The History of Materials Department

Written by Gloria C. Kismadi

     After all the subsidies from USIS ceased, LIA was completely on its own. There was the difficulty of getting coursebooks from the US in such large numbers on time to distribute them to the students. At the time, there was also the rise of Communicative Language Teaching as the current methodology being used in language courses in the US and other countries where the demand for English as a tool for communication was growing.

     With the prompting and support of then Executive Director Suryodipuro, the Teaching Section took the courageous step of writing LIA's own textbooks. Intitiated by Gloria Kismadi, Siti Soeriyah, and Maya Jayapal, the writing of the textbooks also involved teachers who had the writing ability and imagination combined with a good grounding in language teaching principles. Thus, LIA's Communication in English series, based on Communicative Language Teaching principles in contexts in which Indonesians would need to use the language, came into existence. The series not only covered primary to intermediate levels of language learning but also Post-Intermediate and Advanced levels.
     This was the start of the creation of a Materials Writing Team under the leadership of Siti Soeriyah, and later, Anneke Senduk. Since that time, promising writers have been recruited to write coursebooks needed by LIA, always with a view to looking at current language teaching theories and incorporating them into classroom materials.
     After all the progress and manifold achievements through the long journey and endless hard work, it is our duty and responsibility to keep publishing our own materials and tests.