A report of Attending LIA International Conference: World Englishes Across Cultures

I considered myself as a lucky full timer since I got a chance to attend such a great moment, LIA International Conference in Sanur Beach Hotel, Bali. Together with my two other friends, we headed for Yogya airport, Adi Sucipto to go to Bali. In Yogya, we met some other friends from affiliates and branches that had the same destination, Bali. I felt the same excitement as it’s a great opportunity to share things and get knowledge from the conference. Let alone the awesome place like Bali, a Paradise island.

As we got to Ngurah Rai airport, some committee welcomed us and provided a bus to get to Sanur Beach Hotel. In the bus, we met more other friends from out-Java-affiliates. They are from Padang and Palembang. The feeling of weariness soon disappeared as we got to the hotel. After checking in, there was a welcoming dance by Balinese dancers and welcoming drink soothed us who started the trip from very early in the morning. One other thing that we prefered forgetting our tiresome was there was no schedule for the rest of the day. It means that we got a chance to see Bali before we had to attend the conference the following days.

pendet dancers

There were around 11 teachers from different affiliates who agreed to spend time looking around Bali. The first destination was Kuta beach to enjoy the beauty of sunset there. Unluckily, as soon as we got there, it was dawn and the sunset was not there anymore. Well, sunset in Kuta beach is not the only attraction in Bali. There are hundreds of reasons why Bali becomes the world attraction. Shopping was our next plan. There are a lot of places in Bali for shopping: Sukowati market, Krisna and Joger. Not to mention the souvenirs shops along the side walk. Joger was our choice to express our impulsive instinct. This time we got another bitter disappointment as the shop, popular with its creativity in composing words, phrases or sentence, was close. Finally, we headed for Krisna, a super market selling souvenirs from Bali. We spent almost two hours. We got to the hotel around 9.00 PM, feeling exhausted but content.

Day one of LIA International Conference was launched by Prof. Dr. Conny Semiawan as The Chairman of Yayasan LIA Board of Management;. Before the launching, some welcome messages were delivered by Ir. Hafilia R. Ismanto M.M as the committee chair; Deputy Minister for Education, Religion and Civil; The Managing Director Lembaga Bahasa dan Service, Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare, Prof. Fuad Abdul Hamied, Ph. D; and the last message presented before the launching delivered by Selestin Zainuddin M. Hum as the Planning Committee.

Hafilia as the committee chair

After the welcome messages, Andy Kirpatrick started the first plenary session. He focused on World Englishes Across cultures: arguments for the multilingual model and a multilingual. The next speaker was Alastair Pennycook by discussing about English as a local language practice.
After lunch break, the Wantlan Room was split into some rooms for split plenary. Some presenters, both from Indonesia and other countries were ready to present their ideas, research, knowledge, experience, etc. Take an example Willy Ranandya talked about his experience with Singaporeans who speak English with their pattern. He called it as Singlish—Singaporean English. Not too far different from English by Indonesians that use Indonesian pattern and dialect.

The first day of conference ended by Cultural Festival dinner held behind the hotel. It was located by Sanur beach with the full moon shining brightly. It was just perfect since all participants were expected to put on traditional costumes or at least batik, a well-known outfit from Indonesia. Those participants from other countries wore their traditional costumes. Take an example an Indian put on sari. The dinner was more cheerful and proven to be ‘cultural’ since each of us was handed in a flag from almost 20 countries.

The second day turned to be more interesting since there were demos, workshops, and cultural classes held under the tree. Not to mention some prizes for those who happened to be lucky to join the quiz. A friend of mine won a contest in putting on sari from Indian class. She got sari cloth and an electronic dictionary. For me, I was lucky to join some demo classes that I can share with my colleagues. Take an example English language for multiple literacies by Ganakumaran Subramanlam, MELTA Malaysia. He recommended us to teach more than just English. Teaching grammar, pronuncition and other Englih elements are important, yet teachers must put other uses of the language itself. Pictures, short videos can be tools to deliver the lesson in class.

Sari got sari class

The next split plenary i joined was pronunciation by Yohannes N Widiyanto. He focused on different way of Indonesians pronounce words or a certain letter in English. There are some letters or vowels that English has while Indonesian language doesn't. The class was quite cheerful since he put kind of jazz chants, whispering game, and song.

The last split session that attracted me was Tinikling dance class from Philippine. There is a legend about Tinikling dance from LIA old book, however I don't really remember the exact legend. Well, the dance itself needs 2 bamboo clappers and of course the dancer. There were two dancers, male and female, who became the models. They could dance quite well even though they are not Philippines. By doing the demo, they taught us how to do Tinikling dance. What one needs to dance is agility to move in, between and out of the bamboos. The class was interesting since all participants had a chance to dance. Moreover, it’s different from the other split plenary sessions held indoor. Yeah, we needed to move a little to stretch and jump.

tinikling crew

The end of the second day of seminar was having a small tour to GWK Tourist attraction and dinner in Jimbaran. This short trip was perhaps intended for pre farewell since the next morning was the last day of conference. Due to some private reasons, three of us didn’t join the tour.
Finally, the long tiring yet interesting conference was about to end. There were one split plenary and one full plenary left. I joined DCD in Wantilan Room. There were six presenters that would present their paper. However, I got three presenters in my table. They were Maura Phlenasanti Haryono talked about Using project-based learning in your classroom; Some socio cultural aspects of the National English Language Examination (Elementary School Level) and their implications for English Teaching in Indonesia by Doni Suseno; Reflective Matters: Paving the way into the class room by Grace F. W.

Finally we came to the last plenary session. It seemed to me that the presenter was prepared by the committee to be the last since Marc Helgesen—the presenter—not only talked about ELT but also motivated all the participants who deal with English teachings to be happy, to be grateful as he entitled his talk ELT and The Science of Happiness. He distributed cookie to all participants, and encouraged to taste it bit by bit. By doing so, people will taste the delicacy of the cookie using all the senses and fell thankful to all blessings.

There were two memorable closings held by the committee, the first was they performed a song that displays the diversity of people in the world. We Are The World. The second was balloon release held in the back of the hotel, by Sanur beach. Hundreds of colorful balloons were handed in to the participants. By the count of three, the balloons were flying to the bright sky. Another kind of way to show diversity in the world and no matter how diverse the way people use English.

the diversity of balloons

After taking pictures here and there, saying farewell to everyone, finally we had to check out from the hotel, headed back to our hometown, family and colleagues, bringing a huge experience to share. We wish to have another big, amazing conference in the near future.

Written by: Ms. Lala