Intercultural language learning: the Indonesian for Teachers Initiative (InTI) experience

ABSTRACT

This study explores the impact of a government-funded program which sought to retrain in-service teachers in regional Queensland as Indonesian language teachers through an Australian university-led program with on-campus and in-country components. The study first examines how the Indonesian for Teachers Initiative (InTI) program’s diverse social learning approach to intercultural language learning cultivated the development of the teacher participants’ Indonesian language skills and intercultural capability. It then identifies how participants incorporated aspects of Indonesian language and culture into their teaching post-program, contributing to the Australian Curriculum’s goal of developing students’ intercultural capability.

Makalah ini membahas tentang dampak dari sebuah program yang dibiayai oleh pemerintah Australia untuk melatih guru-guru sekolah di sebuah wilayah di negara bagian Queensland mengajarkan bahasa dan budaya Indonesia. Program ini dilaksanakan oleh sebuah universitas Australia dengan kuliah di kampus dan kemudian dilanjutkan belajar di negara bahasa asli di Indonesia. Program ini diberi nama InTI (Inisiatip Guru-guru bahasa Indonesia). Kajian ini mulai dengan membahas caranya program InTI melibatkan pendekatan pembelajaran sosial yang beragam dalam pembelajaran bahasa sebagai sarana pengajaran lintas budaya untuk mengembangkan ketrampilan berbahasa Indonesia dan pengertian lintas budaya para peserta. Kemudian, makalah ini menjelaskan tentang usaha para peserta dalam program InTI ini melibatkan unsur-unsur budaya dan bahasa Indonesia dalam pengajaran mereka pasca – program ini, sesuai dengan tujuan Kurikulum Australia untuk memperkaya kemampuan lintas budaya siswa-siswa.

KEYWORDS:

• In-country study
• Indonesian language
• intercultural language learning
• second language learning
• community of practice
• motivation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Richard Curtis is Indonesian lecturer at University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). He is coordinating team member of the annual Intensive In-country Indonesian Language and Cultural programs in Lombok and Kupang, run by the Regional Universities Indonesian Language Initiative (RUILI) consortium. He also founded UniBRIDGE, which facilitates online learning exchanges between Australian Indonesian and Indonesian English language learners. Richard’s research interests include the pedagogy of blended (on-campus, online and in-country) language and intercultural learning, and also contemporary popular culture in Indonesia. Richard is currently working on a life-writing and poetry translations of disappeared people’s poet Wiji Thukul.

Ann Robertson is a Lecturer in Communication at the University of the Sunshine Coast and a committed language learner and educator with over 20 years’ experience in language education, specifically TESOL and Japanese, as well as extensive experience in pre-service and in-service teacher education. She is the recipient of two group Commonwealth Office of Learning and Teaching Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2012 and 2017. Her current role at USC includes developing and teaching courses related to linguistics, Japanese language and the mandatory first year foundation course COR109 Communication and Thought.

Inez Mahony is a Research Officer at USC and was Project Manager for the 2014–2015 Indonesian for Teachers Initiative (InTI). She has a background in Monitoring and Evaluation of Australian Aid capacity building programs mainly for Indonesian participants and a research interest focusing on Indonesian language, anthropology, journalism, human rights and aid effectiveness. Dr Mahony is also an experienced teacher in the fields of communication, journalism and Indonesian studies at USC and University of Queensland. Her work is underpinned by extensive in-country work experience, research, and travel in Southeast Asia spanning 25 years.

ORCID

Ann Robertson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0460-0092