International Journal of Language Education.
Vol.
1 No.
2, 2017 pp.
INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
STUDENTS OF AN INDONESIAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION
Syarifuddin Dollah Universitas Negeri Makassar.
Indonesia Email: syarifuddindollah@unm.
Amirullah Abduh Universitas Negeri Makassar.
Indonesia Email: amirullah@unm.
Ahmad Talib Universitas Negeri Makassar.
Indonesia Email: ahmadtalib@unm.
Abstract This study aimed at identifying intercultural sensitivity elements perceived by English department students in an Indonesian university.
Broadly, this study used mix-methods:
quantitative and qualitative data.
Quantitative data were obtained through questionnaires.
The questionnaires were sent to 100 participants and followed by semi-structured interview of 10 For this paper, only quantitative data were used.
The findings show that there were three important intercultural sensitivity dimensions: cultural engagement, respect to cultural differences and interaction enjoyment.
This study contributes to the more understanding of intercultural dimensions and debates across the globe about intercultural issues.
In addition, this study provides methodological contribution on the set of criteria to determine the scale of intercultural sensitivity.
This study has further implication of the teaching and learning as one of the key elements on English curriculum.
The study suggested that the research on wider participants can further enhance the sounding of this findings and provide overarching understanding of intercultural sensitivity.
Keywords: Intercultural Sensitivity.
English Education.
Higher Education INTRODUCTION Most current research in English language education focused on generic understanding own and cultures, and culture and identity.
Few studies have investigated intercultural sensitivity in English language Most research have been conducted in the areas of non-English department within western contexts.
For this reason, intercultural sensitivity is important to further investigate.
A number of studies have indicated the importance of intercultural sensitivity.
Chen and Starosta .
pointed out that people with intercultural sensitive mind and behavior tend to successfully adapt with people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Similarly.
Byram .
commented that it is important for people are equipped with intercultural communication competence to help them sensitive to other cultures.
In Indonesia, research was conducted in several areas.
In the areas of socio-cultural (Abduh Rosmaladewi, 2017.
, collaborative culture of learning (Rosmaladewi & Abduh, 2.
, intercultural and online vocabulary learning (Abduh & Rosmaladewi, 2017.
, imagined Dollah.
Abduh.
Talib.
Intercultural Sensitivity in English Department Students A identities and intercultural investment (Abduh & Andrew, 2.
, cultural and ideological values (Abduh & Saud, 2.
and analyzing language and cultural values in Indonesian language policy (Dollah.
Abduh, & Rosmaladewi.
Among investigations, intercultural sensitivity has not become the main focus.
Therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap by examining studentsAo intercultural sensitivity beliefs particularly in English department of higher education.
Intercultural sensitivity includes self-confidence, self-monitoring, inclusiveness, empathy, broadminded, and social dimensions.
In addition, the main feature of intercultural sensitivity to further explore in this research are cultural engagement, respect to cultural differences, and interaction enjoyment.
In language teaching, it is described as intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997.
Lo Bianco et al.
Sercu.
A research has been conducted to grasp intercultural scholarsAo perceptions of intercultural competence, however there is no common agreement on what intercultural understanding is (Deardorff, 2.
Despite these differences, those researchers have indicated that the term AuinterculturalAy becomes an important aspect of teaching and Therefore, this paper argues that intercultural sensitivity has to be part of the core curriculum and become compulsory additional outside classroom activities.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Chen and Starosta .
describes intercultural dimension into three categories:
adroitness and intercultural sensitivity.
The intercultural awareness relates to an individual capability to decipher similar and different culture of others.
This means that those peoples in this category tends to have broader knowledge of cultures other than their own.
The awareness of other cultures reflects the cognitive ability of a person in their expressions and in the way they about others.
Intercultural adroitness is the observable behavior of interculturality (Chen & Starosta.
This competence reflects what a person behave and perform in a multicultural This refers to personAos ability to have meaningful communication with people from other cultures.
The dimension contains four components: message skills, appropriate self-disclosure, behavioral flexibility, and interaction management (Chen & Starosta.
Intercultural psychological and emotional dimensions of intercultural communication competence (Chen & Starosta 2.
This psychological trait brings about the emotional feeling and desire of an individual to acknowledge that every person is different, to appreciate that there are similarities and differences among human beings, and to accept the dissimilarities of culture, ethnic, and METHODOLOGY The research employed a pragmatic paradigm which combines both quantitative and qualitative approach.
