The English club set out to do a new, adventurous project – to create their podcast to appreciate Indonesian culture, heritage, and arts.

This is the first time a podcast has been made in SMAN 3 Banjarbaru, so the students collaborated as a team to achieve this. The students involved were hosts Nabilla and Rafiqi; interviewers Fajar, Kevin, Minnah, Mey, Muna, Ziddan, Syahid, and Fariz; videographers Cika, Atika, Uno, Danish; and editors Atika and Nabilla.

All the students put their time and effort into making an engaging and informative podcast episode for a widespread audience.

Before interviewing community members, ETA Tineer led two workshops where students created at least five research questions in English to ask performers. During the mock podcast episode, English teachers Ibu Ari and Ibu Mahrita acted as potential interviewees and gave constructive feedback to improve the student’s skills.

On International Mother Language Day, the students watched dancers and poets showcase their talents on stage and then interview them for the podcast. In one of the interviews, the students asked Bapak Rhoni about his inspiration for choreographing a unique Banjar dance involving a guitar. The students edited a 30-minute video to finalize the project and translated the dialogue from Bahasa Indonesia to English subtitles. Please view the YouTube video “The Charm of Indonesian Dance and Poetry” via https://youtu.be/VU2ubOvBwOk?si=kzPiYlhPa2NIqwxS.

The students had fun taking on new roles in a team and gained more confidence in interviewing and interpersonal connections while engaging with their community. Overall, the student-run podcast fostered an environment outside the classroom that encouraged students to build real-life communication skills in English.

Tineer Ahmed is currently teaching at SMAN 3 Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan.