Cross-Cultural Activities: Voices from EFL
Classrooms
Muhammad Handi Gunawan
Ferry Antoni
This paper will look at the practice of
cross-cultural communication in the classroom. The activities are used to
minimize intercultural misunderstandings or communication breakdowns between
Indonesian learners and native speakers of English. Indonesian learners are
proud to be called “fluent speakers of English” for their excellent command of
English grammar and pronunciation. The problem is that when they interact with
native speakers, they are not always aware of how to interact appropriately.
The result is that they might experience misunderstandings and apply
stereotypes not to mention having negative attitudes towards another culture.
Therefore, it is a teacher’s job to equip the learners
with information about target language and the culture underlying it so that
they will be ready in interacting with native speakers of English. Teacher
should be aware of the cross-cultural understanding which is important for
cross-cultural communication. In other words, the teacher can not only teach
English in linguistic aspects such as morphology, syntax, etc, without at the
same time teaching the culture in which it operates.
The paper will be a shared experience as it will
highlight the importance of intercultural misunderstanding concepts and
emphasize on the activities that raise the cultural awareness in EFL classroom.
The activities will reveal: identifying appropriate questions, anecdotes
reflecting cross-cultural differences, the problem with English idioms,
cartoons, body language, etc.
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Gunawan, M. H., & Antoni, F.
(2004, December). Cross-cultural activities: Voices
from EFL Classroom. Paper presented at the 52nd TEFLIN
International conference,
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
Email: eltindonesia@yahoo.com