FASYA – The Sharia Faculty of IAIN Surakarta officially opened a strengthening foreign language mentoring program by holding a seminar entitled “Assistance to the Development of Arabic and English Based Peer Group” on March 15 2018 in the meeting room of sharia faculty. This event presented two renowned speakers, he is SF Lukfianka Sanjaya Purnama, S.S., MA., M. Hum. as an English speaker and Muhammad Nur Kholis, M.Pdi. as an Arabic speaker. Led by Arkin Haris, S.Pd., M. Hum. as moderator and attended by 60 participants who have been selected. They are very enthusiastic in following this program.
Dean of the faculty of sharia, Dr. M. Usman, S.Ag., M.Ag. opened the implementation of this event by giving a speech on the importance of foreign language mastery. He said that in era of the ASEAN Economic Community (MEA), the students are required to be able to speak foreign languages. The globalization of occupation between countries gives effect in business competition not only in the local scope but also in global. It will be difficult to get a job if students do not master English or Arabic language.
In addition, knowledge is also evolving and needs reference theory from overseas universities. On the contrary, the Islamic study is currently being sought by learners from other countries. Therefore, IAIN Surakarta in particular faculty of sharia as a department and an Islamic-based college is expected to share the knowledge, either in the form of international journals or essay. So, translation of language is automatically necessary for the achievement of the goal.
At the event that was also attended by all chairman’s of sharia faculty department, the first speaker is Mr. Sanjaya or more familiar called Mr J described peer group method and effective English learning techniques. “The method of peer group or mentoring is very good, considering the lecture teaching techniques and curriculum nowadays that is just to pursue the score proved ineffective to master a language”, said Mr. J. He also described some interesting learning patterns and themes in applying mentoring learning process English such as using multimedia, debate, storytelling, or games.
In the next section, Nur Kholis as the second speaker explained the strengthening of Arabic language with a more innovative method. “The technique of mastering Arabic by memorizing only is hard”, said Nur Kholis. He suggested learning by project, for example by making Arabic tutorials in a video. The technique is considered more applicable and creative to expedite the skills of Arabic.
The event that is guided by master of ceremony using Arabic and English language taken place for 5 hours, tinged with question and answer and exciting discussion. The performance of an English Story Telling by Bima at the break made the participants more entertained. This program is also as a briefing for participants that will be assigned as a mentor for other sharia faculty students. In addition, there are still many divisions and programs that will be more innovative in order to produce the work of foreign languages in the sharia faculty. For Arabic joined in study group “Sharia Arabic Army” with its adviser from lecturer of Arabic that is Lutfi Rahmatullah, S.Th.I ,. M. Hum., while English is united in the study club “Sharia English Squad” with Arkin Haris, S.Pd. M. Hum., as the adviser.
