STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING POLICY IN INDONESIA

English is generally regarded as a foreign language in Indonesia. Therefore, the number of people who use English in their daily lives is still relatively small in this country. However, the policy makers have made English one of the main subjects to be taught at school in Indonesia’s curriculum. English has also been included as one of the core subjects which are tested through the National Examination in Indonesia. This study aimed to find out the students’ perception on (1) the importance of having English language skills, (2) the sufficiency of the English language material taught at school for their needs, and (3) the implementation of National Examination to test their English language skills. The data was collected through a questionnaire which was distributed to the students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto, with a total of 297 respondents. The results show that the majority of the students believed that (1) it is important for them to have English language skills, (2) the English language material taught at school is sufficient for their needs, and (3) they approved of the implementation of the National Examination to test their English language skills