ASkripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Degree ofSarjana Pendidikan
Ahmad Jihad Satriyo 20120540012
English Education Department
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
Students’ Perception on Intercultural Competence atEnglish Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
ASkripsi
Submitted to the Faculty of Language Education as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Degree ofSarjana Pendidikan
Ahmad Jihad Satriyo 20120540012
English Education Department
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
Statement of Authenticity
I am a student with the following identity: Name : Ahmad Jihad Satriyo
NIM : 20120540012
Program Study : English Education Department University : Univeritas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
Certify that this Skripsi with the title“Students’ Perception on Intercultural Competence at English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta”is authentic. I am completely responsible for the content of this research. Others’ opinion or findings included in this research arequoted in accordance with ethical standards.
Acknowledgement
Alhamdulillah, Allah allows me to finish my Skripsi. He is the only one who I worshipped. There is another power except His power. For my idol Muhammad PBUH, thank you for your great love to your ummah. Thank you for sharing the true light, Islam rahmatan lil alamin.
I have to say thank you for my parents, family. Their supports are useful for me. I hope you are happy with this. Thank you for my supervisor who help me in finishing this little scratch. I also thank my examiner who are allowed to bind this Skripsi.
Table of Contents
Title page ……….. i
Approval page………... ii
Statement of Authenticity ……….... iii
Acknowledgement ………iv
Abstract ………..v
Table ofContents………vi
Chapter One: Introduction………...1
Background of the Research………... 1
Statement and Limitation of Problem………... 4
Research Question………... 5
Objectives of the research………... 5
Significances of the research ………... 5
Chapter Two: Literature Review……….. 7
Definition of Intercultural Competence ………... 7
Kindsof Teacher Competence ………... 9
Developing Intercultural Competence………... 12
Review of related research………... 15
Conceptual Framework………... 17
Chapter Three: Methodology………... 20
Research Design………... 20
Research Setting ………... 21
Research participant………... 21
Instrument of research………... 22
Data Collection Method………... 22
Data Analysis………... 22
Chapter Four: Finding and Discussion……….. 25
Finding 1:Students’ attitude changes after they lived overseas…………... 25
Finding 2: Students’ uses knowledge to support adaptation process……... 28
Finding 3: Students’ use their social skill to adapt to new habits and tradition... 30
Finding 4:students’ awareness to respect other habits and tradition increased………... 32
Finding 5: Students’ opinion about the importance of intercultural competence in teaching ………... 34
Conclusion………... 36
Recommendation………... 36
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Abstract
This research aims to investigate the opinions of English Education Department (EED) students about their intercultural competence especially in knowledge, skill and attitude. This research was conducted at EED Univeritas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). This research employed qualitative research and used interview to collect data. There were three students in this research. The participants were EED students’ batch 2013 who had joined student exchange program which in this research means study abroad. The participants were chosen because they had more experience in learning cultural differences. The findings revealed that EED students perceive that their attitude changed and they practiced their knowledge to support the adaptation process. They also used their social skill to support their adaptation process and their respect to people, new habits and traditions. At the end of research, participants perceived that some of them needed more preparation before taking the
opportunity of teaching in other country. In conclusion, EED students who have taken student exchange program have better attitudes to encounter the differences of cultural values.
Chapter One
Introduction
The introduction of the research attaches some points related the main topic of research. This chapter consist of background of the research, identification of the problem, and research questions. Objective of the research and significance of the research are also included in this chapter.
Background of the Research
The differences among people cannot be separated in daily live. People live in a complex world where a lot of different cultural values are mixed. For example, people can enjoy the new ritual, language, style at the same time. That is the reason why understanding other cultures is challenging for students.
Language and culture are in close connection. Language is a part of culture and vice versa (Brown, 2007). It means that people get language from their surroundings. New people, new activities, new rules in the new environment can be a language input for people. People with good understanding of culture can avoid misunderstanding of foreign culture. Beside that they can have better communication by giving respect to other culture.