The quantitative approach used open-ended questionnaire, and the qualitative data were gained from semistructured interviews.
The questionnaire was created via google form and sent it out to 100 teachers, however only half of them filled the questionnaire due to technical internet connection problems.
The questionnaire consists of 26 items.
It was adapted from Chen and Starosta .
and 2 items were added by researchers.
The data were analysed using descriptive statistics.
For the purpose of this article, only quantitative data were To assess intercultural sensitivity, researchers established criteria that are used to identify the score level of sensitivity in relation to cultural engagement.
International Journal of Language Education.
Vol.
1 No.
2, 2017 pp.
between age of 18-25 and above 26 years.
Only small number of participants aged under 17 and above 35 years of age.
5 : Poorly sensitive to intercultural 5: Fairly sensitive to intercultural 5: Highly sensitive to intercultural 6-above: Very highly sensitive to intercultural issues A A Age We also created a set of criteria to assess respect others and interaction enjoyment as A 0-1.
5 : Very highly sensitive to intercultural issues A 1.
5: Highly sensitive to intercultural A 2.
5: Fairly sensitive to intercultural A 3.
6-above: Poorly sensitive to intercultural under 17 above 35 Figure 2: ParticipantAos age In relation to educational background, participants at this study comprise of three levels of qualifications .
ee Table .
39% of participants was in bachelor degree, 20% of masterAos degree, and 41% of them was doctoral students.
This shows a variety of educational levels of students participating at this study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Profile of Participants The participants of this study mostly comes from female which constitutes more than 50% of the respondents (See Figure .
, while male only less than 50% of the Bachelor Master Doctorate Figure 3.
ParticipantsAo educational Female Male Figure 1: ParticipantsAo gender background Intercultural Sensitivity Dimension Cultural engagement This graph (Figure .
reflects that participants in this study enjoyed interacting In relation to age, there were various age backgrounds of the participant in this study .
ee Figure .
There was roughly balance Dollah.
Abduh.
Talib.
Intercultural Sensitivity in English Department Students A with people from different cultures .
They tended to wait before forming an impression of culturally-distinct counterparts .
Participants were very inclusive to the people from other cultures .
In addition, they treat others positively in all circumstances .
and tended to behave and talk to others in a friendly way .
, and respected different verbal and non-verbal signs of communication .
They did not think they were superior from others .
Average Score
Q20
Q18
Q16
Figure 5: Respect to cultural differences Q11
Q13
Q21
Q22
The graph indicates that the lower the score the better of the participant achieve: The better they behave and respect to intercultural Q23 Figure 4: Cultural Engagement Interaction enjoyment Figure .
below indicates the interaction enjoyment of participants with other cultures.
Participants did not get upset easily when interacting with people from different They were enthusiastic when they were with people from different cultures.
Finally, they often felt useful when interacting with people from different cultures.
The graph means that they enjoyed interacting with people from different cultures, open-minded to people from different cultures, gave positive responses to my culturally different counterpart during our interaction and had a feeling of enjoyment towards differences between my culturallydistinct counterpart and me.
The average score was more 2.
6 which is highly sensitive to interculturalism.
Respect to cultural differences Participants in this study .
ee Figure .
think that they were not narrow minded and tended to enjoy talking and walking with people from different cultures.
In addition, they respected the values of people from different cultures .
, they mostly accepted the opinions from people of different cultures Figure 6: Interaction enjoyment International Journal of Language Education.
Vol.
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This confirms what Chen and StarostaAo s .
argument that the lower the average score, the more they enjoy interact with people from cultures other than their own.
examine studentsAo vocabulary level in business English students.
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Liddicoat, et al.
Striving for the Third Place: Intercultural CONCLUSION AND LIMITATION From the analysis of the findings, it appears that participants in this study show highly sensitive and understanding to other cultures in terms of cultural engagement, respect of cultural differences and interaction Both cognitively and emotionally, participants in this study are able to engage with people from culture other their own.
They have established more respectful minded to others and keen to take part in communication with those from other Despite they are more intercultural minded, it is important to observe how these intercultural dimensions are practiced and realized within a multicultural setting.
The limitation of this study is that these findings are based on studentAos perceptions, not their Therefore, it is important to conduct further research and observation on studentsAo practical behavior when they interact with other students or other people from different cultures.
It is recommended that research that involve wider stakeholders such as curriculum developer, lecturers, trainers and policy makers on intercultural issues may contribute to better and overarching understanding of intercultural REFERENCES