Raising Critical Language Awareness through Language Teaching: The Indonesian Context

The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative paradigm of language teaching that is expected to develop students' critical language awareness. The dominance of various public discourses that do not enlighten the public continues in Indonesian society. After "consuming" the dominant discourse generated by Soeharto's New Order regime over 32 years, the Indonesian people are still confronted with many viewpoints that do not enlighten are produced by mass media editors, gender activists, political elites, advertising producers, and religious leaders. People are increasingly perplexed and even frustrated by their inability to comprehend various public discourses. In terms of generating and interpreting public discourse, there are no rights or obligations. Consumers are particularly disadvantaged in the various forms of public communication. Education, particularly language teaching, should be concerned with this condition. Students should be taught critical thinking skills at a young age so that they are sensitive to the use of language that appears "innocent" but is oppressive. Regrettably, the conditions have not been adequately addressed by the designer of Indonesian language teaching (ILT). ILT in the curriculum was implemented in 1984, 1994, 2006, and 2013 using a communicative approach that aims to improve student's communication skills through four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The ILT is still unable to produce students or citizens with critical language awareness, which is required to form a civil society. Students are no longer concerned with the finer points of language use in communication, such as effectiveness, politeness, ideology, and power. To achieve emancipation, a paradigm shift in language teaching is required, as well as the prioritization of critical perspectives in the development of language curriculum. It is appropriate for a nation-state that has been colonized for a long time by other nations, in this case, Indonesia. The spirit of this emancipation can be traced back to the Frankfurt school of sociology, systemic functional linguistics, critical linguistics, and critical discourse studies. The student should be introduced and naturalized to the role and function of language as a semiotic instrument in shaping human culture from the start.