Paper Title
Implementing English Curriculum to The 1st Grade of Primary School Students: Foreign Principal’s and Teacher’s Strategies
Abstract
Since English language has exerted strong influence on the modern world, Indonesia educational stakeholders set
up the policy to introduce English for children. Many primary schools in Indonesia including in Aceh Province start to teach
English from the 1st grade of primary school students. This qualitative paper aims to explore how are foreign principal’s and
teacher’s strategies in implementing English Curriculum to the 1st grade of primary school students at Bunga Matahari
International School (BMIS) in Banda Aceh. Another purpose is also to investigate what are the problems in teaching
English to the 1st grade of primary school students. The participants were school principal and one Philippine teacher who
teach English in the primary school. The data gathered by using observation and interview. The results indicated that the
school principal combine the curriculum between national and international curriculum. In addition, the principal held
Teaching English to Speakers of other Language (TESOL) training to train the teachers making lesson plan and improve
teachers’ teaching skills. It is also found that the foreign teacher applied various strategies creatively, used concrete media,
and motivated students to be able to speak English. The foreign teacher was also helped by one Indonesia teacher assistant in
assessing students’ work, managing the class, etc. In teaching English to the 1st grade of primary school students, the teacher
has some problems in explaining certain words because of different native language between the teacher and students,
culture, and students’ needs.
Keywords - English for Children, English Curriculum, Teacher Strategies, Teaching English in Primary School.