Kang Guru Radio English

Consultative Group Meeting: Kang Guru Radio English (KGRE) recently held its first consultative group meeting. The meeting brought together IALF teachers with expertise and interest in English language teaching resources as well as two ‘champions’ of KGRE. That is, two members of Kang Guru Connection Clubs who regularly use KGRE resources and exploit them for activities at club meetings. The two KGRE champions who attended the meeting were Keyko from English Society Club in Semarang and Fadel from Aloha English Club in Mataram, Lombok. The discussion focused on the three major components of KGRE – the radio program, magazine and website. The group discussed the strengths of each and also made
recommendations regarding improvements. The KGRE team will discuss these recommendations and report back on their implementation at the next meeting, scheduled for July.

With IASTP III mentors: Sue Rodger from KGRE gave a presentation about Kang Guru resources and activities to a group of mentors from the AusAID-funded Indonesia Australia Specialised Training Project III (IASTP), currently studying at IALF Jakarta. The mentors play an important role in IASTP as they are key in the decisions made with regard to training programs conducted and the selection of participants. The mentors often have to work with international consultants in the field so there was a need for them to attend an intensive English course to upgrade their skills. Participants are encouraged to explore ways to continue learning English after the course finishes and KGRE, with its network of Connection Clubs, is an ideal mechanism for this. Sue introduced them to the learning resources KGRE offers and the procedure for establishing a Kang Guru Connection Club. As the mentors come from all over Indonesia, being part of the KGRE Connection Club network will give them ongoing access to their colleagues, as well as helping them maintain their English language skills.

In Madura: In December last year KGRE was invited to attend the opening of two English Language Resource Centres at Pondok Pesantren An-Nuqayah in Guluk Guluk, Madura. These centres were set up under the guidance of Margaret Rollings who was placed in Guluk Guluk for two years as part of the Islamic Schools English Language Project (ISELP), an AusAID funded project managed by Australian Volunteers International (AVI). The resource centres were developed with a grant from the Australian Embassy and Jane Wilkinson from the Embassy was present at the official opening as was Jo Dowling from AVI. The Resource Centres are to support English language learning teaching and activities within the pesantren.

Indonesia Australia Language Foundation

IALF Language Centres in Indonesia: