On Saturday, September 14, 2024, a thesis proposal seminar was held, where 60 linguistics students presented their proposals in seven different classrooms and three different sessions. The seminar began at nine in the morning and ended at three in the afternoon. Every session lasted from 90 to 120 minutes, in which each student got 30 minutes to present their proposal and get feedback from the reviewer and audience. 

Each class and session is divided based on the student’s field of interest and the similarity of the research topics they are pursuing.  In every session, a reviewer kindly read, listened, and suggested the students with some related theories and other contexts to improve their research. The reviewers were Prof. Dr. I Dewa Putu Wijana,  Prof. Dr. Hendrokumoro, M.Hum., Dr. Aprillia Firmonasari, S.S., M.Hum., DEA.,  Dr. Sailal Arimi, M.Hum., Dr. Wiwik Retno Handayani, S.S., M.Hum., Dr. Arief Ma’nawi, S.S., M.Hum., Dr. Daru Winarti, M.Hum., Dr. Hayatul Cholsy, M.Hum., Dr. Suhandano, M.A., Dr. Sajarwa, M.Hum.,  Dr. Tatang Hariri, M.A., Dr. Tri Mastoyo, M.Hum., and Dr. Merry Andriani, S.S., M.L.C.S. 

Rintan, a descriptive linguistics student, said she presented her proposal discussing deadjectival verbs used in children’s books. “I was the very last participant in the room but I wasn’t that nervous because, in my mind, I set myself as a half-full glass ready to be filled with fresh insight to make an ideal thesis in the future.” Widya, a translation student, also added that the feedback from the reviewer was really helpful to enhance the discussion in her thesis. 

In the lens of the reviewer, Dr. Daru Winarti, M.Hum, did appreciate the students’ hard work. “The students worked well in preparing the proposal within a limited time. They might not describe the background of the study clearly and deeply, but once we talked about the theoretical framework and methodology, they could present it very well. The students know exactly what they are going to do and I appreciate it a lot,” Dr. Dari Winarti explained. The next job, for the students, is to revise the proposal and conduct the research. Ultimately, both the students and the reviewers aspire for the research to be conducted successfully, presenting a result that makes a significant contribution to society academically and practically. 

89 linguistics students from batch 2024 gathered online on Saturday, August 10, 2024, and on Sunday, August 11, 2024, Kalingga (Keluarga Linguistik Universitas Gadjah Mada) welcomed the students in Auditorium Sugondo. Dr. Suhandano, M.A., the head of the Master’s Program in Linguistics, officially welcomed all the new students. The main focus of the meeting was a discussion of academic things before the first semester began. “We learned about how the lecturers held, the syllabus, and all the administrative stuff. Also, the most important thing was about the study plan. We did talk about it a lot since we did not have any clue how to plan and choose the course. Gladly, all the information was shared,” said Kiva.

On the second day, Kalingga held a gathering to welcome the freshmen. It opened by introducing what Kalingga is. It invited the first head of the organization, Aziz Zulfian Afisianto to give a brief history of the organization. It was followed by Yuliana Kristianti, the head of Kalingga, who discussed Kalingga’s work in academic learning and the program they run. 

The interesting part was the discussion involving the linguistics students from batch 2023 to share their experiences while studying in this program. The discussion was conducted in a small group based on three concentrations: descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and translation. “In my group, the translation group, we talked about who the lecturers are, and the learning system in every course. We also tried to use Simaster,” Dita explained. Dita and Kiva also mentioned that this sort of discussion was worth conducting since they could get more detailed information regarding the real-life situation that they might encounter. 

To end the gathering, linguistics students in batch 2024 decided to choose a representative as the bridge to share information from the department as well as the study program with the students. “I hope that all the discussions held, either held by the study program or by Kalingga, can be a medium to get and share important information that can boost their academic performance in the future. I wish you very good luck” said Yuliana. 

 

After the preparation of FIBAA international accreditation, that day had come. August 7-9, 2024 was the D-day for the event. The series of accreditations was held online where Universitas Gadjah Mada welcomed the accessor on the first day of the event followed by assessing the three study programs, the Bachelor of French Language and Literature, Bachelor of Philosophy, and Master’s in Linguistics, on the second and third day of the event. 

