Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Teachers’ Perceptionson Intergrating Cultural Contents in English Language Teaching at Junior High Schools, Salatiga
TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON INTERGRATING CULTURAL
CONTENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
The thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
NOVIA AUSTRALIANE IDADI
112014018
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
2018
TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON INTERGRATING CULTURAL
CONTENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
The thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
NOVIA AUSTRALIANE IDADI
112014018
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
2018
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course
or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other
person except where due reference is made in the text.Copyright @2018: Novia Australiane Idadi and Anita Kurniawati, M.Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education Program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana Salatiga.
Novia Australiane Idadi :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ABSTRACT
Language is an expression of culture. Therefore, it is essential for language learners to become aware of the culture of the language learnt. The challenge for English teachers in Indonesia is how they will integrate cultural content in their English classrooms with Indonesia students as their audience. That was because Indonesia students already have their own culture. The aim of this research is to explore teachers’ perspectives in integrating cultural content in their English language classes. This is a qualitative research with 10 English Junior High School (JHS) teachers as participants. These participants age range vary from 24-56 years old, with teaching experience ranging from 3
- – 25 years. Data were collected using semi-structured interview and then grouped based on reoccurring themes. This research shows that teachers have positive perspectives on integrating cultural content in their English classes. Integrating cultural content is believed to be beneficial in raising awareness to cultural diversity, increasing sensitivity to source culture and also giving examples of good practices that exist in other culture. In practical level, participants of this research is not only including English and Indonesia culture as target and source culture, but also other nations’ cultural examples to broaden the students’ perspectives. Admittedly, there are challenges in doing this, as found in this research. Students’ attachment and familiarity toward source culture has proven to be the main factor that challenged them to relate, understand and implement the target culture in their English language learning. Keywords: ELT, culture, target culture, benefit, challenges
INTRODUCTION
Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. Therefore, it is important to be aware that for a successful language learning, the learner should also learn the culture within which the language is spoken. This basic notion also applies to English language learning. Understanding the culture will enable non-native English speakers to use the language meaningfully and effectively. Failure in understanding the context or culture within which the English language is used may result in confusions and misunderstandings of meanings which further will be a challenge in communication.
Regardless of the language mastery of a non-native speaker, a person might still be a ‘fluent fool’ (Bennet, 1993) when one does not understand the social and philosophical content of the language.
The concept elaborated above directly impacted on how language teaching classrooms, ELT included, should be conducted. ELT classrooms should incorporate the learning of culture in their language teaching. Brown (1986) stated that culture is compulsory because it becomes a part of interaction between language and thought. By learning the English culture in ELT classrooms, students will not only be equipped with language literacy but moreover they will understand the setting or context in which the language is used.
However, integrating cultural learning in language teaching classrooms is not always easy. In classrooms management, teacher plays a significant role and this might act as an advantage but also disadvantages at the same time. In an effort to integrate cultural learning in language teaching classrooms, teacher should really be able to embrace the basic notion and further also have enough knowledge on the culture so that the teacher becomes comfortable in delivering the classes. Challenges might occur when teachers are not comfortable to include culture learning in the language classes. Tafaroji and Raeesi (2015) stated in their study that some of the reasons why teachers do not talk much about cultural issues in their language classrooms are shortage of time, lack of cultural target knowledge, or lack of training of cultural teaching.
When I was doing a teaching practice at a Junior High School (JHS) in Salatiga, I found that most of the students have difficulties in understanding some English words, phrases and even sentences related to cultural content. Understanding culture is necessary because questions related to culture might appear in the test and even in a national examination. However, it seems that the cultural content exposures in an English classroom were still limited.
