The Master’s Program in Linguistics, Faculty of Cultural Sciences Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), held a public lecture titled “Outside Perspectives: Language Classification in Multilingual Oral Corpora” at the R. Soegondo Auditorium. The event welcomed both the academic community and the general public, featuring Dr. Zara Maxwell-Smith, Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), UNSW Canberra, as the keynote speaker.

The lecture was officially opened by Prof. Dr. Suhandano, M.A., Head of the Linguistics Master’s Program. In his remarks, he encouraged participants to collaborate in advancing linguistic research and to take full advantage of the opportunity to learn from the invited speaker.

In her presentation, Dr. Maxwell-Smith highlighted the major challenges of building a multilingual oral corpus. She explained that such corpora are difficult to annotate and describe, noting obstacles such as managing non-verbal signals, converting oral communication into cross-linguistic written systems, transcriber subjectivity, and the extensive time required for manual transcription.

She then presented findings from her research on Indonesian language teaching for non-native speakers (BIPA) in classroom settings. According to her, teacher speech is a professional practice that carries risks if not managed carefully, as training data may shape perceptions of teaching practices as well as teachers’ own understanding of their work. She emphasized the importance of employing sensitive approaches to prevent negative impacts on the professional reputation of educators.

Despite these challenges, Dr. Maxwell-Smith also emphasized the empirical benefits of the research. Her findings can inform teachers, curriculum developers, researchers, and policymakers. More broadly, the study contributes to the improvement of Indonesian language teaching, provides resources for bilingual NLP development, and positions education at the core of NLP technology applications.

The air was filled with a mix of excitement and anticipation as new 2025 Linguistic students gathered for a special welcoming event on August 14th, 2025. The program has led a student gathering to mark the start of their academic journey. This event was meticulously planned to introduce the newly enrolled students to the program, campus community, and the opportunities that lay ahead.

The event commenced with a series of formal addresses. Firstly, the chairperson of the committee, Aninda Ayu, delivered a welcoming speech, highlighting the importance of the gathering and the potential that each new student brings to the university. This was followed by a heartfelt address from the Kalingga’s chairperson, Rezki Ramadhani, who introduced the organization’s role in fostering a vibrant student community and providing support for all members.

Next, the head of the study program, Prof. Dr. Suhandano, M.A., offered a pivotal two-part session. First, a warm speech that welcomes the new students, and the second is a comprehensive academic information session. The Head of the Study Program also outlined the study plan mechanism, academic policies, and the faculty’s resources to accommodate students’ research. “This activity provides insight for batch 2025 students to understand the study flow and culture in FIB UGM, as well as getting to know the three concentrations, descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and translation better.  It allows a thorough discussion between the head of the study program, student organization, and all students to prepare and adapt to the new academic term,” said Rizky Alida, the representative of the Linguistics Program.

The atmosphere then shifted to a more relaxed and joyful mood with a special entertainment segment from various linguistics students. The event was further concluded with two key activities focused on community building and leadership. It is the further introduction of Kalingga, an integral part of the student body. It provided an opportunity for new students to learn about the organization and how they could become involved. Finally, the election of the class chairman was held, and Nawalul Fawaid El Haqi was elected as the class chairman of the Linguistics batch of 2025.

By the end of the day, the new students left with not only a clearer understanding of their academic path but also a sense of belonging and community. “I was initially confused about what specialization to take, but now I have an overview of what each specialization will be like. It really helped me to navigate my future research,” said Annisa Eka Octaviani, one of the new Linguistics students. They are ready to embrace the opportunities that await them.