Lecturer Attitudes on Cross-Cultural Practices in EFL Online Teaching

Keywords: Cross-cultural practices, EFL, Higher education, Lecturer attitudes, Online teaching

Abstract

Most studies on the link between cross-cultural values and language teaching conducted in online settings almost always draw on students’ perspectives, yet few focus on how the attitudes of higher education lecturers in the conduct of this program. Therefore, this study aims to investigate EFL lecturers’ attitudes toward cross-cultural practices during EFL online teaching. A qualitative approach with observation and semi-structured interviews via face-to-face and online meetings is used to collect the data in this research. Using purposive sampling, this study employs four EFL lecturers from Muhammadiyah university as selected participants based on their experiences in teaching cultural-integrated classes at both offline and online schemes. The study discovered that EFL lecturers understand cross-cultural practices in EFL online teaching to be associated with personality traits, language roles, and understanding of local culture as a way to incorporate cross-cultural knowledge into their teaching. To foster effective interaction in the class, lecturers focus on conveying opinions and maintaining communication by understanding with whom to speak, where to speak, and ways to speak. These essences and fundamental attributes influence cross-cultural practices in EFL online teaching. The study reveals that cultural differences, incorrect expressions such as a lack of appropriate word choices, and a mismatch of verbal and nonverbal language can cause cross-cultural teaching barriers. Furthermore, the need to create an authentic environment, increase intercultural knowledge, and eliminate cultural stereotypes is to be addressed as cross-cultural teaching strategies in an EFL online teaching context.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Andi Nurhikmah, Universitas Muhammadiyah Bulukumba, Bulukumba, Indonesia

Andi Nurhikmah is a PhD in bilingual communicative competence. She is a professional lecturer in the English language education study program at the faculty of teacher training and education at Universitas Muhammadiyah Bulukumba, Indonesia. Her research focuses on bilingualism and communicative competence.

 

Anugerah Febrian Syam, Universitas Muhammadiyah Bulukumba, Bulukumba, Indonesia

Anugerah Febrian Syam is a PhD in intercultural communicative competence. Currently, he is an EFL lecturer in the English language education study program at the faculty of teacher training and education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Bulukumba, Indonesia. His research interests are intercultural competence, communication, and ELT.

Sumrah AP, Universitas Muhammadiyah Bulukumba, Bulukumba, Indonesia

Sumrah AP is a PhD in sociology from Universitas Hasanuddin. She is currently the faculty dean of education and teacher training at Universitas Muhammadiyah Bulukumba, Indonesia. Her research concerns on the environment and social studies.

References

Abduh, A., Basri, M., Shafa, S., Patak, A. A., & Rosmaladewi, R. (2021). Voices of English department students on multicultural values in an Indonesian Islamic higher education. International Journal of Language Education, 4(3), 459-468.

Aksenova, A. A., Andreeva, E. Y., Lugovaya, A. A., & Tikhonova, N. Y. (2021). Challenges of cross-cultural communications in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 127, p. 02007). EDP Sciences.

Alam, S., Albozeidi, H. F., Salameh Al-Hawamdeh, B. O., & Ahmad, F. (2022). Practice and principle of blended learning in ESL/EFL pedagogy: Strategies, techniques and challenges. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 17(11).

Aldemir, T., Borge, M., & Soto, J. (2022). Shared meaning-making in online intergroup discussions around sensitive topics. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 17(3), 361-396.

Auerbach, E. R. (2021). When pedagogy meets politics: Challenging English only in adult education. In Language Ideologies (pp. 177-204). Routledge.

Bakhov, I., Byrkovych, T., Makarchuk, O., Varyvonchyk, A., Turchak, L., & Soichuk, R. (2021). Enhancing cross-cultural competence of students under conditions of limited social communication. Ad Alta: Journal of interdisciplinary research, 11(1), 51-56.

Bakhov, I., Opolska, N., Bogus, M., Anishchenko, V., & Biryukova, Y. (2021). Emergency distance education in the conditions of COVID-19 pandemic: experience of Ukrainian universities. Education Sciences, 11(7), 364.

Barrett, H. C. (2020). Towards a cognitive science of the human: cross-cultural approaches and their urgency. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(8), 620-638.

Benattabou, D. (2020). Helping EFL students avoid socio-pragmatic failure: focus on nonverbal intercultural competence. TESOL and Technology Studies, 1(1), 23-41.

Bloommaert, J., García, O., Kress, G., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (2019). Communicating beyond diversity: A bricolage of ideas. Making Signs, Translanguaging, Ethnographies–Exploring Urban, Rural an Educational Spaces. Bristol (UK): Multilingual Matters, 9-35.

Bosley, D. S. (2020). Visual elements in cross-cultural technical communication: Recognition and comprehension as a function of cultural conventions. In Exploring the rhetoric of international professional communication (pp. 253-276). Routledge.