The University held an online reception attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, as well as all vice deans, the Head of Master’s Program in Linguistics, the Head of Bachelor’s Program in French Language and Literature, and the Head of Bachelor’s Program in Philosophy. They discussed the various aspects regarding how the university responds to the learning system such as the strategy, the rankings, and research support. The discussion marked the initial meeting to accredit the three study programs. 

On the second day, an in-depth discussion was held involving the lecturers, the students, and the alumni. It mainly focused on the discussion of how the study programs apply the learning system and its strategy to keep up-to-date with the rapid changes in the academic world and society. A similar discussion was held on the third day. It involved the academic staff and they talked about the way to manage and organize the educational practices within the study program. The third day was also the last day, thus, it was the end of the FIBAA visitation where the representatives of FIBAA closed the visitation by reviewing all the activity that had been conducted. 

It is important for our study programs to be assessed by particular organizations or foundations. It is a medium to evaluate the study program, in particular for the Master’s Program in Linguistics, to maintain and improve the quality of the educational program. It also enables our study program to ensure curriculum, facilities, and overall educational practices meet the standards as well as to encourage us to stay current with the changing academic and professional demands, which will provide the student with high-quality education not to mention the quality of our graduate.

On Thursday, June 13, 2024, the representatives of three study programs, the Master’s Program in Linguistics, Undergraduate Program in Philosophy, and Undergraduate Program in French Language and Literature gathered in the University Club to prepare for the international accreditation held by The Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA). It is planned that FIBAA visitation will be conducted online on August 7-9, 2024. 

FIBAA is an international accreditation institution based in Germany. It was established for quality assurance and development in higher education. In addition, the accreditation aims to promote, renew, and reform systems and institutions in higher education, by providing quality certificates to educational programs and higher education institutions.

The preparation was a coordination meeting, led by dr. Widya Wasityastuti, M.Sc., M.Med.Ed., Ph.D, to talk about and organize administrative stuff to prepare the accreditation. Each study program delivered its suggested participants–students, alumni, lecturers, and staff–to be the representatives. It also discussed the material for the handout to be distributed to the participants which can be the reference to collect the information regarding the faculty and study program. Previously, FIBAA has visited several study programs in Universitas Gadja Mada, which were Undergraduate and Master’s Programs in Law, Faculty of Psychology, and Master’s Program in Politics and Governance. 

“Master’s program in Linguistics has been accredited by the BAN-PT and AUN-QA as an excellent study program. Taking part in this accreditation, it is expected that our study program will improve and solidify its quality, which has already been proven nationally and internationally. In other words, this accreditation will confirm that the Master’s Program in Linguistics is qualified internationally.” Dr. Suhandano, M.A., the head of the Master’s Program in Linguistics, stated. 

A psycholinguistics class went viral because of a video exposing the students presenting their material discussing how psychology correlates with linguistics aspects in local languages as their mother tongue such as Javanese, Sundanese, and Buginese language. It was on everyone’s lips on the internet. Tatang Hariri, Ph.D, as the lecturer in that class, gave his view. 

“Well, I need to clarify that the language referred to is not the local language, but their first language. However, since most of the students are Indonesian whose first language is the local language, it might seem as though I am asking them to use the local language,” Tatang clarified. He said that the main point of this process is about language proficiency. 

Because of globalization and technological advancement, local language proficiency will decline as foreign languages permeate various aspects of life. Diaspora students might be also compelled to abandon the local language in order to adapt to new communities. They tend to use Indonesian as the national language to communicate with people from other regions. This issue can be observed in the academic field as well. The students use foreign languages for academic purposes such as looking for references and writing scholarly works. “Because of those reasons, I ask the students to present their material in their local language to help them maintain their first language,” Tatang argued. 

Tatang explained that it is not the first time he asked the student to use their first language or the local language in their presentation. It has been more than five years since the first time but this time, thanks to the technology, the class went viral. The psycholinguistics class is not the only class in which he asked the students to use their first language to present their material. The students who joined contrastive linguistics also had to do the same learning process. 