Living abroad is a great chance to have interaction with people who have different values, beliefs and languages. People should appreciate the similarities and differences between new language or second language (L2) and their own culture. They have to be aware of cultural differences to avoid the
Students can learn their intercultural competence. Byram (2002) said
intercultural competence is an ability to share knowledge by people with different social personalities. Teachers can help student to acquire the intercultural
competence. They can learn it either inside or outside of classroom, and it depends on some situations. For example in classroom, a teacher can employ some
teaching techniques to help student understand cultural differences through classroom discussion. Byram (2002) added that students can acquire the
competence from someone who can help students know the relationship between his culture and others. It means that students will get the competence by their practice. Students can talk with friends or teachers who have more experience in knowing many cultures. Students may feel excited to understand about the additional culture.
meaning. Learner can participate in communication with other people to encourage student’sawareness related to linguistics knowledge and culture in learning language. This participation arise learners' empathy with environments.
As a candidate of teachers, English Education Department (EED) students are expected to have intercultural competence. Wintergerest and McVeigh (2011) stated that“teachers are able to help their students to build an awareness and understanding of the relationship between language and culture when teachers understand the connection of language and culture”(p.27). Then student have a better sense of how language and culture are related and how these connection affect them both in and out of the classroom. Similarly, Clouet (2012) argued that students who have intercultural competence get benefit such as student will be able to communicate with foreigners who have different culture in order to receive and interpret message.
One of the ways to get the competence is joining international exchange program. Universitas Muhamadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) provides the program for students who are interested in studying abroad. First, this program enhance
students’ competence in the implementation of their knowledge and skill, especially in English education department that the environment does not use Bahasa Indonesia. Second, it encourages students’ understanding of international
science. Third, the program helps students to improve their life-skill with problem solving as a method in the implementation. Based on the background explained previously, the researcher is interested in the study of English Education
Statement and Limitation of Problem
Teachers need a high teaching competence and teachers should encourage language learner to become competent students. Language teachers need intercultural competence as a strategy to enrich information about how to communicate different cultures and help students’ understanding about cultural diversity. As a prospective teacher, EED students are expected to be competent students by having intercultural competence.
In English Education Department, the researcher gave random questions to some students before the study and it was revealed that some students were not confident to teach English overseas. Students stated that they did not know about the society living in foreign countries and the way to communicate with people from different culture. If they already know cultural background, they might be confident to teach.
There was another information from EED. There were students who had prepared themselves to compete in international competition. They took some programs or activities such as becomes liaison officer, attending seminars and joining the student exchange program. This situation showed that some students were aware that they had to upgrade their ability especially in understanding other cultures. However this research tried to find out the students’ opinion on their knowledge, skill and attitude after they stayed in a foreign country for one year.
cultural understanding is limited because only a few research about cultural awareness is available to EED students.
Research question
The researcher attempts to seek out about English Education Department students’on their opinion of intercultural competence as future teacher. This attempt is converted into followingresearch question, “what are English
Education Department students’ perceptionon their intercultural competence?” Objective of the research
Based on research question, this research was aimed to investigate the English Education Department student’s perceptions on their intercultural competence after they have been studying abroad.
Significances of the research
This research is expected to have some significances in academic environments. There are students, the researcher, other researchers and institution.
Students.This research is expected to give information about strategy to
has the opportunity to know preparations in both communication with people of different culture and preparation for a better teaching related culture values. Other researchers.This research can stimulate other researcher to conduct the
advance research in the same field. Other researchers may use this research to be a reference for next research about intercultural in teaching and learning culture. For example, research about activities to increase cultural awareness in classroom and implication between intercultural competence and students’
learning skill.
Chapter Two
Literature Review
This research talks about students’ perception toward their intercultural competence at EED UMY. This chapter will gives details information related to the research. First, it presents theoretical framework. This theoretical framework consists of definition of intercultural competence, component of intercultural competence, kinds ofteachers’ competence,developing of intercultural
competence and importance of having cultural awareness. The second part of this chapter present about review of related study. Finally, it described of conceptual framework.
Definition of Intercultural Competence
Components of intercultural competence.There are four components of
intercultural competence (Byram, 2002; Fantini, 2006; Sercu, 2005). They are knowledge, skills, attitude and awareness. In this part, the researcher will provide three components, that knowledge, skill and attitude because students of EED are already familiar with it.
