Indonesian as a foreign language

Indonesian as a foreign language

The article Are we ready for IFL teaching? published on Aug.
22, 1998 has highlighted many of the problems of teaching
Indonesian as a foreign language. My experience as a teacher of
IFL in Australia from 1976 to 1996 is that the situation in
Australia may be somewhat different from that in Indonesia. There
are both journals and newsletters published in Australia by
various groups and associations, for example the Indonesian
Cultural Exchange Institute, Victorian Indonesian Language
Teachers Association and Western Australian Indonesian Language
Teachers Association.

Several Australian universities offer Indonesian language and
also language teaching methodology courses. The University of
the Northern Territory offers a master's program in teaching
Indonesian as a foreign language.

There is a national group called Australian Society of
Indonesian Language Educators (ASILE) which is holding a
conference during Easter next year in Canberra. The contact
person is Dr. Virginia Hooker at Australian National University.
At the ASILE conference last year there were several delegates
from Indonesian schools and universities. These conferences have
become the ideal venue of sharing new ideas regarding the
teaching of IFL.

The Australian government supports the teaching of language
other than English (LOTE) and Indonesian is one of the priority
languages being supported. In the Northern Territory, Indonesian
is the most commonly studied LOTE.

Materials to support the teaching of Indonesian are constantly
being developed in Australia, by both the government and by
private publishers. As well as printed materials there are also
CD Rom programs and other computer software being written to
teach Indonesian at both primary and secondary levels.

The future of IFL seems to be secure, at least in Australia,
at present.

MARGARET MOURIK

Jakarta