TEYL: Teaching Through Songs in UNIKA Semarang

June 5, 2006 RELO Assistant Kun Herrini facilitated a one-day workshop on TEYL: Teaching Through Songs in Unika Soegiyapranata Semarang, attended by about 100 students, teachers and lecturers.

Teaming up with Itje Chodidjah, M.A. and accompanied with a skillful organ player, Kun started the workshop by getting the audience sing and express their feelings accordingly. No one was allowed to sit still or be a passive participants. And, good, the crowd agreed.





Teaching young learners using song is always fun, and there are always things you can do. The key word is WILLING to do things: jumping up and down, shaking to the right and to the left, stepping upwards and backwards, and all. Looking for materials is always easy.. click here and there on the internet and ….you get what you want.





Teachers are creative. Given some songs to work for, they came up with various brilliant ideas of the pre-singing, while-singing, and post-singing activities. When the clock struck 4 PM, the time to end the workshop, the audience still asked for more.

What and Why Genre Based Approach – A Practical Look

June 27, it was one of the boldest thing RELO Assistant Kun Herrini did. Giving a talk to about 100 tudents of the Tarbiyah Faculty, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Bandung. Kun was lucky to be accompanied by Itje Chodidjah, MA, an prominent ELT Consultant and Resource Person. They teamed up trying to bring the hot topic for the season: Genre Based Approach – down to earth, to be accessible for the students.



Started with a survey question of what they already knew about GBA, no one answered. The lecturers (5 of them), also said they did not know what it was and that was one of the reasons why holding the seminar. The team went on, using different terms and situations and examples from around the students life.

Kun and Itje witnessed how their eyes went from blank, confused, light up, and finally twinkling, together with the breaking of wide smile on their faces. The hard work or reading so many books, the internet surfing and sleepless nights in preparing was paid.



When finally they stepped down from the stage, Ibu Emy, a Ph.D from Melbourne (her desertation was about Genre Based Approach) who happened to be a lecturer in UPI and was the next speaker, greeted us and said that she never thought GBA could be explained in such simple and humble words, very close to our life.

Preparing Teachers to Enhance Students' Comptence: YSS Bandung

On June 22-24, RELO Damon Anderson and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini facilitated a 3-day worskhop to 27 teachers working for Yayasan Salib Suci, Bandung. The main theme of the workshop was “Preparing the Teachers to Enhance Students Competence”.

The competence of the participants were excellent already, and so it was quite easy to get them discuss and involved in all the activities prepared. Damon and Kun tried to present all the points to consider in the forms of activities, with approaches and techniques the teachers can alsways adapt in the classroom. The underlining points of all are students as the center and lifeskills. To be able to do both, teachers need a skill of adopting, adapting and creating scaffolding for the learners.















Over the farewell lunch on the last day, some teachers mentioned how easy and yet interesting the teaching of English could be and should be. During the 3 days they grew interests in themselves towards the use of English for communication. It was a good start, because when the teachers have a positive attitude towards the subject then it will radiate in their teaching.

Adapting Materials & Enhancing Motivation in Manokwari

June 13-15, 2006, RELO Assistant Kun Herrini and Laurentia Sumarni, a lecturer from Sanata Dharma Unviersity Yogyakarta, teamed up giving a 3-day workshop on Adapting Materials & Enhancing Motivation in Manokwari, Papua.

With diversed attendees: 7 highschool teachers, 6 lecturers of UNIPA Language Center, and 13 non-English lecturers who were preparing themselves to teach their subjects in English, what the team had prepared to present did not match the situation.However, with plan B and C in hands composed on site, the workshop went well.

The 1 set of Books-in-a-Box brought from RELO Center was a great complement to the Adapting Materials session. Lecturers from different departments and faculties came up with brilliant creative ideas in utilizing the collection. For example, the ones from Faculty of Forestry came up with the relationship between environment with climate, culture, lifestyle etc from Children: Just Like Me; and the group from Animal Husbandry came up with a cerative use of the Picture Dictionaries.

