Teaching ideas for Indonesian games objects:

Hom Pim Pah, Sut, Congklak, Kubuk, Galah Asin.

This set of objects was developed for the Open-IT Project, but the inspiration for it came from a meeting of the Project Group for Indonesian Online Module Development. Tasmania was keen to participate in the development of LOTE objects by the Learning Federation (beginning in 2002) and wanted to explore some of the possibilities by developing a set of related objects.  The theme of traditional games was decided on because:

• it provides an opportunity to use instructional language 
• it also uses vocabulary and language structure applicable to many other situations 
• traditional games help increase understanding of culture 
• children can make connections and comparisons with traditional Australian games 
• the topic is well suited to beginning LOTE students from Gr 3 to Gr 8
• there was very little online information about Indonesian games, and nothing truly interactive for language students.

This set of objects teaches students how to play Indonesian games. Each object stands alone, although Hom Pim Pah and Sut are used at the start of some of the others. The instructions are as much as possible in Indonesian, supported with English text and sound files of native speakers reading the text. 

Teachers and students can print out the text, or select text electronically to use in other ways.  To select the text, click on the print (cetak) button and then use the mouse to select the required text. Copy the text and paste it where required.

Other teaching suggestions:

It is possible to use these objects with students in a variety of different ways, but the teacher will need to provide the teaching and learning context, eg points of grammar, question and answer structures and  opportunities to follow up their learning. 

The following suggestions may be of help to teachers in using the games objects in their LOTE classes.

• Encourage students to use Hom Pim Pah and Sut whenever they need to establish an order of players. 
• Have students teach the games to other students, using an appropriate level of target language.
• Go to http://www.discover.tased.edu.au/openit/ to download the Cloze Machine (for students of any age who can read independently). This great tool is used for online cloze exercises. Teachers and students upload their own text to the 'machine'.  (Use the text copied from the game.) Teachers then choose a level of difficulty and the machine will take out a corresponding number of words. Students have to position the removed words in the appropriate places. 
• Print out the text and cut both English and Indonesian text into sections - present these to students jumbled up. Students must match the English to the Indonesian and sequence the instructions correctly.
• For an online version of this jigsaw activity, go to http://www.discover.tased.edu.au/openit/ to download the Jigsaw Story (for students of any age who can read independently). This great tool can be used for text reconstruction. Teachers and students upload their own text to the 'machine'. The machine will break the text into sections using either paragraphs or sentences, and students have to reconstruct it. Again use the text you have copied from the game.
• Students could work in a small group to demonstrate how to play the game giving oral instructions. 
• Students could use the language as modelled in these games to write instructions for playing another game. They then teach other students how to play their game in Indonesian, either orally or by providing written instructions, or using both methods.
• Students could prepare a PowerPoint presentation or web site teaching the playing of their game, and using the language modelled. Go to the LOTE website to explore PowerPoint. 
• Identify the key words for playing games or giving instructions, then go to the Discover website for links to online puzzle makers that will enable you to create your own word finders, crosswords and other puzzles for students, based on that vocabulary.
• Students could search the Internet using Google or another search engine, use other library resources and interviews with native speakers to research other traditional and modern Indonesian games and prepare a display about them. 
• It is always rewarding and interesting to bring native speakers into the classroom, to share with your students the games they have traditionally played in Indonesia. Some organisations that may be able to provide you with contact details for native speakers near your school are Colleges (where international students may be able to gain credits towards a course for helping out in the community), the Migrant Resource Centre and the University of Tasmania.
• Provide students with the Indonesian text and ask them to work (individually or in pairs) to explore grammar. For example, students could:
  • highlight parts of speech (eg verbs, nouns or adjectives),
  • find all the words with a suffix 'lah',
  • find all the uses of 'yang',
  • find examples of object focus (eg dimulai)
  • look at word order
  • look for all the words from a particular root word (eg 'main')
  • look at prefixes and suffixes (eg 'ter', 'kan') and identify the root word they build on, its meaning and the effect of the prefix or suffix.
• In all these cases the teacher should discuss the relevant grammar points with students and set them tasks to use that language in some way. For example, students could use other resources (dictionaries, text books, online dictionaries) to then create similar examples of language use. Eg Using the sentence 'Pemain-pemain Tim A berdiri di atas garis-garis,' students could write other sentences by replacing the verb (so instead of standing on the lines, the team are sitting, running, jumping etcetera), or they could replace the subject of the sentence and write other sentences, or have the team standing on other things apart from the lines, or change 'di atas' to other words of position. 
• There are other online dictionaries available. Go to Google and search using 'Indonesian dictionary' to explore which of these are best for your students. 
• Once students have the idea of writing new sentences in this way, you can have team competitions where groups of students work together for 10 or 15 minutes to write as many correct sentences as possible based on a starting sentence. Students can also check each others' sentences and all correct sentences can be displayed for students to read.