Teachers' strategies in using teaching and learning resources to facilitate students' English language learning : a focus in West Sumatran primary schools, Indonesia

This study examined Indonesian teachers' strategies for using English teaching and learning resources in the context of English as a foreign languagean elective subject-as taught in West Sumatran primary schools. The strategies reflected the important role of teachers in facilitating young students' English language learning. This study was considered against a background of critical concerns about teachers' competence, applicability of current teaching methods, and appropriateness of materials used for teaching English, which were central to debates in the context of the 1994 national curriculum system. To identify teachers' strategies, teachers' views on issues of socio-culture, curriculum, and their teaching experience were examined in relation to the ways in which they managed their classrooms. Their students' participation in classroom activities was also examined in relation to the effectiveness of the teachers' strategies. Examining these resource-use strategies could suggest a more comprehensive framework for understanding teachers' decision making, which incorporates contextual factors as well as traditional curriculum and teaching practices. It could also enhance primary school English programs. Study data were based on a questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation sessions, collected over two school terms from March to November 2001, in private and public primary schools in the city of Padang and surrounding cities in West Sumatra province, Indonesia. Of the 147 teachers who responded to the questionnaire, 14 also participated in a number of interviews and classroom observations. The study results indicated that teachers' strategies in teaching English and their use of teaching and learning resources to facilitate students' English language learning reflected the significance of particular aspects of socio-culture, curriculum, and teachers' teaching experiences. The importance of socio-culture was indicated through the teachers' consideration of the students' backgrounds, the contextual background, and their own background. Several curriculum components were emphasised within their teaching. Teachers' teaching experiences were reflected in their application to their resource use of their knowledge of and familiarity with the aspects identified. These aspects were reflected in the ways in which teachers managed classroom teaching and learning activities, as indicated through certain types of teacher talk, classroom interaction, and classroom organisation. The influence of these aspects was also indicated in students' responses to teachers' classroom management. Students' responses reflected their language development and acquisition process, their personalities in classroom interaction, and their learning strategies; and provided insights into how classroom activities and English teaching and learning resources were effectively managed.