PDF Proceeding the Eighth International Conference on Applied Linguistics

(1)

PROCEEDING

THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLIED

LINGUISTICS

Language and Well-being Bandung 19 - 20 August 2015

(2nd Edition)

Editor:

Wachyu Sundayana and Eri Kurniawan

Published by:

Balai Bahasa

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

(2)

The Eighth Conference on Applied Linguistics (CONAPLIN 8) (2nd Edition)

ke 1: 2015, Bandung

Proceeding of Conference on Applied Linguistics (2

^nd

Edition) = Konferensi Linguistik Terapan (Edisi Kedua): Sambutan dan Kumpulan Makalah CONAPLIN 8/Penyunting, Wachyu Sundayana dan Eri Kurniawan: --Bandung: Balai Bahasa UPI, 2015

343 halaman; 21 x 29,7 cm

ISBN 978-602-71988-2-1

CONFERENCE ON APPLIED LINGUISTICS (2

^nd

Edition) I. Title, Wachyu Sundayana dan Eri Kurniawan II. Editor

PROCEEDING CONFERENCE ON APPLIED LINGUISTICS 8 (2 ^nd Edition)

Indonesia University of Education (UPI), 19 – 20 Agustus 2015

Editor: Wachyu Sundayana dan Eri Kurniawan

Publisher:

Balai Bahasa UPI

Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229

Bandung 4015

(3)

FOREWORD

Assalamualaikum Wr. Wb.

The Conference on Applied Linguistics (CONAPLIN) is intended to be a vehicle for those in the field of language studies and its application to exchange thoughts and insights regarding recent research and development in the field of (applied) linguistics.

CONAPLIN is also expected to be a medium through which undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, lecturers, and educators gather and share their fresh insights, experiences and best practices.

As the name suggests, CONAPLIN is dedicated to not only catering for linguistics and its application in the field of language learning, but also other fields, such as clinical psychology, sociology, anthropology, health, law, communication, translation, literature, and other relevant fields. The language under examination can be varied: “international languages” such as English, Spanish, Arabic, German, French, Indonesian, and local languages such as Sundanese, Javanese, and Madurese. However, the only official languages to be used in CONAPLIN for presentations are English and Indonesian.

CONAPLIN has been greatly welcomed by Indonesian and international participants alike as proven by our success in holding the seventh conference. The number of presenters and participants has been increasing since CONAPLIN I.

The theme for CONAPLIN VIII is “Language and Well-Being”. The abstracts the committee received were as many as 170 abstracts from both domestic and international presenter candidates.

The papers presented in this proceeding have undergone rigorous reviews by a board of trusted reviewers and experts in their relevant fields and careful revisions by editors. It is, thus, my great pleasure to present to you the proceedings of The CONAPLIN VIII.

It is our hope CONAPLIN can continuously contribute significantly to the development of language studies, language teaching and the respective fields.

Wassalam,

Head of the Language Center of UPI

Dr. Wachyu Sundayana, M.A.

(4)

PROJECTING ASIAN ENGLISHES DICTIONARY:

AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE FOR DEVELOPING EFL/ESL LEARNERS’

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

Marwa

Lancang Kuning University, Pekanbaru-Riau [email protected]

Abstract

In the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) context particularly in ASEAN region, Asian Englishes dictionary can possibly foster intercultural competence which has been very crucial for successful communication. There some important aspects in projecting the dictionary. Firsty, in terms of the target users, Asian Englishes dictionary designed as a speciliazed dictionary is aimed to provide EFL/ESL teachers and students an alternative learning source which incorporates culture elements in ELT as required in the use of English as a lingua franca.

Secondly, the dictionary entries only consist of visible culture elements (products) such as foods, dress, dance, music/musical instruments, cultural ceremonies/festivals, holiday customs and literature. Thirdly, this dictionary covers the cultural elements from only four ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and ɒrunei due to most these four countries’ words pertaining to the historical linguaculture can be traced back to Malay, Sanskrit, Javanese and Chinese. Lastly, this dictionary absolutely articulates the values and interests of non-native speakers particularly in the ASEAN context.