Brisset, A., Gill, R., & Gannon, R. (2021). The search for a native language: Translation and cultural identity. In The translation studies reader (pp. 289-319). Routledge.

Brunow, B., & Newman, B. (2020). A developmental model of intercultural competence: Scaffolding the shift from culture-specific to culture-general. In Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies (pp. 139-156). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Burke, K., & Larmar, S. (2021). Acknowledging another face in the virtual crowd: Reimagining the online experience in higher education through an online pedagogy of care. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(5), 601-615.

Celik, B., & Yildiz, Y. (2019). The role of foreign language culture on teaching the language and learner motivation. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 5(4), 150-161.

Chung, L. C. (2019). Crossing boundaries: Cross‐cultural communication. Cross‐cultural psychology: Contemporary themes and perspectives, 375-397.

Derakhshan, A., Doliński, D., Zhaleh, K., Enayat, M. J., & Fathi, J. (2022). A mixed-methods cross-cultural study of teacher care and teacher-student rapport in Iranian and Polish University students’ engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. System, 106, 102790.

Fadli, A. (2020). The effect of local wisdom-based Elsii learning model on the problem solving and communication skills of pre-service Islamic teachers. International Journal of Instruction, 13(1), 731-746.

Fitriyani, S., & Andriyanti, E. (2020). Teacher and students' politeness strategies in EFL classroom interactions. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 259-273.

Fois, E. (2020). ELT and the role of translation in developing intercultural competence. Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(6), 561-571.

Garrett, S. D., Miller, V., & Gilbert, C. (2021). The challenge of culturally responsive teaching in rural community colleges. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2021(195), 107-118.

Giyoto, G., Prayitno, H. J., Inderasari, E., Santoso, T., Salam, A. A. N., & Alfisyahri, K. A. N. (2022). A lessons in pandemic autonomous learning conflicts of communicative methods in English curriculum 2013 along COVID-19 in Indonesia. Randwick International of Education and Linguistics Science Journal, 3(4), 617-628.

Hoff, H. E. (2020). The evolution of intercultural communicative competence: Conceptualisations, critiques and consequences for 21st century classroom practice. Intercultural Communication Education, 3(2), 55-74.

Huang, R., Tlili, A., Wang, H., Shi, Y., Bonk, C. J., Yang, J., & Burgos, D. (2021). Emergence of the online-merge-offline (OMO) learning wave in the post-COVID-19 era: a pilot study. Sustainability, 13(6), 3512.

Jeffery, K. A., & Bauer, C. F. (2020). Students’ responses to emergency remote online teaching reveal critical factors for all teaching. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 2472-2485.

Jensen, B. A. (2019). Using flipped learning to facilitate cross‐cultural critical thinking in the L2 classroom. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 52(1), 50-68.

Joseph, S., & De Silva, T. (2022). The impact of lecturer-student relationship on self-esteem of undergraduates: A case from Sri Lanka. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS RESEARCH, 80.

Kalimullina, O., Tarman, B., & Stepanova, I. (2021). Education in the context of digitalization and culture. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 8(1), 226-238.

Katsantonis, I. G. (2019). Investigation of the impact of school climate and teachers’ self-efficacy on job satisfaction: a cross-cultural approach. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 10(1), 119-133.

Kefalaki, M., Nevradakis, M., & Li, Q. (2021). Cross-cultural effects of COVID-19 on higher education learning and teaching practice: A case study from Greece. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 18(5), 5.

Kim, H., Penry Williams, C., Kim, H., & Penry Williams, C. (2021). Speaking and embodying cultures. Discovering Intercultural Communication: From Language Users to Language Use, 95-121.

Machynska, N., & Boiko, H. (2020). Andragogy–The science of adult education: Theoretical aspects. Journal of Innovation in Psychology, Education and Didactics, 24(1), 25-34.

Makhmudov, K. (2020). Ways of forming intercultural communication in foreign language teaching. Science and Education, 1(4), 84-89.

Mendzheritskaya, J., & Hansen, M. (2019). Are lecturers who show emotions perceived as understanding? How culture and teacher’s display of emotion are related to students’ judgments about a teacher’s personality. Studies in Higher Education, 44(10), 1793-1802.

Mittelbach, G. G., & McGill, B. J. (2019). Community ecology. Oxford University Press.

Mukhin, M. I. (2021). A teacher of the future school. Perspectives of Science & Education, 49(1).

Munezane, Y. (2021). A new model of intercultural communicative competence: bridging language classrooms and intercultural communicative contexts. Studies in Higher Education, 46(8), 1664-1681.

Oxford, R. L., & Gkonou, C. (2018). Interwoven: Culture, language, and learning strategies. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8(2), 403-426.

Pacheco, E. M. (2020). Culture learning theory and globalization: Reconceptualizing culture shock for modern cross-cultural sojourners. New Ideas in Psychology, 58, 100801.

