Indonesian Refresher Course for Victorian Teachers in Kuala Lumpur Pak Subagia from IALF Bali recently taught a group of 15 Indonesian teachers from the state of Victoria at the Royale Bintang Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The course was 30 hours long and focused on communicative skills. It also included a session on Bahasa Gaul (non-standard everyday language) as well as some practical cultural activities, such as singing and how to make ketupat. Despite the wide range of the participants’ Indonesian proficiency levels, the participants enjoyed the course and benefited from the range of different activities and materials that catered for their learning needs. The Indonesian Refresher Course was conducted in cooperation with Peterson Travel Service, Kuala Lumpur.

Flying Start published

After three years of writing, piloting and rewriting, the first two books in the series Flying Start have been published. The Flying Start series is based on the 2006 curriculum for English in junior secondary schools in Indonesia. It is designed to help learners take an active approach to learning and to use the language they know. The series – which when complete will consist of 3 Student’s Books and 3 Workbooks – has a multi-level approach that provides practice in all four skills – reading, writing, listening, speaking - while gradually building students’ accuracy and fluency in English.

Many teachers at IALF Bali were involved in the writing and trialling of material for the books. The main members of the writing team were Jeanette Lindsey-Clark, Agnes Shanti Nindyarini and Rahma Diana Sari who worked on the series for over three years, incorporating revisions made to the national curriculum during that time. The publication benefited greatly from the trialling of materials in secondary schools in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali and the feedback provided by teachers was invaluable in refining content and classroom activities.

Flying Start is published by Erlangga Press Indonesia and is available at bookstores throughout Indonesia as well as from the IALF.

Lecture on Pop Culture for Scholarship students

Over 150 AusAID scholarship students currently in pre-departure language training at IALF Jakarta attended a lecture given by Dr Ariel Heryanto on the topic Pop Cultures in Indonesia and Renewed Contest of Identities. Dr Heryanto’s talk focused on how contemporary pop cultures in Indonesia can be a rich site for examining the long-standing contestation of major identities in Indonesia since independence. He noted that while Indonesia has barely recovered from the protracted economic and political crisis that began in 1997, its contemporary cultures (pop or otherwise) have been thriving as never before. He illustrated his points with video clips from popular entertainment programs. There was a lively discussion after the talk with many students asking Dr Heryanto questions concerning the notion of identity in Indonesia.

The talk was organized by the University of Melbourne where Dr Heryanto is Assistant Dean (International) of the Faculty of Arts as well as the Convenor of the Indonesia Program at the Asia Institute. Many of the IALF students were familiar with Dr Heryanto’s opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines, particularly his regular column Asal Usul in the Sunday edition of Kompas newspaper, and appreciated the opportunity to discuss issues with him.

Indonesia Australia Language Foundation IALF Language Centres in Indonesia:
Jakarta Sentra Mulia Building, Ground Floor Jl Rasuna Said Kav X-6 No. 8 Jakarta 12940 Tel. (62-21) 521-3350 Fax (62-21) 521-3349 ialfjkt@ialf.edu	Surabaya Jalan Sumatera No. 49 Surabaya 60281 East Java Tel. (62-31) 502-6400 Fax (62-31) 502-6408 ialfsby@ialf.edu	Bali Jalan Raya Sesetan 190 Denpasar Bali 80223 Tel. (62-361) 225-243 Fax (62-361) 263-509 ialfbali@ialf.edu