Zalfah, a student from contrastive linguistics class, and Rizal, a student from psycholinguistics class affirmed that this method is interesting yet challenging. “It was good that I can maintain my proficiency and I can introduce my local language that other students probably don’t know about,” said Rizal. “I also think that using local language in public, in an academic field, is quite important. It challenged me to be able to present the correct one and it made me think that the language should be spoken by the next generation,” Zalfah added. Vina also mentioned that this method boosted her pride in using her local language. “Some people will laugh at people who speak in Javanese with ngapak dialect. It is kind of an insult which made me embarrassed to speak in that dialect. But through this class, I can proudly present that-ngapak-dialect and I feel more confident and respected,” told Vina. In the class, the other students would not be lost in understanding because the presenter showed the material through PowerPoint and written in Indonesian or English. 

“The point is I expect that the students will be confident enough to present their own culture through the language. I encourage them to be proud of their language and culture. And through this process, it is sort of an introduction to other cultures,” Tatang explained. He ended by asking us, “If not us, who else will preserve it?”

In this era, academicians and scholars are expected to have a well-written research publication. FIB UGM in collaboration with UiTM Pahang held an academic writing workshop to support and enhance competency in presenting their research in the form of journal articles. The workshop was conducted on Thursday, Mei, 30 2024 where Dr. Badli and Dr. Kamisah were the speakers. To affirm this collaboration, FIB UGM, and UiTM Pahang assigned an MoA declaring the partnership in research and publication. 

The workshop was opened by Dr. Suhandano, M.A., the head of the Master’s Program in Linguistics Universitas Gadjah Mada. “It is expected that you (the students) can develop your ideas in conducting research and put them in a good article. Therefore, we must comprehend the structure of journal writing, its format, and the language used in academic formal writing to be able to publish our works,” he stated. The first speaker was Dr. Badli, followed by Associate Prof. Dr. Kamisah. Dr. Badli presented some key points in submitting and publishing the journal articles. Meanwhile, Dr. Kamisah talked about the way to write a well-written article. 

Discussing the publishing steps, Dr. Badli opened the session by asking, “Writing the whole article then deciding the journal to publish it or choosing the journal first then starting writing the article, which one is better?” Then, he presented his view on choosing the publishers and gave some tips for choosing a suitable journal publisher. 

Dr. Kamsiah followed the second round of the workshop by describing the structure of a journal article. She explained the chapters of the article one by one to clearly illustrate the points that the writers should have within each section. Dr. Kamsiah also shared some tips regarding producing a novel research article. 

“The workshop was decisive for us as an academician and it was insightful. The speakers were so much inspiring and I learned a lot. Sometimes, I felt like I was not sure enough about my articles but Dr. Badli and Dr. Kamisah encouraged me and us to believe in ourselves to submit and publish the manuscript confidently,” said Amanda.

A varied dialect within a multilingual country might emerge as a phenomenon where the people speak the same language but still can’t understand what other people say from another area. For instance, the Javanese people who live in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and East Java speak and hold Javanese culture. However, they might be confused or clueless about what the listener says in a conversation. Thanks to the language variation that brought so-called dialect.  

Dialectology, a linguistics study focusing on how language differs based on geography and social factors, comes to assist in answering the question. In this case, 14 students from dialectology class attempted to study vocabulary (words or phrases) variation specific to certain regions. They went to Jombang, East Java on May 10-11, 2024, to find the vocabulary variation of the Javanese language. 

“There are 14 students in our class and they spread into 5 groups. Each group went to different sub-districts, which were Perak, Wonosalam, Diwek, and Peterongan. We brought 200 Swadesh word lists to find out the changes from the Javanese standard by interviewing an informant in each sub-district,” Eduar explained. Those sub-districts were chosen based on their hypothesis. “Diwek and Perak are in the west of Jombang, so we predict that the people still use the Mataraman dialect while Wonosalam and Petarongan are in the east. Thus, the people are most likely to use the Surabayanan dialect,” Dina added. From the data gathered, they compared and mapped the changes. 

