Yanti Sri Rezeki

Affiliation: Doctoral Student and Fulbright Scholar
Program: EdD, Teaching & Curriculum
Homeland: Indonesia
Previous Education: Graduate of Tanjungpura University and Monash University of Australia
Background: Taught English as a foreign language to future educators at Tanjungpura University

Though English wasn’t taught at the elementary school level in her native Indonesia, Yanti Sri Rezeki would learn what she could while watching westerns and other English-subtitled movies on television. She received two hours of formal English training per week in junior high, and by high school, wanting even more instruction but unable to afford private lessons, decided to develop her skills independently, and was soon representing her school in English speech contests.

That background eventually led to a lecturer position teaching English as a foreign language to future educators at Tanjungpura University, where she’d received her undergraduate degree. But after years of writing articles in academic journals, participating in international conferences and seminars, and leading teacher training workshops, she felt the need to do even more for her students.

“I was still concerned about their English skills, especially in writing,” says Rezeki, a Fulbright scholar and a doctoral student in the teaching and curriculum program. “Writing is a very complex skill. It requires us to understand grammar, development of ideas, organization, and many other aspects that reflect our ability as a whole to learn a language. And with publication getting more and more important, whether you’re in teaching or another profession, being able to write well is crucial.”

After discovering the Warner School and Associate Professor Mary Jane Curry’s publications online, Rezeki knew she’d found the right place to enhance her own aptitude and help design a project-based learning approach to teaching English writing skills to her students back home. In her first year at Warner, she is unsure of a specific dissertation topic, but knows that it will involve a well-developed and research-based model—whether in a syllabus or entire curriculum—for building mastery in critical thinking, independence, collaboration, and communication.

In addition to the courses she takes, the Warner School’s weekly Wednesday luncheons, Professor Mary Jane Curry’s monthly cohort group meetings with her doctoral students, and Writing Support Services workshops and consultants all help Rezeki improve her language and content knowledge, which she hopes will someday lead to a professorship. (She also has enjoyed taking advantage of the up-to-date library collections, small class sizes, and uninterrupted Internet connections that her university, in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, is unable to offer.)

“When I return to teaching,” she says, “I will bring these experiences with me and implement the appropriate ones to improve the education in my country, as I always wished and attempted to do.”