One of the biggest industries in Indonesia is Tourism. As an English Department at FKIP, Tidar University, one of the elective courses is English for Tourism in Practice. It is offered in semester six. This course provides students with the competence of using English in tourism fields and it also provides students with the real and practical experiences related to tourism fields. Moch. Malik Al Firdaus, M.Pd., as the English Department Coordinator, said “Practices in the real tourism objects is really beneficial to improve the students’ competence not only in speaking but also to understand the culture and respect the diversity.”
This field work programme starts on March 17th – July, 2nd 2016. There are 73 students placed in 9 locations around Borobudur Temple. They are: Lotus 2 Jl. Balaputra Dewa no.54; Desa Gerabah ‘Pak Poyo” Jl. Waringin; Rajasa Jl. Badrawati no. 2 Borobudur; Cempaka Villa dan Spa Guest Jl. Badrawati, Ngaran Lor no.1 Borobudur; Cempaka Guest House Borobudur Jl. Medang Kamulan no.8B Borobudur; Omah GarengPoeng Jl. Kalangan, Tingal Wetan no. 197 Desa Wanurejo Borobudur; Candirejo Tourism Village Jl. Candirejo, Borobudur; Rumah Boedi Borobudur Dusun Tingal, Wangunrejo, Borobudur and Tingal Laras Art House Home Stay Tingal Kulon, Wangunrejo, Borobudur. Widya Nur Rochmah, one of the students who practices in Rumah Boedi, said “I can speak English fluently by practicising it in front office and restaurant. I help the tourist when they want to check in and out, I also explain the menu and the services in Rumah Boedi”. “I get a lot of new experience,” added Maharani Wulan Pratiwi, the other student who practices in Rumah Boedi. Novita Irmawati, one of the students who practices in Desa Wisata Candirejo, said, “I can meet many foreigners to practice my English, They are from United States, Singapore, Australia and France.” “I also explain how to make Gerabah in Desa Gerabah ‘Pak Poyo’,” uttered Kartiko, the other students. The outcome from this programme are videos about their activities, brochures and progress reports. This programme is guided by Moch. Malik Al Firdaus, M.Pd. and Lilia Indriani, M.Pd. This course also uses a facebook group (EFT in Practice) as the bridge to control the students’ activities and post some pictures. (lilia)