It depends on the teacher’s willingness to introduce the cultural content. With this consideration, I would like to investigate further whether this also happens in other JHS contexts. A research question - what are
JHS English teachers’ perceptions on integrating cultural content in their teaching? - would be addressed in this study. The significance of this study is to make the teachers have more awareness on how they perceive of integrating cultural content.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The definitions of cultureIt is generally agreed that language and culture are closely related. In order to have a full understanding on these two concepts and how they intertwined, it is essential to look at each concept’s definition. Byram (2008) defined culture as shared beliefs, values and behaviors of a social group while Kramsch (2002) defined language as not only a tool of information exchange but as a symbolic system. Then, McLeod (1976, p. 212) also state that "by teaching a language is already teaching culture implicitly.
” Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. Language is used to maintain and convey culture.
Uddin (2014) stated that culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. In a recent study of reaction times, Tomalin (2008) was further explaining if EFL could introduce both of Big C and small c. In this way, Abdollahi, M. G., & Subakir, M.M.Y., Kim, T.H., & Aghaei, K. (2012) stated that “big C culture was related to the literature, music, art, architecture, and politics. Whereas the small c was linked with the behavioral patterns or lifestyles. For examples are the way of eating, making friends, agree or disagree with others” (p. 119). Then, language becomes one of the things which were included into the big C culture. Those statements should make the English teacher recognize that culture and language were connected to each other. That was because language is one of culture
’ products. Meanwhile, culture could be divided into three big parts of contents. Those are source culture, target culture and International culture (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999).
Source culture was linked with the teacher and students’ own language and culture. Yet, the target language was focused on English language and culture. And international sources were preparing the materials which covers a variety of knowledge from different cultures all over the world using the target language (McKay, pp. 9-10). McKay (2000) also claimed if those three c ulture contents’ could be built on a multitude of context and resources while teaching English (Weninger & Kiss, 2013, pp. 2).
The aim of integrating culture
In language learning, the concept that language and culture is undivided should be really understood. It has always been argued that cultural teaching and learning still have a supplemental status in the language classroom (Castro, Sercu and Garcia, 2004; Chavez, 2002; Tsou, 2005). It is safe to assume that cultural learning is an integral part of language learning. Kramsch (1994) stated that language should not be seen as a simple body of knowledge to be learned but it should also be seen as a social practice in which to participate. Understanding of the setting or cultural context in which a language is spoken will help understanding the meaning of the language and also how to use it.
Cultural understanding is definitely helpful for students who are learning another language, especially in relation to speaking skill. Marczak (2010) claimed that learners’
capacity of comprehension on speaking skill is very influenced by their information of the cultural background of English. In addition, by understanding the culture, students will be able to identify and further understand the local values and behavior which will definitely determine how particular word, phrase or sentence is spoken and understood. Nevertheless, aware of the appropriate culture in addressing people, disagree with someone, express gratitude or make requests were also became the crucial things when applying the foreign language (Peterson & Coltrane, 2003).
Integrating cultural content in language learning classes is hoped to promote interest in learning the target culture. According to Tavares and Cavalcanti (1996), “the aim of teaching culture is to intensify students' awareness and expand their curiosity towards both the target and home culture.
” In addition, Kaikkonen (2001, p. 64) cited on (Tafaroji & Raeesi, 2015, p. 535) added that "the most substantial purpose of foreign language education is to help learners cultivate out of the shell of their mother tongue and their own culture.
” Next, based on what (Lie, 2007) has written that in the 2004 Curriculum Indonesian' government had designed curriculum for junior and senior high schools are as follows (translated from Indonesian in Depdiknas, 2004):
1. Developing communicative competence in spoken and written English which comprises listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
2. Raising awareness regarding the nature and importance of English as a foreign language and as a major means of learning.
3. Developing an understanding of the interrelation of language and culture as well as cross-cultural understanding (p.6).
The third point from the evidence above should make the English teacher in Indonesia recognize to introduce target culture in the English classroom. That was crucial for students' understanding of target language and culture. Knowledge of English culture will increase students’ curiosity in mastering the language. Pulverness (2003) asserted that to emerge English as an International language, cultural contents and contextual background should be implemented too. Yet, a recent phenomenon in regards to Korean culture has also proven this assumption to be true where more young people aspired to learn Korean language as a result of the nation’s pop culture which was famous world- wide. That phenomenon could be used for the material of introducing international culture in English lesson. The material might be taken from the universal story around the world, but the language which was used is English.