Attitude.In intercultural competence(savoir etre),attitude means the willingness of people to see how they look a foreigner who has different belief, opinion and customs.Savoir etreconsist of three parts. The first part is respect. Respect means people valuing other culture. People should realize that there are many cultures that other, glad to be having. For example, Japanese people will bow to greet someone who meets first time, it is different from western people, and they usually shake their hand to greet someone. Respectful people will
understand that every place have cultural diversity. People will try to manage their culture toward the target culture. It means that their culture is not acceptable for all. Second part is openness. People should unlock with own culture to add more knowledge about other culture. People can accept other culture when they are not judge early about other culture. It means people explore their thought to others that other people has human right to believe anything. The third part is curiosity and discovery. People will find the new situation that different with his previous customs. People need more time to learn and allow new custom when they have ready to add their customs without leaving their previous behaviors.
Knowledge.Another component is knowledge(savoir). Knowledge relate
have knowledge about the general and specific information about the target culture. This information contains the process of interaction and the outcome of interacting with other people. In other words, process of interaction means the people technique to identify others cultures in order to involve the society. Knowledge is also relates to the people understanding about impact in using language. It means people should anticipate the use of their language in communication. It is possible when foreigner do not understand about the meaning. People need to enlarge the information about target language to avoid the double meaning of words or statement.
Skills.After people got awareness about their attitude and knowledge, and then they will communicate with others by practice their skill in real time. Skill can be formed of relate, listen, observe and interpret. The skill can be
implemented both in oral and written. People can put his idea into written text by creating their opinion after doing observe and analyze. People are able to do and listen a foreign conversation to acquire culture. There are two skills in
intercultural competence component. The first is skill of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre). It means people skill to transform the document or event
Kinds of Teacher Competence
There are some kinds of competence that teachers need to have. Here, the researcher gives two kinds of competences. The first competences come from Indonesia’s teacher standardize competence. The second one comes fromexpert namely teacher professional competence.
Teacher’s standardized competence.Professional teacher in Indonesia should have four competences. Based on Act 14thyear 2005 of Republic Indonesia about teacher and lecture it is stated that competence of teacher consist of
pedagogical competence, personality competence, social competence and professionalism competence.
Pedagogical competence.Pedagogical competences include teacher
understanding about student, planning, teaching process, evaluating and developing the students’ ability. Teacher should understand about students’ personal comprehensively. Teachers know the progress of students’ development, in order to select the strategy to teach carefully.
Personality competence.As educator, teachers have an important role when they teach. Students can observe teacher’s personality. For example, teacher always come in to the class on time then gives the explanation carefully. It means that teacher do any work with his accurately and efficiency. This kind of good personality can be an example for student. The understanding of good personality should be owned by every teacher who will be a model for student.
teacher can be seen by his interaction and teamwork with students to achieve the goal of learning. Social competence has relation with teacher’s adaptation skill. It means teachers have able to settle in any situation that have cultural differences.
Professional competence.Professional competence is expertise of lesson including mastering material, structure and methodology of lesson. This means that teachers should be able to present information or lesson comprehensively. To be able to do it, teachers need ability to enrich knowledge, so teacher can teach students based on the students’ need. Itmeans teacher can guide students to learn in different ways.
Another source finds that teacher needs some competences to be a
professional teacher. It is different with teacher’s standardize competence that concern about basic teacher skills. Professional teacher need specific competence to increase teacher teaching skill. It supported by expert that present teacher need competence namely professional competence.
Teacher’s professional competence.Teacher competence should fit with the condition in teaching and learning. According to Selvi (2010) there are four main group of teacher competencies; curriculum competence, lifelong learning
competence, socio-cultural competence and emotional competence.
Curriculum competence.Curriculum competence relates to the knowledge
about idea in development of curriculum, component of curriculum, designing of curriculum, process of curriculum, selecting the curriculum, preparing the
Lifelong learning competence.Teacher is a learner. A learner should have their responsibility in learning. It means learner have to find any way or strategies to improve lifelong learning. Lifelong also means learner learn a whole life and continuously. Teacher who have ability on lifelong learning have responsibility for himself and student. For himself, teacher has to maintain his ability to improve the skill. For student teacher has to develop the student’s way or guide student to increase student’s skill in learning.
Socio-cultural competence.Socio-cultural competence is close with background of learner and teacher about teamwork, culture of nation and across nation and social phenomena. Socio-cultural may influence of student and
teacher’s learning or teaching style. Teacher will adjust his teaching style in order to make student easier for learning. Both teacher and student should develop their awareness and appropriateness in learning.
