EFL Class for Irregular Migrants at Immigration Detention Center (IDC)

Semarang
Novia Uswatun Hasanah
novialullaby@gmail.com
English Education Department. Graduate Program. Universitas Negeri Semarang

Abstract
This study aimed at describing the English language teaching and learning
process, materials delivered, methods used, and obstacles faced in EFL class for
irregular migrants at IDC Semarang. Irregular migrants mean foreigners without
any legal document or any immigration permit. They came from many countries
with the list of problems commonly the well-founded fear of persecution of their
homeland. They wanted to go to the destination countries to get a better life.
During their waiting time to get a permission to the destination countries, IDC
Semarang and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Semarang with
the vendors provided the educational program that focused on the English
language practice in order to support their needs to be able to communicate in
English. This study used qualitative approach. The data were collected by some
techniques: observation, interview, and documentation. The result of this study
showed these findings: the materials given to the students were vocabulary
building, basic grammar, and reading and speaking practices. The methods used in
the EFL class were audio lingual method, direct method, grammar translation
method, and communicative approaches. The obstacles faced in EFL class were
the unstable number of students with different background knowledge, age,
culture, first language and also the classroom management.
Keywords: EFL class; irregular migrants; materials; methods; obstacles
Introduction
United Nation (UN) convention relating to the Status of Migrants of 1951
stated migrants were people who were outside the country of their nationality or
the place of their habitual residences, which had a well-founded fear of
persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular
social group or political opinion (UNHCR). Migrant and asylum seeker have
become a global problem beside terrorism and climate change, so they were
actually not a new phenomena.
International community started to handle the migrant issues in 1992,
when the League of Nations (LN) appointed Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian and
explorer of continental Europe, as high commissioner for Russian migrant in
Europe. After LN switched to the UN, then it established the International

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Refugee Organization (IRO) with a mandate to protect groups of migrant. At a
later time, IRO then switched to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugee (UNHCR) (Syam, 1998)
The first step done by the UNHCR is conducting a convention. It was the
UN convention in 1951. It was the starting point of the migrant issues’ discussion.
The 1951 convention result mentioned that the definition of migrant is anyone
who is outside of the theritory of their homeland and became migrant before the
event of world war II in Europe before the date of January 1, 1951. The problem
of migrants increased more in the late of 1950s and the early of 1960s. The world
assumed that it is neccessary to extend the time and geographical scope of the
1951 convention. Therefore, in its development, then it is designed and approved
an additional protocol on UN Convention relating to the status of migrants of
1951. That was the 1967 protocol (Riyanto, 2004)
Indonesia is one of the countries that should face the refugees and asylum
seekers who stay in the country. Although Indonesia is not the destination
country, but the geographical condition consequently makes Indonesia become the
last stopover of them before they are going to the destination country, Australia.
Indonesia has not ratified the 1967 Protocol, so Indonesia does not have an
authority to give the refugee status (Afriandi, 2004).
Status determination conducted by UNHCR takes a long time, so it becomes a
new problem for Indonesia in handling the migrants, refugees, and asylum
seekers. Indonesian government with the Ministry of Justice and Human Right
provide a temporary shelter for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers before they
are being returned to their homeland or taking to the destination countries, namely
Rumah Detensi Imigrasi (Rudenim) or Immigration Detention Center (IDC). In
providing the logistical support for migrants, the Indonesian government
cooperates with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Indonesia.
Hartini, Head of IOM Semarang said that there are thirteen IDC in Indonesia now.
IOM Semarang initiated to make a beneficial activities for migrants during
their waiting time of status determination process conducted by UNHCR. One of
the initiations made by IOM is conducting the educational program for the