Learning about other culture, in this case English culture, in language classes will also raise awareness and sensitivity toward diversity. This might help to strengthen students’ own cultural identity but at the same time will broaden students’ perspectives. This is an important aspect of being the citizen of the world. Only by having global understanding on diversity with strong self-identity can a person maintain a place in the global world.
Challenges in integrating cultural content in ELT classrooms
Integrating cultural content in language classrooms is highly dependent on teachers’ decision and capability. Teachers might find difficulties to teach culture in the same way when they taught the basic of language competencies, like grammar or vocabulary (Allen, 2000, in Ho, p. 48). In line with this, Tafaroji and Raeesi (2015) also found that teachers were unsure of integrating cultural content in their EFL classes because they did not really understand of cultural content that should be integrated to their language classes. In addition to the teaching of language competencies, teachers should also have adequate understanding in explaining the target culture. Therefore, teachers’ own background knowledge on target culture, and the lack of it, has also been a challenge in the attempt to integrate cultural content in language classes (Sercu, 2005).
Knowledge of target culture or lack of it influenced teachers’ comfort in using the content in their language teaching.
Students’ openness and flexibility to relate to and accept other cultures are another challenge in integrating cultural content in language learning. Culture consists of values, beliefs, tradition and habits that have been formed from the moment a person understood his/her place in social group. This is not something that can be easily influenced or altered. The success of influencing someone’s view on certain things is deeply depended on how strong the opinion or position has been formed. Therefore, it is important to be aware that while introducing target culture in language learning is essential, source culture should also be included as comparison to show that the cultural content was given as a media for getting better understanding on the language.
As far as I searched, the literature of the field displays studies that English JHS’ teachers have not the same perceptions on integrating cultural contents while teaching
English. That is because not all of the English teachers had been already introducing culture in language classes. Teachers might find some difficulties on implementing culture. Therefore, this study aims to uncover perceptions of teachers in integrating cultural and point out how far these views are in line or mismatch understanding. That was because understanding target culture is also beneficial for the students who are learning a foreign language. However, the literature shows that not all of English teachers were aware of this matter. That might because implemented culture is not utilizable for some English teachers.
THE STUDY
ContextThree Junior High Schools were chosen for this study with the purpose of getting a comprehensive view of the teachers on the research question. All of these schools were Indonesian public schools. These schools were chosen based on the rank of popularity, highly popular, second best and least popular, proven by people’s interest in getting their children or themselves into the schools.
Participants
A total of 10 teachers were interviewed for this research, consisting of 3 male teachers and 7 female teachers. The age ranges of the participants were 24
- – 56 years old with teaching experience ranging from 3 to 25 years. All of the participants graduated from English educations. For confidentiality, participants were presented in code.
Data Collection Instrument
The semi-structured interview was selected as the instrument for collecting data. I chose this instrument to provide an opportunity for follow-up questions. It made the interview felt more relax and comfortable when giving or explaining the information. The interview was also conducted in bahasa Indonesia. It made the teacher be free in answering the questions without thinking the patterns in English. The piloting data was also conducted on another state school at Salatiga. This aimed to check whether the interview questions were understandable or not. Then, the interview continued to look for the data in those three schools that had been chosen.
Data Collections Procedures
Informed consent were presented and explained to the research participants after the school agreed on the proposed research. Data collection in this research was conducted using a semi-structured interview. This instrument provides an opportunity for in depth-exploration and follow-up questions. The instrument was previously validated for meaning clearance. Each interview took around 10-25 minutes in which the conversation was recorded and notes were taken. The interview was conducted in the teachers’ mother tongue, Indonesia language to allow the freedom of expressions. The three main questions which had used are:
Which one do you use in your teaching (target culture, source culture, universal culture)?