In Indonesia there is not intercultural competence mentioned in teacher standardize competence. Teacher should be professional in their profession. By intercultural competence teacher allow student to learn more about cultures. Sercu (2007) argued Intercultural competence is important for teacher because it help student to understand the interaction among people.
Emotional competence.Teachers have various characteristics. Teacher feeling, belief, attitude, motivation, shyness and stressful may include in
Developing Intercultural Competence
As the future teacher, student of EED UMY should be capable to create the competent people. Students can enhance their intercultural competence through inside classroom education. These strategies are possible implement in the classroom to enhance the students’ cultural awareness. The strategies to develop intercultural competent are mentioned below.
Cultural collection.Student can increase their curious and openness about
culture with any sources that they have, for example music, film, and newspaper are include in the authentic materials. Student can add knowledge about the culture that they interest, and ask to teacher when they do not understand. Student may use the sources to use in classroom learning (Frank, 2013).
Internet.Teacher may use the internet connection to have online class
learning. Chun (2011) stated that through internet student can bring their own way to communicate and in the context of intercultural exchange students should adjust their custom that compatible with their partner.
Role plays.After student know the habit of one culture and rules. Student got more understanding when they are involved in the similarly situations. They can use role play to practice their knowledge in culture learning. Role play is a very effective technique for practice socio cultural and non verbal communication (Reid, 2015).
Discussion.Present students may know about one specific culture. Discussion
different views of other people to encourage intercultural competence (Byram, 2002). Moreover, students could make a discussion with teachers or foreign people to improve their curiosity about others culture.
Importance of having cultural awareness
As an agent of education, students and teachers need intercultural
competence through cultural awareness. There are several experts that argue some benefit in having intercultural competence. There are beneficial for students, teacher or teaching skills and education programs.
Competent teacher will have benefit when having intercultural awareness. Byram (2002) stated intercultural competence focus on few points. The first point is helping learner to understand how intercultural interaction take place. It means teacher can make the discussion about host culture and target culture for student. For example, teacher can give reading or listening to student of certain country and students answer some questions. The second is how their perception of other people influences of communication. It means students may consider their opinion during the communication among foreign people or student should avoid
stereotype.
own identity. The second is learning language. Teacher help student to maintain the proficiency of foreign language that student interest in. Teacher can help student translate the written material meaningfully or literacy (word by word). Teacher can motivate students to study deeply about foreign language. Teacher can implement the use of foreign language in learning activities. The third is general skill. Teacher facilitate student to improve learning skill. Student can learn some skills such as memorizing, relating, translating, and presenting.
Students who have different culture or host culture are possible to have the difficulties when they life at target campus or target culture for first time. Student can ask for help in office center. For example, there are international student service office to help foreign student in the school to make student feel comfortable and pleased that someone is there for them when they need help (Wintergerest & McVeigh, 2011). Teacher education program should contain a cultural aspect in their curriculum, such as a course on intercultural
communication, in order to prepare future teachers with intercultural awareness and intercultural competence. According to Atay et al.(2009, p.133), “both pre-service and in-pre-service teacher can be encouraged to explore alternative ways of cultural teaching.” Therefore, teacher should knowledgeable and competent with culture awareness in order to implement cultural practices in learning.
Review of related research
by Guo, Lund and Arthur (2009) and a service learning approach of intercultural competence by Tangen, Mercer, Lane and Happle (2011).
The first aimed of the study was to examine the intercultural competence of pre-service teachers and ways to prepare them to encounter the needs of difference students. The participants were the thirty-three first year pre-service teachers who registered at the University of Calgary‘s Master of Teaching (MT) Program and a two-year bachelor of education, teacher preparation program. The results of the study indicate that pre-service teachers‘ know the understandings of diversity, the importance of
self-examination and reflection in the process of intercultural inquiry. Besides that, the other result shows the positioning of diversity to approaching diversity as learning about self and others. The results also suggest that the students are struggling with how to bridge what they are learning in their university classes with what they are experiencing in their environment.