Keywords: ELF, Asian Englishes dictionary, four ASEAN countries

1. Introduction

Globalization of the English language is now posing new challenges for EFL/ESL culture teaching which in turn affects all English language teachers from their choices of what learning sources or materials to use, to which variety of English is more appropriate. The extensive use of English in such a diverse range of global settings calls into question our understanding of the ownership and forms of the English language. Nault (2006) argues that English teaching professionals should discard the notion that the US and UK represent the sole ‘target cultures’ of the English language, they should rethink the goals of culture and language education to better meet their students’ diverse needs and the last, they should do more to design and/or select teaching materials that are international and inclusive in scope. Thus, the manner in which culture is taught to English learners needs to be rethought by the language practitioners.

Accordingly, what is needed for communication in the heterogeneous contexts of lingua franca environments is intercultural awareness. Such awareness may enable users of English to successfully negotiate the complexities of intercultural communication in which there are less likely to be a priori defined cultural groupings or contexts by which to construct shared meaning and communicative practices (Byram, 2000;

Chambers, 2004; Baker; 2011). With regard to the issue, we need a tool such as specialized dictionary that can accommodate the pluralities and complexities of English spoken as a lingua franca particularly in the Asian context. Thus, projecting Asian Englishes dictionary designed as a specialized dictionary is very crucial due to its benefits; it can be an alternative reference/source to facilitate both teachers and students to develop their intercultural competence and is able to articulate the values and interests of non-native speakers particularly in the ASEAN context.

In the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) context, Asian Englishes dictionary can possibly foster intercultural awareness which has been a very important aspect for successful communication. In this case, teachers should add this intercultural dimension to the learning sources or materials they produce. By looking up such dictionary, both teachers and students can get the initial cultural knowledge and then they could go beyond subject boundaries. The language class can learn and adopt a broader perspective, which could help learners observe the cultural other, observe themselves and what they can take for granted. This culture learning process could possibly gear to developing intercultural competence of English use in ASEAN which is highly demanded now. Such intercultural competence needs to be developed since English is used most commonly not by native speakers but as a contact language (lingua franca) between interlocutors with different languacultures (linguistic and cultural backgrounds) in the ASEAN context.

In addition, Asian Englishes dictionary has the potential to accommodate and articulate the values and interests of nonnative speakers in Southeast Asia. As a matter of fact, English could serve as an inclusive and neutral language so that the interests it reflects can be reconfigured (Schulzke, 2014). He argues that English is a malleable language that is open to shifts in vocabulary and usage. This allows it to be reshaped in ways that reflect the values and interests of nonnative speakers. The spread of the language beyond the core English- speaking countries means that the connection between English and any particular nation or culture is attenuated;

English is increasingly detached from a particular nationality and less capable of sustaining exclusionist claims (Barbour, 2000).

For English to become an inclusive language; the plural Englishes must be recognized as being legitimate uses of the language, rather than degenerate forms that should aspire to the Standard English of the core English- speaking countries. Therefore, Asian Englishes dictionary could incorporate cultural items from the ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. The appearance of this dictionary therefore will possibly fill a gap in the market, and in a time when there is increasing confidence in local norms in the language, answer the needs of teachers and students.

(10)

The Eighth International Conference on Applied Linguistics, Language and Well-being

Thus, to deal with the extensive use of English in such a diverse range of global/ELF settings particularly in the Southeast Asia; providing Asian Englishes dictionary can be an additional learning materials along with the available English textbooks to facilitate teaching and learning English incorporated with the cultural aspects as the content in order to foster their intercultural competence. In another side, it is very crucial to introduce students to their own cultural identity and other cultures as well that will lead them from the cultural awareness to the interculturility. Perhaps, the type of a specialized dictionary that focuses upon a specific subject field (Neilsen, 2008); could be an appropriate type to accommodate lexicons related to the cultural knowledge. Therefore, the use of this kind of dictionary could firstly inspire both teachers and students to enrich their global insight across other cultures in general which in turn they could access more information of the given words through other possible sources.