3. From your perspective, what are some advantages of bringing various culture contents in teaching process?
Data Analysis Procedures
Collected data were then listened to repeatedly and transcribed. The interview transcriptions ’ were read repeatedly to find reoccurring themes. The themes were about the benefit of integrating culture in EL, teachers
’ preference on choosing the culture contents, and the challenge of introducing culture. Results of the interviews were grouped based on the themes and then discussion and conclusions were drawn.
FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS
Integrating cultural content in ELT classrooms is beneficialParticipants were supporting the idea of integrating cultural content in their ELT classrooms for various reasons. That was like what Thanasoulas (2001) points out if
Yet,
teaching language is involved in teaching culture at the same time. the basic reason is because they see this to be beneficial for students. As can be seen by following statement from T1:
The purpose of integrating culture is to make the students were not similar with a turtle in the shell. The students could be open-minded, so they are not close- minded. (-My translation-, 2017/12/04)
Awareness on cultural diversity and sensitivity on stude nts’ own culture is some of the benefits the students’ will gain by learning other culture. Understanding other culture will help the students to become aware of their own, which will further help the students in realizing the similarities and differences. As Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004) claimed, cultural awareness helps learners enlarge their mind and able to increase tolerance and sympathy.
The next benefit for students who also learn culture as they learn English language is the fact that there are good characters and behaviors that might be taken as example for our Indonesian students. T2 stated that:
Next, students know how the English native speakers are having a conversation, they will be more open. In the western video, the students will be active and brave to ask, they are raising their hand' initiatively. It will make the students more open. (-My translation-, 2017/12/04)
Interestingly, T3 also has different point of view about the advantages of understanding culture contents. She believed if thoughtful on diversity of cultures would be useful when the learners continued their study to the higher level of education. It would be especially reflected on students
’ speaking comprehension. That was because language and culture are influenced each other. She further stated that:
Introducing culture will give the student more information of target culture, and could be used when they were at SHS or even college. Students will know what cultures they have to use, how to apply the gesture, and could be having good communications (-My translation-, 2018/01/18)
As what have elaborated above, participants believed that there are some benefits in integrating cultural content in ELT classrooms. Students will not only be aware of cultural diversity but they will also understand their own culture better. Moreover, understanding the various culture contents would be useful for the learners while having higher level of educations, especially in students English speaking abilities.
Combining various cultures in ELT classrooms
In regards to participants’ preference on which culture should be integrated in their classes, 7 out 10 combined both Indonesian and English cultural contents while the
rest included even more culture in addition to the two. The reason of also including Indonesian cultural content is because participants feel that as Indonesian, it is appropriate that students learn about their own culture. But English cultural content is also as important to provide language comprehension but also will help with speaking fluency. This perception is in line with Marczak (2010) w ho stated that learners’ comprehensions and speaking skills’ ability is so influenced by their knowledge of English as the target culture. T3 explained:
If the question was about "which culture I prefer to use", we still need to use Indonesian culture because we are Indonesian people. But English culture as the target culture must be presented. It will make the students knew the language. Students were expected to be competent in practicing their speaking competency. Meanwhile, the students' sentence should be acceptable to others. It could be used when the students meet with the foreigner, for example, the English people. (-My translation-, 2018/01/18)
Another reason of combining both Indonesian and English cultures in the ELT classroom is that by learning the culture students will be aware of their own culture but at the same time broadened their perspectives on English culture. The understanding of English culture might also create interests in further learning. As elaborated by T7:
If we (as a teacher) only use the target material in teaching, students will only see the western culture and imitated it. On the other hand, when the teacher was only explaining about source language and culture, students will not be aware of the cultural diversity. Students need to know the western world because the target language must be linked with the culture. That would be ironic if the urban learners only able to use their own language. That will be disgraced when the learners could not improve their ability although they have been learning that language. That sentence was one of the reasons why a teacher should introduce out of others culture who adopted from around the world. (-My translation-, 2018/02/01)
In addition to Indonesian and English cultural content, some participants added on more such as Korean and Japanese culture in their ELT classrooms. These contents were incorporated through examples given in their classes. The purpose was to show students differences in behavior of people in other nations. T4 and T5 explained:
