AN EVALUATION OF LANGUAGE POLICY IN A BILINGUAL SCHOOL IN JAMBI: BARRIERS OF USING ENGLISH INSTRUCTION

This study aimed to arrive at an assessment of schools’ language policy by examining elements related to curriculum; learners’ needs, program and course goals, the selection materials and activities, administrators and teachers, and assessment through the collection and analysis qualitative data based on teachers’ perspectives in a Jambi Bilingual School (a pseudonym, henceforth referred to JBS), independent bilingual schools in Jambi. Particularly, the purposes of this study were to explore the implementation of English as a language of instruction in a bilingual school and teachers’ barriers of teaching contents in one private bilingual school in Jambi city. The study was designed as mixed methods research design (qualitative and quantitative design) with a case study approach, and involved demographic background information, questionnaire, documents, and semi- structured and in- depth interview for data collection. The documents were used to find out the comprehensive overview of the bilingual school program while all of the interviews were used to ask participants to narrate their accounts and perspectives on their barriers in using English as the medium of instruction at a micro (classroom) level. Overall, the findings of this study revealed that the successful implementation  of English as a language of instruction in a bilingual school were interrelatedly challenged by several barriers including teacher’s attitudes and ability to use English, language policy, teaching materials, students and teachers’ English proficiency, curriculum, student assessment, and admission policy. Recommendations for further research are also discussed.