Parkhouse, H., Lu, C. Y., & Massaro, V. R. (2019). Multicultural education professional development: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 89(3), 416-458.

Piccardo, E., & North, B. (2019). The action-oriented approach: A dynamic vision of language education (Vol. 72). Multilingual Matters.

Piniel, K., & Albert, A. (2018). Advanced learners’ foreign language-related emotions across the four skills. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8(1), 127-147.

Pinzón, A. N. B. (2020). Authentic materials and tasks as mediators to develop EFL students’ intercultural competence. HOW Journal, 27(1), 29-46.

Pudikova, G., Kurilova, A., Movchun, V., Medvedeva, E., & Kochetkova, G. (2019). Emerging technologies for developing cross-cultural competency. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 14(21), 46-60.

Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P., Guàrdia, L., & Koole, M. (2020). Online university teaching during and after the Covid-19 crisis: Refocusing teacher presence and learning activity. Postdigital science and education, 2, 923-945.

Rivera-Vargas, P., Anderson, T., & Cano, C. A. (2021). Exploring students’ learning experience in online education: analysis and improvement proposals based on the case of a Spanish open learning university. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69(6), 3367-3389.

Samosa, R. C. (2021). Cultivating research culture: capacity building program toward initiatives to improve teachers self-efficacy, research anxiety and research attitude. Galaxy International Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 9(05), 160-184.

Schlögl, M., & A Jones, C. (2020). Maintaining our humanity through the mask: mindful communication during COVID‐19. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(5), E12-E13.

Setyono, B., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). The representation of multicultural values in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture-Endorsed EFL textbook: a critical discourse analysis. Intercultural Education, 30(4), 383-397.

Shadiev, R., Wang, X., & Huang, Y. M. (2021). Cross-cultural learning in virtual reality environment: facilitating cross-cultural understanding, trait emotional intelligence, and sense of presence. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69(5), 2917-2936.

Shadiev, R., Sun, A., & Huang, Y. M. (2019). A study of the facilitation of cross‐cultural understanding and intercultural sensitivity using speech‐enabled language translation technology. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(3), 1415-1433.

Smaoui, A. (2021). The development of a language-and-culture course incorporating intercultural teaching materials in the Tunisian higher education EFL context: challenges and opportunities. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 11(1), 1-23.

Sobkowiak, P. (2019). The impact of studying abroad on students’ intercultural competence. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 9(4), 681-710.

Song, B. (2019). Exploring the cultural content in Chinese ELT textbooks from intercultural perspectives. Journal of Asia TEFL, 16(1), 267.

Syam, A. F., Nurhikmah, A., & Sumrah, A. P. (2021). Family Involvement on EFL Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence Development During Learning from Home. Exposure: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, 10(2), 317-334.

Tajeddin, Z., & Pakzadian, M. (2020). Representation of inner, outer and expanding circle varieties and cultures in global ELT textbooks. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 5(1), 1-15.

Tanis, C. J. (2020). The seven principles of online learning: Feedback from faculty and alumni on its importance for teaching and learning. Research in Learning Technology, 28.

Taşdemir, H., & Gürbüz, N. (2021). An Investigation into the Cultural Dimension in EFL Classes: Turkish Instructors’ Views and Practices. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquée, 24(1), 54-74.

Thompson, R. (2018). A qualitative phenomenological study of emotional and cultural intelligence of international students in the United States of America. Journal of International Students, 8(2), 1220-1255.

Thompson, M., Ellis, R., & Wildavsky, A. (2018). Cultural theory. Routledge.

Valsiner, J. (2019). Culture & psychology: 25 constructive years. Culture & Psychology, 25(4), 429-469.

Van Ruler, B. (2018). Communication theory: An underrated pillar on which strategic communication rests. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(4), 367-381.

Wagner, W. (2021). Groups in contact: Meta‐representations, interobjectivity, and cultural incompatibilities. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 51(1), 2-24.

Winch, P. (2020). Understanding a primitive society. In Arguing About Knowledge (pp. 530-552). Routledge.

Wu, R. (2022). Analysis on the audience of cross-cultural communication through online media based on the theory of uses and gratification-A case study of the Chinese audience of short videos published by foreigners on Bilibili. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 3, 172-181.

Zhang, X., & Su, X. (2021). A cross-national analysis of cultural representations in English textbooks used in China and Germany. SN Social Sciences, 1(4), 1-19.

Published
2023-02-19
How to Cite
Nurhikmah, A., Syam, A. F., & AP, S. (2023). Lecturer Attitudes on Cross-Cultural Practices in EFL Online Teaching. Elsya : Journal of English Language Studies, 5(1), 27-44. https://doi.org/10.31849/elsya.v5i1.11588
Abstract viewed = 317 times
PDF downloaded = 228 times