Blessed with its cultural diversities, Indonesia receives the world’s recognition as the second most multilingual and multicultural country. Unfortunately, a recent report claims that several Indonesia’s vernaculars are on the brink of extinction, due to expansion and use of English in society. Such a phenomenon has grown the government’s fear since a language's extinction brings its culture to an end. The government has then made a preventive effort by developing EFL textbooks that are said to be Indonesia-centric. The study aims to 1) explore Indonesian EFL textbook authors’ views regarding cultural aspects delivery in multilingual and multicultural Indonesia EFL classrooms, and 2) evaluate the Indonesia-centrism in one of the developed textbooks. Six textbook authors participated in the research. Employing semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the results revealed that the participants accepted the interconnectedness of culture and language learning. They expressed the need to incorporate not only Indonesia but also international and native English speakers (NES) cultures. Interestingly, despite the government’s attempts to preserve the country’s cultures, the results found out that the textbook under investigation was not entirely intended for culture-based English learning. Although being Indonesiacentric, the amount of cultural knowledge was minimal, and the activities and exercises were less accommodating. Also, some culture-free materials were still observed. Based on these findings, some pedagogical implications, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Authors:
Juang Putra, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

About the Presenter(s)
Mr. Juang Rudianto Putra works as an English lecturer at the faculty of liberal arts, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand and serves as a member of Research Center for Languages, Culture, and Human Development in the Lower ASEAN.

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