Students’ Perspective toward the Importance of Indonesian Language

and Culture Course

Menik Winiharti

, Wiwik Andreani

English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Student Perspective, Language Course.

Abstract: The presence of the course of Indonesian language and culture in classes nowadays is often questioned. Is it

still important? Is it useful? This paper aims to find out the extent to which the course of Indonesian

language and culture is still considered important to be delivered in the classrooms, especially to college

students majoring in English. Another goal is to know whether the presence of a lecturer is needed since

students can easily search and find information in the internet. A set of questions is distributed to 66 English

department students of semester 2 who take the course of Indonesian language and culture. The main

question is whether Indonesian language and culture delivered in the classroom are still important and

necessary. The analysis is done mainly based on their answers to portray their perspectives on the subject.

The results show that to some extent most students consider that the course is important and the role of a

lecturer in delivering the lecture is also important even though the internet helps them obtain information.

Further implication is that the course of Indonesian language and culture requires a lecturer who is internet

literate and able to use some modes as a tool for teaching and learning activities.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia) is the

national language for all Indonesian people. It is

Indonesia’s formal language which is affirmed

explicitly in 1945 Constitution. For most Indonesian

people nowadays, this language is spoken and used

since their birth date. Moreover, Indonesian

language is one of the compulsory subjects in any

schools in Indonesia, from elementary to high school

levels. It is also compulsory for all students of

college levels as Indonesian Laws (Undang-Undang

Republik Indonesia Nomor 12 Tahun 2012 tentang

Pendidikan Tinggi) (Republic of Indonesia

President, 2012) and Decree of the Director General

of Higher Education (Surat Keputusan Direktur

Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi) have governed

(Rahayu, 2007). However, this does not mean that

the result of high school national examination (UN–

Ujian Nasional) in the course of Bahasa Indonesia is

satisfying. Approximately 7,000 high school

students did not pass the national examination in

2012; it was mostly due to the low scores of

Indonesian language and Mathematics(Akuntono,

2012). With regard to this, Suchendar assumed that

Bahasa Indonesia seems to be regarded as a

language that is difficult to learn (Suchendar, 2012).

Therefore, he suggested that the ministry (of

education and culture) should make a solution so

that the course of Indonesian language becomes

easier to understand. For this matter, Muhadjir (the

2012 Head of Language Development and Society

Center, Agency for Language Development,

Ministry of Education and Culture) said that it is

necessary to refresh the skills of Indonesian

language to all language and non-language teachers.

He pointed out that the revitalized skills would bring

a positive impact in the process of communicative

and effective learning (Akuntono, 2012). This

statement implies that teachers are needed in the

classrooms; they should improve their skills; hence

they can give positive effect in the learning process.

As globalization has spread throughout the

world, Indonesia has become one affected country in

which foreign languages and cultures are quite easy

to enter, not to mention the rapidly growing internet

which influences and makes the world boundless. In

addition, the presence of several social media has

quite influenced the way young people

communicate, especially those who live in big cities.

In this situation, (Sarwono, 2014) states, Indonesian

youth, especially in the cities, are confronted with

Winiharti, M. and Andreani, W.

Students’ Perspective toward the Importance of Indonesian Language and Culture Course.

DOI: 10.5220/0010006500002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 279-283

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

279

the symbols of a variety of identities. Aspects from

foreign cultures are easily integrated, replacing

century old local traditions. The youth are

susceptible to new ideas, norms, values, and

habits/behavior from other cultures. The youth are

perceived as that part of society most likely to

engage in processes of cultural borrowing that are

disruptive of the reproduction of traditional cultural

practices, varying from modes of dress to language

and ideologies.

The statement indicates that the foreign

languages and cultures are quite influencing toward

young people. Then she points out that one factor

which most powerfully disseminates the culture of

young people is media, which can be easily accessed

using electronic devices. The information which

comes from all over the world is easily transported

into the living room (Sarwono, 2014). This

description implies that to some extent foreign

languages and cultures deployed in such media have

influenced young people’s daily activities.

On the other hand, (Wardhani, 2016) concerns

with the existence of local languages in Indonesia.

She points out that to some extent the use of foreign

languages has been developing in Indonesia and it

may influence the local languages’ position. One

worst side effect of this phenomenon, according to

her, is that the local language may begin to extinct.

Then she suggests that “the intensive use of

Indonesian as the national language and English as a

foreign language can be a potential threat to the

extinction of local languages in Indonesia if it is not

managed accordingly.” Her statement implies that

nowadays, a large number of Indonesian people use

Indonesian language much more frequently than

local languages.

If Indonesian language is already extensively

used by Indonesian people, then a question arises: is

it necessary to present and deliver the course of

Indonesian language and culture in the classroom?

This paper aims to find whether the course of

Indonesian language and culture is still important to

be delivered in the classroom, especially for students

majoring in English. It also investigates the role of

the teacher in the classroom, whether her/his

presence is considered necessary since students can

easily find relevant sources through the internet.

