Review of “A Reference Indonesian Grammar for Speakers of Indonesian as a Foreign Language”
Reviewed by Noviyanti Yulius
Summary in English
This grammar book is written by teachers of BIPA, a language program managed by the University of Indonesia specializing in teaching Indonesian as a foreign language. It primarily discusses different kinds of words and their affixes with a lot of examples in sentences.
The title is quite misleading as it does not indicate that the book is mainly on ‘words’. People might assume from the title that it contains everything they look for in learning the grammar of the language. As the chapters are written by four authors, we can see some variety in the presentation style. The book is comprehensive and very detailed. Written in Indonesian, it is obviously difficult for the book to serve as a reference for beginners or learners on the intermediate levels as they do not yet have the sufficient knowledge of the language to be able to understand the explanations in the book.
When used as a reference, the chapters can be referred to independently. With
lots of examples, clear explanation, and many exercises for the learners, the
book can be a reliable source of information for those who already have a
significant background in the Indonesian language.