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STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD SPIRITUALITY
IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CLASSROOM IN
A STATE SCHOOL IN COMAL, CENTRAL JAVA
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Ivora Yesica Princes 112013076
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
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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 my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due the reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2017. Ivora Yesica Princes and Joseph Ernest Mambu, Ph. D.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education, Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Kristen Satya
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STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD SPIRITUALITY
IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CLASSROOM IN
A STATE SCHOOL IN COMAL, CENTRAL JAVA
ABSTRACT
Theresearch concerning students’ perception towards spirituality in English language classroom has been conducted since it is one of controversial issues in English Foreign Language (EFL) classroom context(Mambu, 2017). This research aims to identify the students’ perceptions towards spirituality in ELT especially in a state school in Comal, Central Java. Eight students were interviewed in the process. Then, the data was analyzed based on Palmer (1999), Mambu (2014), Mambu (2016), Mambu (2017), Halifax (1998), Lin (2015), Jackson, and Everington (2016). The results showed that students have both of positive and negative perceptions towards spirituality in English subject.
Keywords: Perception, Spirituality, Spirituality in ELT
INTRODUCTION
The role of spirituality is still controversial whether or not it is an essential point to be taught in the state schools in Indonesia, especially in English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom. Spirituality is considered as one of the most interesting and widely debated topics in the pedagogical world since spirituality can potentially play a large role in learning (Roux, 2006) Spirituality has turned into one of the essential aspects of society that can help students to understand the bigger picture about the meaning of ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ whether it is being
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school in Indonesia attempts to develop their students’ awareness toward unity in diversity and promote the spirituality. This is because spirituality is one of the important things that should be promoted in education (Glazer, 1999).However, the problem in the state schools in Indonesia is that not all of the students share the same spirituality background, which in this case refers to religious faith.
In Indonesia, the issue is the religion that is adopted by the majority of the students (i.e., Islam) usually become the applied norms in school life. Many state schools have their ways and various teaching methods in teaching spirituality, especially through English language subject. I remember when I was in senior high school, English lessons started by reciting the English version of ‘Al -Fatihah’ prayer. This routine is applied to all of the students. Furthermore, I found
out that the minority students were struggling to learn Al-Fatihah because the teacher put the value of Islamic spirituality through English language learning. Given this fact, the students whose religion is treated as the minority might find this issue problematic.
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the importance of having an adequate awareness towards their and others’ spirituality background to socialize one with other people in diversity.
This study will answer the following research question: What perceptions do the students of a state school in Comal have toward spirituality in the English language classroom? It is expected that the result would help ungraduate students of English language teachers to understand the importance of spirituality that can give positive effects for students in their English language learning and be able to contribute the field of spirituality in pedagogial world, especially in ESL classrooms.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Perception
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teachers think and believe and the way that they view and understand things. Thus, perceptions can also positively influence for students mentally, emotionally and socially.
Accordingly, it can be assumed that perception is students and teachers’ assumptions toward what they think, believe, and understand of many things. Perception may contribute to learning process to respond a topic that is considered interesting to discuss to achieve the goal. Then, they can interpret the things into something meaningful based on their experience.
Spirituality
According to O’Brien (2003) “spirituality is a personal concept, generally associated with an individual’s attitudes and beliefs related to transcendence
(God) or nonmaterial forces of life and nature.” Moreover, he recognizes that
love, care, mind, spirit, and connection of body might be used to describe spirituality.
The concept of spirituality has been described by Mambu (2017) as the ability on how someone can go beyond and connect themselves and their existence to others as the realization that there is always a greater power above them. Spirituality is a broad concept covering a lot of entities, including religion and humanity.
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(2017) he argues that spirituality means a commitment to being connected with
other people and nature with love to take care a sense of ‘humanity’ and
‘community’ (p. 7).Thus, spirituality is not only something about religious terms or relationship with God, but it is also about relationship with others such as friendship, nature, and environment.
Spirituality in ELT
In pedagogical world, spirituality has an exact, honest, vital, and vibrant connection between students, teacher, and the subject that is being taught which can be irrelevant in certain occasion (Jones, 2006). Spirituality has proven to have a contribution in ELT, like Marlowe (2016) stated that, “spirituality could be positively enriching for the students and teachers if presented in critical pedagogy inspired ELT” (p. 37). This argument can be a standing point toward this issue, since there is a possibility that the intervention of spirituality in ELT can give a positive impact to the students in the classroom.
