Presenting on issues in teaching Indonesian as a foreign language

Several IALF teachers have recently presented at conferences which have focused on the teaching of Indonesian as a foreign language.

ASILE

Soetopo Setijono (IALF Jakarta), Dian Wijayanti and Reny Mulyaningsih (IALF Bali) presented papers at the Australian Society of Indonesian Language Educators (ASILE) conference in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

The conference was officially opened by the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, H.E. Teuku Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb, who addressed the issue of Australia Indonesia relations and the importance of teaching and learning Indonesian language and culture in Australia. The theme of the conference was Indonesian Language Teaching in the Age of Uncertainty. It focussed on the challenges that Indonesian educators face related to sensationalist media reports, terrorism issues, natural disasters in Indonesia and also the complex political relations between both countries. The conference was a great opportunity for Indonesian language educators in both Australia and Indonesia to meet and share ideas. At the final plenary session the participants discussed ways to enhance Indonesia’s image. Ideas put forward included the need for more positive reviews in the Australian media and a stronger relationship amongst educators in both countries.

Soetopo’s presentation was on Fun with Indonesian. Most of the activities he presented were based on his classroom teaching experience and included the use of various flashcards and pictures. These activities were designed to teach vocabulary and specific sentence structures in more interesting and motivating ways.

Dian also highlighted fun with language teaching. In her presentation she demonstrated communicative activities for the teaching of affixes. These activities included board games, crosswords and pair work as well as group work activities.

Reny presented on using websites for creating teaching materials. She showed some websites that can produce worksheets for teachers at the click of a button. They save time, are simple to use and are effective as well as free - since the users are not charged a fee. Her workshop also gave the participants ideas on how to use these worksheets in the classroom.

An innovation at this conference was the use of online audio-conferencing, the first time ASILE has included this option in its proceedings. This will again be a feature of the next conference which is scheduled for 2009 and is likely to be held in Darwin.

BIPA

At the Teaching Indonesian as a Foreign Language (BIPA) conference held in Jakarta, Joyce Oei, (IALF Bali), was part of a three-person panel where she presented on the topic Teaching Current Affairs Vocabulary through Deconstructing Authentic Reading Materials. Joyce’s presentation generated an interesting discussion related to the appropriate use of authentic materials in the classroom.

Indonesia Australia Language Foundation

IALF Language Centres in Indonesia: