Introduction

It is widely accepted that the teaching of IFL is becoming increasingly popular among overseas (Australian) students (Kirkpatrick, 1985). With the increasing interest in Indonesian affairs such as economic, political, social and cultural, the demand for in-country IFL courses has also increased significantly. In response to this, university-to-university relations have long been established for the management and implementation of in-country programs, e.g., the Christian University of Satya Wacana, Salatiga with University of Sydney, the University of Nusa Cendana, Kupang with Northern Territory University, Darwin, and IKIP Padang with University of Tasmania.

Although many Indonesian scholars have long been involved in the programs, very few of them actually contribute in the writing and/or production of standard IFL textbooks as teaching resources. Most course books currently available in the market place are written by foreign scholars, e.g. Bahasa Tetanggaku (White, 1990), Kenalilah Bahasa Indonesia (Hibbs et al., 1996), and Suara Siswa (Curriculum Corporation, 1993). It is indeed ironic that Indonesian education institutes conducting in-country IFL courses have to purchase textbooks and references from overseas publishers.

Indonesian language educators may be aware that culture is the "forefront in (IFL) classes right at the beginning" (Valdes, 1990) but there are only a few IFL course books written with a culture-based approach by Indonesian language educators. In-country authors put more emphasis on the teaching of formal rules of Indonesian in their books rather than on communication (See Gusrizal, 1998; Singgih, 1989; and Soebardi, 1988). Although the books contain more accurate grammatical information, they are not immediately applicable for IFL purposes.

Teachers should make an effort in order to incorporate cultural elements in their IFL classes sooner rather than later. The purpose of teaching cultural elements is to raise students' cultural awareness and motivation. In relation to this Riasa (1996) states that:

Being Culturally Tactful in IFL

As far as IFL and culture are concerned Siahaan (1996) indicates that:

Although there might be pros and cons about the cultural aspects of the abovementioned ceremonies, students need to learn about cultural differences, awareness, sensitivity, and tolerance in order to be able to produce culturally appropriate expressions in Indonesian.

A Lesson from Australia

Universities receiving students from their overseas counterparts are rarely involved in designing and marketing the programs. They mainly run courses designed (advised) by their overseas counterparts. And because teachers are more interested in the actual teaching of the programs it is difficult for them to develop material or courses books. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to find good quality course books suitable for classroom purposes written by Indonesian scholars.

In Australia, IFL teachers and students even now have access to CD ROMs and many other teaching materials designed for IFL classes. Course books are published to cater for the different interest of different ages and Indonesian teachers associations have been established to help develop language skills, teaching techniques, and classroom activities.

In Indonesia, however, instead of helping classroom teachers with materials, linguists and language teachers are still arguing about "baku" and "nonbaku" terminology. Even worse, the status of IFL in the national curriculum is not yet clearly identified.

A Cultural Lesson from Australia

Tuan vs. Bapak

'However, tuan rumah' and 'tuan tanah' literally translated as landlord and landowner respectively are two compound words commonly used in everyday communication among Indonesian native speakers. Although 'tuan' in the two compounds means 'owner' there is a cultural explanation in the two expressions. 'Tuan rumah' (owner of the house) stays in the same house with the tenant, he or she may have only one house. On the contrary, 'tuan tanah' is a rich person because he or she has a lot of land.

Indonesian Names: A Balinese Case

The following table outlines the relationship between Balinese names and castes:
 

The table shows that 'Agung' belongs to the second caste while Wayan, Made, Nyoman, and Ketut are used by the common people (Sudra). They are almost never combined with Agung or Ida Bagus. A possible combination would be with Dewa or Gusti. Therefore, Wayan being the first son of Bapak and Ibu Agung is not acceptable in Balinese community in general.

There is a convention that a Balinese name written as I.G.A. Pradnyana will likely be read as I Gusti Agung Pradnyana - a male Balinese of the ruling class family (Ksatrya). And the majority of Balinese people who understand the Balinese caste system would tend to think that I G.A. does not stand for 'I Gede Agus Pradnyana - first son of a Sudra family.

The danger of incomplete information is that students may have an inaccurate conception of Balinese names. And if they applied this in the target culture, it could create embarrassment for them. For the Balinese, discussions about caste system have never been resolved satisfactorily due to different conceptions about the system.

Beranak

Unfortunately, 'beranak' is not just a verb but it also constitutes cultural meaning normally used to refer to animals. Therefore, if Indonesian native speakers said, "Keluarga Sulastri beranak dua" (Hibbs et al, 1996: 106) they were on a bad term with Sulastri. We could be sure that there would be a strong emotion if we heard people say one of the following.

Conclusion

Cultural components need to be handled more carefully because cultural mistakes can create serious offenses. In other words, culture-related mistakes could have more damaging effects to learning than grammar mistakes. Classroom teachers trying to incorporate cultural elements in their lessons should always remind students to be aware of Indonesian cultural diversity.

Teachers need to assist their students to be aware of cultural stereotyping that may not be conducive to their IFL learning. IFL classroom activities should be able to facilitate students to learn to become culturally sensitive people in the future.

Presented at the 5th ASILE (Australian Society of Indonesian Language Educators) Conference, 8-10 July 1999, Australian National University, Canberra.

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