This study is significant for Indonesian lecturers

who teach Indonesian language for students at

college level. It is also necessary for those who are

involved in high education curriculum for the

answers can be valuable input.

2 METHODS

The participants of this study are sixty-six students

of second semester majoring in English. These

students take Indonesian language, culture and

society as their compulsory course. They are asked

to answer six questions regarding the importance of

the course, interests in the project assigned, action as

a lecturer, the importance of technology (internet)

and the role of a lecturer.

For each of the questions (except question 4 and

5), the students are firstly provided with two poles of

choices, e.g. unimportant ------ important. They

could answer either in each of the poles or

somewhere between the two poles. Then they are

asked to provide reasons for their choices.

The answers of the questions become the data of

this study. After the data are gathered, they are

analyzed and discussed based on the level of

importance of the course. The reasons or further

explanation of each answer are also discussed.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

There are six questions asked and distributed to the

participants. Based on the answers, the whole results

can be summarized in the following table:

Table 1: Summary of the results (in percentage).

Topics of the

questions

Yes

between

1 Satisfaction on

the English

learning process

satisfied

unsatisfied

2 Importance of

Indonesian

language and

culture course

important

unimportant

3 Interests in

project/assignm

ent

interesting

uninteresting

4 doing

differently as a

teacher

79 do

differently

3 no idea

18 no

difference

5 Important use of

technology

6 Role of lecturer

and technology

in the process of

learning

lecturers

35 both

technology

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

280

In general, the findings suggest that a number of

students consider that the course of Indonesian

language and culture is still important, and they are

still interested in doing the project assigned by their

lecturer. They need to understand their own

language and, culture, therefore, regular classes are

still needed. It is also important to run a regular face-

to-face session in which the attendance of the

lecturer is needed to share ideas, knowledge and

experiences so the students can directly learn from

their lecturer, even though the internet may provide

much information they need.

These findings can be examined in the following

discussion, which is classified based on each

question.

Question 1: How do you feel about your English

learning so far? (not satisfied ----------- satisfied)

Provide reason.

This question is asked because the participants

are of English Department, so that it is important to

begin with this question. The answers can be

examined in the following figure.

Figure 1: Students’ answers on question 1 (in percentage).

Out of 66 participants, 83% think that they are

satisfied since their English learning is useful, that

their skills are improving, they are gaining more

knowledge, able to learn from the lecturers, and the

class is enjoyable. However, 9% of the participants

think that they are unsatisfied. The reasons for this

are that they lack grammar skills and they feel there

is no improvement for their own skills. They also

think that they do not understand some of the

courses and that these courses are quite difficult for

them. In addition, there are 8% of the participants

who doubt whether they are satisfied or unsatisfied.

This is because they have gotten bad scores in some

courses and that some courses are not what they

have expected.

Question 2: How do you think of “Indonesian

language, culture and society” course?

(unimportant ---------- important) Provide reason.

The answers to this question can be portrayed in

the following figure.

Figure 2: Students’ answers on question 2 (in percentage).

From the answers collected, 79% of the

participants think that the course of Indonesian

language, culture and society is important as they

could learn their own culture and country, learn to

raise the value of Indonesia, and develop their

knowledge about Indonesia. They also think that

they should understand their own country first

before learning foreign languages and culture, so

they could introduce and promote Indonesia to other

countries. On the other hand, 8% of the participants

think that this course is unimportant since it is not

English, unrelated to their major, and that they have

already learned the course for more than 6 years.

According to them, what they should learn is a

course which is related to English, e.g. western

culture. In addition, out of 66 participants there are

13% who are not sure whether this course is

important or not. They think that the course is rather

unimportant since they can learn from their parents,

and to understand the culture and society is

sometimes needed. However, a few of this group are

afraid of not knowing their own culture.

Question 3: What do you think of the

assignments/project of the course? (not interesting --

-------- interesting) Provide reason.

The answers to this question can be examined in

figure 3.

Figure 3: Students’ answers on question 3 (in percentage).

At the end of the semester, the students are

assigned to submit a project work which discusses

certain topics. The project must be done in groups.

Out of 66 students, 73% think that the project is

interesting because by doing such project they can

learn and explore more about their own country’s

language, culture and society so their knowledge is

improving. They may find certain cultures unique.

100

Number of

students

(percentage)

Question 2's answers

Important

in between

Unimportant

100

Number of

students

(percentage)

Question 3's answers

Interesting

in between

Students’ Perspective toward the Importance of Indonesian Language and Culture Course

281

The project also makes them think creatively. In

contrast, 16% of the participants think that the

project is not interesting because it is useless, lack of

materials, and they think that it should involve field

study – not merely based on the activities in the

classroom. Additionally, 11% of the participants

could not decide whether the project is interesting or

not. They consider that it is not an exciting task and

to finish the project needs a lot of effort.