6 Theoretical Framework
According to Palmer (1999) stated that, “some sort of connective capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied” (p. 27).Spirituality can also be the “driving force” for language learning(Mambu, 2014). That is because when spirituality is
integrated in language learning, the students will be encouraged to develop their spiritual intelligent along with their language competence. Lin also explained that “those who are spiritually intelligent are also eloquent and expressive with
language, compassionate, forgiving, mindful, reflective, and kind” (p.56). Therefore, Ryoo (2009) as cited in Mambu (2016) stated that “being self-reflexive of power differentials between a student embracing a religious faith and his or her peers having other religious views also indicates a sense of humanity” (p. 177).
Futhermore, Mambu (2017) argues that spirituality means a commitment to being connected with other people and nature with love to take care a sense of
‘humanity’ and ‘community’ (p. 96). According to Halifax (1998) stated that:
Spirituality is difficult for us to touch because it flows to and from the invisible , from love and the mystery of death . . . . It flows from the ground of our relationship, not only between human beings, but also between all beings, including mountains and rivers . . . . It evokes within us compassion, which allows us to see through the eyes of innumerable beings (italics mine). (1998, pp.44-45)
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Besides that, according to Lin (2015) stated that “spirituality may often be pushed aside and treated as irrelevant to learning, yet it is one of those minute details that potentially play a large role in learning” (p.55). Moreover, Gallagher
(2009) as cited in Mambu (2014) argues against current research into spirituality in the U.S. higher education are that the notion of spirituality is “so ill-defined as to be virtually useless,” that “everyone has a ‘spirituality,’” including atheists and
agnostics, and that it enunciates a “fundamentally Protestant bias” (pp. 68-69). Moreover, “...the idea of proselytization is not politically correct” (Mambu, 2014, p. 14). In simple words, proselytization is inappropriate especially in education. In simple words, proselytization is did not support justice, fairness, mercy, grace, compassion, generosity, and humanity in learning process. Moreover, Mambu (2016) stated that “without self-reflexivity, there is only monologue, especially in such forms as coercion, manipulation, and imposition—all of which are problems
of humanity” (p. 177). Futhermore, Jackson and Everington (2016) argue that teachers from religious backgrounds, personal knowledge and experiences about religion as a valuable classroom resource (p. 12). In other words, the teachers may converted they beliefs to their students.Moreover, spirituality is not appropriate to impose a view on students opinion into other beliefs, whether we are speaking in a school or other places.
8 Review of Previous Study
The studies of spirituality had already been done by some reseachers. Mambu (2014) did a dissertation about the place of spirituality in ELT. In his dissertation, he explored on English as Foreign Language stakeholders’ understanding of spiritual identities, especially for English language teachers. This study is motivated by the place of spirituality in ELT that still became a debate over pedadogical world. Furthermore, it was found that the teachers can be professional during ELT learning process. The findings also showed that the teachers can find a way in negotiating spirituality in ELT context with their students. For example when Mambu have dialogue with Houtman who is Christian English teacher, he said that spirituality is a private matter. Therefore, he will not include it with the lesson because not all of the students are Christian. He only shared the general values that all of the religion have similar values.
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Based on the studies above, this study will also be talking about spirituality. However, this study will only follow the framework of Mambu (2014), in his examined disertation about the place of spirituality in ELT in the private campus. Based on the reseachers above. Therefore, the framework from those two studies will be mixed in order to investigate students’ perception towards spirituality in English Language Teaching in the state school in rural area.
THE STUDY
This current study based on the answered of the research question: What perceptions do the students of a public high school in Comal have toward the place spirituality in English as a Foreign Language classroom?
To address this question, I used qualitative study. This study attempts to dig deeper into the students’ perception toward spirituality in EFL classroom; and to find out how Indonesian students are aware to the importance of the spirituality identity in English classroom.
Context and Participants
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but also Christian and Catholic. I have access to the teachers since I know some of the alumnus of the school.
XII IS 1/ XII MIPA 1 LINTAS MINAT class will participate in this study for the observation and interview because the English teacher in this class has more sense of spirituality compared to other teachers. There are 38 students with many kinds of diversity such as religion, ethnicity, and social classes. Ten students will be selected using purposive sampling since the participants should fulfill some the criteria to be able to be qualified to use as the data.
