Discussion Text

Should Government Erase English Subject from Elementary School Curriculum?

By: Sapta Abimanyu

Bahasa Indonesia use has been decreasing in last few decades. Indonesian people, especially young generations prefer not to use Bahasa Indonesia but ironically they prefer to use Bahasa Gaul or even English in their life. As we know, English is one of subjects in elementary school. Government assumes that English interferes Bahasa Indonesia learning in elementary school and causes elementary school students who are part of young generation prefer not to use Bahasa Indonesia. Government believes that English subject must be erased from the elementary school curriculum to make sure Bahasa Indonesia learning becomes more effective.

English in elementary school is only a subject. It’s not used as a teaching-learning language. English doesn’t interfere Bahasa Indonesia learning because elementary school students learn English like they learn Math, Civics, and other subjects. It’s different with Bahasa Indonesia which becomes a subject plus teaching-learning language.

The reason why elementary school students are difficult to learn Bahasa Indonesia is probably because the content of Bahasa Indonesia subject is too complex. For example, they have to learn Bahasa Indonesia structure like S P O K in elementary school. It becomes problematic because they usually use informal Bahasa Indonesia and children age in elementary school is not a good age to learn about sentence structure.

English learning, however, can increase the acquisition of Bahasa Indonesia for elementary school students by comparing some simple aspects of those two different languages e.g. comparing “kata serapan” from English to Bahasa Indonesia in order to enrich Bahasa Indonesia vocabulary.

The Golden Necklace

Once upon a time there lived a small family in a countryside. The family consisted of a Papa, Mama, and an eight-years-old girl named Dhiona. Mama got an eye cancer and Dhiona got a blindness since she was born.  Papa worked as a farmer while Mama was only a housewife. Dhiona didn’t go to school. She usually helped her mother by going to a river to wash her family clothes and finding tree branches in a forest to cook.

One day, Mama experienced complication of her eye cancer. Her condition was getting worse. Her eyes produced much pus and her body looked so skinny and pale. Papa and Dhiona who were there tried to clean her face from the pus. Papa said, “I want to go outside to find a help. Stay here until I come back.” Mama held Dhiona’s hands and loudly said, “Wait! You don’t have to find a help. I think my death is getting closer and closer. Just stay here and accompany me in these last seconds of my life.” Mama took a small red box from her pocket and said, “Dhiona, this is a golden necklace given by your grandmother to me. Now I want you to have it. Keep it and never sell it to anyone. Use it only for a goodness.” Mama died. Papa and Dhiona was crying hysterically. Then, Mama was buried near grandmother’s grave.

Two years later, in the afternoon Dhiona went to the river for washing the clothes. Suddenly, she heard someone’s screaming. She stopped her footstep and tried to find where the sound came from. She approached the sound and asked, “Who are you? What happen?” The person who screamed said, “I’m an old woman. I’m here with my son. He is unconscious. I want to go to a doctor but nobody can help me. May you help me, please?” Dhiona answered, “Yes, with my pleasure.” Dhiona guided the old woman to the north side of the countryside. “Here is the nearest street from a doctor’s house. If I’m not mistaken you have to go straight until you find an intersection, then turn right and you’ll find the doctor’s house.” Dhiona opened the key lock of her necklace and said, “Bring it. Perhaps it can help you.” The old woman replied, “Thank you very much pretty girl. May God reply what you do today.” Dhiona went back to the river and continued washing.

In a cloudy and stormy evening, she went home. The rain fell when Dhiona was on her way home.  The rain water made her become wet and suddenly it got into her eyes. Surprisingly, she could see. She was silent for a while and thought about what happened. She ran to her house to inform Papa that she was not blind anymore. She knocked the door and screamed, “Papa, please opened the door! I have an amazing news for you.” Papa opened the door and he was shocked knowing that his lovely daughter was not blind anymore. He hugged her daughter and said, “Thanks God for your grace and bless.” After that, Dhiona told what happened on that day.

The next day, Papa wanted to cut an old apple tree behind the house and dig the soil under the tree to make a well. When Papa had just exited from the house, Dhiona said, “Papa, wait. Would you mind if I help you? I want to help you during my lifetime, moreover I can see the world now.” Papa replied, “Okay. Let’s go my lovely daughter.” Papa and Dhiona went to the backyard.

They started cutting the tree. After that, Papa dig the soil with a hoe. Suddenly, Papa stopped digging because there was a hard thing that made the hoe broken. They found out what the thing was. Apparently, it was an antique big case. “What is this, Papa?” Dhiona asked. “I don’t know exactly. Let’s open it to know.” They opened the case. They were shocked knowing that the content of the case was all golden. Dhiona got more shocked knowing that the necklace from her Mama was there. “I remember what the old woman said” Dhiona said to Papa.

They sold all the golden and became rich. Dhiona went to school and their farm became bigger and bigger. They lived happily ever after. 

Copyright by : Sapta Abimanyu

Introduction to Linguistics #1

Linguistics :  Scientific study of language.
Linguistics should be empirical, exact, and objective.

Canons of Linguistics as A Scientific Study :

1. Exhaustiveness = the adequate treatment of all the relevant material.
2. Consistency = the absence of contradiction between different parts of the total statement.
3. Economy = a shorter statement or analysis employing fewer terms is to be preferred to one that is longer or more involved.

Branches of Linguistics :

1. General Linguistics
2. Descriptive Linguistics
3. Historical Linguistics
4. Comparative Linguistics

Approaches to Linguistics

It's I     - prescriptive - what people should say (grammatically)
It's me - descriptive   - what people really say

The Range of General Linguistics

1. Level of Analysis : phonology, morphology, syntax.
2. Language and Communication : definition and origin of language.
3. Phonetics, Phonology, Grammar, and Semantics.

Example :

Phonological level : #p  → p^h   ~ vowel -- #

Morphological level : practical = practice + al 

Syntactical level : 1. The man I often went fishing with died last night.

                                2. The man whom I often went fishing with died last night.

                                3. The man with whom I often went fishing died last night.