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Advice for teachers -
Indonesian Second Language

Teaching and learning activities

Unit 1

Unit 1 – Area of Study 1: Interpersonal communication

Theme: The individual
Theme: The individual
Topic: Education and aspirations
Sub topic: Experiences of schooling and student exchange

Outcome 1

Exchange meaning in a spoken interaction in Indonesian.

Examples of learning activities

  • Read a blog about a recent school exchange in Indonesia; take notes and highlight the differences observed between Australia and Indonesia. Skype a student in Indonesia who has recently completed an exchange in Australia. Compare their answers to the blog.
  • View a video about secondary school education in Indonesia. Reflect on how it differs from a school in Victoria.
  • Listen to a conversation between an Australian student on exchange and their host family and answer questions about the conversation. Observe features of informal language that are different to formal Indonesian (for example, nggak) and discuss how people adapt their language choices to different contexts.
  • Write six to eight questions to ask someone who has been on exchange. Swap questions with a classmate and answer their questions based on research material.
  • Prepare a three-minute speech to give to the class about an exchange program (actual experience or researched via class materials), noting major similarities and differences between Australia and Indonesia. Create PowerPoint slides to support the speech. Respond to questions from other students about this topic.
  • Interview another student in the class, using prepared questions. Discuss specific aspects of the school they attended during their exchange or one that they have researched. Concentrate on classrooms, subjects studied and school routines.
  • Listen to a student from Indonesia talking about their exchange in Australia. Reflect on how this information correlates to other material on the topic by discussing it with a classmate.
  • Summarise all the findings discovered on this topic in a graph or Venn diagram.
  • Read source material about education from Indonesia's Bureau of Statistics (Badan Pusat Statistik). Extract information and make comparisons with information about Australian education sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
  • Note vocabulary used in any material viewed, heard or read relating to education. Discuss any words or phrases that are not readily translatable into English.
  • Produce an article of 250 words outlining for an Australian audience some aspects of Indonesia's education system.
  • Read journal entries written by students in Australia and Indonesia to gain an insight into the personal aspects of participating in an exchange in another country and staying with another family.
  • Listen to a guest speaker talk about their experience of an exchange in Indonesia.
  • Watch a video or film about families in Indonesia. Take notes about their lives.
  • Listen to a recorded discussion or radio programs about school exchanges. In pairs, make a list of the insights gained by the students on the exchanges. Categorise them as personal, educational, cultural, social, etc.
  • In pairs or small groups, discuss the following example topics and create draft plans to produce a piece of writing.
    1. a. Imagine you have been on an exchange. Write an email about the experience for your school's website.
    1. b. Write an email to your parents about your experience.
    With the class divided into two groups, debate the topic ‘Language and education exchanges are very worthwhile’. Both sides must use evidence and examples from the research gathered.
Example icon for advice for teachers 

Detailed example

An email to your parents about your experience on exchange

  1. Create a workbook to record information, notes and bibliographic details gathered throughout the area of study. Develop a glossary of key terms and concepts.

  2. Read emails in Indonesian and identify features of the text type and formulaic opening and closing phrases that can be adapted for the task.

  3. Listen to a podcast on the education system in Indonesia.

  4. Read a selection of emails from students who have been on exchange and make notes.

Unit 1 – Area of Study 2: Interpretative communication

Theme: The world around us
Theme: The world around us
Topic: Communication and media
Sub topic: The impact of the internet and social media

Outcome 2

Interpret information from two texts on the same subtopic presented in Indonesian, and respond in writing in Indonesian and in English.

