Washington, DC., (11/05/2020). KIBAR (Kitorang Bicara) or “We talk” is a serial-webinar held by the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C., USA through the Attaché for Education and Culture. The 8th series of KIBAR’s theme was Education and TESOL.
The recorded live event of KIBAR Seri-8 can be accessed in the following link http://bit.ly/fb-watch-kibar8
The 8th series of KIBAR (Kitorang Bicara) was chaired by Prof. Popy Rufaidah, the Education and Cultural Attaché. This event invited several speakers to deliver their presentations discussing about Education and TESOL study programs including Prof. Phil Smith, Ph.D., the ESOL Program Director, College of Education, University of South Florida, who delivered a presentation related to the University of South Florida. In addition, Prof. Smith emphasized about some graduate programs that the university offers such as Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Foreign Language Education and also the Ph.D. in TESLA. To end the session, Prof. Smith explained about the admissions requirements to a Master’s Degree was also explained in his presentation including the requirements for international students.
The webinar was continued by inviting Dr. Jamie L. Harrison, an Associate Professor ESOL Education, Auburn University. Dr. Harrison delivered her presentation entitled The Graduate Students Community Engagement in Linguistics Sustainability. In this occasion, Dr. Harrison also shared a little bit about her education background and her career journey in the United States and also explained briefly about the programs that Auburn University offers. Meanwhile, her presentation was focused on raising awareness of endangered language in the context of learning about features of language and linguistics. Other topics such as Linguistics Sustainability, Applied Linguistics in Second Language Acquisition, and Community Engagement were also discussed in her presentation.
This webinar also invited two Indonesian students who are the LPDP awardee, Zenelda Fao and Asri Juniati Suamole. Zenelda M. N. Fao, S.S.a student of Master of TESOL, Curriculum and Instruction, University of South Florida presented her presentation entitled Supporting the EFL Teachers with modern Instruction and Technology. In her presentation, Ms. Fao talked a lot about three main competence that a teacher should have in order to be a professional teacher including Content competence, Pedagogical competence and assessment competence. At the end of her session, she provided some online features that teachers can use to help them in their teaching and learning activities.
On the other hand, Asri Juniati Soamole, a student of Master of TESOL, Curriculum and Teaching, Auburn University, delivered a presentation entitled Prioritize Indonesian, Preserve Local Languages and Master Foreign Language. Ms. Soamole also discussed about the role of the English teacher in contributing to linguistics sustainability. She proposed an alternative to promote vernacular (local languages) by using social media, especially to promote North Maluku languages. The last session of the webinar was a presentation by Dr. Glenie Latuni, S.Pd., M.Sn. from Manado State University as the representative of the Indonesian State University Chancellors Council. Dr. Latuni talked about local language in music tradition. He explained about triple Helix concept in turning music into a new economic force based on society.