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migrants. IOM invited some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in
Semarang to take a part of cooperation in providing the useful program for
migrants in IDC Semarang.
Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia (PKBI) Semarang has chosen
as the partner of IOM Semarang in providing the educational program for
migrants. After conducting migrants’ need analysis and long discussion with all
the related partners, included the central java regional office of Ministry of Justice
and Human Right, there are three main programmes chosen: English class for
adult (EFL class), creativity class for children, and handicraft class for women.
From those programmes or classes, it would be interesting activities
happens among the migrants. It also would be a beneficial information for
knowing the language teaching and learning process there. For those reasons, the
researcher regarded the qualitative as the right approach and descriptive as the
right study. Specifically, the researcher decided to investigate the materials given,
methods used, and the obstacles faced in the EFL class in IDC Semarang.
Based on the background of the study above, the researcher formulate the
following problem: What are the materials given, methods used, and the obstacles
faced by the teacher in the EFL class at IDC Semarang?
The scope of this study is the considerations of the teacher for designing a
language teaching and learning process includes the helpful material for migrants
relating to their needs to be able to survive in Indonesia and the target country.
Then, the appropriate methods used by the teacher to deliver the material, and also
the challanges and obstacles faced by the teacher both in their preparation of the
teaching and during the teaching and learning process. The research conducted in
three weeks. Meanwhile, this research is aimed at describing and explaining the
language teaching and learning process happened in the EFL class at IDC
Semarang.
EFL Class
Recognizing the importance of mastering foreign language, in this case
English for the migrants related to their needs to be able to survive in the

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destination country, the EFL class is designed. It is designed by the priciples of
the teaching and learning activities in EFL class as follows.
Alvares and Zelmira noticed some points of the EFL classroom that
available from the post-beginner level to high advanced ones has traditionally
utilized fictional narrative and feature films to promote communicative
competence in the target language. Besides, other courses focused on strictly
grammatical and phonological feature of English and the way in which they
interact in discourse, enabling prospective teachers of English to be aware of how
the language works at the phonological, semantic, grammatical and pragmatics
levels (Alvarez and Zelmira, 2012)
The familiar structural, grammatical or linguistic syllabus is centred
around items such as tenses, articles, singular or plural, complementation and
adverbial forms. The notional syllabus focus on semantic unit, then the functional
syllabus which developed from notional syllabus focuses on the social function of
language. Thus, it is concerned with elements such as invitation, suggestion,
apologies, refusals, etc. (Richard and Rodgers, 2014, p.142)
Thus, based on the explanation above, the principles of designing a
language learning for language learners are needed to be realized in a real context
of the class. Those realizations are shown in a form of materials, approaches and
methods that suitable for language learners.
Methods used in EFL Class
According to Brown, there are three hierarchical elements in foreign
teaching and learning namely approach, method, and technique. Approach is a set
of assumption dealing with nature of language, learning, and teaching. Method
desribed as an overall plans or procedures for systematic presentation of language
based on the selected approach. Besides, a technique defined as the specific
activities manifested in the classroom that were consistent with a method and in a
harmony with the approach as well (Brown, 2001, p.14)
Moreover, Brown stated there are nine of both approaches and methods in
foreign language teaching and learning, they are:

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a. Grammar Translation Method
This method derived from the classical or traditional method of
teaching Greek and Latin. Students learned grammatical rules and
applied those rules by translating sentences between the target
langugae and the native language.
b. Direct Method
The direct method is sometimes called as a natural method. The
students learned about structure or grammatical patterns and eagered to
master vocabulary. They also learned to practice their pronunciation
skill through this method.
c. Reading Approach
Reading is one of methods that will help students to solve their
problem in reading. Students will improve their knowledge and get
something new information because they are demanded to read more
and more.
d. Audio Lingual Method
In applying this method, teacher will drill students some
vocabularies and patterns in order to practice their oral proficiency
such as their pronunciation and their fluency. It is included some
techniques like repetition, inflection, replacement, and restatement.
e. Oral-Situational Approach
This oral-situational refers to the oral approach in situational
language teaching. It focuses on the set of a basic vocabulary as the
basis of language teaching.
f. Cognitive Approach
The term cognitive refers to the mental activity including thinking,
remembering, learning and using language. Through this approach,
students are asked to understand the information of the concept. If they
undertand the connections between concepts, so they can get a better
understanding of it.