2. What Asian Englishes Dictionary (Designed As a Specialized Dictionary) May Contain

There must be an alternative and supportive learning material provided for EFL teachers who teach the language in the English as a lingua franca (ELF) context. The idea is due to the rise of probable question, “How can we incorporate cultural knowledge and understanding within the ELF context of our English language classes?” ɑs a matter of fact, language teachers are recognizing the need to incorporate sociocultural factors into their classrooms (Palmer and Sharifian, 2007). However, there is a lack of consensus on how to introduce cultural elements into the lessons since there is no universally accepted set of criteria that teachers can use as a guide (Byrnes, 2008). Therefore, providing a specialized dictionary containing the cultural elements can be a good solution to the problem. Such dictionary can be used together with the available English textbooks in the classroom.

Regarding the nature of a specialized dictionary in this case relates to a specific subject of cultural knowledge of the ASEAN countries; there should be any elements of culture highlighted or listed as the dictionary entries. Elements of culture refer to things like the beliefs, values, customs, products, and the communication styles of a given culture or society (Cohen et al. 2003). A tool that can help EFL/ESL students conceptualize elements of culture is Hall’s (1976) “cultural iceberg” analogy. Hall developed the analogy to illustrate differences between what people readily see when they enter a new culture (the tip of the iceberg) and the imbedded aspects of the culture not readily visible (the submerged part of the iceberg). The products of a culture would be examples of things we can readily see that is the surface culture while cultural practices and social perspectives - the deep culture that underlie the behavior of a specific culture are difficult to observe.

Pertaining to the cultural iceberg analogy examples, the surface culture elements include food, national costumes, traditional music and dance, literature, and specific holidays. The sub-surface culture section contains the notions of courtesy, body language, gestures, touching, eye contact, personal space, facial expressions, conversational patterns, and the concept of time. These are the behavior-based, unspoken rules of social interaction present in all cultures but perhaps not often thought about. Such rules vary widely across cultures.

Unconscious values and attitudes as the deep culture may be the most difficult elements for students to identify.

These can be so far ingrained that people feel these are simply the “right” and “normal” way of doing things (Hall, 1976).

Using the iceberg analogy can be a good way to structure or organize the main aspect and entries of the Asian Englishes dictionary. The main focus of the Asian Englishes dictionary entries are only based on the surface or visible culture elements such as foods, dress, dance, music/musical instruments, cultural ceremonies/festival, holiday customs and literature. These visible cultural elements are often associated with the cultural products. Products may be easy to identify because we can often see, touch, taste, or hear them. This dictionary will not include the cultural perspectives and practices since they are not as easily recognized and tend to be ingrained in a society.

In sum, by facilitating the EFL/ESL students with a specialized dictionary (Asian Englishes dictionary) which is structured based on the cultural iceberg analogy; it can be an easy and obvious way for students to think about elements of culture. As teachers and students look up the dictionary, they can get the general insight that is useful to develop ideas of the given cultural content available in an English textbook. By knowing the observable aspect of culture; it can be a starting point for students to think of their own ideas. After students have identified visible elements of their culture as they can find out in the dictionary, they can brainstorm examples from their own culture. Then, teachers can refer to this exercise to contrast elements of the students’ native culture and elements of other ASEAN cultures. Such activities can lead to the process of interculturality.

3. How Is this Asian Englishes Dictionary Made?

The Asian Englishes dictionary which is designed as a speciliazed dictionary is aimed to provide EFL/ESL teachers and students in the ASEAN context an alternative learning source that could incorporate culture aspect in Engish language teaching as required in the use of English as a lingua franca. This dictionary is targeted to be used in the ELT classrooms in both secondary and tertiary levels of education. This present project is actually focused on the most general question: What does a lexicographer do; how does she proceed/structure a dictionary? Definitely, it is a very complex process from the collection of primary data up to the printing of the dictionary.

