Promoting Multicultural Competence among EIL Learners

Currently, economy and social factors underlying practices of international trade, tourism, media, and education trends in Asia have grown very rapidly. The level of multilingualism and polyglossia in Indonesia add potential danger to the teaching of English if the target outcomes of the learning are to have native-like competence. Therefore, this study proposes some basic principles for the teaching of English to promote multicultural competence and awareness of the Englishes among English learners in Indonesia. There are four basic principles namely (1) re-focusing the practice of the English teaching so that the purpose of English teaching in school is not to pass exams; (2) shifting the English teaching approach from teaching English as a foreign language to teaching English as an international language. Thus, the target outcome of the learning should be to have internationally accepted English; (3) the teaching of grammar should be presented as an integral part of a context that supports the understanding of pragmatic content in a particular context for an effective communication to take place; (4) adopting intercultural language learning pedagogy in the learning process.