The Second Day was more on Motivating the Unmotivated students. The VCD of Jeremy Harmer giving presentation in RELC Conference was the main source of discussion. Then, when teachers worked in groups to have a kind of teaching simulation, the 5As principles were really applied.

The third day was more on information about TOEIC and TEOFL and what teachers should consider when teaching them. The activities we had in the efforts of increasing competence were all challenging but applicable and fun.

(Pictures are coming up)

28 Sets of Books-in-a-Box for DKI Training Center

June 12, RELO Damon Anderson and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini facilitated a one-day workshop on using the Books in a Box collection, at the DKI Training Center. The workshop was attended by about 40 teachers of high school.

During the workshop the teachers were to work in groups and each group was presented with a Books-in-a-Box. They were facilitated with different ways to look at books before diciding to buy or use one. They came up with different ways, and it was amazing to see how different people see books from different angles.

The session was ended with the official handover of 28 boxes of ‘books-in-a-box’ collection to DKI Training Center from RELO Damon Anderson to the Head of the Training Center, Mr. Moch. Ichwan. The books were arranged in such a nice way it created a certain aura of Diorama. With the background slide projected from an LCD, it made the hand over impressive. Great work of Ibu Asih Nasution and the gank.

Visiting ITB; Introducing Bob Riski

May 24,

RELO Damon Anderson, ELF Coordinator, ELF Bob Riski and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini went to ITB Bandung and had a meeting with Rector Djoko and Vice Rector Edwan.

On the occasion, we introduced ELF Bob Riski who starting in September 2006 will be a fellow in ITB. It was an animated meeting, full of laughters. Bob seemed to be happy to move from Medan to Bandung.

Hope this cooperation will work well.

Highschools Students from LCB Rawamangun

On May 11, RELO Center held a special Roundyable Discussion for 18 Highschool Students learning at LCB Rawamangun. Topic of the discsussion was "Teenage Life After School". It was hard since the students were still shy at the beginning, but duette RELO Damon Anderson and Fellow Coordinator Mike McCoy teamed up in getting them finally talked.

Whenny and Ferra, two of our frequent Roundtablers were their teachers, and it was the two of them who arranged for the activity. It was a great effort to give the students a chance to practice what they have learned so far.

ITB Business Management School

May 9th,

RELO Damon Anderson gave a talk to the students of Business Management School in ITB. It was the second talk. The first was done in the previous semester, and it was by ELF Mike McCoy.

Damon said the students competence was above average than the students from other universities he had encountered before. And they were so young and enthusiastic.

Further note on this is expected to come from Pak Jati.
Pak Jati, we are awaiting.....

Task-Based Instruction in UI Salemba

On May 5th, Damon gave a presentation on "Developing Learners' Communicative Competence through Task-Based Instruction" for 2 hours. There were 27 pariticipants and they had a good time together.

Most participants were familiar with the term communicative teaching and also task-based instruction, but in real day-to-day teaching they still find it difficult or ackward to apply it.

So, after a short review about the underlining theory, Damon got the participants work in groups and practicing the task-based instructions. It was always fun when teachers were to play roles as students.

See the following pictures, how fun learning can be:

Attending RELC and Grantees Presentations

The RELC Annual conference took place on April 24-26, 2006 in Singapore, with the theme of Teacher Education in Language Teaching. RELO Assistant Kun Herrini attended the conference along with 5 grantees from Indonesia.

Among the plenary speakers was Jeremy Harmer. Everyone seemed to be so impressed with his presentation about "Motivating the Unmotivated" which reminded us that the problems might lie on us as teachers as of involving the students. Despite the content, the presentation itself was so interesting, the ways he involved the audience and the media.