The entry lists of this dictionary will consist of words or phrases pertaining to names of cultural elements (foods, clothing, music, literature, festivals, dance and holiday customs) of the ASEAN countries. Lehmann (2013) claims that “a name is a noun that is used to refer to for example an individual object as a dictionary entry without

(11)

Language Center of UPI, Bandung 19 – 20 August 2015

classifying it”. Regarding this dictionary designed as a specialized dictionary with a focus of the cultural names, it can be also referred to as an onomastic dictionary; a dictionary whose lemmas are names. Normally, an onomastic dictionary does not treat just any kind of name of the language, but one class of names.

Since names do not have meaning in the sense that common nouns have meaning, the purpose of this Asian Englishes dictionary as a name dictionary differs from that of a general dictionary, and its microstructure differs accordingly. Lehmann (2013) asserts commonly, the entry provides the following kinds of information: (1) the lemma in a “citation form”, which may be the one closest to its etymological origin or the one most frequently found, (2) the region where the name is found frequently or where it originates, (3) variant (phonological and orthographic) forms of the lemma, each with diatopic, diastratic or diachronic marking or even details on written documentation, and (4) the etymology (language of origin, original word formation, original meaning) of the name.

Thus, the names (cultural elements) which will be listed as the dictionary entries of this project will be structured in accordance to the microstructure information of the specialized-onomastic dictionary.

Regarding the process of making a dictionary; this complex task involves many different actions simultaneously and sequentially at different levels of organization and automatization. It therefore takes a long time and typically involves more than one person. Despite the operation of several persons over a long time, the end product has to be consistent. Therefore, a set of instructions to the lexicographers is needed. Even if one person makes the whole dictionary, he needs the instructions for himself. Therefore, there must be a set of guidelines or steps how to deal with the making of a dictionary.

There are three main steps or procedures of the dictionary making (Lehmann, 2013). The first is planning the project including the activies of defining the goal of the dictionary and its user group, defining the database (corpus) on which to base the dictionary, setting the software up, and composing the lexicographer's instructions. The second is executing the research that entails assembling the corpus, setting up the lexical database, producing a word list, producing concordances, lemmatizing the corpus, filling in the entries, and consistentifying the entries. The last is publishing the dictionary. This step requires the activities of selecting the information to be published, composing the sections of the framing structure, defining the macrostructure, exporting the dictionary file, laying the text out, producing it, and converting a bilingual dictionary.

In sum, the words that will be collected and listed in this dictionary are based on the some cultural elements (food, dance, holiday customs, music, dress, literature, and festivals). The words as the dictionary entries will be proceeded in accordance to the three prominent steps of making a dictionary by adapting some aforementioned detailed procedures of the steps. The elements of the linguistic sign of this dictionary will also cover the orthographic aspect that is the correct spelling of words and the pronunciation aspect as well regarding the correct pronunciation of words.

4. Cultural Elements as the Dictionary Entries

This Asian Englishes dictionary which is designed as a specialized dictionary is divided into four parts that represent the four ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei). In addition, the four parts of the dictionary entails the visible cultural elements adopted from Hall’s (1976) cultural iceberg analogy.

The idea of just limiting the cultural elements from the four ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei is due to the Southeast Asian provenance of words which is also made evident by their etymology. Most Indonesian, Singaporean, Malaysian and Bruneian words pertaining to the historical linguistics can be traced back to Malay, Sanskrit, Javanese and Chinese (Salazar, 2014). These four languages will be considered as the most frequent sources of Southeast Asian English vocabulary in the Asian Englishes dictionary. On the other hand, Philippine English words are mostly of Tagalog or Spanish origin. And the rest of the ASEAN countries such as Thailand, Vietname, Laos and Cambodia do not really share the the similar linguaculture as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have as can be seen in their cultural words and elements.