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 g. Affective-Humanistic Approach
Humanistic theory underlined the importance of student as a
human beinng and assumed that the affective factor influences the
learning processes.
h. Comprehension-Based Approach
This approach underlined the undertanding of language rather than
speaking ability as the main goal of the language teaching and
learning. It is stated that sometimes the understanding of language
often occurs before the child obtain the ability to express and speak.
So, it is contrast to the one we have known with communicative
approach.
i. Communicative Approach
Celce Murcia one of the well-known figure of language teaching
defined the communicative approach is an approach that emphasizes
interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study. So,
students are asked to have a good interaction with their partner in the
class in order to achieve the language learning (Murcia, 2001, p.13)
From those definition of approaches and methods in language
teaching, it can be concluded that the language teachers can explore
their ability in order to design and arranged a fun and interesting
activities for the language learners.
Materials for EFL Class
Tomlinson has defined material as anything which is used to help teaching
language. The form of teaching material is anything which present or inform
about the language to be learned (Tomlinson, 2003, p.64)
In the case of language learning, there are some elements of language that
must be mastered by the language learner according to Abdul Chaer such as:
phonology that refers to the sound and pronunciation, morphology that refers to
the smallest grammatical unit or well-known as a morphem, syntax that refers to
the hierarchical level of words from the smallest one to the biggest one, and
semantic as the study of meaning (Chaer, 2012, p.100)

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 Thus, it is important to the teacher to integrate the skills in a language
teaching and learning process that cover all the elements of language. The role of
the teacher here is crucial in order to guide the students in their language learning
processes.
Irregular Migrants
UN Convention in 1951 defined the migrants as:
“any person who owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for
reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is
unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the
protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being
outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such
events, is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."
That was the definition of migrants before the event of 1 January 1951.
Then the 1967 Protocol revised the previous definition by changing the sentence
“..as a result of such events occuring before 1 January 1951..” to the sentences
“as a result of such events”. The protocol was also omitted the geographical
border of the implementation of 1951 Convention (UNHCR)
From the definition above, we can see some elements of it such as:
a. Well-founded fear, the fear is based on the realistic fact for instance when
the migrant comes back he will be in a court.
b. Persecution, in this process includes a threat to their life and their
individual freedom or independence. So, it is close to the violation of
human right.
c. Convention grounds, in this case there are some reasons of their fear that
make them afraid to be prosecuted, such as the reasons come from the
religion, tribes, a membership or a different point of view of political
issues. These reasons are generally mentioned in the international
convention.
d. Outside the country of nationality or habitual residence, in this case, the
migrants are not in their nationality areas, but they are going across their

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 nations’ border such as to the closest country or even the far one like what
the Vietnam people did.
e. Unable or unwilling to avail himself of state protection, it means that the
migrants are unwilling to have a protection from their own countries
because of the reasons mentioned before. Besides, their countries also do
not want to gave a protection to them.
From those explanations, it can be known that the term of irregular
migrants mean foreigners without any legal document or any immigration permit.
They came from many countries with the list of problems commonly the well-
founded fear of persecution of their homeland. They wanted to go to the
destination countries to get a better life.
Methodology
The researcher regarded this research as the descriptive research.
Sukmadinata in Metode Penelitian Pendidikan stated a descriptive research is a
research to describe both natural and designed phenomena. This research studies
form, activity, characteristic, change, relation, similarity and differences from
other phenomena. In education, descriptive research describes teaching and
learning activities, and the implementation of the curriculum (Sukmadinata, 2010,
p.34)
The other expert was Arikunto. According to him, descriptive research is non
hypothesis research, so it did not need to formulate hypothesis (Arikunto,1998,
p.74). Other figure, A.Chaedar stated that in conducting descriptive research, the
researcher needs to present not only the fact arrangement but also an
interpretation. Besides, the threat of the descriptive research was on its validity
and incomplete data. To avoide them, A.Chaedar suggested the researcher to
conduct the recorded interview then makes a transcript of it. The data observation
can be recorded through a video and then the researcher can make some notes
from it (Alwasilah, 2002, p.56)
The researcher spent for three weeks for conducting this research. She
investigated the language teaching and learning process happened in the EFL
class at IDC Semarang. IDC Semarang was located at Jl.Hanoman Raya No.10