The students said that this field trip was a priceless experience. It gave a clear picture of how a linguist collects the data such as planning the program, coordinating with the locals, and interacting as well as interviewing them. “It was fun and always be a valuable experience for me. As a Javanese native speaker, I learned a lot from this experience. For instance, I didn’t know that the word kenceng means lurus (go straight on) in their dialect. All I know kenceng is banter or kencang (fast). It, of course, enhances my knowledge,” Dinda illustrated what she felt. 

“I think it would be fantastic if we could continue to hold field trips like this in the future. We learned a lot. I hope the department, the faculty, or the parties involved will always support this sort of activity,” said Ningrum.

On Saturday, May 4th, 2024, the anthropology linguistics class held a field trip to Cilacap in order to get to know the locals, in particular the people who live in the coastal area. Approximately 65 students joined the field trip. They were divided into two classes, which were Class A and Class B. Class A focused on the people and the place around Teluk Penyu Beach such as how people communicate in a particular situation and the toponym around the town. Meanwhile, class B tried to picture the people and its culture. For instance, some groups observed how the locals present their gratitude through sedekah laut and how the people who are fishermen use the equipment, particularly the people in Tegalkamulyan village. 

“We were intrigued by the event that they called sedekah laut, a special event only held by people in Cilacap,” said Fandi, a student from class B. He further explained that people in Cilacap deliver their gratitude towards the Almighty by serving some offerings. “ We were dumbfounded that they use more than 100 kinds of things as the offering where each symbolizes a certain idea,” Fandi stated. 

Another group from class B tried to describe the equipment used by the local fishermen where they discovered that naming the equipment based on its appearance such as its size and its shape. A similar topic also was discussed by a group from class A. Auna explained that his group tried to illustrate the toponym around the town. On the other hand, Dila and her group took ethnographic communication to observe the interaction between fish traders and the buyers in TPI (Fish Auction Place). “We should’ve visited the TPI but unfortunately we came a little bit too late and the weather wasn’t that good which made them close the TPI. However, we still got the data in particular about the type of communication by interviewing several fishermen,” Lova added. 

This field trip was initiated to implement what the students have learned in class and also to get more information from the experts as Dr. Suhandano delivered his remarks to officially open the activity. “The field trip was fun and insightful. We didn’t not only learn about the linguistics aspect but also tried to dig deeper to understand the culture that will enhance the analysis,” Ulfa said. 

This field trip was held in cooperation between the Master’s Program in Linguistics and the fishermen organization, Himpunan Nelayan Seluruh Indonesia Kabupaten Cilacap. “We do hope that such an activity like this will always be conducted. It gave us the real picture of being a researcher and also created a strong collaboration with organizations and the people,” said Imam. 

Seven week of lectures have passed and the students have to take their mid-term exam. The university had determined the mid-term exam period on the 1st–26th of April 2024 where the lecturers have the authority to organize the exam. The Master of Linguistics students batch 2023 shared their experience taking this examination. 

“I am taking seven classes and I have to submit three papers for this mid-term exam,” said Tata and Ilham, Master of Linguistics students who take Social Linguistics as their field of interest. From the Descriptive Linguistics group, Damai said that she had to submit several papers and present her research. Similar to other students, Wanda, who chose Translation as her field of interest, said that she had to submit papers reviewing some journals and discussing a particular topic, write a thesis proposal, and take a practical exam.  

The students expressed that the preparation for the exam was challenging. Gathering ideas, topics, and literature to construct the papers was tough and laborious but still enjoyable. “I was clueless about the things that I had to write but having a fun discussion with my friends helped me a lot to find enlightenment in making my masterpieces,” Ilham declared proudly. “It is my second mid-term examination and I got the experience (from the previous semester) that made me more prepared. But still, it was stressful since I was the one who was a deadliner” said Damai while giggling. In composing the papers, the students have several strategies such as making their own deadline for collecting the data and writing every part of the papers. Despite all the intricacy, according to Tata and Damai, this mid-term exam period would be another experience since they will join a field trip for Anthropological Linguistics and Dialectology where they need to collect the data by interviewing and observing a particular group of people as part of the mid-term examination. 

The mid-term exam is finally over. The students hope that they will get good marks. “It’s not only about the good marks but I hope I can comprehend all the material and the things that I read and learned well. It is more important than only having a good grade without knowing the essence and mastering the lesson,” Ilham ended.