In celebrating Mother’s Day on December 22, The Association for the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN) East Java in collaboration with the Linguistics and Literature Association (LITA) and the Indonesian Applied Linguistics Association (ALTI) held a Sarasehan Nasional with the title “(Language) Mother, Strengthening the Nation” online on December 20, 2021 via the Zoom. Attended by 127 participants from all parts of Indonesia from Aceh to Ternate, this event discussed the importance of the mother’s role in shaping next generation who have strong mind and character and good, polite language.
Professor Zuliati Rohmah, as the Coordinator of TEFLIN Jawa Timur Chapter and as the Past President of LITA now acting as a member of Advisory Board of LITA gave the opening speech by underlining the role of mothers as the first and the most important school for kids. As the first speaker, Professor Utami Widiati from the State University of Malang who is also the President of TEFLIN explained the important role of mothers in developing children’s literacy skills. The second speaker, Noor Malichah, Ph.D. from IAIN Salatiga conveyed about the role of a mother tongue in building cultural identity. The last speaker, Ribut Wahyudi, Ph.D., the Head of the English Department of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang expressed his ideas about the right time to introduce foreign languages to children. The event hosted by the President of LITA 2021-2023 was responded very positively by the participants as seen from the number of participants who asked questions and expressed their opinions at the end of the event
The video of the event can be accessed here.
