THE JAVANESE STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING TOWARD
out. The paper is to investigate to what extent Javanese EFL learners understand and know about foreign culture and how they acquire this knowledge. The study is very crucial because even though they have learned foreign language, English, for several years, they know and understand very little in its culture even in quite simple level.
Culture
In order to provide an explanation of the relevance between language and culture, it is first necessary to explore culture. In the simplest way, culture “is defined as shared way of seeing, thinking, and doing” (Thompson, 2003, p. 15). Similarly, Brown (2000, p. 176) states that “Culture is a way of life. It is the context within which we exist, think, feel, and relate to others. It is the ‘glue’ that binds a group of people together for some people”. It means culture is to socialize and is transmitted from one generation to another one. In broad sense, Tomalin and Stempleski (1993, pp. 6-7) define that culture “includes culturally-influenced beliefs and perceptions, especially as expressed through language as well as through cultural behaviors that affect acceptability in the host community”. Therefore, it can be identified as identity which is inseparable from cultural communities as long as its people live and preserve the culture. The idea indicates that teaching-learning a language is also teaching-learning about its native speaker’s cultures (Sukarno, 2012 ). For this reason, language can play significant role to keep the culture; hence, there is close relationship between language and culture.
Culture and Language
Language is often regarded as product of culture since the formation of culture is shaped by the dominant language. It should be noted that “a language is a part of culture and a culture is a part of a language. The two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture” (Brown, 2000, p. 177). Language as symbol is employed by culture to preserve, reject other culture or even support it. By language people can present belief, experience, knowledge, and perception. For this reason, people recognize and differentiate each other’s identity from the use of the language.
Understanding the relevance between language and culture is quite crucial in learning as language is not only about structural but also communicative and social function. Learning a language means learning its culture. Tomalin and Stempleski (1993, p. 105) point out “that communication, language, and culture cannot be separated. Successful cross-cultural communication demands cultural and linguistic fluency”. In short, to communicate well in foreign language means actually trying to understand the thought of foreign people which is very much influenced by their culture (Sadtono, 2003).
For this reason, it is required to have the competence in communication for young EFL learners, of course, in accordance with their competence.
The ability to understand and communicate with other people from different culture is really needed. For some experts, this capacity that enables people to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts is called communicative competence as proposed by a sociolinguist Dell Hymes in Brown (2000, p. 246). Other term which is used to described this phenomenon also presented by Tomalin and Stempleski (1993, p. 5) with the concept of cultural awareness “sensitivity to the impact of culturally-induced behavior on language use and communication”.
In line with this concept, Cakir (2006) points out that communicative competence thus includes communicating not only in local culture but also cross-culturally, and while doing so, one meets inevitably with factors of cultural differences. If not so, communication falls into failure, or breakdown communication will occur then miscommunication and misinterpretation happens.
In Javanese setting, the ability of undertanding foreign culture in teaching- learning foreign language does not mean that young EFL learners comprehend all the elements of culture which cover customs, belief, arts, and attitudes, but merely a very little piece of the elements in accordance with context and situation. Therefore, this is a basic foundation to learn more for the next level.
METHOD
The aim of the research is to investigate to what extent Javanese EFL learners understand and know about foreign culture and how they acquire this knowledge about foreign culture through some media and in social situations. Method of the research was conducted in quantitative (calculating the number of the data) approach research.
The participants are 25 students at Islamic junior high school students (MTs) in Jepara Central Java, aged 11 to 13. They are all Javanese students. They were given questionnaires and insisted to answer them based on their knowledge and experience. The questionnaire of the research consists of
five parts, each of which is divided into two sub-parts, objects and how the participants have learned them. The questionnaire results were recorded using Microsoft Excel 2010.
In the questionnaire, the knowledge of the participants on foreign culture containing; a. children songs, b. animated and cartoon film, c. foods and beverages, d. festivals and important days, e. famous buildings or places were checked. The results were subsequently collected, calculated in the percentage then analyzed.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Data Analysis
The results of questionnaires were collected and analyzed. To make clear of identifying the results, the data will be accompanied by the graph including their interpretation below. The data in figure 1 show us that more than a half of the participants are familiar with Happy birthday, and Twinkle-Twinkle (71.4 – 98%) while Alphabet song is known by some (42.8%,). The rest of the songs sound strange to the students. This indicates that they are unfamiliar with the foreign children songs but some of the songs which they know due to their popularity.
Most of the participants know these songs from TV and friends, only few know these from parents, and school. Television is still interesting as the first medium of communication to acquire information of the songs. Meanwhile, school as formal institution, parents, and books cause very little effect for the participants.
Figure 1
Figure 1. Students’ Understanding of Children Songs
In figure 2, animated and cartoon films are interesting entertainment for the children, participants;
therefore, most of them like the film provided. Most of the participants, more than half are familiar with the films; Batman, Harry Potter, Superman, and Car (57.1%), while Tinker Bell is 71.4%. The data also show that Madagaskar (42.8%), Ninja Turtles (28.5%), and Shrek (14.2%) are recognized by a lot of the students. It indicates that the watching films still become exciting hobby for the participants. All participants know the films from TV besides also getting from the book and video game
1. Batman 2. Harry Potter 3. Superman 4. Shrek 5. Tinker Bells 6. Ninja Turtles 7. Madagaskar 8. Car
Figure 2. Students’ Understanding of Cartoon and Animated Films for Children
1. Happy birthday 2. Jingle Bells 3. Alphabet 4. Brother John 5. Chrismas Tree 6. Five Little Monkeys 7. Head and Shoulders 8. Twinkle Twinkle
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Based on the data in Figure 3, hamburger and pizza are food that more than half of the participants recognize, even ever to have tasted (71.4% - 85.7%). The rest know hot dog and spaghetti (42.8%), nugget and sandwich (28.5%), and only espresso (14.8%). Media they got information are TV, friends and book, and the last, only few of them got from parents and school.
1. Hamburger 2. Nugget 3. Hot dog 4. Fish and Chip 5. Pizza
6. Sandwich 7. Sphagetti 8. espresso
Figure 3. Students’ Understanding of Food and Beverages
Figure 4 illustrates data collected from question if they know foreign festival and days. As it is clear on the graph, Valentine Day is recognized by almost participants (85.7%), while Christmas (57.1%) and the rest know Halloween (42.8%). It can be understood that these foreign days and festivals are totally well known for many participants but the others are quite strange for them. Television is still effective and efficient way to get information for most of the participants about the festivals besides friends.
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Christmas 2. Thanksgiving Day 3. Valentine Day 4. Halloween 5. Easter 6. Potluck Party 7. April Fool’s Day 8. Tomatina FestivalFigure 4. Students’ Understanding of Foreign Festivals and Days
However, Figure 5 illustrates students’ understanding of famous building and places. The statue of Liberty is extremely popular to most of the students (85.7%) but they know nothing about other places and buildings. The other buildings and place are unfamiliar with all participants.
1. Westminster palace 2. Mount Rushmore 3. Tower Bridge 4. The Statue of Liberty 5. White House
6. Opera House 7. Grand Canyon 8. Niagara Waterfall
Figure 5. Students’ Understanding of Famous Building and Places
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As illustrated in Figure 6, most of the participants acquire knowledge of foreign culture from TV (50%), while from friends 22%, and computer 14%. Following they got the knowledge from books 12%, newspaper and magazine, games, and songs respectively contribute the average of 2% from the participants in acquiring the knowledge about foreign culture in the research.
1. Parents 2. TV 3. Computer 4. Friends 5. Schools 6. Real life 7. Books
8. Newspaper& magazine 9. Games
10.Songs
Figure 6. Students’ Ways to Acquire Knowledge
Generally speaking, the present study confirms that the culture issue in language teaching has become crucial attention and numerous research works have been carried out on this issue. For this study, the findings show that the students are familiar with the most popular song only like Happy birthday, Twinkle-Twinkle, and Alphabet. Foreign films like Batman, Harry Potter, Superman, and Car as the most favorite ones among the students, while Tinker Bell, Madagaskar, Ninja Turtles, and Shrek are less favorite. Even though most of the students live in the village they recognize some important days such as Valentine Day, Christmas, and Halloween. The research also shows that the statue of Liberty is extremely popular to most of the students.
Consistent with other study, the study revealed that television still becomes a favorite device providing the cultural information as explained by Deneme et al. (2011). Friends and computer are significant ways in children’s foreign culture acquisition. Books, newspaper or magazine, games, and songs respectively contribute the average to the participants in acquiring the knowledge about foreign culture in the research.
It can be seen from the research that most of participants got cultural information by watching TV, playing video games, computer, or gadget and from their friends who watched or played them. By considering the bad effect of the technology devices, the research determined technology has the positive effect for Javanese EFL young learners. The role of parents in guiding their children becomes more and more significant.
While providing a great deal of cultural knowledge to children according to the research, the technology devices open the possibilities to be used as a means of cultural education since cultural education in terms of teaching and learning English at schools may be untouched and insufficient. This understanding is extremely vital to avoid the failure and breakdown of communication. Consequently, the ability to communicate in English does not mean the ability to speak fluently only but also the more important thing is the ability to understand and to be aware of foreign culture.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Language and culture cannot be separated and they link to each other. So, learning English as Foreign Language (EFL) is not only learning grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, but also learning its culture; such as song, film, food, building, and specific circumstances.
To introduce foreign culture in teaching and learning foreign language is so significant for Javanese EFL young learners that they can communicate fluently to avoid communication breakdown. In addition, the materials in cultural education are insufficient even untouched at schools. Javanese EFL learners acquired cultural information through technology and friends rather than from book at school or teacher.
The present research is conducted for low level, young learners, and in limited time and scope; it only covers some elements of culture. For that reason, the research recommends that the research concerning with students’ understanding about foreign culture requires further research with more time, broader scope and higher level. In term of teaching learning process, English teachers still need to
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explore many skills and approaches of teaching foreign culture especially to young learners and to improve methods of teaching EFL both English as foreign language and foreign culture.
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