Examples of learning activities

  • In pairs, complete an ‘information gap’ activity to reconstruct an infographic about social media use in Indonesia.
  • Research statistics about internet use in Indonesia, Australia and a third country. Display the data visually with labels in Indonesian and write a short summary in Indonesian describing your findings.
  • Listen to an interview, read an article and view statistics about a digital innovation in Indonesia (for example, the Go-Jek app). Create a table with the headings ‘facts’ and ‘opinions’ as organisers for a dot-point list summarising the information in the texts.
  • View a series of photos that depict young people using screens in their daily lives and analyse them.
  • Imagine that an Indonesian research organisation is seeking input from the public about the impact of the digital innovation. Write a comment for their website from the perspective of someone positively or negatively affected by the innovation.
  • Search online for Indonesian articles about young people’s use of social media. What are the recurring themes? What are the pros and cons of social media according to your research?
  • Discuss the positive and negative aspects of screen usage with a classmate. List your combined responses on a poster for the classroom wall.
  • Conduct a class debate on the topic ‘Screens should be banned for children under the age of seven’.
  • Interview a relative who went to school before the internet age. Use the material as the basis for a time-travel story in which you wake up in a pre-internet age and have to manage a day without the internet. 
  • Example icon for advice for teachers
    Read an article on the use of social media in Indonesia and prepare a two- to three-minute presentation to the class about the impact of the internet and social media.
Example icon for advice for teachers 

Detailed example

Two- to three-minute oral presentation

  1. Read an article about how people are using the internet in Indonesia today.
  2. Identify the key points made in the article and create a matrix to find any overlap in positive and negative points.
  3. Conduct further research to discover any material that can be added to the matrix.
  4. Listen to an interview about this topic. Identify key vocabulary and expressions associated with the major concepts.
  5. In pairs, discuss the use of the internet and social media in your family.
  6. Rehearse the oral presentation with a partner.

Unit 1 – Area of Study 3: Presentational communication

Theme: Indonesian-speaking communities
Topic: Lifestyles
Sub topic: Music listening choices of teenagers in Indonesia

Outcome 3

Present information, concepts and ideas in writing in Indonesian on the selected subtopic and for a specific audience and purpose.

Examples of learning activities

  • Watch YouTube clips of different Indonesian musical styles. Compile a class resource of vocabulary and sentence structures for discussing what is observed in the clips and class preference for one style over another.
  • Read reviews in Indonesian music magazines, identifying the vocabulary and sentence structures that feature in this type of text.
  • Write a review for a school magazine about a recent concert.
  • Interview a classmate about their music listening and viewing preferences.
  • Research popular music styles in Indonesia in order to develop a matrix of international influences, defining features, famous performers and the social groups that identify with each style.
  • Read jumbled song lyrics and put them in order while listening to the song; then answer a set of questions about the lyrics.
  • View interviews with Indonesian musicians and answer a set of questions.
  • Design an online survey in Indonesian for younger students about their music preferences.
    Pay careful attention to the choice of words and use of visuals to support your audience’s engagement. Conduct the survey at your school; then summarise and analyse the data.
  • View examples of mading (wall magazines) in Indonesian schools and use these as inspiration to turn a noticeboard at your school into a mading on the theme of ‘music’. Share the information, concepts and ideas you have collected in the activities above as a collection of 50- to 100-word articles and reviews on your mading.
  • Identify cultural elements from your reading, viewing and listening. Consider the questions: Are there any particular elements that could only come from Indonesia? How can you tell? What identifies them? Are there elements that identify Australian music clips as specifically Australian?
  • Example icon for advice for teachers
    Create a three- to four-minute video with another student about an Indonesian band or musical style.
Example icon for advice for teachers 

Detailed example

A three- to four-minute video about an Indonesian band or musical style

  1. View one or more video clips of your chosen subject.
  2. Conduct background research about your subject (biography, influences, instruments etc.).
  3. In pairs, decide which elements are to be included in the final video. Discuss the outline with the teacher.
  4. Select images and short audio and/or video excerpts to use in your video.
  5. Plan the structure of the video to be filmed. Write it up as a series of dot points.
  6. Write a script.
  7. Draw a storyboard.
  8. Film.
  9. Edit as necessary.
  10. Show video to the class.
  11. Other students give oral and written feedback to each pair and the teacher.