INTRODUCING CULTURE: ARE ENGLISH TEACHERS AWARE OF AND PRACTICE IT IN THEIR TEACHING?

by

I.G.A. Lokita Purnamika Utami

Ali saukah

Bambang Yudi Cahyono

Sri Rachmajantie

Email: lokita.purnamika@yahoo.com

English Education Department, Postgraduate program,

Malang State University, Indonesia

Abstract:

Students of EFL are exposed limitedly to English language as well as its culture. Although, in borderless world ‘culture’ could be learned almost anywhere, not limited in the classroom, students’ awareness towards it should be enhanced. This abstract reported the analysis of observation on 6 English teachers’ teaching performance regarding their effort in providing students with effective English teaching (EET). One of the aspects of EET is introducing target language culture in the classroom. The observation revealed that all teachers agreed that introducing the culture of target language is inevitably important. However, only one out of 6 teachers performed a real practice of his awareness of introducing culture in his classes. His introducing culture were inclined to involving or bringing a native speaker of English in his classes. His genuine efforts is a reflection of his awareness of the importance of introducing culture of the foreign language the students trying to learn. 

Keywords: Effective English Teaching, culture, EFL

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The Principles of Need Analysis For EFL Teacher Professional Development in Indonesia

 I.G.A. Lokita Purnamika Utami

Email: lokita.purnamika@yahoo.com

Ganesha University of Education, Singaraja-Bali, Indonesia

Abstract: Teacher professional development is the term for efforts done by teachers to help them improve their professional growth. Literatures on professional development mention there are many types of activities, ranging from the least formal such as professional dialogue to the most formal like attending seminar.. Recent literatures call these activities as Continuous Professional Development based on the belief that it should be done continuously as long as their teacher carrier. For Indonesian EFL context, Cahyono (2010) mentions there are some options to develop Indonesian English teacher’s professionalism: sending teachers to graduate program in English Language education, assigning teacher’s to join in-service teachers’ certification, sending teachers to the Education and Training for Teacher profession Program, and building teachers’ awareness of the importance of continuous improvement learning. However, not all teachers are willing to be actively involved in these activities because of some reasons. One of the reasons is the gap between teachers’ needs and what the program offers. Research on teacher PD in Indonesia show that there are many PD providers for teachers, however, they sometime offer programs which are irrelevant to teachers’ needs. Ideally, PD planner should do a need analysis before administering the program. As what expected in the law of teacher and lecturer no 14 of 2005, professional teacher are those who master the four competences namely professional, pedagogical, personal and social competences. In relation with this, this article highlights PD needs based on these four competences within the proposed principles of EFL teacher professional development need analysis in Indonesia. Besides, this article presents a draft of blueprint for the need analysis instrument.

Key words: Professional Development, EFL teachers, Need Analysis

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