ABSTRACT
In 2002 I worked with Indonesian colleagues to develop an English coursebook for Indonesian university students. It was a culture-based course, but one which talked about cultures of Asia rather than the cultures traditionally associated with English. This was a controversial approach at the time. In this chapter I first review the reasons behind the development of this culture-based course and then briefly trace the development of ASEAN, with a focus of the developing role of English within ASEAN. I argue that, given that English is now, officially, the sole working language of ASEAN, its role as a regional lingua franca means that the time is now right for a radical review of the way English is taught in Indonesia. Rather than seeing English as a language spoken by native speakers and using native-speaker varieties of English as classroom targets for learners, we now need to see English as a lingua franca and tailor our language courses and teacher professional development courses accordingly. Using arguments presented by many of the authors of this volume, I conclude that the time is now right for Indonesia to move towards an English as a lingua franca approach to English language teaching and learning.
