Do you believe that teaching a foreign language, in this case English, to children is much more difficult than teaching math? We are not talking about urban, private, or international schools where the students are already familiar with English.
Our focus is more on schools in peripheral or remote areas where the environment around them, whether parents, family, friends, or the community is still unfamiliar and unaccustomed to English so they rely entirely on schools to teach children English.
Even more concerning, schools in these peripheral or remote areas still use conventional methods to teach English to students so that the output of students expected from teaching English is not achieved. Have you ever come across a case of someone who studied English for 8 years in school but can't even speak basic English? I think there are many cases like this.
I don't know where the problem is, maybe it's because of the wrong way of learning and the way of teaching that is too conventional, such as full exposure of material from the teacher, too stuck on books, the passive role of students, and limitations in creativity so that it does not provide space for creative exploration and critical thinking from students.
Reflecting on my elementary school experience in a rural area where the environment was also unfamiliar with English, I encountered many cases of my friends who despite 8 years of learning English, they could only say “hello”, “how are you?”, and “I'm fine thank you”. Even my English skills, which arguably still need extra improvement when compared to my college friends, are considered god-level by friends who went to elementary school with me.
The teaching done by the teacher when I was in elementary school was still using conventional methods, teaching was still focused on books without involving student activeness at all.
Students were only asked to do exercises in the book. This was repeated to my younger brother who is currently in the elementary school where I went to school.
Every time my younger sister comes home from school, she always complains about English lessons. It was boring, she didn't understand, and it made her head dizzy. Then every time I tried to test what my sister understood from what had been taught at school, it was completely zonk.
For example, she only knew there was a verb that had to be followed by “s” without understanding how to apply the concept. Even more concerning, it turns out that all of my sister's classmates who often study together at home, also do not understand about it.
Therefore, I think schools in Indonesia, especially in rural areas, should start implementing the PIE teaching method.