Question 4: What would you do differently if you

are the teacher of the course? State your reasons.

The following figure portrays the answers to this

question.

Figure 4: Students’ answers on question 4 (in percentage).

Various answers have been gained for this

question. 79% of the participants would do

differently if they were assigned as a lecturer and

only 3% are not sure of what they would do. In

general, they would do field study for the course so

real examples in the society can be shown directly to

the students. They would also assign their students

to explore several areas in Indonesia and the project

would be of their travelling experience. Various

activities can be done for this course, e.g. visiting

museums or other places in the town, combining

field study and presentation in the classroom, and

creating a cultural event. However, 18% of them

consider that they would do the same with the

lecturers.

Question 5: How do you think we should use

technology/the internet in the course? The students’

answers to this question can be examined in the

following figure.

Figure 5: Students’ answers on question 5 (in

percentage).

This is an open-ended question, so the students

should provide more than one-word answer.

95% of the participants consider that the use of

technology or the internet is required for this course.

They need internet to find more information which

is not discussed in the textbook or in the classroom.

The information in the internet helps them

understand more. The internet also helps them do the

assignment/project. Only 5% of the participants

believe that internet is not truly important since not

all sources and information from the internet are

reliable. To make use of the internet, they should use

it wisely.

Question 6: What/who has helped you a lot in

the learning process and the completion of the

project of the course? (lecturer -----------

technology) Provide reason.

Figure 6 portrays students’ answers to this

question.

Figure 6: Students’ answers on question 6 (in percentage).

Surprisingly, 41% of the participants consider

that the technology has helped them more in the

learning process compared to the lecturers. They

believe that the internet provides more insights and

much more information than the lecturers, while

textbooks are limited. It also helps them complete

the course assignment or project. On the other hand,

24% of the participants feel sure that the presence of

the lecturers in the classroom is needed because they

are more understandable and have wide knowledge

and insights. This group of the participants considers

that they better learn directly from the lecturer since

they have many experiences. Additionally, because

not all sources from the internet are reliable so the

presence of the lecturers is still required. Meanwhile,

35 % of the participants think that they need both

lecturers and technology for this course. It means

that both lecturers and technology play similarly

important roles in this case. They consider that the

lecturer in the classroom provides big picture of the

course, while the internet helps them on the more

detailed information. When the two last results (24%

and 35%) are combined, there will be 59%

100

Number of

students

(percentage)

Question 4's answers

differently

Not sure

Number of

students

(percentage)

Question 6's answers

lecturers

both

technology

100

Number of

students

(percentage)

Question 5's answers

Important

between

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participants who believe that the presence of the

lecturers in the classroom, to some extent, is needed.

4 CONCLUSIONS

There are three main points that this study has

generally found. First, most of the participants

consider that the Indonesian language, culture, and

society course is important. They need to learn and

understand their own country’s language and culture

before they learn foreign languages and cultures,

thus, they can promote Indonesia to other countries.

Second, the study finds that the presence and role of

the lecturers in the classrooms are still needed since

the students can directly learn and gain knowledge

from the experienced ones. Third, the use of

technology (internet) for the learning process is

indeed essential as nearly all the participants believe

it is important to help them gain more information

and knowledge. The interesting one of the findings

is that more than half of the participants believe that

the presence of the lecturers are still needed even

though the students can obtain much information

from the internet.

The significance of the findings on the teaching

and learning process is that the course of Indonesian

language and culture is still required for Indonesian

students in college level. The lecturer is required to

enrich and widen her/his knowledge so that the

students can learn more from her/him. In addition,

the learning process can be held by applying

multimodal approach, i.e. combining classroom

presentation, field study, and use of technology –

internet. Therefore, it implies that the course of

Indonesian language and culture requires a lecturer

who is internet literate and able to use some different

modes for teaching and learning activities.

REFERENCES

Akuntono, I. (2012) ‘Perlu Ada Penyegaran Berbahasa

Indonesia - Kompas’, May.

Rahayu, M. (2007) Bahasa Indonesia di Perguruan

Tinggi: Mata kuliah pengembangan kepribadian.

Jakarta: Grasindo.

Republic of Indonesia President (2012) Undang-Undang

Pendidikan Tinggi. Available at:

http://risbang.ristekdikti.go.id/regulasi/uu-12-

2012.pdf.

Sarwono, S. (2014) ‘Anak Jakarta: A sketch of Indonesian

youth identity’, Wacana, 15(1), pp. 41–65.

Suchendar, R. D. (2012) ‘Anak Muda, Masihkah Antusias

Berbahasa Indonesia_ - Kompas’, December.

Wardhani, L. S. (2016) ‘Local Language in Globalization

Era: Can It Survive?’, in ICON LATERALS. Malang:

Universitas Brawijaya Malang, pp. 417–424. doi:

10.217716/ub.icon.

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