The researcher used two studies as main of this research. This research will focus on the students’ knowledge, skill and attitude toward intercultural
competence as future teacher. The aim of this research is to look for opinions about students’attitude after joining student exchange program. In other side Guo, Lund and Arthur (2009) tried to examine the intercultural competence of pre-service teachers and strategies to prepare them to encounter the needs of diverse students. Tangen, Mercer, Lane and Happle (2011) purposed the developing intercultural competence through study on inclusive education, following a
service-learning pathway. Sercu (2005) added that study of intercultural context is useful to motivate student in learning foreign language. The similarity between those studies is to investigate the preservice teacher opinion about intercultural competence. Thus, this research also tried to get some information related with perception of intercultural competence.
Conceptual Framework
As pre service teachers who will compete in the job market, students of English Education Department have to develop their skill to interact with diverse people. According to Byram (2002) people with intercultural competence can be seen from their attitude, skill, and knowledge. People would get intercultural competences through trial and error practices.
EED UMY is a place for students who will become prospective teacher that will work in Indonesia or overseas. There are some students EED UMY who prepared themselves by taking a course abroad in order to enhance their
and experience related to foreigners’ attitudes, habits and understanding of other belief. It was a chance to develop the intercultural competence. This research aimed to investigateEED students’ perceptionbased on their experience to adapt in new environment.It focused on students’ knowledge, attitude and skill.
First, this research focused on the knowledge of students because of
knowledge related to kind of information that they had got. It is also related with how they got the information and what they did after acquiring the new
information. After they got the information, students would have option to choose what was next.
Second, this research focused on how the students’attitude when they
encounter the differences. The appropriate way or acceptable attitude was respect. When people have respect then people would be able to be open their mind. The attitude when people find something new also determine their usual behavior.
Pre Service Teacher
Teacher Competence Intercultural Competence
Components
Knowledge Skill
Chapter Three
Methodology
This research discusses students’ perception toward their intercultural competence at EED UMY. This chapter presents the methodology of this
research. This chapter contains research design, research setting and participants, data collection, instrument of the research, and data analysis.
Research Design
The purpose of research was to explore the students’ perception on their intercultural competence in EED UMY. The researcher got information of students’ perceptionby research design that provided rich information.Thus, the researcher chose the suitable research design to conduct the research.
The researcher used qualitative research. According to Creswell (2012) qualitative research was the fit method to report the research problem of the phenomenon. The phenomenon that was underlying of this research was that there were many students who were not aware of the importance in developing
Research Setting
Research was conducted at the English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The researcher was also studying at the English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Therefore, it made the researcher easy to access the participants of the research. The other advantages is in EED, there were participants who had more experience in learning cultural that means data collection was fruitful.
Research Participants
The researcher used purposive sampling to select the participants. Purposive sampling was type of sampling where researcher selected units, such as
individual, group of individuals, and institutes based on specific purposes associated with answering of research question in research (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2011). It means, the researcher looked for participants based on his characteristics needed. Then, the researcher got rich information from those represents participants.
The participants of this research were EED students’ batch 2013 which had ever joined a student exchange program. There were three students who met the criteria of research participant. The first participant is male. He had been studied abroad and took a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic in Universidad Jamue 1 for six months. Then, the researcher called P1 for participant one. The second
months. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2011) added qualitative research concern with word collected data based on the individual opinion. It means that qualitative research did not deal with how many numbers of the participant but it talked about how useful the information for the researcher. Hence, three participants were considered enough to be involved as source of information in this research. Instrument of research
The researcher used interview guideline, recorder and field note as the instruments for this research. First, the researcher had an interview guideline to keep the interview on the track.There were some points that the researcher asked to participants. To begin with, the researcher asked about introductory question such the purpose to join the student exchange program and the preparation before leaving Indonesia. It continued with main question about what the competences or ability as perceived by them as Indonesian to adapt in new country. This question attempted the students’ opinion regarding their understanding of culture diversity after they joined the student exchange program. Second,recorder helped the researcher to save participants’ interview. Data interviewcould be identified after being transcribed. During the interview, the researcher took a note on field note. The researcher wrote some important points. This written text helped the
researcher to remind missing point of participants. It also helped to develop interview following questions.
Data CollectionMethod
multi-sensory channels to be used: verbal, non-verbal, spoken and heard. The interviewer not only sought the answer but also responses about complex and deep issues. It means by doing interview the researcher got rich data from
participant. Before doing interview, the researcher made an agreement first to the respondentor make an appointment. The researcher described the purpose of and steps of interview to the participants before the interview started.
