One of the most difficult parts about the Indonesian classroom is navigating the Malu culture–or shyness within the classroom. For ETA Sophia Lockwood and her co-teacher, Bu Endah, there has been a lot of trial and error, but they have found that the students are their most confident while working in small groups. They feel the most comfortable discussing material in English with their classmates. Most people can relate to the comfort of making grammatical mistakes with their peers rather than our teachers. These small groups allow room for everyone to have a voice within the English classroom.

One of the students’ favorite small group activities included working with board games. They played the game “Odd One Out” with the addition of conjunctions. The students had many questions about the American lifestyle after playing, but they all worked together to finish the task. Using board games in the classroom has shown Sophia that sometimes all you need is a board game to make connections here.

Sophia Lockwood is currently teaching at MAN 2 Klaten, Central Java.