Pertaining to the contents of the Asian Englishes dictionary, it will be divided into the four parts that contain seven visible cultural elements from Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore including the aspects foods, dress, dance, holiday customs, music/musical instruments, cultural ceremonies/festivals and literature.

One given example of the dictionary entries is from Indonesia as follows:

Foods (papeda, randang, dendeng batokok, peyem, kue putu ayu, gudeg, sate, kalio, pecel, soto, miso, bakso, kalio, belacan, acar, asinan, tapai, etc.)

Dress (kopiah, sarung, kebaya, baju koko, kemben, blangkon, teluk belanga, batik, songket, baju kurung, ulos, etc)

Dance (Saman, bedhoyo ketawang, tor tor, zapin, randai, jaipong, ukulele, pendet, tari piring, persembahan, joget, tari perang, kecak, rentak bulian, etc.)

Holiday customs (maulid nabi, isra’ mi’raj, natal, nyepi, waisyak, idhul fitri, idhul adha, paskah, wafat isa almasih, etc.)

Cultural Ceremonies/Festivals (ngaben, bakar tongkang, aqiqah, karapan sapi, kasada festival, Toraja funeral ritual, sungkeman, sunatan, etc.)

Music/Musical Instruments (gamelan, sasando, talempong, zapin, angklung, gong, seruling, salung, salung, kulintang, gendang, rebana, etc.)

Literature (gurindam dua belas, pepatah, syair, pantun, Layar Terkembang, Siti Nurbaya, Salah ɑsuhan, Nujum Pak ɒelalang, Malin Kundang, di bawah naungan ka’bah, etc.)

(12)

The Eighth International Conference on Applied Linguistics, Language and Well-being

5. Conclusion

Projecting Asian Englishes dictionary is eventually as an attempt to provide an alternative learning source or material which can facilitate the ELT classroom where English is as a Lingua Franca (ELF) particularly in the ASEAN region. Accordingly, what is needed for communication in the heterogeneous contexts of lingua franca environments is intercultural competence. Teachers should add this intercultural dimension to the ELT materials.

However, teachers’ or students’ limited cultural knowledge and understanding will impede the interculturality learning process. By looking up Asian Englishes dictionary, both teachers and students can get the initial cultural knowledge. The language class can learn and adopt a broader perspective, which could help learners observe the cultural other, observe themselves and what they can take for granted. This interculturality learning could foster learners’ intercultural competence of English use in ɑSEɑN region which is highly demanded now.

6. References

Baker, W. (2011). From cultural awareness to intercultural awareness: culture in ELT. ELT Journal, 66(1), 62–70.

Barbour, S. (2000). Britain and Ireland: The varying significance of language for nationalism. In Stephen Barbour

& Cathie Carmichael (Eds.), Language and nationalism in Europe (pp. 18–43). New York: Oxford University Press.

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Byrnes, H. (2008). Articulating a foreign language sequence through content: A look at the culture standards.

Language Teaching 41 (1): 103–118.

Chambers, A. (2004). Changing concepts in culture and language learning. In M. Smith (ed.) Readings in the teaching of culture. Dublin: ITE.

Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. New York: Anchor Press.

Lehmann, C. (2013). The structure of a dictionary. www.christianlehmann.eu/ling/ling_meth/ling.

Nault, D. (2006). Going Global: Rethinking Culture Teaching in ELT Contexts. Language, Culture and Curriculum (Francis & Taylor). Vol. 19, No. 3, 314-328.

Nielsen, S. (2008). The Effect of Lexicographical information costs on dictionary making and use. Lexikos 18:

170–189.

Palmer, G. B., and F. Sharifian. (2007). Applied cultural linguistics: An emerging paradigm. In Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication, ed. F. Sharifian and G. B. Palmer, 1–14. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Salazar, D. (2014). Towards improved coverage of Southeast Asian Englishes in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Lexicography ASIALEX, 95–108.

Schulzke, M. (2014). The prospects of global English as an inclusive language. Globalization (Taylor & Francis).

Vol. 11, No. 2, 225–238.