The criteria for the students are five of the students come from the majority group (i.e., Islam) and five students who belong to the minority group (i.e., non-Muslims). These kind of criteria were meant to know deeper about students’ awareness toward their diversity in their EFL classroom. The interviews
will be conducted in Indonesian and will then being translated into English to present the result of this study. However, the data from only 8 students whose from many religions (i.e., Islam, Christian, and Catholic. See table 1), are analyzed towards their respons in individual interviews that relevant to the question and focused on how their perception towards spirituality that discussed in considerible depth.
Table 1. Participants
Pseudonym Class/ Age Description Current Religious
1. Ussy XII MIPA 1/17
yo
A female,
Javanesse dancer,
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This study employed two research instruments: interview and classroom observation. The interview will be conducted to know deeper into the students’ perception toward spirituality. I used Indonesian when conducted the interview, and then translate it into English in presenting the finding in this study. I used a semi-structured interview model to get detail information.
The interview protocol for this study has been adopted from Lin (2005) and Mambu (2016).
For the students :
1. What do you know about spirituality?
2. What are your English teachers’ attitudes toward you in class?
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4. What do you think of your interaction between you and your English teacher, Mrs. Ani, in class?
Data Collection Technique
The analysis questions and observation were adopted from Fisher (2011), Lin (2015) and Mambu (2016). To get an easier point of interview, I used an audio-recorder device (a digital camera or a tape recorder). Besides, I focused on what Non-Muslim and Non-Christian did in the classroom suggest that the students have an awareness and interested in spirituality in English classroom through observation activity and got information from students.
Data analysis
To answer the research question, the data from the classroom observation and interview will be translated into English. Then, the data that had already been transcibed were classified by using Picken (2005) definition of perception in theoretical framework based onPalmer (1999), Mambu (2014), Mambu (2017), Halifax (1998), Lin (2015), Mambu (2016), Jackson and Everington (2016). This will lead this study to a clearer conclusion in the end of the research. The results will help this study to identify specific perceptions that students have towards spirituality in ELT.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section discusses students’ perceptions towards spirituality based on
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Mambu (2016), Jackson and Everington (2016) theoretical framework. The discussion about spirituality presented with the help of some examples from the results interview of students. The results showed that students have both positive and negative perceptions towards sprituality in ELT.
Positive perceptions
This sub-section discusses positive perceptions towards spirituality in ELT.
Fosteringa sense of humanity
The meaning of spirituality I got through the interfaith dialogue with three students that have the same perceptions towards spirituality in ELT seems to indicate students’ positive responses. To begin with, the first meaning of
spirituality was described by Ussy whose one of highly achivers students in grade XII MIPA 1 of this school. Responding to my question: “What do you know
about spirituality or religion?”, Ussy said:
Hmm..what is that, an effort of human to know the goals of our life. I think, spirituality is like relationship. It is not only about to God but also to human beings. In my opinion, relation is not only with my boyfriend but with God, with my friends, with my parents, with my teachers. In it, there are any conversation between one with others. Like that.” (Interview, July, 2017)
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Spirituality is relationship with God. However, in my opinion, not only with God but also with others.
Therefore, it is the same as Mawar’s perception. Mawar is an ethnic Batak and a Catholic. Shesaid:
Spirituality is where we are connected with our religion, with our God but
also with others like our friends, our teachers, parents and our pets. I mean
the pupose is to find peace in the world. Did you remember in the Bible said
that “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”That’s it.
Another opinion came from Petris, who said that:
Spirituality is a relationship between human and God, and with all of God’s
creation in the world. Not only with God, but also with parents, teachers,
friends, animals includs spirituality. They are all parts of spirituality.
Their opinion is similar to the meaning of spirituality in an idea from Mambu (2014) that spirituality means a commitment to being connected with other people
and nature with love to take care a sense of ‘humanity’ and ‘community’ (p. 96). It
also has the same meaning as Halifax (1998) who stated that :
Spirituality is difficult for us to touch because it flows to and from the invisible, from love and the mystery of death . . . . It flows from the ground of our relationship, not only between human beings, but also between all beings, including mountains and rivers . . . . It evokes within us compassion, which allows us to see through the eyes of innumerable beings (italics mine) (1998, pp. 44-45).
16 Driving force for language learning
Besides that, Ussy still has a positive response about the engaged between the materials and religious value in English lessons will increase her knowlegde. Then, I asked, “What do you think about your interaction with your English
teacher and your friends in the classroom? I mean how do you interactwith your teacher and you with your friends in the classroom?”
