Abstract
EFL students learn English within the notion of English as an international language. The gap in this research is to study the learning of English as a language to the study of the culture of the English-speaking countries. This gap emerged after cross-culture understanding was taught in a one-semester course at an Islamic state university in Indonesia. Phenomenology is the theory used in this research, within the qualitative research approach and descriptive statistics. 110 respondents were given the questionnaires, with open-ended questions asking four interrelated questions about the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia as the three English-speaking countries. The respondents’ answers in the questionnaire were analysed by using codes, or themes, that later on show the frequency of each theme. The answers were categorized according to the themes and the percentage based on frequency. Thus, the findings of this research highlighted that Indonesian Muslim students have certain themes when looking at English-speaking countries, such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia when they learn English as a foreign language.
Highlights
Ever since the development of global literacy has emerged in almost every country in the world, this research is interested in investigating the basic but profound questions from their EFL students: How do they perceive English-speaking countries as they learned English as the EFL? How do the Indonesian Muslim students perceive the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia based on topics they learned in the Cross-Culture Understanding subject? EFL students in Indonesia recognize English as a foreign language
Among eleven themes on the USA, the UK, and Australia as listed above, the students responded about education, multiculturalism, and English almost about the three English-speaking countries
Between the UK and Australia, the students responded that these two countries were closely related in terms of economy, while the USA was regarded as a federal system when it links to the economy, tourism, place, multiculturalism, and British English
Summary
Ever since the development of global literacy has emerged in almost every country in the world, this research is interested in investigating the basic but profound questions from their EFL students: How do they perceive English-speaking countries as they learned English as the EFL? How do the Indonesian Muslim students perceive the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia based on topics they learned in the Cross-Culture Understanding subject? EFL students in Indonesia recognize English as a foreign language. How do the Indonesian Muslim students perceive the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Australia based on topics they learned in the Cross-Culture Understanding subject? The first and foremost part of this research is the conception of language and culture that have strong ties to one another. Such ties exist between English as a language and culture. As the research generally accepts critical assumptions (Leedy, 1997), we assumed that belief or faith and everything around them is an important part of a culture, while language plays an important role in culture with its verbal and non-verbal codes (Liliweri, 2007). Without fully understanding such cultural codes, cultural misunderstanding becomes an unavoidable thing, and it will result in cultural conflict
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