PAPUANS STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN STUDYING AT
and even to show their feelings. This interaction, ultimately uses language as the tool to ask and understand each other’s need. Hence, language is indeed also essential among the native and the outlander students because language helps them in understanding the lesson. Referring to heterogeneous class with the communication inside it, there are some issues based on their cultural background as usually called cultural barriers which hinder their way of learning. Based on the assumption that the native students usually outnumbered the outlander students, the communication between them would mostly use their region language. Thus, may create inconvenience for the outlander students because they barely know the region language. This is supported by the statement that the incorporation of the culture of the minority group leads to greater cultural sensitivity on the part of the teacher (Folds, 1989). But it has also been encountered that bilingual education can break down cultural barriers between community and school and produce a greater commitment by the community to the project of the school (Vorih and Rosier, 1978; Harris, 1982). Due to these statements, the researchers try to conduct a research to investigate whether communication can be cultural barriers or cultural unifier for those who come from different areas and whether it can affect into some aspects of the people involved.
In this research, the researcher try to seek the cultural barriers that may occur between the Javanese and the outlander in the EFL (English as Foreign Class) at the English Department in Universitas Negeri Malang (UM). In this study, the researchers select the Papuans as the outlander students that will be examined with the consideration based on observation that Papua is the most extended area where the EFL students in UM come from which means Papuans have vastly cultural differences. The language that becomes the communication barrier here is based on the observation that in EFL class, lecturer and scholars usually use their Javanese language in order to understand the material. They also use the Javanese language to make analogy, synonym, and antonym. The research question that is raised in this study would be: “Does the heterogeneous class containing Javanese and Papuan students create cultural barrier which may burden one or both party?” With the prediction, “There is a cultural barrier which focuses on the communication matters in the class”, and the assumption that
“There is an effect happened in the heterogeneous class between Javanese students and Papuans students”.
METHOD
The research subjects were Papuan’s students at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang. There were four students who come from Papua and studying at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang. Those students are given some questions related to the difficulties they have in studying at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang.
The type of research that used in this study was qualitative research. We gave the research subjects the questionnaires. There were five questions to be answered by the research subjects. We asked them what kind of cultural barriers that they feel in learning in the class. We also asked them whether or not they think that different local dialect may be a communication barrier between them and another student. Besides that, we also asked them whether or not they think the communication barrier interfere them in other aspects and if it is yes, what they are. Then, the next question is whether or not they think that those barriers make them difficult to develop in the class. The last question is whether or not those barriers make them depressed. We wrote what barriers or difficulties they faced when they have been studying at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang.
After we got all of the answers, we collected all of the data about Papuan students’ difficulties in studying at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang and made percentage of it.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Through the conducted interview given to the four subjects, we found that Papuans students mostly have difficulties in communicating with other students, and even lecturer(s). The previous research has actually been done by Mirzadevi and Gunawan. They observed and interviewed 8 Papuans students at Universitas Negeri Malang, trying to figure out Papuans students’ difficulties in learning at Universitas Negeri Malang viewed from cultural perspectives. Accordingly, the gap that happens between Papuans and non-Papuans are due to difficulties in communication, diverse educational background, and different physical appearances (Mirzadevi & Gunawan, 2015). However, in this research, we try to explore more on the communication aspect. Thus, we try to grab the crux of the problems by digging into what they personally feel when they were studying at Universitas Negeri Malang for the very first time.
We began the interview by delivering the questions in English. One of the subjects, IU, swiftly asked us to do the interview in Indonesian. From this phenomenon, we can conclude that some Papuans at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang still find it difficult to comprehend and answer questions in English. It does not surprise us anymore knowing that those Papuans were and are
experiencing a difficult time in communicating in the classroom activities and daily lives. Let alone communicating in English, almost all the Papuans, though they have learned Indonesian, had difficulties in communicating in Indonesian. This occurrence happens because the majority of them has different Indonesian accent and dialect compared to what Javanese people use at Universitas Negeri Malang (Mirzadevi & Gunawan, 2015). Fortunately, almost all of them understood what we questioned them about though one of them failed to get the idea of the questions.
The first question about the existence of any cultural barriers that prevent them from forming a good communicative atmosphere in the class is raised for all of them to answer. IU stated that he experienced some difficulties in communicating with the others in the class, mostly when he wanted to share what he had in mind. Moreover, the problem that he faced is more fundamental. He said that at that time, he found it very hard to even understand what his friends were discussing about, so he could not follow the pace of the discussion. The other subject, FA, answered that these cultural barriers, mostly in communication, made her wanted to go back to her hometown in Papua. She could not understand even one bit what their friends were talking about and that made her felt anxious. Unfortunately, there was also a semester when one of her lecturers mainly used Javanese language in lecturing the class; hence, it made her understood almost nothing from the class. The third subject, RN, felt no difficulty at all in communication. This happens because when she was still in Papua, she lived in the area full of immigrants whose daily languages are Indonesian and Javanese. While the last subject, DW, felt the same as the first two subjects. “Communicating with others was hard at that time because there were many people from many different origins, e.g. Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua” she said. Their answers are supported with Hurn‘s & Tomalin’s (2013) statement which says that these obstacles in communication mostly occurs because of language and many cross-cultural relationships break down because of failure in communication.
