Konferensi Internasional LIA 2010.mp3

Rabu, 28 April 2010 | 05:52 WIB

LBPP LIA

KOMPAS.com – Today, English has become the language for communication spoken by native and non-native speakers worldwide. The tremendous demands for the use of English in the 21st century have forced language teaching experts and professionals to look into other concerns besides language teaching and learning alone but language teaching and learning in different settings, cultures, and linguistic backgrounds.

The profession of English language teaching today has to examine the pros and cons that deal with considerations of World English or World Englishes, English as an International Language, and acceptable standards that should be applied.

To keep abreast with what language teaching experts are concerned with, LBPP LIA (Lembaga Bahasa &  Pendidikan Profesional LIA), the biggest unit of YAYASAN LIA, presents LIA International  Conference 2010, April 28-30, 2010 in Sanur Beach Hotel, Bali with the theme : World Englishes across Cultures.

LIA International Conference 2010 hopes to provide a platform for language teaching experts and professionals to bring in and share new insights, current considerations and problems that impact on language teaching and learning in all of its aspects: linguistic, social, and cultural. LIA hopes that with this kind of dialog, the conference will bring about a better understanding and greater tolerance and acceptance of the differences in communication among world cultures.

The committee has received confirmed attendance from participants & presenters representing language institutions, colleges and universities from 20 countries. The featured speakers to talk about the implications of the existence of world Englishes among others are Andy Kirkpatrick, Alastair Pennycook, Jihyeon Jeon, etc, who are spesialists in multilinguals and English as a lingua franca.

The goal for LIA International Conference is to provide a platform in which experts and practitioners from all over the world share new insights, current considerations and problems within the realm of English language learning and teaching related to World Englishes in all of its aspects: linguistic, social, and cultural.

Directorate General of Higher Education-the Ministry of National Education in Indonesia-, fully supports LIA International Conference 2010  manifestated in Certificates of attendance for the participants which are co-signed by The Director General of Non Formal & Informal Education and The Director General of Higher Education.

Hafilia Ismanto, Director of Academic Affairs LBPP LIA as well as The Chairperson of LIA International Conference 2010, said that the committee felt proud to receive 190 abstracts submitted  from all over the countries, eventhough after a selection only 90 presenter are confirmed.

Established on September 7, 1959, YAYASAN LIA started out with name Lembaga Indonesia Amerika, to be changed later to Perhimpunan Persahabatan Indonesia Amerika, shortened to PPIA. PPIA’s mission is to enhance friendship between USA and Indonesia through English classes, art-related events, music concerts, film showings, exhibitions and other cultural programs. In order to enhance its mission in education, in 1986 YAYASAN LIA was established as an entity legally separated from PPIA. Since then LIA has been the official name of the foundation, abandoning its mark as an abbreviation or acronym.

Whereas PPIA remain focused on its cross-cultural mission, YAYASAN LIA’s main involvement is in language education and professional training programs for such skills as required in computer operation, accounting and hotel management. LIA started its first activity by opening English classes for around 40 college students, a number at present stands at approximately 65.000.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/30/uniting-world-through-multicultural-english.html

A discussion Wednesday on the English language highlighted the fact that native speakers of English accounted a small portion of the total number of English speakers around the world.

The rest are non-native speakers of English who use the language for communication with native speakers or other non-natives who come from different linguistic or cultural background, language expert Gloria Kismadi said in a conference to mark the anniversary of language school LBPP LIA.

“Communication in English today no longer belongs to its native speakers alone, but also to a larger majority of English speakers who generate variations in English due to meanings and interpretations that are unique to their culture,” Gloria said.

“To ensure real communication takes place between them despite their diversity, sociocultural aspects play a crucial role. This is what English learners and teachers should take into account,” she said.

Hing Kong Institute of Education professor of English Andy Kirkpatrick spoke of the implications of variations in English and their multilingual speakers to English language teachers.

“As the majority of English users are multilingual, English teachers should also be multilingual. They should be not only role models, but also linguistic models for learners,” he said.

Alastair Pennycook, Professor of English at Sydney’s University of Technology, explored in his paper the diversity of English and different contexts in which it may be used.

“New technologies and communications are enabling immense and complex flows of people, signs, sounds and images across the world that demands us to rethink the ways we consider English,” he said.

“We need to understand language in terms of local practices. Once we start to consider English as a local language, questions about varieties of English become less important than an understanding of language as something we do rather than something we use.”

Fuad Abdul Hamied, deputy minister for education at the Coordinating Public Welfare Ministry, said in his keynote speech that Indonesia was exposed to various local languages, adding that this was a positive asset for acquiring new languages, including English.

“There are more than 700 living languages spoken in Indonesia, with 18 of them spoken by more than 1 million people each,” he said.

“This is why linguistic problem and misunderstanding sometime arise.”

However, he said that many Indonesians were able to grasp English well.

He contributed this development to the country’s rapid advancement in the use of information and communication technology that he claims made Indonesians familiar with English as a foreign language.

“Indonesia has some 30 million Internet users, it’s a huge cyber population compared to other countries in Asia,” he said.

“As 80 percent of web pages are in English, Indonesians have daily contact and exposure to English. This is a good thing.”

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(Jakarta Globe, Sat. October 20, 2009)

Celebrating its 10th Lustrum, Yayasan LIA (formerly known as Lembaga Persahabatan Indonesia-Amerika) will hold an international conference in Bali on English Language Teaching and Learning on April 28-30, 2010. Based on its experience of teaching English at various levels and groups, LIA is looking at how the English language today has become intertwined with different cultural settings, how native English speakers today are outnumbered by non-natives, and the debate over which form of English should be used: American, British or Australian. “World Englishes Across Cultures” is about how standards in English language teaching and learning have transformed. Owing to globalization, the use of English as lingua franca is increasing as it enables people from different non-English speaking countries to communicate. The teaching profession of English has to consider applying new international standards of World Englishes in compliance with local culture and understanding.

Andy Kirkpatrick, the author of “World Englishes” and a speaker at the conference will raise the issue of the implications to English Language Teaching (ELT) curriculum and materials development. In his book he mentions the phenomenon of different usage of the English language by Jamaicans, South Africans, Singaporeans, and many more, as he questions whether the English language used is not “English” anymore. An American expert in linguistics who lived nearly twenty years in Hong Kong, Kirkpatrick suggests the possibility of improving the multilingual model and pedagogy based on new global standards that can be applied internationally thereby eliminating the common perception that English is best taught by native speakers.

Ir. Hafilia R. Ismanto, M.M., the Director of Academic Affairs in LIA believes in locally trained teachers . “For 50 years, we never use nativespeakers as our teaching staff.” Today LIA has established 62 branches in 18 provinces in Indonesia, giving regular language classes to more than 60,000 students. “This has proven that our methodology is working, and we are trying to maintain it by strict monitoring and quality assurance, and intensive training and mentoring for our teaching staff. We only use native speakers (with substantive background in ELT) when it comes to developing our course materials.”, she continued. Even so, she believes that course and teaching materials should be left to local content. LIA believes that its materials are appropriately designed for the learning and understanding of Indonesians to learn English as members of the global community. Currently, LIA employs approximately 1,000 teaching staff all over Indonesia.

By empowering non-native teachers LIA manages to operate at a lower cost compared to other language schools that hire native english speakers as teachers. The affordable fee, years of experience, and quality make LIA the obvious choice for many Indonesians, and even the national Government. LIA has been the selected partner in language training for, amongst others, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labour. LIA also signed a memorandum of understanding with several departments for language testing.

According to Umar Latinulu, the operations Director, LIA is planning to expand its schools to 70 branches by the year 2012, through an intensive scouting for potential partners in other regions in Indonesia, in order to “educate (as much as) Indonesian people in the country” just as its mission states. By the end of this year, a new branch in Payakumbuh will be opened.

Dr. Sudibyo Siyam, M.A., LIA’s Managing Director is trying to develop LIA in the direction of becoming the leading language institution in ELT, translation, and testing in Indonesia, and later in the Asian region. He refers to the SEAMEO Regional Language Centre in Singapore, whose one of the educators will also be speaking at LIA’S 2010 Conference, as the benchmark. Other speakers who will be attending the conference are experts and professionals of ELT in non-English speaking countries such as Korea, Hong Kong,Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Aside from the International Conference, LIA also held several other events such as the National Students Competition, and a 10-city Seminar that was held in Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Bandung, Bekasi, Surabaya, and also cities outside Java such as Makassar, Banjarmasin, Pontianak, Palembang, and Padang. The National Students Competition was held per branch starting from June to August 2009. Around 40 winners from these branches then competed in a national level last September. The competition had four categories: SAY, SPEAK, TESTIFY and TALK. The students competing in the SAY category were LIA students age 15-18 years old who were told to give a presentation, using any kind of medium, on Indonesian children’s welfare. The participants were judged by their fluency, vocabulary, creativity, and poise. The top-20 national participants from this category will represent Indonesia in the IFCW World Forum this October 21-24 2009 in Jakarta, to participate in the discussion of the rights and welfare of children and young people in Indonesia on a global scale. The world forum is co-hosted by the Indonesian Children Welfare Foundation (YKAI or Yayasan Kesejahteraan Anak Indonesia).

The 10-city Seminar is a one-day workshop held for teachers from June to December 2009, raising the latest issues on teacher development corresponding to the growing trends of Pilot School with International Standard or RSBI (Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional) and School with International Standard or SBI (Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional) in Indonesia, that taught several subjects in English. The seminar is aimed at the empowerment of English language teachers in facing the challenge of teaching students to use English to learn, and at the same time facilitating students’ learning to use English, and also on content and language integrated learning especially for math and science teachers. The different teaching staff’s educational background at LIA made it possible for cross-subject ELT, developing the English skill of teachers who taught subjects other than English.

The seminar participants on islands outside Java gave strong responses as people from faraway regions had to travel for hours by boat, bus or plane, and expend the extra costs only to attend the seminar, as an attestation to the unequal distribution on opportunities for education and training in Indonesia. Basically, most of the teachers that came to the seminar were very much motivated and eager to comply to the “international” standard that has recently been ratified by the Ministry of Education in 2004. It is the capacity of the teachers that needs more attention, Hafilia Ismanto told the Jakarta Globe. LIA realized this issue and aimed to empower school teachers, with or without a direct assignment from the Government. “Students, our young generation are the output of our education system, and teachers are the prominent factor on how the output will be”, she said. The seminar was the first held nationally, while LIA encourages its branches to periodically develop their teaching staff through local training, seminar, or workshop. Two upcoming seminars will be held in Kalimalang on November 21st, and Surabaya on December 10th.

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Berbagai kegiatan berupa pelatihan, lokakarya, seminar, konferensi tingkat nasional maupun internasional telah diselenggarakan guna meningkatkan dan mengembangkan kedua factor tersebut.

Pemerintah juga didorong untuk mengembangkan satuan pendidikan yang bertaraf internasional. Standar internasional yang dituntut dalam SBI adalah standar kompetensi kelulusan, kurikulum, proses belajar mengajar, SDM, fasilitas, manajemen, pembiayaan, dan penilaian standar internasional.

Hal itu dikemukakan Manajer Marketing LBPP LIA, Pasaribu Tarigan saat seminar dalam rangka memperingati HUT ke-50 LBPP LIA dengan tema Learning English and Content, Enhancing students’ Ability in using English to Learn and Learning to Use English  , Sabtu (15/8), di Swiss Bell Hotel Borneo, Banjarmasin.

“Dalam SBI, proses belajar mengajar disampaikan dalam dua bahasa yaitu bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Indonesia,” ujar

Menurutnya, seminar bertujuan memberdayakan dan membekali guru dengan kemampuan dasar berbahasa Inggris yang diperlukan bahasa instruksi pengajaran dan target kosa kata. Teknik-teknik pengajaran yang menggabungkan pengajaran Bahasa Inggris, Matematika dan Sains.

Pasaribu menambahkan, setelah mengikuti seminar diharapkan para guru Matematika dan Sains dapat merasa lebih percaya diri untuk belajar menggunakan bahasa Inggris dalam mengajarkan bidang mereka.

Sekertaris Dinas Pendidikan Provinsi Kalsel, Herman Taufan, mengatakan pihaknya mendukung seminar tersebut. Apalagi pemprov membangun sekolah bertaraf internasional pada 2010 mendatang.

“Lokasi sekolahnya di Jalan A Yani Kilometer 17, sekitar 50 meter setelah Tugu 17 Mei. Luasan lahan sekitar empat hectare, diprioritaskan untuk tingkat pendidikan sekolah menengah atas,” katanya.

Herman mengatakan, pembangunan sekolah bertaraf internasional dananya sudah disiapkan dalam APBD 2010. Masing-masing kabupaten atau kota di Kalsel mengirimkan lima siswa lulusan terbaik mereka untuk mengenyam pendidikan di tempat tersebut. (gg/*)

Banjarmasin Post

Di tahun istimewa ini, dalam rangka menyambut dan merayakan 50-Tahun LIA, dengan senang hati kami mengundang para guru bahasa Inggris, baik formal maupun non formal, dosen, Kepala Sekolah, pemerhati dan pihak-pihak lain yang berminat dalam pengajaran Bahasa (ELT) untuk berpartisipasi dalam Workshop sehari mengenai Learning English and Content: Enhancing students’ ability in using English to learn and learning to use English. Kegiatan workshop ini dilaksanakan di 10 kota besar di Indonesia yaitu Yogyakarta, Pontianak, Palembang, Makassar, Padang, Jakarta, Bandung, Banjarmasin dan Surabaya.

Tribun Makassar, 28 Juli 2009

PONTIANAK, Kalimantan Barat yang dikenal sebagai Kota Khatulistiwa menjadi lokasi gelaran kedua lokakarya bahasa Inggris bagi guru matematika dan sains.

Ada 100 peserta mengikuti kegiatan satu hari bertajuk Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) tersebut. Animo tersebut ditunjukkan guru-guru tingkat TK sampai SMA se-Pontianak. “Kalau hendak mengajar, saya sering gelisah karena harus memakai bahasa Inggris,” tutur seorang peserta kegiatan.

Adapun yayasan pendidikan popular seperti Perguruan Bina Mulya dan Immanuel mengirim 15 dan 12 peserta untuk mengikuti lokakarya itu.

Selain digelar di Pontianak, kegiatan yang diselenggarakan Lembaga Bahasa dan Pendidikan Profesional LIA itu akan berlangsung juga di beberapa kota. Antara lain Palembang, Makassar, Jakarta, Padang, Bandung, Banjarmasin, Surabaya dan Bekasi. (RO/N-4)

Media Indonesia,

Jumat, 24 Juli 2009