The researcher used open ended question as a type of question in order to conduct interview. Open-ended interview reduced interviewer influence and bias. Interviewers facilitated participant if the participant got confused with the
questions. In other word, researcher helped them to clarify what they do not understand.
The researcher asked permission to the participants to record the information fromthe participants’ answer. The interview usedBahasa Indonesiain order to reduce misunderstanding of unfamiliar words and to ease data analysis. Two participants (P1 and P2) were available to conduct face to face interview and the last participant (P3) one used text message to answer interview questions. Data analysis
After collecting data, the next step was data analysis. There were some steps to conduct data analysis. Those were transcribing, member checking and
analyzing data.
Participant checkedthe result of the transcription. This was named by member checking.
Second, the researcher used three kinds of coding namely open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Open coding means the researcher made groups of texts which has similar meaning or similar theme. The next was axial coding. The researcher broke down the statement of open coding into smallest unit or
Chapter Four
Finding and Discussion
This chapter presents explanations of findings to answer the research
questions based on the data.The research question focused on the EED students’ perception on their intercultural competence. This research succeeded to identify four findings. First, the research found that there were attitude changes after they lived overseas. Second, the research found that students used knowledge to support adaptation process. Third, the research revealed that students used their social skill to adapt to new habits and tradition. Fourth, this research identified students’ awareness to respect other habits and tradition. Finally, this research describedstudents’ opinion on their competence in intercultural skill.
Intercultural competence isdefined as person’s capability to make respectable interaction with people who have differences in attitude and knowledge. The knowledge, skills, attitude and awareness are components of intercultural competence (Byram, 2002; Fantini, 2006; Sercu, 2005). According to Deadroff (2009) intercultural competence is categorized into understanding, relationship development, appropriateness and adaptation.
Finding 1:Students’ attitude changesafter they lived overseas
As an introductory question, the researcher asked about the preparations did by participants before they left for a student exchange program. Participants were interested in joining the programs because they wished to enlarge their
were living abroad or spending substantial time in a different culture may reveal a honeymoonstage in which experiences are positive. In this stage, participants were enthusiastic to discover new evidence that belongs to foreign culture.
Participants also wanted to know more about the European or Asian people life. They tried to by practice their communication such as asking questions and sharing information about culture. Actually, participants found new friends who did not use Bahasa Indonesia as language for communication. They began to practice their English in daily conversation with others who did not understand about Bahasa Indonesia. The last preparation was preparing the administration including the documents such as ID card, TOEFL certificate, motivation letter and recommendation letter and also their physical conditions.
Next, the researcher asked the participants about their consideration to recognize foreign culture. This statement pointed on explaining that students who had experienced to communicate with foreign people. The researcher found that participants believed that their attitude, behavior and skills were changed. The participant indirectly explained that their ability to communicate increased.
Based on the interview, two out of three participants stated that some attitudes such as being open minded people, not to be judgmental people and tolerable people were keys to understand the different culture. The first attitude was being open minded people. They accepted their new environment without blaming the differences. Here are the sample of participant’sstatements, as stated by
“Because you will never know and get in touch with them until you open your mind”.(P1.6)
”You should not become ajudgmental person and be open minded person”. (P2.9)
Based on the interview, explicitly participants enjoyed exploring other cultures, at the same time they quickly acquire a lot of relevant information about the culture through learning and have interaction with people from different backgrounds. According to Zee, Oudenhoven, Ponterotto and Fietzer (2013) open mindedness means people's capacity to be open and neutral when encountering people who may have different norm and values. This ability is closely like cultural empathy. Moreover, the researcher found other attitude based on the participants’answer. The second attitude mentioned was being unprejudiced toward other group and cultural values. Unprejudiced means not stereotyping. Stereotypes can terminate our sense of which we are by telling that how we look or speak that decide our act (Byram, 2002).The participants said that being foreigners who live in various cultural values needed skill of interacting cooperatively named tolerance.
“Tolerance is important to understand the country and its culture”. (P3.3)
that intercultural person was a person who hada willingness to relate one's own values, beliefs and behaviors. They had not assumed that they were the correct ones but they had to be able to see how they might look from other viewpoint. Here the following statement from participant one.
