invigorating and dignified. There are lots of things needed to be developed as I manage to be an investigative journalist such as general knowledge, analytical thinking, and exploratory skill”, says Peny in the middle of our fascinating conversation on March 1 2011.

Her statement is completely true since investigative journalism is one of the most interesting and exigent branches of journalisms, and at the same time, it is the most-needed journalist in Indonesia. An investigative journalist is demanded to cover political violation, corruption crime, and corporate illegal activities and later to be deeply inspected. Not only that, to make a report, an investigative journalist needs to spend months or even years for researching and scrutinizing the cases. “This is because the main purpose of an investigative journalist is simply but significantly to reveal the truth to the society, which I believe as one thing remained concealed in our country” she says.

Peny also realizes that being an investigative journalist will require totality and perseverance. “To provide an investigative report means that you need to put high accuracy and meticulousness. This is important because what you are going to write will guide public opinions towards certain ideologies and phenomena. For me, here is the most captivating point of this profession, the facts that you maintain to educate people through you writings and make them informatively literate of what happen to our country and international world, as well as the truths beneath them” explains Peny.

As a student of English Literature in her third year, Peny has managed to have excellent academic and social performances. Her perfectionism and determination in doing her activities have brought her to have a considerable and important position in Suara Mahasiswa, the one and the only press institution in her campus, as Marketing Manager and Editorial Staff. She learns a lot from this institution and it makes her even more interested and determined to achieve her career goal as an influential person in Indonesia’s journalisms.

Personally speaking, undoubtedly this young woman, who was once being a young drummer during her middle and high schools, conforms most of the requirements for being a competent investigative journalist. Her independency and adventurousness will greatly help her in investigating and exploring piles of cases. Her intelligence, personal maturity, and fortitude assure us that she is able to provide and constructing excellent and worth-reading articles and reports. Nevertheless, Peny never stops learning and keep on improving her academic, social, and communication skills. “I believe to be an investigative journalist, you also need to see one thing from various perspectives and try not to depend on one absolution or certain perspective. An absolution will only lead you to destruction and dependency to one theory will only cause you to be alienated from this world” she says.

When being asked about her favorite figure in Indonesia’s investigative journalism, she enthusiastically answered “Dandy Dwilaksono” with hands showing Dwilaksono’s newest journalism book entitled “Jurnalisme Investigasi”. “Initially from RCTI, Dwilaksono holds what it takes to be a real investigative journalist: integrity, responsibility, and credibility. I like his report about the investigation of Illegal TKI (Tenaga Kerja Indonesia) in Malaysia, it is so intriguing”, she says. She hopes that she can be as excellent as Dwilaksono, or even much better than him when she become an investigative journalist in the future.

“The essence of being a journalist is not merely about seeking news under tight datelines and demands. In fact, one investigative report can eliminate one of the biggest gambling transactions in Singapore’s cruise. Can you imagine how many crimes and public depravities that can be revealed if there is fast-growing investigative journalism and increased numbers of investigative journalists in Indonesia? I believe this will be a serious threat and undeniable nightmare for mafia in Indonesia. Therefore, public transparency is highly needed to be actualized in our beloved country”, she says in the closing of our unforgettable and exciting conversation about her expectation, her passion, and investigative journalism.

***

this post is from my journalistic writing class when i have to write a profile article. i choose to write a profile about a close friend of mine in my campus: Peny Rahmadhani.

I Believe in The Good

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
— Marilyn Monroe

the quote above is only an introduction to what im going to write next, that is about my perspective of life

I believe in the good

I believe if I eat butter cake or chocolates and no one sees me, the calories don’t count

I believe if I, at certain times, did not succeed at something, it means I haven’t failed, I just found ways that won’t work, so I need to try harder

I believe if my dreams are big, the facts don’t count

I believe if someone walks out of my life, there will be time for someone better to walk in

I believe if God give me alot of hardships and burdens, it means God also provides me extraordinary heart and stronger back

I believe that life is unfair, but God is fair

I believe there are no stupid people, there are only lazy people

I believe that even if I made mistakes, I am gonna be okay

I believe, with the existence of overwhelming evidences to the contrary and catastrophe, everythings gonna be okay

and I believe that believing everythings gonna be okay will make sense and will make me survive

I just, believe in the good of life

 

 

The Deadliest Sin

In life we are taught seven deadly sins. We all know the big ones: gluttony, pride, lust. But the sin you don’t hear much is anger. Maybe it’s because we think that anger is not that dangerous, or that we can control it. My point is, maybe we don’t give anger enough credits, when it actually can be a lot more dangerous than we think. After all, when it comes to destructive behavior, it did make the top seven. So, what makes anger different from other six deadly sins? It’s pretty simple really. You give in to a sin like envy or sloth, then you’ll only hurt yourself. Try lust or greed, then you’ll only hurt yourself and probably one or two others. But anger? Anger is the worst, it is the mother of all sins. Not only can anger drive you over the edge, when it does, you can take an awful a lot of other people with you. Let’s see, how many criminals happen when people are in the state of anger? How many domestic violences happen when the spouse are in the state of anger? How many peope that you hurt with your offensive and rude words coming out from your mouth when you are angry?

Regarding your credilbility, when you are being cranky, no one like to be around you, you irritate people, ruin your image and hurt people both emotionally and physically because you have a great tendency to be violent when you are angry since you need to release your excessive energy.

So, thinking about the adverse effects of anger, try as much as possible to repress your anger when you are angry. Able to control you anger reflects your intelligence and emotional maturity.

Philosophy of A Pencil

Pencil: it has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

First quality: you are capable of great things, but keep in mind that there is a hand guiding your steps. we call that hand “God”, and He always guides you according to His will

Second quality: at certain times, God needs to stop writing, and use a sharpener. that makes the pencil suffer, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. you too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. this means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice

Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. so, you really need to pay attention to what happening inside you

Fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark and affect your surroundings. so, try to be conscious of that in your every action

Reference: Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho