The British pub (short for ‘public house’) is not much different from ‘Warung Kopi’ in Indonesia. The only difference is the drinks they serve. The pubs are predominantly for the drinking of beer and spirits. The nearest pub is commonly referred to as ‘the local’ and people who go there are often known as ‘regulars’. The pub is also unique. This is not just because it is characteristically different from bars or cafes in other countries. It is also because it is different from any other public place in Britain itself. Without pubs, Britain would be a less sociable country. The pub is the only indoor place where everybody can comfortably meet others, even strangers, and get into prolonged conversation with them. In most cafes and fast food restaurants, people are expected to drink their coffee and get out. The atmosphere in other places is often rather formal. But pubs, like fast food restaurants, are classless. A pub with forty customers in it would be much noisier than a café or restaurants with the same number of people in it.

The inhabitants of Britain and Ireland have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age. The first inns, in which the weary traveller could obtain refreshment and also ale for sure, began to appear when the Romans established the Roman road network in the country. By the time the Romans left, the beginnings of the modern pub had been established. They became so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one pub per village. Until now, pubs become very popular in Britain.

As with so many other aspects of British life, pubs have become a bit less distinctive in the last few decades. They used to serve almost nothing but beer and sprits. Nowadays, you can get wine, coffee and some hot food at most of them as well. A ‘ploughman’s lunch’ consisting of crusty bread, butter, cheese and pickle is a well-known pub snack. Like other traditional food in pubs, such as ‘shepherd’s pie’, its name evokes traditional rural life. Pubs never use symbols of modernity. Moreover, at one time, it was unusual for women to go to pubs. These days, only a few pubs exist where it is shocking for a woman to enter.

Nonetheless, pubs have preserved their special character. One of their notable aspects is that there is no waiter service. If you want something, you have to go and ask for it at the bar. This may not seem very welcoming and a strange way of making people feel comfortable and relaxed. However, to British people it is certainly this. Being served at a table is discomforting for many people. It makes them feel they have to be on their best attitude. But because in pubs you have to go and fetch your drinks yourself, it is more informal. You may get up and walk around whenever you want – it is like being in your own house. This ‘home from home’ atmosphere is supported by the relationship between customers and those who work in pubs. Unlike in any other eating or drinking place in Britain, the staff are expected to know the regular customers personally, to know what their usual drink is and to have a chat with them when they are not serving someone. It is also helped by the availability of pub games (most typically darts). It probably dates back to the Middle Ages and is an indoor version of archery, using the end of a barrel as the target.

Another notable aspect of pubs is their consistency to the idea of tradition. For instance, each has its own name, proclaimed on a sign hanging outside, always with old-fashioned associations. Many are called by the name of an aristocrat (for example, ‘The Duke of Lancaster’ (one of the most powerful men in the 14^th century)) or after a monarch; others take their names from some traditional occupation (such as ‘The Bricklayer’s Arms’); they often have rural associations (for example, ‘The Sheep Shearers’ or ‘The Bull’). It would certainly be surprising to see a pub called ‘The Computer Programmers’ or “The Ford Escort’. For the same reason, the person who runs a pub is referred to as the ‘landlord’ (he is nearly always a man) – even though he is, in reality, the exact opposite. He is a tenant. Nearly, all pubs are owned by a brewery. The ‘landlord’ is simply employed by the brewery as its manager. But the word is used because it evokes earlier times when all pubs were privately owned ‘inns’ where travellers could find a bed for the night. The few pubs that really are privately owned proudly advertise themselves as ‘free house’. The practical significance of this for the customer is that a much wider variety of beers can usually be found inside.

There are lots of drinks people can enjoy inside a pub. Before 1960s, wine was drunk only by the higher social classes and was associated in most people’s minds with expensive restaurants. Since that time, it has increased enormously in popularity. Beer is still the most popular alcoholic drink. The most popular pub beer is ‘bitter’, which is draught (i.e. from the barrel), has no gas in it and is conventionally, as are all British beers, drunk at room temperature. A sweeter, darker version of bitter is ‘mild’. These beers have a comparatively low alcoholic content. This is one reason why people are able to drink so much of them. In most pubs, several kinds of bottled beer, usually known as ‘ales’, are also available. Beer which has gas in it and is closer to continental varieties is known a ‘lager’. During the 1980s strong lager became popular among some young people. Because these people were used to drinking weaker traditional beer, they sometimes drank too much of it and became aggressive and even violent. They therefore became known as ‘lager louts’. In some pubs, cider is available on draught, and in some parts of Britain, most typically in the English west Country it is this, and not beer, which is the most common pub drink. Shandy is half beer and half fizzy lemonade. It has the reputation of being very good for quenching the thirst.

Most pubs in Britain look old. It is part of their consistency to tradition. Even a newly built pub is often designed to look, inside and out, as if it were several hundred years old. The windows are small because unlike the large plate-glass windows of cafes, they help to make the pub feel homely. It is also difficult to see inside the pub from the outside. The Victorians thought that it was somehow not proper for people to be seen drinking. That is why very few pubs have tables outside. Instead, many have garden at the back. Because children are only allowed inside a pub if the pub has a children’s certificate, a garden can be an important feature for some customers.

Each pub has its own unique way before it closes. Although pubs can now stay open longer than they were allowed to previously, they still have to close at their advertised closing time. Therefore, the traditions of ‘closing time’ still exist. Several phrases are connected with these processes, which are well-known to everybody in the country. A few minutes before the official closing time, the landlord or barman shouts ‘last orders, please’, which means that anybody who wants to buy another drink should do so at once. When closing time arrives, the barman shouts ‘Time, ladies and gentlemen, please’, and, as with his first shout, possibly accompanies this with the ringing of a bell. However, customers do not have to leave immediately. They still have ’drinking-up time’. This is a concept which is recognized in law and is assumed to last about ten minutes.

Abstract
There is a saying that “if you are a foreigner, you will always have a foreign accent,” which often discourages language learners from studying pronunciation seriously. However, based on my experience, I proved myself that although I started learning English pronunciation at the age of twenty, I could manage to master native-like pronunciation by means of listening regularly to English news programme and imitating the announcers’ pronunciation intensively. From this fact, I concluded that every learner in Indonesia can master native-like pronunciation as long as he/she knows some basic knowledge of phonology and gets sufficient native English input and practices intensively.
Key words: pronunciation, phonology, input

1. Introduction
When we are speaking English with other people, the first thing they notice, which can create impression about the quality of our language, is our pronunciation. Good pronunciation should be one of the first things that we learn in English. We can live without advanced vocabulary since we can use simple words to say what we want to say. Moreover, we can live without advanced grammar for we can use simple grammar structures instead. But there is no such thing as simple pronunciation. If we do not have good pronunciation, we have the opposite – bad pronunciation.
The results of bad pronunciation are tragic. Even if we use great vocabulary and grammar, people may simply not understand what we want to say if we do not pronounce the word correctly. For example, if we pronounce sleep, [sləp] and not [sli:p], or if we pronounce ghost [gost] instead of [gəust], native speakers will have serious problems understanding us.
There are some factors which can be addressed as the cause of the EFL learners’ poor pronunciation, such as: (1) teachers who tend to ignore the importance of teaching students with good pronunciation since they think that it is a bit difficult and complicated to teach (Acton 1997, Wang 2005, Jia 2007); (2) the fact that many English sounds are different from those of L1; and (3) clear reflection of the L1 phonological transfer (Ramelan 1994:6, Ohata 2004, Cho 2004, Saito 2007). There are several consonants as pointed out by Ramelan (1994: 6) namely voiced stop consonants /b, d, g/ which are found in both English and Indonesian, but differ in their distributions. In English, those stops occur at utterance initial, medial, and final position such as in the following words: book, ago, sad. In Indonesian, however, they occur only at word initial and medial position, but never at word final position, for instance in the words: beras, kabar. In Indonesian orthography, the letters b, d, g are sometimes found at word final position such as in: sebab, abad, grobag, but they are pronounced as voiceless stops, that is /p/, /t/, /k/ respectively.
There is one possible explanation why most learners find it hard to master English pronunciation. The explanation has its roots in the Critical Period Hypothesis proposed by Eric Lenneberg in 1967. Lenneberg (in Salkind 1985: 35) suggested that one’s first language must be acquired before puberty (about 12 years of age). After puberty, he claimed, neurological changes in the brain make it impossible to fully learn a language. To support his hypothesis, Lenneberg made an experiment involving children who were kept in isolation from others and had no contact with their first language until after puberty. These children kept making basic grammar mistakes, no matter how long they tried to learn the language.
The Critical Period Hypothesis has been generalized to refer to second/foreign language acquisition, leading to statements such as: “If you don’t acquire a second/foreign language before puberty, you will always have problems with some parts of its grammar and pronunciation.” This causes language learners to interpret their flaws as a neurological necessity and discourages them from trying to improve.
However, based on my own experience, it seems that pronunciation skill has more to do with how much input we get than how early we begin learning. Take my example: I was born in Indonesia and started attending English classes at 12. Despite my young age (which, in theory, should have allowed me to learn very quickly), I could not pronounce English words well. After 8 years of attending classes my pronunciation was still poor and I could not discriminate between British and American pronunciation. Finally, at 20, I started taking English seriously — listening to BBC English news program 4-5 times a week for one semester. As a result, since that period of learning, my pronunciation has been nearly as good as native speakers’, especially those from Britain. According to many linguists, I have already past my critical period, but on the contrary, I started making fantastic progress. I was learning faster than I had ever learned as a child. In only six months, I managed to master native-like pronunciation. From the experience, I believe that Indonesian learners can master English pronunciation well as long as they can manage to get good English pronunciation input and tirelessly imitate it.
This paper discusses some steps every Indonesian learner needs to take in order to master native-like pronunciation. These steps include knowing all English phonemes, choosing American or British pronunciation, listening to BBC or CNN International English news programme regularly, and practicing their pronunciation intensively.
2. Some Steps to Master Native-like Pronunciation
A number of researchers and teachers have used several methods to teach pronunciation. (Stenson, Downing, Smith, Smith 1992, Sobkowiak 2005,) use multimedia and automatic speech recognition programmes to teach suprasegmental features of English pronunciation. (Shudong, Higgins, and Shima 2005) employ internet-based support system to improve Japanese English pronunciation. While, the other researchers still rely on the use of minimal pairs (Greer 2004, Luchini 2005, Cohen 2007), phoneme discrimination (Boku 1998), and teaching pronunciation in a communicative way (Murphy 2003: 116) to improve students’ pronunciation. However, the use of computer and internet may in some parts of Indonesia still become something difficult to access. Thus, it would be impossible to use this method to teach students pronunciation. Below I propose a method which seems to be feasible for most Indonesian to apply.
In order to master the English pronunciation, learners have to:
1. know all English phonemes,
2. choose American or British pronunciation (or both),
3. listen to English news programme regularly and practice their pronunciation intensively.
2.1 Knowing All English Phonemes
Knowing all English phonemes is the first important step for English learners. Phonemes, according to Trubetzkoy in Fudge (1973: 51) are the distinctive marks of the configuration of words. Each word must contain as many phonemes, and in such a sequence, as to distinguish itself from any other word. Totally, English has forty eight phonemes which are divided into twelve vowels, eight diphthongs and twenty-four consonants. These phonemes are presented in the following table.
Vowels
No. IPA Word
1. /i:/ neat, seeks, deed, eat
2. /I/ knit, six, did, it
3. /e/ bell, men, fed, shed
4. /æ/ sack, tap, pad, plan
5. / / top, rot, hot, rock
6. /Λ/ truck, rug, mud, cut
7. /o:/ clause, call, law, haul
8. /u/ pull, full, would, could
9. /u:/ pool, fool, wooed, cooed
10. /ə/ away, along, an, ahead
11. /з:/ fur, blur, turn, learn
12. /α:/ arm, father, mother, far

Diphthongs
No. IPA Words
1. /eI/ bail, fade, main, shade
2. /aI/ five, eye, cry, fly
3. /әu/ code, cope, cone, hope
4. /au/ now, out, shout, mouth
5. /eə/ where, air,
6. /Iə/ near, here, clear, fear
7. / I/ boy, toy, joy, join
8. /uə/ poor, cure, tour,

Consonants
No. IPA Words
1. /b/ bad, bore, big, bus
2. /d/ do, dad, deer, desk
3. /f/ find, fuel, fry, fly
4. /g/ great, goal, game, goose
5. /h/ how, hello, hair, hunt
6. /j/ jar, jam, juice, joke
7. /k/ cat, kidney, cute, car
8. /l/ luck, lazy, life, lamp
9. /m/ mop, monkey, moon, milk
10. /n/ net, noon, near, nail
11. /η/ sing, finger, ring, hang
12. /p/ people, pain, pet, proud
13. /r/ rush, rare, run, rent
14. /s/ seal, sit, sun, slim
15. /∫/ shy, shake, shall, shine
16. /t/ tea, time, table, tree
17. /t∫/ check, chin, chair, chain
18. /θ/ thin, thick, think, thank
19. /δ/ this, that, there, them
20. /v/ veil, virus, vest, voice
21. /w/ wet, wire, wool, want
22. /z/ zoo, zinc, zero, zip
23. / / pleasure, measure, vision, treasure
24. /d / jar, gym, jail, juice

Learning the basic phonology will enable us to pronounce our L2 better. A good way to start is to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as shown in the above table, which can be used to represent all the phonemes of English and is therefore a reliable guide to pronunciation. If we take the time to familiarize ourselves with the IPA symbols, the phonemes they represent and how to pronounce them, we will find this knowledge invaluable in our language learning. It is particularly because the IPA is used to indicate pronunciation in some dictionaries and language textbooks. In some cases we may not be able to hear particular phonemes, but we can be sure that we are pronouncing them correctly if we have our tongue, lips and teeth in the necessary positions and if our breath is moving in the right direction.
Instead of the above segmental elements of phonology, we also have to know about its suprasegmental elements, which cover word stress, rhythm, and intonation. According to Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994: 38-9), word stress is the characteristics patterning different syllables in a word. There are some differences between word stress in Finnish, Czech, Polish, Spanish, and English. In Finnish and Czech it is always the first syllable in a word which receives the main stress, while in Polish it is the last one. In the case of Spanish the rule is somewhat more detailed but still very general: stress the penultimate syllable of the word ends in a vowel, /-n/, or /s/; otherwise stress the last syllable. While, word-stress in English is fixed in the sense that every word has its ‘own’ stress pattern, which is an important part of its identity (together with its characteristic sounds and its meaning) Dalton and Seidlhofer (1994: 38-9). Moreover, (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin 1996: 152) add that the word and sentence stress combine to create the rhythm of an English utterance – that is, the regular, patterned beat of stressed and unstressed syllables and pauses. This rhythmic pattern is similar to the rhythm of a musical phrase. While, another suprasegmental feature of pronunciation, i.e. intonation, is the entire melodic line, which involves the rising and falling of the voice to various pitch levels during the articulation of an utterance.
2.2 Choosing American or British Pronunciation
The next step after learning the English sounds is choosing to use British or American pronunciation or both. These two types of pronunciation, according to Dalton and Seidlhofer (2001: 5), are called accents since they are regional and/or social varieties which only differ with respect to phonology (sound level). Different kinds of English have different pronunciation. Below is an example taken from an intermediate textbook contrasting British and American English pronunciation.

Interaction 1: Listening/Speaking (Tanka, Most, and Baker) in Bailey (2005: 110)
In order to learn speaking one kind of English, we should learn both of them. In this case, I will use British accent as the example of target study. If we want to speak pure British English and we do not want to have an American accent at all, we should pay attention to American accents. This is based on the fact that in our daily life though we want to speak British English only, we will still hear some American English, too. According to Krashen’s comprehensible input hypothesis (in Alwright and Bailey 1991: 121), “target language data which were understandable but with effort – and were slightly more advanced than the second language learner’s current level of comfortable understanding – would promote learning. In other words, what we hear is the basis for what we speak. This is because of the imitation-skill that we employ when learning pronunciation. Thus, metaphorically, in learning speaking pure British, American input is our hindrance and we need to know how to defend against it. One way would be to remove the hindrance from our environment. But this is impossible since we live in Indonesia where there is much American input coming from electronic media. Therefore, we need to be prepared for the constant existence of the hindrance. We must be “immune”. We must be so prepared, so vaccinated, that the existence of the hindrance is harmless. Thus, the only way to solve this problem is that we must be able to recognize it. If we do not see the difference between American input and British input, both kinds will influence our output, via the imitation-skill.
2.3 Listening to English News Programme and Practicing Intensively
The next step after we choose British pronunciation as our target study is enhancing our knowledge about British pronunciation. On the basis of my experience, it’s not so important to spend a lot of time practicing; it’s more important to do it regularly. I find that just starting to pay attention to pronunciation helps me improve a great deal. It is a good idea to try to imitate English words whenever we are listening to British English input. One way that I propose to replace the infeasibility of the access to computer and internet especially in school is to provide students with English channels programmes. Providing these facilities is not expensive. What a school needs to do is just preparing a television equipped with monthly subscribed international television channels. In Indonesia, the cost of the subscription is quite cheap. It is only around one hundred and fifty thousand rupiah per month – a reasonable and affordable price for an abundant of advantages for developing students’ pronunciation. In order to foster students’ pronunciation skill, teacher can assign students to watch BBC World Service or CNN International news programme regularly, for example three to four times a week. Both BBC World Service and CNN International are news programmes from United Kingdom using the standard British pronunciation, namely RP (Received Pronunciation). While watching the news, students should also try to imitate the pronunciation including the movement of the announcers’ lips. After watching the news, students are encouraged to pronounce English words with British pronunciation whenever they are somewhere alone with a little time to spare, e.g. while waiting for the bus, taking a shower, or more importantly when they watch the news programme. Once our mouth and tongue get used to the new sounds, we will not find them difficult at all.
3. Conclusion
Learning how to pronounce a foreign language like a native speaker is difficult but not impossible. The better our pronunciation, the better people will understand us and the easier we will find it to understand them. Some steps we need to do are knowing all English phonemes, choosing American or British pronunciation, listening to BBC or CNN International English news programme regularly, and being diligent and persistent in gaining input on one of type of pronunciation and tirelessly trying pronouncing it whenever and wherever we are.

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Developing vocational education is one of the key successes to decreasing the unemployment rate in Indonesia. Instead of decreasing, our unemployment rate has been increasing each year since the 1997 economic crisis. This is due to the fact that not all workforces graduated from school each year can get jobs in the same year. Vocational school, unlike senior high school, which tends to drive students to be highly-reliant employees, can create creative, skilled and independent entrepreneurs. In vocational school, students are taught procedural knowledge, knowledge about how to do things in a systematical way. This may be contrasted with declarative knowledge, as used in ordinary high school, which might concentrate on theory and abstract conceptual knowledge. Thus, vocational school prepares students for jobs which are based on manual or practical activities, such as engineering, civil work, textile, fishery, tourism, etc. There are two criteria for deciding the success of conducting vocational education, namely in school success and out of school success. The former criterion includes students’ success in completing job-oriented academic requirement; while, the later has to do with students’ success in applying for or creating job in the real
world. Thus, a vocational school conducting a fishery major, for instance, can be labeled successful if it can guide its students to master the knowledge and open their own farm after they graduate.
However, making the vocational education become successful is not easy for there are some requirements which are supposed to be fulfilled. Firstly, dealing with practical work, since the vocational school graduates must have appropriate skills especially in operating machinery and tools, each vocational school must be able to provide its students with practical facilities which resemble the ones used in the real workplaces. More importantly, the facilities must be updated on the basis of the current technology advance. Secondly, with the implementation of the new competence-based curriculum, teachers become one of the most important factors in conducting vocational education. Teachers must not only master vocational major they teach, but they also must be able to deliver materials, which cover three main aspects, such as knowledge, skills and attitude, in every level of competence thoroughly. Teachers have to ensure that all students have already mastered the required competence before they can continue to the next one. Thirdly, instead of providing material and practice to their students, each vocational school must be able to make them aware of their position in the society including what kind of job field is needed by the society, and how to apply the knowledge they get from school in that particular job. This can be done by means of putting them in offices, factories, shops, tourism objects, farms, etc. as trainees. Lastly, all students, no matter from what major they are, must be given training on Information and Communication Technology. This is very much necessary since by means of understanding how to operate computer and to find information in the internet, they can enhance their own knowledge from around the world.
Talking about vocational education in Indonesia does not seem to be complete enough if we do not consider the problem we are facing now. The first problem has to do with the reason why most students go to vocational school instead of senior high school. Vocational school becomes the last choice for students who cannot be accepted in senior high school simply because their
National Examination average grade is lower than any senior high school average grade standard. Consequently, this condition has worsened the image of vocational school for it can only be the only convenient place for slow learners to study. This may result in the low quality of most vocational school graduates. Moreover, there is a tendency that many companies are likely to recruit employee from senior high school graduates rather than vocational school for their quality. The second problem deals with the practical facilities used in most vocational school. The implementation of the new competence-based curriculum is not supported with the provision of modern practical facilities. For instance, how can we expect students taking automotive major be competent enough to repair modern car engine if in their daily practice they can only meet engines built in the eighties or nineties. Furthermore, the availability problem of practical facilities in vocational schools located in remote areas can be more serious than the ones in cities since one vocational school may not be able to provide its students with any kind of practical facilities. The third problem relates to the quality of vocational school graduates. Most of them still find it difficult to get jobs. This is due to the fact that they are not likely able to adjust themselves to the development of science and technology; and they do not have sufficient knowledge and skills in their own majors, so that they have no confidence to apply for or create a job. These are all the problems which badly need to be solved not only by the government but also by the society.
First, dealing with the bad image the vocational school now has, the government should be able to socialize the idea that attending vocational school is one of the best solutions to decrease the unemployment rate in our country since in the school students will be given not only knowledge, but also skills which are beneficial for them to apply for or even create their own job. This socialization must not be given only in television by means of advertisement, but also to teachers especially to those teaching in elementary and junior high school for they are the only ones having capabilities to suggest their students where to study after they graduate from junior high school. Second, the government needs to rearrange
the educational budget in order to improve the quality of our vocational education, which can be afforded by providing all vocational schools in Indonesia with modern practical facilities according to each school’s specialty. For instance, if a vocational school has the specialty in farming, the government must provide it with practical farming facilities which at least resemble the ones used in the recent era. Third, in order to produce high quality graduates, each vocational school must apply the competence-based curriculum thoroughly, which means that students are not allowed to graduate if they have not mastered all competences required in the curriculum. To do this, teacher can collaborate with profession certification organization or competent industrial partner to give test and certification to students before they graduate. More importantly, students’ confidence level to apply for or create a job can be improved through the sufficient provision of Information and Communication Technology training. It means that each vocational school must be provided with computers, networking facilities and also competent instructors who can guide them to make use the technology optimally to support their work. Fourth, having knowledge and skills is not enough if students are never given chance to experience the atmosphere of being involved in a competition. Thus, the government must hold annual knowledge and skills competition for vocational school students. This competition must accommodate all majors available in all vocational schools. Though it takes lots of time and fund, all the suggestions above are to be done by the government in order to break the tradition placing the vocational school as the second choice after senior high school for most junior high school graduates in Indonesia.
Realizing the main purpose of vocational education which is preparing students to be able to work after they graduate, each vocational school needs to consider the importance of having cooperation with industrial parties. It is very necessary since although not all graduates will work in industrial sectors, they need to know how an industry works and is managed. In this cooperation, both school and industrial party have an obligation to design curriculum, to conduct the teaching-learning process and to evaluate the students’ competence. Thus, in the
future, students will have two places to study, in the school and in the industry. In the school, students learn theories from teachers or instructors; and this process is mainly funded by the government. While, in the industry, students are given chance to practice the theory they get from school; and this activities is mainly funded by the industry. Moreover, with this cooperation, each student will have a chance to work in the same industry after graduation. To accommodate students who might have no chance to get a job in industrial areas, each vocational school has to provide students with entrepreneurship education. Through entrepreneurship education, students are taught how to be responsible, enterprising individuals who will become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers by means of immersing them in real life learning experiences where they can take risks, manage the results, and learn from the outcomes. Students will also learn organizational skills, including time management, leadership development and interpersonal skills, all of which are highly transferable skills sought by employers. The example of real life form of entrepreneurship education can be asking students to sell goods in a market or offering a service to customers with the target competence of getting profit as much as they can without any trickery. Entrepreneurship education should be taught to students since the very beginning they enter a vocational school. Thus, later when they graduate from vocational school, they can be an independent entrepreneur who can find a business chance and develop it so that it will be financially beneficial to them and other people. Having cooperation with industrial parties and providing students with entrepreneurship education are another two important things in order to develop vocational education in Indonesia.

1. Introduction
Education is an important part of life which differentiates human being with other creatures. If animals’ learning is mainly determined by their instinct, human beings’ is devised by their intelligent mind directed to a maturity stage in order to get a meaningful life. Children get education from their parents and when they have already been grown up and can manage a family, they will also educate their children as their parents did.
Since not all countries have the same characteristics in terms of their societies and cultures, it is very necessary to develop an educational design which fits to the condition of the country in which the education is held. This paper will propose an educational design, namely Montessori Preschool, which has Indonesian characteristics by reviewing six main foundations of education, i.e. law, historical, social and cultural, psychological, economical, and philosophical foundation.
2. Educational Foundation
2.1 Law Foundation
There are two basic law foundations dealing with education in Indonesia. These two foundations are the Supreme Law 1945 and the Law No. 2 Year 1989 about National Education
2.1.1 Education according to the Supreme Law 1945
There are two Articles in the Supreme Law Year 1945 concerning about education. They are Article 31 and 32. The former deals with education and the later deals with culture. Article 31 Subsection 1 states that “Every Indonesian has the rights to get education”. While, Subsection 2 states that “Government manages and carries out an educational system. Article 32 of the Supreme Law states that “Government develops national culture based on law.
2.1.2 Law No. 2 Year 1989 about National Education
There are two Articles that will be discussed here, i.e. Article 1 and 27. Article 1 Subsection 2 states that “National education is education which takes its root from national culture which is based on the Five Principles and the Supreme Law Year 1945. This Law obliges education to be based on national education, which will be just called Indonesian culture. This means that all educational theories and practices must not take their roots from any culture but Indonesian. Article 1 Subsection 7 states that “An educator is a society member who devotes herself/himself to the practice of education. According to this subsection, the one having the rights to become an educator is a society member devoting herself/himself to the practice of education. While, an educator according to Article 27 Subsection 2 covers teachers, head or manager of educational institutions, education observers, education developers, librarians, laboratory assistants, and learning source technicians.
2.2 Historical Foundation
History is all kinds of past occurrences or activities which can be constituted by certain concepts. Education had already existed in Indonesia long before it was established in 1945. The education had already practiced since the ancient time, which was then upheld with the influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, until the independence epoch. Below I will review the education system run by Dutch and Japanese government and four main Indonesian education figures.
In Dutch colonization era, there was dualism in education.
1) The main educational system was only intended for Dutch and other European children. This system was complete starting from elementary school until high school. The graduates of this school have the right to pursue higher education in Europe.

2) The secondary educational system was intended for Indonesian children. It was mainly in the level of elementary school and lasted for three to five years. The graduates of this school were used as Dutch colonization government’s employees.
Dutch government began to think about education for Indonesian as the consequence of the emergence of etische politiek in Dutch which was started in 1870. Nevertheless, the etische politiek was implemented by means of considering the economic condition inside and outside Indonesia. At that time, Dutch was in a great economic crisis. In order to fulfill the country’s needs, Dutch managed to exploit Indonesian resources as much as possible. As a result, there was a growing need of employees who could be paid low and could run a number of plantations and factories built at that time. In order to produce these employees, Dutch government established Sekolah Rakyat in 1907. The establishment of this school was intended to produce a great number of trained workers with low cost. In this school, students, who were mostly from aristocrat family, were only taught for three to five years. The teachers were recruited from the graduate who was considered to have good quality.
When the Japanese came to Indonesia in 1942, the education given to Indonesian was mainly intended to provide Japanese with forced labours or romusha and soldiers in order to help Japanese fight against United States and its allies in World War II. Every Indonesian student had to take part in physical and military exercise with strong indoctrination.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that the educational system run by both Dutch and Japanese was used as a tool to fulfill their egoistic needs. Education was given to train Indonesian to be cheap workers only. Education was not seen as every person’s right and could be used to make someone become independent from others.
Nonetheless, within the Dutch colonization era there were four main figures, who at the same time struggled through education. They educated their children and young men through their own institutions to bring back the self-esteem and prestige which were lost because of the Dutch colonization. Those education figures are Mohammad Syafei, Ki Hajar Dewantara, Kyai Haji Ahmad Dahlan, and Budi Utomo.
Mohammad Syafei was the founder of INS school or Indonesisch Nederlandse Skool in West Sumatra in 1926. This school was more knowledgeable by the name of Sekolah Kayutanam because it was established in Kayutanam. The intention of Syafei was to educate children in order to be independent from the Dutch colonization. In order to achieve the goal, he designed his school as follows.
1) The school was in the form of boarding school.
2) Students were given not only theory, but also chances to put the theory into practice.
3) The school provided students with sufficient learning equipment.
4) Students are encouraged to earn money by means of selling their own handicrafts, establishing cooperation, and holding art performance.
The second figure is Ki Hajar Dewantara who established Taman Siswa in Yogyakarta. Dewantara’s educational systems and methods could be summarized into four principles, i.e. Taman Siswa principle, Panca Darma, Mores, and slogans or symbols. Taman Siswa principle was founded in 1922, which consisted of seven patriotic principles to fight against the Dutch colonization, such as:
1) each person has the right to govern himself/herself, which is limited by another people’s interest;
2) each person has the right to think, to develop and to do something;
3) education practice must be based on local culture;
4) every person has the right to get education;
5) every person has to be able to be independent;
6) every person must live in a simple way in order to be able to pay his/her own living cost;
7) what every person does is supposed to be aimed at facilitating children’s development.
Taman Siswa had been successful in creating intelligent and skillful students and establishing some social and educational organization such as Taman Indria (kindergarten school) and Sarjana Wiyata (bachelor school). Moreover, it also had graduated a number of great alumni in Indonesia.
The third figure is Kyai Haji Ahmad Dahlan, who found Islamic Religion Organization in 1912 in Yogyakarta, which later became Muhammadiyah education. Muhammadiyah education mostly concentrated on the teaching of Islam, with some characteristics, such as: having a purpose to create Moslems who have good behaviour, talents, self-confidence, and contribution to the society and country; laying its educational foundation on change in the way of thinking about society, activities, creativity, and optimism. While, the main function of Ahmad Dahlan’s Muhammadiyah are:
1) as an Islamic learning place;
2) as a place for educating and recruiting cadre, which was done systematically and selectively;
3) as a place for organization members to give charity;
4) as a training place for educators
The last figure to discuss is Indonesian scholars’ organization, which is represented by Budi Utomo established in 1908. Budi Utomo was found by Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo.
As a result, many educational institutions were built with various levels and specialties. Moreover, to accommodate Indonesian children who could not afford to enter government school, Budi Utomo also establish several private schools to enliven and preserve sense of nationality and culture among Indonesian.
2.3 Social and Cultural Foundation
Social foundation refers to the relationship between individuals and societies, which means that this aspect had already existed since human being was born. Similar to social foundation, cultural foundation play an important role in education. In fact, there is no education which is not integrated with culture (Pidarta 1997: 31). The materials studied by children are culture, the ways they learn are also culture. Moreover, students come from society and they get informal and formal education from society. Thus, the social life with all its characteristic cultural richness becomes the basis and reference for education. With education, we do not expect any human being who becomes detached from his social environment, but rather human beings who can understand and develop their social lives. Therefore, the educational target, content, and process have to be adjusted with the need, condition, and characteristic of the societies (Sukmadinata 1997: 46).
Every society has its own cultural system which governs life and social pattern of its society member. One of the important aspects in cultural system is values, which arrange the way the society members behave. These values may come from religion, culture, politics, and other life facet.
In line with the growth of a society, the existing values in the society will also develop. This will force the society members to make a change and adjustment to the development demand happening in the society. Thereby, developed educational design ought also to consider and response to the social and cultural development in the society whether it is in the local, national, or global context.

2.4 Psychological Foundation
Basically, the psychological foundation emphasizes on how input and output process of education can run well without disregarding behavioral aspect and individual personality. Psychologically, human being is unique individual. Thereby, psychological study in development of educational design should properly pay attention to the uniqueness of each individual whether it deals with his/her intelligence, ability, attitude, motivation, feeling and also other individual characteristics (Hasbullah 2006: 24). Educational curriculum should provide opportunity to each individual to be able to develop according to his/her potency. Particularly, in educational context in Indonesia nowadays, the being-developed curriculum is competence based curriculum, which basically emphasizes on the effort to develop knowledge, skill, and basic values which are reflected in the habit of thinking and doing. The habit of thinking and doing consistently and continuously can make someone to become competent, in terms of possessing knowledge, skill, and basic values to do something. Hence, in developing educational design, we should considering the psychological aspects, such as: (1) students’ ability to do something in many contexts; (2) students’ learning experience; (3) learning outcomes; and (4) the standardization of students’ ability.
2.5 Economical Foundation
We know that educational budget in Indonesia is very limited. Therefore, every educational institution must be able to find new fund sources, such as:
1) From the Government in the form of development projects, research competition, students’ scientific papers contests, etc.
2) From cooperation with other institution, whether it is governmental institution, private sector, or industries. This cooperation can be in the form of research projects, public services, and joint developmental projects.

3) Another efforts, for example:
a. performing a stage art which is shown commercially to public,
b. selling students’ handy crafts,
c. making bazaar,
d. running cafeteria,
e. finding permanent donation source,
f. collecting donation,
g. activating parents’ donation in improving educational fund.
2.6 Philosophical Foundation
The rest of this paper will discuss the philosophical foundation of my school and the description of the school including its classroom and curriculum design.
Over a century ago, an educator, writer, and medical doctor by the name of Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) developed a new approach for educating and nurturing young children. As the first female medical doctor in Italy, Dr. Montessori became very involved in the care and education of young children. Dr. Montessori developed her educational philosophy as a result of observations and discoveries she made of the ways in which children learn. She found that they learn in distinctly different ways at different stages of development. Young children, she discovered, have a unique aptitude for learning not found again at any other period of life. Montessori identified this quality as the “absorbent mind.” The young child literally absorbs information from his or her surroundings. During certain periods in this phase of development s/he is more easily able to absorb specific types of learning. Dr. Montessori referred to these as the “sensitive periods.” Acquiring information in this way is a natural and delightful activity for the young child who employs all his senses to investigate his interesting surroundings.
Since the child retains the ability to learn by absorbing until s/he is almost seven years old, Dr. Montessori reasoned that a classroom where s/he could handle the materials that would demonstrate basic educational information could enrich his or her experience. Montessori designed just this kind of classroom, and she called it the “prepared environment.” In this environment everything is scaled to the child’s size; the material is attractive, didactic, and presented in an orderly manner. The materials cover the areas of practical life (care of the person and the environment); sensory awareness; language; mathematics, and cultural subjects (art, music, geography, history and science). In the classroom the environment is the real teacher; the child, the central focus.
From its humble beginning in Italy, Dr. Montessori’s method of teaching continued to gain popularity throughout Europe in the early 1900s and today is practiced all over the world. Maria Montessori was a genius who was ahead of her time. She believed that a child’s mind from birth to six years was different from adults. She saw tremendous need for children to have respectful, stimulating, nurturing, and meaningful direction and guidance during what she called the “absorbent mind stage.”
Contemporary primary education derives its form largely from the pioneering Italian Educator Maria Montessori. It was Montessori who introduced to children’s classrooms such now commonplace accoutrements as child-size tables and chairs, lively colors and developmental learning games. And it was she who first trained teachers to approach early education as a cooperative endeavor in which the kindergarten-age child should be guided but not lectured to or blamed.

3. The Montessori School
3.1 The Classroom
The Montessori classroom includes children of multiple age levels, adults who guide rather than direct, and a wide variety of materials and activities which are structured in a sequential manner to facilitate natural development and to communicate concepts.
The uniqueness of the Montessori classroom is the principle of freedom within limits whilst showing respect for each other and the environment. The classroom is often quieter and calmer than a conventional nursery. Self-discipline is learned through the use of the wonderful activities available every day. Re-direction to purposeful activities which meet a need of that child and inspires him to intense concentration virtually eliminates the need for outward discipline.
3.2 The Activities
Each child, at any time, selects individual activities which interest and engage them. They are free to work at their own pace either alone or with others, for as long as they like. One of Dr Montessori’s basic tenets is to never interrupt a child who is working well, concentrating and enjoying his activity. To disturb the child is stopping the child from ever increasing his attention span.
The activities a two-to-four year old chooses will help to develop concentration, co-ordination, self-discipline and good working habits, which are needed for the more advanced activities of the four-to-five year old. The classroom is specially prepared to ensure that each child is challenged with fun, aesthetically pleasing, and enriched activities.
3.3 The Teacher
Part of the Directress’s (teacher) role is to see that the child is happy, nurtured, and that the environment is meeting the child’s needs. Through her observations of the child, she can determine which new activities and materials may be introduced to an individual child or to a small or large group. The aim is to encourage active, self-directed learning. This will foster self-confidence and independence, which will serve children well in the years to come.
3.4 The Multi-age Groups
The multi-age grouping of children aged two-to-five in the nursery, provides a family-like group where learning can take place naturally in an atmosphere of co-operation rather than a competitive environment. More experienced children share what they have learnt whilst reinforcing their own learning. This leader role provides the older children with the opportunity to experience positive leadership and develop a strong sense of responsibility and self worth. Younger children are truly assisted by older children and inspired by their example. Being exposed to more advanced academic work of the older children, younger children experience “indirect lessons” and absorb information not yet presented to them. This peer group learning, intrinsic to Montessori, means that there is often more conversation and language experiences than in the conventional early education settings. Social growth abounds as the children interact with each other on a daily basis whilst learning and at play.
3.5 Low Student to Teacher Ratio
With the advantage of 1 teacher or teachers assistant for every 5 children, the child is not hindered by the progress of other students in the classroom.
3.6 Classroom Design
Classrooms are arranged in study centers, with clusters of student-sized tables and open areas for floor work. Each study center is surrounded by shelves of materials and books pertaining to a particular area such as sensorial, language and mathematics. Children move about the classrooms and choose resources.
3.7 Positive Discipline Policy
Should a teacher find it necessary to intervene when children are interacting they may:
1) Redirect children to a new activity
2) Remove them from the activity
3) Discuss their feelings with other children and adults
4) Ask a child to sit in a chair for a minute or two to gain self-control
3.8 The Curriculum
We apply the Montessori philosophy and method to prepare children for success in formal education, but beyond that for a lifetime of learning and creative thinking. A highly organized, yet individually flexible curriculum allows for the accommodation of varying academic capabilities. The curriculum includes the 6 areas of Montessori education integrated for the total development of your child.
3.8.1 Practical Life
Practical Life exercises motivate and enable children to care for themselves, for others and the environment. Activities include many tasks which children see as part of their every day life: pouring, spooning, sweeping floors, tying shoe laces, buttoning shirts, arranging flowers. Through these and other activities such as transferring objects using tongs, tweezers or a baister, children develop both large and small muscle co-ordination, hand eye co-ordination and how to explore their surroundings. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, develop their will, self discipline and the ultimately achieving total concentration. Elements of social interaction are introduced with the exercises of grace and courtesy and respectful ways of communicating greetings and manners.
3.8.2 Sensorial
This area helps to refine the child’s senses and introduces algebra and geometry. Sensorial materials isolate individual qualities such as colour, size, shape, weight, texture, and sound. It is the indirect preparation for the decimal system.
3.8.3 Language
The language program helps to expand, auditory, speaking and writing language skills. Children are taught sounds of letters through touch, sound and sight. We begin with lots of pre-literacy activities such as matching, sorting, sequencing, categorizing and classifying and learning that words are made up of sounds. We then show what those sounds look like and soon the children are putting the sounds together to build words, and then reading those words back. This phonetic knowledge is the foundation of the Montessori reading and writing program. Children not only learn to read early, but they develop a love of reading which is invaluable to future learning.
3.8.4 Mathematics
Montessori mathematics begins with quantities and numeration which the child learns from handling and manipulating beautifully designed materials. This leads to the fundamentals of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and the understanding of the number system. The child works with concrete objects and eventually moving onto abstract calculations.
3.8.5 Cultural
Cultural education enriches the children’s understanding of all aspects of the world around them especially those of Indonesia. This area introduces the child to many different subjects. It includes knowledge about Tribes, traditional food, dance in Indonesia, Geography, History, Zoology, Botany and Science. Examples of materials covered in Culture are land forms, countries of the world, continents, flags, Tribes, traditional food and dance in Indonesia, elements of nature, current events, living/non-living things, plants and animals, parts of living things, life cycles, seasons, experiments, time measurement and basic physics, Health issues are also introduced such as nutrition, food groups and exercises.
3.8.6 Creativity
Creativity is presented in art, music and movement and extensions of the sensorial and language activities. The art activities change often, usually corresponding to a theme. Music is introduced in 2 ways, one is during circle-time everyday where the children love to sing and move. The other is in music sessions. Role play, play corners and general play are also important facets of creative development. More importantly, children will be made acquainted with Indonesian traditional songs and dances.

References

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Montessori. Available at http://academyforthebrilliantchild.com/?page=montessori [accessed 18/01/09]

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Sukmadinata, N. S. 1997. Pengembangan Kurikum; Teori dan Praktek. Bandung: P.T. Remaja Rosdakarya.

Pidarta, M. 1997. Landasan Kependidikan. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.