“Before I go to Spain, I do not really open minded people, but after I get4 in touch with other, I feels changes especially I become mor4e open minded people”. (P1.8)
Based on the interview, three participants implied that their competences to respect other culture improved after they should be in new environments and meeting new people from other countries. For example, they became open-minded and unprejudiced. They also had preference in tolerating toward other cultures.
Finding 2: Students uses knowledge to support adaptation process
Based on the finding of the interview, participants agreed that they had struggled with the first interaction with foreigner. There was one participant defined the obstacle namely cultural shock. According to Bennet as cited in Wintergerest and McVeigh (2010) culture shock is the discomfort experienced while abroad, being disoriented in different and unfamiliar cultural backgrounds.
There are different terms used to describe the many stages of culture shock. Adler (1977) as cited by Wintergerest and McVeigh (2010) classified into five stages of cultural shock. The first stage is contact or honeymoon stage, it means the first time people meet the cultural differences. The second stage is
self-esteem. The third stage is integration, it means people refuse the new culture and restate the old culture. The fourth stage is autonomy or adjustment stage which means people begin to feel self-confident and new cultural situation is not
problematic. Fifth stage is independence or recovery stage which means treat both the old and new culture with respect (Wintergerest & McVeigh, 2010).
Here some statements showed that participant new knowledge and adaptation process. These following statements related with culture knowledge. This
experienced can be gotten when participant interacted with local society. "Do not ever go to the store over at 12 p.m. You will never get the store because the store had been closed.”(P1.15)
“As long as I make friends with Spanish, they truly openness and accept the
differences”(P1.16)
“The first one that I learned is I got the culture shocked”(P2.17) “The first thing to understand the foreign culture is by experiencing
something new”(P2.18)
“When the electricity agency comes, I was shocked that my bill is increase. Then I realize that Spanish use water effectively duringwinter
season.”(P2.19)
“We usually take fruit from store in supermarket by hand, but this habits is
can be reached by reading book. This example comes from participant two who learnt a lot from book guideline.
“At least I know how to say thank you and how to greet someone in their (foreign) language”(P2.4)
According to Byram (2002) information about intercultural competence relates to knowledge of social processes, and knowledge of illustrations.
Participant 1 showed that people should be open minded in order to achieve the knowledge. This interaction helped participants to use their language
appropriately to avoid misunderstanding. Participants understood the stage how to interact and perceive the new foreigner as well. This implementation is a product of adaptation process.
In summary, students’knowledge is useful to adapt in new environment. By having information about culture identity, people can anticipate with whom they want to interact. Moreover, as intercultural people, the participants should be wise in acquiring positive information in order to think objectively.
Finding 3: Students use their social skill to adapt to new habits and tradition
how to react by avoiding mistake, and further it became behavior. Here are sample statements coming from all participants:
“..Participate in their every single events or celebrations”(P1.7)
“..Should mingle or participate the society’s custom”(P2.8)
“We usually take fruit from store in supermarket by hand, but this habit is not
agreed in Spain because we should use the gloves to take it…”(P2.17)
“…Involve the cultural habit”(P3.5)
This finding is in line with Zee et al. (2013) who stated that people's skills to change their behavior to new location named flexibility. In abroad, students should be able to change their habits because their technique might be different and contrary with new situation.Participant 2 illustrated the differences about her habit and Spanish habit. After the participant knew the instruction on how to buy fruit appropriately, the participant might implement the acceptable ways there. That notice was useful to implement or illustrate for the participant is steps in the process of adaptation.
interested in cultural adjustment because they believe that their personality is and the most correct one.
To conclude, all the participants had been become the active people. They had become an event organizer even as the master of ceremony. In intercultural context, being active means take response to adapt in social quickly. One of the strategies to improve this ability is by joining any events which link with other tradition and habit.
Finding 4: Students’ awareness to respect other habits and tradition
increased
As prospective teacher and intercultural people, it is important to develop the skill, attitude and awareness. When the participants arrived in foreign country, it was possible to find the different pattern from theirs. Student might get cultural shock for the first time. By the time they needed to be aware with their own culture values and how these values might influence in the opinion of strangers. Some EED students had observed about their situation. Then, they knew how to adapt in daily life of foreign country. Based on the interview, there were explicit statements coming from participant 2:
“When I have greetings to the boy, he will greet me caressingly. I am
embarrassed. I realize when the ways of greeting people is like this one, and I
try to adjust it.”(P2.16)
openness with any tradition. Participant one explained that in Spain the awareness about the traffic jam is well regulated, it is different from Indonesia country that where people cannot handle the traffic jam.
