1. Do first year middle state-school bilinguals in Banda Aceh achieve better in English Reading comprehension and English text writing than those of monolinguals?
2. Do first year middle state school bilingually-students at bilingual schools in Banda Aceh have better attitudes and behaviours with regard to learning English than those at monolingual schools?
3. What are the attitudes and behaviours of first-year middle state school bilinguals with regard to bilingual and monolingual education in Banda Aceh in terms of learning English?
4. What are first-year middle state school students’ perceptions with regard to their learning of English as a foreign language?
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Significance
The study is important for the following four reasons. One, there have been no previous studies comparing bilingual and monolingual educational outcomes with Aceh data or with any data in a Muslim province of Indonesia. Since the re-building of the education system in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami, the people of Aceh are asking the question about which type of instruction is better and the present study will thus provide data in relation to answering this question.
Two, the study has sufficient sample size and sufficient power in both the control group (N=386) and the experimental group (N=394) to give a definitive answer to the research questions. There are adequate controls and monitoring for extraneous variables such as time-on-task, content taught, English homework given, watching English television after school hours, reading English books after school hours, and after-school English learning. Consequently, the present study has the capacity to provide a comparison result that is credible.
Three, there have been no previous similar studies done with linear,
unidimensional Rasch measures comparing bilingual and monolingual educational outcomes and all known previous studies in other countries comparing bilingual and monolingual educational outcomes have used non-linear scores based on True Score Theory measurement. The present study thus does not only provide good quality data to answer the research questions but it also uses current world’s best measurement practice to produce linear, unidimensional measures of three educational outcomes (English writing, English reading comprehension, and attitudes and behaviour with regard to learning English).
Four, the present study should give direction for some future research into bilingual and monolingual education that should lead to good policy development in Aceh. The present study has clear educational policy implications. If the present study shows that there is a clear advantage in educational outcomes for bilingual or
monolingual education, then this will ‘drive’ further research and provide important information for education decision-makers in Aceh. The present study can be regarded as an important future foundation for the educational system in Aceh on how to lead English teaching and learning in Aceh, especially in bilingual education.
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Limitations
There are four main limitations to the present study. One, strictly, the data and the results only apply to Aceh province and not to any other Muslim provinces in Indonesia. Even though Aceh province has some similarities to other Muslim provinces in Indonesia, there are some substantial differences in other provinces, such as being more secular; these differences may make differences in educational outcomes possible. On the other hand, it might be assumed that the results applicable to Aceh province should be ‘more-or-less’ applicable to other Indonesian provinces, until proven otherwise.
Two, particularly, the results of the present study are not applicable to other Muslim countries because Aceh province has a unique cultural and trading background, and because of the redevelopment of the educational system following the 2004
tsunami. Other Muslim countries, especially in the middle-east, have long histories of Muslim economic development, education and culture that are different from Aceh and their educational systems are different. The differences might make for some
differences in the way that bilingual and monolingual education occurs and hence for differences in educational outcomes.
Three, exclusively, the data for the present study only apply to Year 7 of middle school and not to any other years. The results will be generalizable to other Year 7 students in Aceh, Indonesia, but not to other schooling years in Aceh, Indonesia, because the tests were conducted for the Year 7 students only, not to other schooling years’ students. It might, however, be expected that there will be little differences across other years. If the results are true for Year 7, then they are likely to be true for Years 8-12, but only research can tell.
The reason of choosing the Year 7 (semester 2) students for the study as the respondents was because they were beginners in learning English, and therefore, were assumed to share a similar stating point in learning English, and any experience gained during the study could then be associated with the medium of instruction. Under Curriculum 2006, English is taught as part of the curriculum in Year 7 semester 1. The present study investigated students’ English ability and behaviours with regards to language of instruction. Year 7 (semester 2) students were considered suitable for the
16 study because they were beginners. They just had learned English in that schooling year (Year 7) and just had been learning English for 5 months prior to the study. They shared similar abilities in English and were considered to have a similar novice command in English. Within the two months of participating in the study, the two groups of students (Bilingual and Monolingual) were more likely to experience in-class English learning differently, due to the view that the language of instruction was different. Students learning English in a bilingual program were taught using combined English and Bahasa Indonesian. Students learning English in a Monolingual program were taught with the majority of Bahasa Indonesia and small amount of English. If other year students (for example, Year 8 students) were taken as the respondents of the study, they were not beginners anymore in learning English and the language of instruction might not be the only difference between them in regards to their English ability and
behaviours because they would have had differing relative amounts of English
knowledge and ability, and perhaps very different English learning behaviours. The two month difference between pretest and posttest may not have sufficient effect on them.
The present study used pretests and posttests separated by a two-month period and, while this should be enough time for differences in educational outcomes to occur, it may be that time differences over longer periods such as one or two years would produce larger differences. A problem for larger time-span research is that add-on variables such as after-school differences in time-on-task and after-school differences in exposure to English writing, speaking, reading, and watching television and movies may be just that or they may be due to the bilingual program. It is difficult to administer experiments to determine ‘what causes what’ here.
Four, solely, the data only apply to two English skills, namely, English Writing and English Reading Comprehension and not to the other two English skills, namely, English listening and English speaking. Further research is needed with a similar format and linear measures to determine the result for English listening and speaking.
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