Multilingual teaching and learning at Pesantren Schools in Indonesia

Abstract

Pesantren or Islamic boarding schools are the foundation of the indigenous education system of Indonesia. They have roots in a long-standing Hindu-Islamic tradition prioritizing the use of two foreign languages, Arabic and English, besides Indonesian and local languages, both as the medium of instruction in teaching/learning and in daily communication. Thus, this study aims to determine; 1) the approach of multilingual teaching and learning used by language teachers at pesantren; and 2) the implementation of a multilingual teaching approach at pesantren. From a larger study applying multi-method design, this article uses a qualitative descriptive approach. The subjects were a group of 15 language teachers, including 6 English teachers and 9 Arabic teachers at Pesantren IMMIM, Pondok Madinah, and Pesantren Darul Arqam Muhammadiyah Gombara in Makassar who were purposively selected to participate in this study. The instruments used to collect data for the study included observation, interview, and documentation of the language teaching process inside or outside the classroom at the pesantrens. The data were analyzed descriptively through a three-stage model, namely data display, data reduction and data verification/presentation. The researcher showed that; 1) the teachers were not conscious of the approach that they used in multilingual teaching at pesantrens, but the findings of observation show a combination of approaches were used including immersion, transitional approach, dual language, and pullout; 2) The implementation of multilingual teaching at pesantrens consisted of four main specific teaching strategies, namely teacher-student communication, student-student relationships, daily routines, and language-group time activities.