According to Byram (2002)intercultural people might have own stereotypes. People naturally cannot change their values directly when encountering the
diverse culture. They were able to identify the thoughts and behaviors of people or groups who became apart of different cultures. The stereotypes will be proven when they have included in the real situation. This action helped student to
understand the ways of people thinking. It could strength students’ awareness in
order to develop their intercultural competence.
To conclude, it could be inferred EED students feels that they have good enough intercultural competences. This wasreflected from the participants’
statements. One of the participants said that his intercultural
competenceswasbetter than other students who did not have experience in finding the cultural differences. This participant strongly believed that he had open minded attitude. Meanwhile other participants who described that the participants were not sure about the competences that they have learned.
Finding 5: Students’ opinionabout the importance of intercultural
competence in teaching
experience and deep understanding about rules and regulation of educational country. Based on the participants’ statement at the end of interview, it indicates
that they were ready to take chance in teaching abroad.
“Exactly, I need more time to be ready”(P2.16)
Based on the statement of participants at the end of interview, it indicates that one participant is not ready to take chance in teaching abroad. Students realized that teaching need more understanding about culture. It might took a long period to be ready as participant stated.The reasons to decline and accept teach abroad were also presented. Participant one and two argued:
“When I am going to teach, the important thing that should I understood is
culture.”(P1. 17)
“As a teacher, teach in the classroom need language and culture and also
need to know the students’ educational history, the education rules because that are crucial thing that teacher should covered”(P2.15)
Students will meet with different person in their life. To anticipate the misunderstanding about students’culture, so as prospective teachers, EED students should learn more about other cultures. This is following statement from participant one:
“Language and culture cannot separate each other. We as EED students should learn English, cultures, not only Indonesian culture but culture in
Brown (2007) stated that the one of principle of teaching is teacher should know the students’background. It means that student should know about who will be taught by student, what materials needed by students and what kinds of strategies
should be employed. The solution is keep learning the students’ cultural identity
in order to develop the knowledge and skills in teaching competences.
In summary, this research revealed that some EED UMY students were quite aware with their intercultural aspect. In addition, they understood that teacher should know about importance of giving the student needed skills and strategies to perform and do task in a new country with a new language and culture. They also aware that teacher should check whether the material is suitable and needed or not by students.
However, it showed by this research that students’ confidence to take the
Chapter Five
Conclusion and Recommendation
This is the last chapter of the research. It presents about conclusion of data analysis and recommendation also mentioned below.
Conclusion
This research aims to investigate the students’ perception on their
intercultural competence at English Education Department of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Based on the interview result, there were some perceptions of EED students about their intercultural competence. They experienced that their attitude changes. The changes attitude are being open-minded, not to judgmental and tolerance. They understand that having
intercultural competence is importantfor relating students’ abilitytoward their cultural value. They also needed more time and understanding to be ready teaches in other country.
Recommendation
In the second part of this chapter, the researcher explained recommendation for some education performers. The recommendations were attended to students, researcher other researchers and institution.
The researcher.The researcher should learn more the current rule and regulation to be a competent teacher. The practice to share information is essential for teaching and learning activity.
Other researchers.Other researchers interest in having research about intercultural in teaching and learning culture. For example, research about activities to increase cultural awareness in classroom or implication between
intercultural competence and students’ learning skill.This research used purposive sampling, the result of this research might not represent the whole
EED students’ perception. However, this might be sufficient to give initial
study regarding with intercultural issue as perceived by students.
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Appendix 1. Interview Guideline
Interview Guideline
Research title :Students’ perception ontheir intercultural competence at English Education Department of UniversitasMuhammadiyah Yogyakarta
Time :
Date :
Place :
Participant :
Questions :
1. Apa alas an kamu mengikuti Program Pertukaran Pelajar? 2. Bagaimana persiapan kamu sebelum berangkat?
3. Menurut kamu, dalam memahami budaya Negara lain, apa sih yang perlu diperhatikan?
4. Ketika kamu sudah disana, bagaimana kamu menyesuaikan diri dengan kondisi atau situasi sekitar?
5. Aspek apa yang meningkat setelah mengikuti Program Pertukaran Pelajar?
