The Australian Society of Indonesian Language Educators (ASILE) began its existence at a conference for Indonesian educators in Adelaide, South Australia on the Anzac weekend of April, 1994. Indonesian Language Teacher associations had been in existence around Australia prior to this but often working in isolation. The vision to bring together Indonesian language educators from across Australia was the driving intention of this inaugural event.
The idea for such an event was based on a concept put forward by Firdaus, a lecturer in Indonesian at Flinders University, South Australia. She proposed that a new peak professional body for educators of Indonesian language be formed in Australia with the express intention of furthering interest in the learning and teaching of Indonesian language. It was considered that an event such as this would also be an ideal opportunity to unite educators from early childhood to tertiary to share research and best-practice in teaching the language. It would also provide the forum to explore evolution in Indonesian language. |