I usually use English and Indonesian in teaching. However, I also looked for one certain culture to be added, for example, Japanese culture. I tried to bring that culture, even only in small part of the explanation. The example in Japanese culture is stooping their back when seeing people. (-My translation-, 2018/01/18)
Nowadays, Korean culture is booming in teenager life. It made me interested to bring that culture because the culture is so different with Indonesian values. If in Korean culture every happy moment will be celebrated by drank together, in Indonesian we did not do that thing. I focus on that culture to build students' characters in adopting some culture. It will make the students wiser to filter the good or bad thing of any culture which they known. I also tried to explain about Japanese culture because Japanese people really respect people. Besides that, Japanese people also have a higher motivation to study because the cost of education is also expensive. I was interested to compare some of those cultures to make students have better knowledge and were open-minded of cultural diversity. (-My translation-, 2018/01/31)
In addition to showing different behavior of people, integrating other culture in ELT classes is also aimed to enrich the students to grow by learning good characters and values, as elaborated by T5.
Interestingly, a different approach was taken by one of the participants, T9. This participant preferred integrating Indonesian culture in her ELT classroom. T9 believed in using the ELT classes as a media for the students to know more about Indonesian culture, as explained in the interview:
To make the students aware of culture content, beside of learning English, we also learn Indonesian culture. As we know, kids in this generation are difficult in learning the culture contents. Students even forgot about some culture which was related to Indonesian culture. It became upsetting if the Indonesian culture will be scrapped. Nonetheless, the learners usually forget their Javanese language when we learning about English. It could not be done. That is why; students have to pay attention to their own culture too. (-My translation-, 2018/02/02)
Yet, the T10 also supported T9 ’s opinion because he also believed that using source content material would be beneficial because the materials were closer to the students’ environment:
Indonesian culture will be more understandable for the students. That was because students have already know and be familiar with the Indonesian culture. It made ma took the English learning material based on the source culture. (-My translation-, 2018/02/02)
As what have explained above, participants believed that there are some choices in integrating cultural content in ELT classrooms, both Indonesian and English or even International. Students will not only be aware of cultural diversity but they will also understand their own culture better. Tomlinson (2001, cited in Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2004) stated that cultural awareness will show the understanding both of target and source cultures in the same consideration. It should make the teachers realized if including culture contents did not mean if the students have to focus in one culture only. Teachers still could bring both of Indonesian or International culture although the language which is used is English.
Influence of Indonesian Culture in English language learning
Habits, common practices and cultures in Indonesia that are performed and mastered by the students are one of the main factors that challenged the English language learning. For the participants, it is sometimes hard to get an English concept or culture through the students understanding because they are not used to the target culture. Some practical examples were given in the interview by the participants. T1 said:
For example is when we are teaching about greeting and we explain the meaning of "good morning is Selamat pagi". It might be right but is not accurate. That's why we have been including culture. Sometimes students were not felt comfortable when they greet me at 9 or 10 in the morning. They prefer to use good afternoon rather than good morning. But, in English culture, we do not use that term. That was fine if students said in Bahasa Indonesia, but if they use English, it a little bit disturbing. Students perhaps do that because of their own background culture. That was why the difficulties perhaps found on the real students' English practice. (-My translation-, 2017/12/04)
Despi te students’ ability to use the correct greeting form, their knowledge on time of day, students’ practices on greeting T1 is still clearly influenced by Indonesian common practice. Another example was given by T3:
I usually asked the students to write a personal letter or invitation to me. But, the learners still write the letter in Indonesian form, although the language which students' use is English. Then, I tried to explain it in English writing forms. That was because, in English writing, students have not write everything in details. The personal letter or invitation will be written more straight to the point. (-My translation-, 2018/01/18)
However, T3 argued that the challenge is in the fact that students are so accustomed to their environment and what is familiar in their own culture. Further, T3 tried to continuously raise the students’ awareness on English culture by inviting them to compare both cultures, understanding the similarities and differences, especially in writing and speaking form. By knowing the cultural context, T3 hoped that students will not only able to write or convey the meaning better in English language but also in their own language. Tavares and Cavalcanti (1996) stated that the aim of teaching culture is to intensify students’ responsiveness to enlarge their curiosity towards both the target and home culture.
Another obvious influence of source culture that the participant express is in relation to time awareness. T5 stated:
The difficulty was related to students' behavior on submitting their work on-time. Meanwhile, I always tell the students to submit their work in/on-time. That also became a good example of English culture which could be imitated. (-My translation-, 2018/01/31)
Although an example of English culture in relation to time awareness and management has been given in the ELT classes, students’ source culture still strongly influenced students’ behavior. However, T5 argued that students’ can improve their time management and finally submit their assignments on time if teacher keep on pushing on the good practice.
Language and culture are two concepts that will always be intertwined. Language can be seen as an expression of culture. In teaching language lesson to non-native language speakers, it is very important to include cultural content because this will really help students’ understanding on the language, especially in relation to context of using the language. Junior High School (JHS) students in Salatiga study English Language as part of their curriculum. Consequently, teachers of these classes should introduce English cultural content in order to optimize students’ comprehension.
This research is conducted to investigate the JHS English teachers ’ perceptions in integrating cultural content in their ELT classes. The findings show that teachers have positive perceptions toward the idea of integrating cultural content and they even identified the benefit of this, such as bringing out awareness of cultural diversity, increasing sensit ivity to students’ own culture, and also for students’ development by learning the examples of good practices in England and other countries. In their classes, some participants of this research decided to combine both Indonesian and English cultural content but some others included even more cultural content from around the world. Again, this is related to the idea of broadening students mind and giving them good examples of other cultures. Participants also found out that students’ comfort and familiarity toward their own culture might become challenges in fully understanding English language.
By this research, teachers are expected to continue integrating cultures while teaching English. Teachers could present the source culture, target culture and even some other cultures to teach English. For the suggestion, teachers should bring cultural content which is followed by the real activity in their classroom. For example how to greet the teachers in both source culture and target culture. Teachers should not forget to bring the students' own culture in English lesson that would make the students able to see and compare the differences of both Indonesian and English language and culture. Yet, teachers have to be careful about filtering culture contents in language learning.
As this study is a contextual study, the results could not be generalized. It focused only on junior high school level and only three schools were involved in this study.
Therefore, it is suggested that a further study could be conducted at primary and senior high school level. More participants could also be involved in order to get broader picture of how the teachers perceive integrating cultural content in their English classroom.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I want to thank God for always blessing me from the beginning of my study until the end of my thesis submission. Then, I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my supervisor. Miss Anita Kurniawati, M.Hum. as well as my second reader Joseph Ernest Mambu, Ph.D. who give me guidance support and encouragement to do this research on topic “Teachers’ Perceptions on Integrating Cultural Contents in English Language Teaching at Junior High School Salatiga”.
Without their guidance, this research would not have been complete.
Secondly, I would like to give special thanks to all lectures in Faculty of Language and Arts. I am thankful for sharing their knowledge in these four years. Also, I would like to give my warm thank to my lovely mom and dad. Without them I am nothing. They are not only assisted me financially, but also extended their support morally and emotionally. I would like to thank for the support from my beloved best friends, Evi, Vira, Putri, Risa, and also all my college friends that I won’t be able to mention one by one. All of their attentions, their supports and motivations really make stronger when I am getting down while I was working on my thesis. Again, thank you for those who have filled the last chapter of my university life in Satya Wacana Christian University.