Religious Identity influence on English Language Learning in Pesantren: Policies and Practices

Abstract

Several Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) in Indonesia has applied bilingual to support their ‎education for balancing between science and religion. There are different purposes of English ‎language learning in pesantren such as in English for Daily Communication in Pesantren Modern ‎and General English in Pesantren Salafiyah (Traditional Pesantren). This study examines the ‎impact of religious identity on English language learning within the context of Pesantren Modern. ‎By analyzing the policies and the practices implemented the research aims to provide how religious ‎value and identity shape language acquisition processes. The data was collected through literature ‎research from reviewing academic articles, the policies document, and the practices observation ‎from the related institutions which focus on English language learning and the religious identity ‎effect in pesantren. This research reveals that there are some influences on how the students ‎perceive the English language learning and their motivation on its learning regarding to their point ‎of view of their religious identity. There, it can be suggested that pesantren or similar institutions ‎may consider a new way of learning English language in the specific terms in line with the ‎students’ point of view of their religious identity.

Keywords: Religious identity, English language learning, Pesantren, Policies and practices.‎