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Krapyak, Semarang. There were two classes a week, on Monday and Wednesday,
started from 10-12 A.M. The researcher conducted the research from 23 February
to 18 March 2016. The subject of the research were the migrants that joined the
EFL class in IDC Semarang. There were 72 migrants at IDC Semarang, but not all
the people joined the class.
The data were collected from many sources, and conducted by interviewing
some related partners of the related institutions like the public relation of IDC
Semarang, Head of IOM Semarang, and teacher of EFL class. The researcher also
observed and documented the EFL class in IDC Semarang. The data collected
from the interviews then being transcript and interprete. Besides, the activities
during the EFL class were being observed and documented through notes, video
recording, and photograph.
Finding and Discussion
After conducting research through observation, interview, and
documentation, there are some facts shown from the data. They covered the
teaching and learning process in EFL class, the materials given, the methods used
and the obstacles faced by the teacher. The complete explanation would be
described as follows.
EFL Class at IDC Semarang
The EFL class began at 10.00 to 12.00 o’clock. It is located in the
multifunctional room at the first floor of IDC Semarang. It occured two times a
week on every Monday and Wednesday. The total students of the class were
unstable for each day. From the total of 72 migrants, there are usually only 15-20
persons joined the class. The reason why they were not joined the class is because
they were difficult to get up early. The different culture between their homeland
countries to the Indonesia made them still adapted theirselves included the
activities at IDC. Besides, some migrants who felt they were good at English do
not join the class and prefer to do other activities or just looking around the IDC.
Other reason came from the medical staff of IOM, Mr.Dany, he said that the
psychological condition of the migrants that did not get the refugees status
influenced their willingness to join the activities at IDC. Sometimes, the migrants

9
were intentionally not joined the class as the form of their protest to the IDC or
IOM related to their claims or problems.
The teacher usually walked door to door to wake the migrants up and
asked them to join the class. Before entering their dormitories, the teacher
announced the class through the speaker in order to wake them up, but oftenly that
was not enough to wake them up by theirselves. Sometimes, the teacher should
wait for a long time for the coming of the students. Thus, it makes the teaching
and learning process disturbed.
The teacher opened the class by greeting the students and then asked them
to sign the attendance list. Sometimes, the class started by a short conversation
between the teacher and the students. The topic was about the migrants’ activities
outside the class. This means to engage the students and to make a personal
attraction so they did not feel shy or afraid of the teacher. In a special occasion,
the teacher also triggered the students to speak up by stimulate them with the
interesting topic. For instance, at the moment of eid adha or eid al fitr, the students
are asked to tell the tradition of them in their home countries. By doing some
interaction such as a conversation based on the familiar topic, students were also
practice their speaking skill.
Because the students’ background knowledge were different, so the
teacher decided to give the material from the very basic level such as the alphabet
or letter and vocabulary. The special case happened in the EFL class was about
the fact that there was a family that did not know the letter, they only knew the
arabic letter. This condition made the teacher should give a special treatment for
them. Of course, that needed an extra time and energy.
The vocabulary mastery was also stressed in this class, because the first
step to do for the language learners was they have to master vocabulary before
they were going to the next step of learning. In this case, teacher usually used the
realia includes videos or pictures or even the real things as the media of teaching.
The reason why the teacher used the realia as a media of teaching was because the
students will more interest to learn something when the thing is actually there. For
instance, the teacher used the things in the class to teach the topic of ‘things in the

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classroom’. Then the students asked to point out what the teacher said. In this
term, teacher actually tried to apply the total physical response (TPR) technique.
After that, the students also asked to translate into Indonesian language, of course
the teacher has given the translations before. So, the students tried to memorize
the vocabulary and the meaning at the same time.
The EFL class was over at 12.00 o’clock. The teacher closed the class by
giving the students a motivation and reminde them to relearn and practice what
they have learned at that day. Sometimes, the teacher also gave a homework to the
students.
The Materials Given in EFL Class at IDC Semarang
The material was one of crucial point that support the teaching and
learning process. The materials given in the EFL class were set before in lesson
plan. The materials given in EFL class covered vocabulary, grammar, telling
story, daily conversations.
The vocabulary was stressed from the begining because it was the basic
foundation of learning language. At least, the more vocabulary someone master,
the better and easier someone understand the text. Besides, it could help the
migrants in their communication to other.
The grammar was also stressed in EFL class because it was important
thing for migrants to know the use of the tenses. In the practical context in daily
life, the role of grammar was crucial because it represented and carried out the
meaning of language. So, grammar became one of the subjects taught in EFL
class. The basic grammar such as the parts of speech and tenses were introduced
in a simple way, so the material can be understood by the students.
Besides, in order to practice the students’ speaking skill, the teacher also
gave practices in form of conversation and a story. Students were asked to tell the
simple story of their daily life activities and practice some thematic dialogue with
the partner.

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The Methods Used in EFL Class at IDC Semarang
EFL class at IDC Semarang used some methods in delivering the materials
that mentioned before. Those method were audio lingual method, direct method,
grammar translation method, reading method and communicative method.
The teacher used the audio lingual method to practice vocabulary included
the alphabet and number. Teacher also used a video to deliver the material. It
included the song and music, so the students can enjoy the learning process. The
teacher sometimes also used the direct method to teach vocabulary.
The teacher used the reading method to teach a text or a story. It is aimed
at the understanding of the student in order to be able to read a text then by
reading many texts, they can find the difficult words and it forced them to find out
the meaning. Thus, the concrete translation is done here.
The grammar translation method used to teach grammar. The basic
grammar like parts of speech and tenses were introduced through drilling the
pattern and memorizing the pattern. Through this method, students also practiced
their writing skill by trying to arrange and compose the sentence or even a text
corresctly.
The communicative approach used to integrate the students language
skills. For instance, teacher tried to integrate the students’ listening skill and
speaking skill in teaching vocabulary in the topic of things in the classroom using
audio lingual method. Students practiced both listening and speaking skill at the
same time.
The Obstacles Faced in EFL Class at IDC Semarang
Because the member of the class were heterogeneous, it was hard for the
teacher to handle and manage the class. Some obstacles were faced by the teacher
as follow:
a) The other activities of the migrants
There were 72 migrants in IDC Semarang. They were come
from many countries with their family consist of the old people and
sometimes the baby. Besides, some people were coming alone as a
single, without their family. That condition influenced their

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 psychological condition, especially for joining the class. Some of them
were willing to come to the class, but at the same time they had to do
other things such as the mothers, they had to mother their babies, did
the houseworks like cooking, washing clothes, etc.
b) The different ages of the students
The students of EFL class consisted of the various people from
different ages. There were teenagers from 10 – 15 years old, 20s years
old, a mother and father. Sometimes grandpa and grandma were also
come to the class. This become a challenge for the teacher in designing
the teaching and learning activities for the students included arranging
the suitable materials for them. Moreover, teacher should design the
learning activities that not too formal but still serious for catching the
idea of the teaching learning.
c) The students’ different background knowledge
The EFL students came from many countries with the different
life experiences included the educational experiences. Some of them
ever took the school in their homeland, but most of them only entered
the basic or elementary schools. Besides, there were some families that
came from the educated family. Minimally, they have done their senior
high school. In particular case, Pakistan family had a good English
skill. They often helped the other students in the class.
The gap between the students in their level of education and
their background knowledge makes the teaching and learning process
not balance. The students’ different mother tongue became a challange
to te teacher in presenting the material that suitable for them.
Those are the obstacles faced by the teacher in EFL class. It
still needs the participation from each elements related to the EFL
class to make efforts in solving this threats. Each elements of EFL
class whether they are from the stakeholders and the teachers and
students should gather to evaluate the program and then discuss the
best solution for the problems.

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Conclusion
After gaining the data, then doing analysis so there are some conclusions
as follows. The EFL class at IDC Semarang is designed based on the students’
need analysis. So, the teaching and learning process is held based on some
considerations such as the teaching materials and the methods are chosen as the
appropriate one to the students’ needs.
The methods used in the EFL class were audio lingual method, direct
method, grammar translation method, and communicative approaches. The
obstacles faced in EFL class were the unstable number of students with different
background knowledge, age, culture, first language and also the classroom
management.
Thus, the EFL class at IDC Semarang still need to be evaluated and then
improved in many ways. From the elements of language teaching, the teacher
should make an effort in preparing the material, designing the classroom
activities, and making innovation in the taching and learning. The stakeholders of
IOM and IDC should also actively participate in the evaluating and improving
from the another support such as the facility, the coordination to the migrants and
building a good relation among all the elements of intitutions. So, the better EFL
class can be held in the future.

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