Envoys urged to promote Indonesian abroad
JAKARTA (JP): A congress discussing the teaching of the Indonesian language to foreigners concluded yesterday with a call to Indonesian embassies abroad to open centers to teach the language to the local people.
Achadiati Ikram, dean of the school of letters of the University of Indonesia, said Indonesian is taught as an optional subject in schools and universities abroad.
She added that, in teaching the language, a cooperation network among educational institutions is needed because there are so many teaching methods and materials available in relation to the language.
The three-day congress, held at the University of Indonesia campus, stressed the importance of cooperation among institutions to develop teaching materials, methods, research, higher education for both teachers and students, and teachers exchange programs.
Congress participants, including dozens of foreigners who teach the language, agreed that they should meet every five years to exchange experiences and ideas.
The congress reviewed common problems in the teaching of Indonesian to foreigners. About 200 people, representing 77 institutions from 23 countries, took part in the congress.
David Reeve of the University of New South Wales, told The Jakarta Post that Australia, realizing the importance of Indonesia as its closest neighbor, has encouraged the teaching of Indonesian in schools and universities.
The Indonesian language is now taught at 26 of 38 universities in Australia, Reeve said. "In the next few years, at least four more universities will teach the Indonesian language."
However, Indonesian, which ranked as the third-most-popular foreign language in Australia in 1972, has been relegated to seventh place because of the increasing popularity of the Japanese and Chinese languages, Reeve said.
He attributed the decline in popularity to economic factors, including employment. "It's not clear yet, when you study the Indonesian language, what kind of job will you get," he said.
Most Australian students who have studied the Indonesian language have become teachers, journalists or diplomats, he said.
For Indonesian language teachers, increasing the number of students is getting harder because it is not a compulsory subject, he added.
"We really need Indonesian TV materials and so far we haven't been able to get access to them," he said.
Students need audio-visual materials, such as advertising and video clips, Reeve said. "If students could look things from TV, it would teach them, not only about cultural aspects of Indonesia, but also about the body language."
According to Reeve, the dominant method in Australian schools is communicative teaching, where teachers talk for 20 percent of the available time and the rest is used by students. "The important thing is to build up their confidence first," he said.
Anton Moeliono, an Indonesian language professor, said separately that, given the growing interest among foreigners in learning the language, the government should open Indonesian cultural centers, which would offer language instruction, abroad.
"Ideally the government should exploit this growing interest by running language courses in the embassies," he said.
Now is the right moment for the government to export Indonesian language experts to teach the language to foreigners, he added. (05)