Hmm... I think everything is good. In my opinion, spirituality in the classroom is important. It can strengthen interreligious relationship, because we can get a lot of new knowledge.
Futhermore, spirituality in ELT, especially about relation, it helped students to learn more to be aware of other religious cultures. Then, I asked Eddy. He loves English lessons and was the second best in the class.I asked him about his relationship with the English teacher. He said:
My relationship with Mrs. Ani is great. I think she is a great teacher.
I asked him, “really? In whatterm?” and he added:
In my opinion, hmm... she teaches English with a good method.
I asked him, “what does that mean? Could you explain?” and he
answered:
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five non-Islam students. I think, It is good for developing our awareness of religious cultures, am I right?
Then, Ussy’s perception was the one of examples that related with the theory from
Palmer (1999) stated that, “some sort of connective capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied” (p. 27). Besides, Eddy’s perception is same as Mambu
(2014) that spirituality as a positive thing that can be a driving force for someone who learns something new from the lessons.Thus, it showed that spirituality in ELT has a positive effect in English learning process. For example spirituality can help them to learn how to know one with others through English language classroom of new knowledge and increase their cultural understanding. Therefore, this phenomenom showed that spirituality can help them think more critically. Based on Halifax (1998) some students in this school can learn to see something with their new eyes. The students not only read by words but also world.They can explore their awareness toward spirituality in the classroom.
Negative perceptions
This sub-section discusses negative perceptions towards spirituality in ELT.
Being insensitive to non-Muslim students
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she stated that the English teachers usually connecting the lesson to the religion terms.
When Ramadhan arived, ma’am Ani asked us about what puasa is in English. Then,she talked about breakfasting and asked about that.
Another perception came from Putri, she said that:
I got bored by the English teacher.Because she like to talk about religion. Sometimes in English lesson, it seems like a religious education subject.
This perception toward spirituality in the classroom is related to Jackson and Everington (2016) that teachers use their religious backgrounds, personal knowledge and experiences as a valuable classroom resource (p. 12).It means that spirituality can develop students’ negative attitude that might influence student’s beliefs. Thus, teachers must pay attention toward students’ beliefs.
Imposition of teacher’s religion
Through interfaith dialogue with Mawar and Tuah, there are some opinions toward spirituality in ELT such as still using Al-Fatihah before the lesson, talking about religion, and disliking the English lesson.
Is that Lintas Minat class? Yes, sometimes. Still using Al-Fatihah. I still memorize it. If she talked about religion, maybe I am not really interested. If lintas minat class after ‘sholat dzuhur’, sometimes she asked us like ‘have you done your sholat?’. Then she gives some
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I still memorize it (i.e., Al-Fatihah), but sometimes I am too lazy to follow it. I do not really like with that. Based on my faith as Catholic, it seems like ‘syahadat’, so that it is not appropriate to use carelessly. I do
not like it (Mawar, July 2017).
From the excerpts above, it is possible to be categorized as one of imposition of teacher’s religion in the classroom, especially in ELT which may not bean
appropriate approach in language teaching. It is in line with Lin’s (2015) idea that sometimes spirituality is considered in learning a language.
Moreover, based on interfaith dialogue with John when I asked him about “how was spirituality presented in ELT classroom? Is there any religious terms?’
he said :
Hmmm...still something like that, I also still memorize how Al-Fatihah is. As always before we started English like in the Ramadhan, the teacher tells about fasting. Then, she tells a story about fasting and tell the rules in Ramadhan, including no cheating. It seems like religion lesson. Sometimes that makes me bored.
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She always preaches. I got bored. I think this is language lesson right? Honestly, she talks like Mamah Dedeh(1)
Then, perceptions from John related with theory from Mambu (2014) stated that, “...the idea of proselytization is not poticically correct” (p. 14). It is inappropriate
to be used in education, especially in ELT. The students may did not like with the way teachers using this method to teaching English.
Besides that, based on myobservation in XII Lintas Minat Bahasa Inggris, I already know that there are a number of non-Muslim students. (i.e., John, Mawar, Tuah, Petris and Posan). When the English language started, I see that the teacher still used Al-Fatihah in the beginning of the English language class. I also followed the pray and still memorized it. Moreover, the relationship between teacher and students, students and students is good.
The first person that caught my attention in this class is John who is of Chinese descent. When I did an interview with him, he said that he loves English lessons. However, when in the classroom, I saw that he did not really care about his environment (i.e., his friends). He also did not seem to be interested by the
1lessons. When I asked him about that through interfaith dialogue, he said that he
just paid attention to the important matters that the teacher explains. Then, I asked him deeper why and he said:
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honestly I want to enter a private school because based on my experince when I was in secondary state school.They follow tradition of the religious majority.
Then I asked him about the examples, he added:
For example when Ramadhan, we should follow short koranic course in every Friday. And now see, I entered a state school and still seems like that, even all of the teachers in this school, including my English teacher, whereas I love English lessons. Hmm yaa... The teacher here still using their religious faith to teach us. But, I just ignore it.
From John’s story, I see that theory from Mambu (2014) about proselytization is
inappropriate especially in education was right. Moreover, there are many students in the state schools, not only in the John’s English class, it might felt by other students. The teachers may impose their beliefs onthe students accidentally.
Futhermore, there is a case of Posani. She is a Catholic ofChinese descent.I think he is one of introverted students. When the teacher asked about “what kind of gestures for getting attention?”. I saw that Posani answered it well
with a waving hand. However, maybe her voice could not be heard by the teacher.Supposedly though, Posani’s voice could be heard by the teacher because she sat in front of the teacher. Unfortunately, the teacher ignored him.The situation in the classroom is something like this:
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teacher seemed to pay little attention to Posani. I looked that Posani was clever. She was one of active students but the teacher did not really care about her.On other hand, based on the story from some of students from Lintas Minat class, John is also a smart student but he did not really participate actively in the classroom. He seemed silent, doing nothing. Sometimes, he checked his smartphone and likedchating with his friends. (My observational field note)
Then, after the class finished, I came to Posani and asked some questions. I asked her “Posani, I guess, you can rise your hand when you want to answer the question.” Then, she answered, “it occured almost in every meeting, but she
ignores me almost all the time.” Next, I added “did you know why it happened to you?” She answered, “actually, I do not really know the reason is, but I heard from my friend from an older class, she was sensitive with non-Muslim students.” Thus, from the dialogue with Posani, it might be categorized as discriminatory in the classroom.
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CONCLUSION
This study was conducted with the aim to analyze students’ perception towards the place of spirituality in English Language Teaching (ELT), especially English classroom in a state school in Comal, Central Java. As a result of interview, it was found that students have negative perceptions towards spirituality in English language classroom. In other words, the teacher must increase her cultural awareness, especially in religion terms. The teachers must consider the minority of students. Since students not only come from one religion but also from another religion.If the teachers build a positive atmosphere during learning process, the students will have positive perceptions towards spirituality in the classroom.
Moreover, there are many religions ( i.e., Muslim, Christian, Catholic, and etc) including atheist and other beliefs in the state school. Therefore, some students in the state school argue that spirituality in the classroom can develop their awareness and build a positive perceptions between Muslim students and non-Muslim students. As English teachers, we should be aware with this phenomenon in this era. The results of this study showed that some students in state school got disturbed by teachers’ manner to use spirituality in English
language classroom as an approach in state school.
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this research only focused on students’ perceptions towards the place of
spirituality, especially in a religious sense in English language classroom. I believe that this research can develop into larger scale in the future. Then, the future research may can add teachers’ perception towards students’ spirituality in
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The first of all, I would like to say thank you from deepest my heart to the awesome God. I know I am a princess. My father is King. He is Jesus Christ. I am nothing without Him. Second, I would also say thank you for the most awesome teacher that I ever meet, my supervisor, Joseph Ernest Mambu, Ph. D , without him, I would never be able to finish all of this. He shares everything that he know to me. He teaches me like a father to his daughter, how lucky I am! Third, I would like to thank to my gorgeous teacher, my second reader, Athriyana Santye Pattiwael, M.Hum for all of her feedback and suggestions for my thesis.
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I also would like to say thank you for some people who help me to finish my thesis, Aurellia Melinda, Windhi Arsari, Pambayun, and Annisa. Moreover, I would like to thank to my charming boy, Bruno Mars with his songs in every night. Actually, there are many friends that I can not mention them one by one.I would not ever be able to finish my thesis without all of you. However, from my deepest my heart, I would like to say that, ‘You are awesome for me’, thank you
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