Ubud is one of the areas in Bali that is rich in local culture and green views of rice fields presented by its nature. One of the villages that is often visited by foreign tourists is Mas Village. Recently, this village participated in the 2021 Indonesian Tourism Village Award (ADWI). In order to prepare tourist destinations, the community in Mas Village, Ubud, is deemed necessary to carry out human resource development and coaching with assistance for tourism actors and the local community, so that it will improve the quality of the actors or providers of tourism services themselves.
One important aspect in terms of this development is the aspect of communication in a foreign language which will later make it easier for them when transacting or exchanging information, one of which is English. For this reason, Warmadewa University (Unwar) formed a team in the Community Service (PKM) program and held an Instagram-based English training program using the blended learning method. Chaired by Made Sani Damayanthi Muliawan, SS, M.Hum, this PKM program targets junior high school students in the Desa Adat Mas area, Ubud, Gianyar with the aim of making students proficient or fluent in English. Sani explained that in this pandemic situation, the English learning they received was less than optimal. "Therefore, it is necessary to provide learning with fun methods so that it can motivate them to learn," he added. Sani views that English has become a global language, a connector, a language of modern science and information. In short, English has become a 'passport' for everyone in a global world full of competition.
.In Bali itself, English is one of the skills that must be mastered considering that Bali is one of the tourist destinations that is visited by many foreign tourists. "No English, No Money" is the slogan uttered by one of the tour guides in Ubud, Gianyar. Sani regrets that junior high school students should be able to communicate in English even with ungrammatical sentence structures, but at least the message they convey can be understood well. Furthermore, Sani said that during the pandemic, some students used Instagram only as a means of entertainment, whereas if used properly, Instagram can be used to increase their insight, especially in improving English. This was conveyed by Sani on the sidelines of the activity, Friday (16/7/2021). "This program runs for approximately two months with a blended learning method, namely a mixture of face-to-face and online methods," he explained. Face-to-face activities need to be carried out in game activities such as role play, mimic games, and other games.
By providing games, students can be motivated so that they are more enthusiastic about learning. Face-to-face activities were carried out at the LPD Office of Mas Village, Ubud, Gianyar by implementing Covid-19 health protocols. After the face-to-face activities ended, they were given tasks by the PKM Team. The tasks given were to create image or video content related to the material they had received during the activities. The content is uploaded via Instagram and will be reposted by the PKM team. In addition, they are also required to provide questions and comments on the content on @inggris.pedia. The number of participants who joined this activity was 43 students. Head of Mas Traditional Village, Ir. I Wayan Gede Arsania welcomed this activity. At the end of the activity, he advised the students not to forget the materials that had been given, but to apply them.
