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