Bambang Yudi Cahyono from Universitas Negeri Malang, who co-presented with Linda Widyawatie from LB-PP LIA Cilegon, on ‘ Networkin as a Means for Teachers’ Professional Development: An Indonesian Experience



They share about their efforts in establishing teachers network called ELTI (English Language Teachers – Indonesia), holding sharing sessions for the members on English competence and teaching techniques. The organization is piloted from home and the workshops in Cilegon district is also held at home. To know more about this activities, please contact Linda at Yudic2000@yahoo.com

I Ketut Seken from IKIP Negeri Singaraja, Bali, with his presentation entitled: Practice Teaching in EFL Teacher Education: How Much Autonomy for Students Teachers?
After learning about the standard teacher competencies that a teacher should possess (theoretical knowledge, knowledge of the Subject Matter, Attitudes, Creativity, Professionalism), pre-service teachers should go through the practice teaching stage that complies with what they have learned. The practice teaching should be done integrally in real schools and pre-service teachers should complete their apprenticeship not only as teachers but also the administrative sides of a school.



From the research it was found out that ‘pre-service teachers’ were very dependent to their mentors at the ‘real’ school. They are panic and do not know to do when given autonomy. What revealed was the fact that what they learn at the teacher training institutes were not applicable in the real teaching world outside. To learn more about this interesting research, please contact Seken at Ketut_seken@yahoo.com

Christine Manara from STBA Satya Wacana, Salatiga, with her presentation on: Teachers’ Decision Making on Using L1 in EFL Classrooms in Indonesia. From her research that even though the students expect teachers to always use target language in daily teaching, slow down at first then gradually in normal speed, teachers found out that using L1 sometimes needed to ease transferring the concept.



The funny things happen when comparing the questionnaire and the interview result. From the interview it was more significant that the teachers who use L1 in explaining feel guilty in doing so. To learn more about the research and finding, please contact Christine through chrismanara@yahoo.com

Nilawati Hadisantosa from Atma Jaya University with her presentation entitled: Issues in Teacher Training in Indonesia: Solutions for Better Future. The research and presentation was prepared together with Mike McCoy.



Issues around Teacher Training, in FKIP and in the Tarbiyah Faculty in Islamic Universities, are always interesting to discuss. We can start from the low quality of intake, minimum process due to various reasons from the quality of trainers, lack of time, facilities, resources, and also lack of support from administrators and policy makers. From what we read and what we hear, we know what is actually best. But we just cannot afford. The realistic solutions were already in discussions both in the Ministry of National Education and also in the Ministry of Religious Affairs under which Islamic Universities supervision lies. Attending and listening to other presenters in RELC Conference, we envy the attention and policy other governmental leaders have given to English Teaching, and we are looking forward to having similar support in Indonesia. If you are interested in knowing more about her presentation, please feel free to contact: nilawatihs@yahoo.com

ELT Journal Writing for FKSU Members

April 3-5,2006 RELO held a 3-day workshop on ELT Journal Writing. The participants were from Universitas Pattimura Ambon (2 people - sponsored by RELO), 3 from Universitas Sam Ratulangi Manado, 1 from Universitas Papua Manokwari, 3 from Universitas Cendrawasih Jayapura, 2 from Universitas Haluoleo Kendari, and 2 from Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta. The main facilitator of the workshop is Heather Philips, ELF UNAND Kevin's wife. RELO Damon Anderson helped facilitating on the second day, while RELO Assistant assisted throughout the 3 day-workshop.









ELT Journal writing, as other writing activities, is still seen as a challenging activity for most lecturers in Indonesia. Writing is just not in the culture. The fact that we have to follow certain styles that are acceptable internationally.
Hope after joining the workshop the participants are interested in writing.

Attending TESOL Conference in Tampa, Florida

RELO Damon Anderson and Assistant Kun Herrini attended TESOL Conference in Tampa, Florida, along with 11 grantees from IAIN Sumatra Utara, Universitas Andalas Padang, UIN Jakarta, UNIKA Atma Jaya Jakarta, ITB Bandung, UIN Semarang, UIN Yogyakarta, UPN Veteran Jawa Timur Surabaya, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, UIN Alaudin Makassar and Universitas Sam Ratulangi Manado. The conference was held in March 15 - 18, 2006.

It was such a long and yet interesting, exciting, unforgettable experience of being together with 11 grantees, that it deserves a special blog publication. Read more at:
http://indtesol06.blogspot.com/