Next, the second question about different local dialect is given. Again, IU, FA, and DW felt that this was a serious problem for them that thwarted them from building a good communication with the others. IU often failed to express his ideas accurately and usually encountered miscommunication. This occurs because he knew nothing about Javanese language and it stopped him from being an active student that could share whatever he had in mind in a group discussion or in front of the class. FA even thought that most of her classmates could not suit themselves into the situation well because they kept talking using Javanese language though they were in a group discussion with her. She often felt like she was alienated by society. DW also felt the same. She could not understand at all when her friends started to communicate using Javanese language. For her, it negatively affected her achievements in studying English in class. Meanwhile, RN had no problem at all dealing with this kind of situation. She was accustomed to Javanese language so that she could bear with it.
Thirdly, IU, FA, and DW felt that communication barriers prevented them from accomplishing many things, such as in classroom achievement, recreational activities, group discussion, etc. “Yeah, I do feel that that so-called communication barrier prevent me to interact with the others. For example, each time we do a group discussion, I always tend to be silent because I do not understand what my classmates are talking about since they keep using Javanese language all the time” said FA. Also, IU said, “Communication barriers do not allow me to explore myself deeper, either in classroom achievement or non-academic achievement.” On the contrary, since RN felt that she had no difficulties in communicating with her Javanese friends though they were using Javanese language, she also did not feel disturbed by this communication barrier because she saw no barrier at all.
Next, all of them opined that it did not become any hindrance to keep them from developing in the class. They, fortunately, were given special programme created by the department, purposedly to help them in gaining a better and more comfortable learning atmosphere so that they were able to achieve better in the class. FA said, “Developing in the class is an option which anyone can take. It depends on every person himself. I admit that adapting and blending in the class is extremely hard, but luckily we were given special treatment/ class to overcome this problem”. Similar with FA, DW also felt that communication barrier did prevent them from blending and adapting with the others, not in the classroom atmosphere/ achievement whereas DW felt like there were no correlation at all between this so-called communication barrier and her classroom achievement.
At last but not least, the last question is given to them. All of them felt that there were no problem, except for IU. IU felt depressed at the first time he studied at English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang. He said, “at the very first time, I felt so depressed and I even had a plan to not continuing my study here. All of these were caused of a hindrance, a different language. Many people tend to use Javanese language I was not familiar with at that time”. The others simply felt that it did not disturb their daily lives. Consequently, it did not cause them any depression.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Based on the research findings, we draw some conclusions as follows. It is true that Papuan students of English Department at Universitas Negeri Malang facing difficulties in their study in a class.
They have difficulties when they are communicating with their friends who mostly speak Javanese. They feel that it is difficult because they do not know what actually their friends are talking about. Especially, when they are in a group discussion, but their friends who mostly Javanese people are discussing using Javanese. They do not know how to respond their friends’ opinions or how to generate their ideas to their friends when having a discussion.
English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang has given a special treatment for Papuan students’ of English Department at Universitas Negeri Malang. The Papuan students’ are given a time to meet the lecture so that they can have a consultation and can have a deeper understanding about the materials that they feel they do not really understand intensively.
The way that English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang tries to solve the problem that Papuan students’ of English Department at Universitas Negeri Malang have may just solve the problems they have in studying in the class. However, there are still some other factors that may affect to their study outside the internal factor which comes from their own like the cultural barrier. If there is a difficulty in this kind of interaction or communication, there might be a difficulty generated which can affect to their study. We, researchers, hope that there will be a continuation of this paper that suggests about how to treat Papuans students better, not only at Universitas Negeri Malang, but also in other universities.
REFERENCES
Hurn, B. & Tomalin, B. (2013). Cross cultural communication: Theory and Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mirzadevi, A. & Gunawan, J.C. (2015). What makes the gap appear? A case study of intercultural contact between Papuans and Non-Papuans in state university of Malang. Malang: IC4 Proceedings.
Presidenri.go.id. (2016). Beasiswa untuk Papua. Retrieved from
http://www.presidenri.go.id/pendidikan/beasiswa-untuk-papua.html
Vorih, L. & Rosier, P. (1978). Rock point community school: An example of a Navajo-English bilingual elementary school program. TESOL Quarterly, 12(3), pp. 263-269.