PROMOTING LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ INTERCULTURAL

AWARENESS THROUGH FOLKTALES : AN ACTION RESEARCH

STUDY IN AN INDONESIAN EFL COURSE

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Submitted to fulfill one the Requirement for Sarjana Pendidikan Degree at

English Education Department of Faculty of Education and Teacher
Training

IAIN Pekalongan

By:

Salika Nahja Hidayah

2517057

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING

INSTITUT AGAMA ISLAM NEGERI PEKALONGAN

2020

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 APPROVAL SHEET

PROMOTING LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ INTERCULTURAL

AWARENESS THROUGH FOLKTALES : AN ACTION RESEARCH
STUDY IN AN INDONESIAN EFL COURSE

SALIKA NAHJA HIDAYAH

2517057

Approved by:

Supervisor

Fachri Ali, M.Pd.

NIP 19890101 201608 D1 114

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PREFACE
Praises and gratefulness are sent to Allah SWT who has poured His grace
and His gift and bestowed me guidance, health, and patience so that the writing
process of my research proposal research entitled “Promoting Language
Learners’ Intercultural Awareness Through Folktales : An Action Research
Study In An Indonesian EFL Course” can be completed. It is submitted to
English Education Department, IAIN Pekalongan to fulfil one of the requirements
of Research Seminar Proposal Course. This proposed study can be accomplished
because of many supports from several people. Therefore, in this occasion I would
like to express my sincere gratitude to:

1. The head of English Education Department and Teachers’ Training Faculty of

IAIN Pekalongan

2. Dewi Puspitasari,M.Pd. as my supervisor who has given me suggestion, guidance

and time in writing this research proposal.

3. All lecturers of English Education Department, IAIN Pekalongan

4. My beloved parents who have given me endless support, prayer, advice and
encouragement in writing this research proposal.

5. My dearest friends who fight through the journey together since the very
beginning.

Pekalongan, November 25th 2020

The Writer

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

PREFACE.............................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENT........................................................................................iv
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................1
Background..............................................................................................................1
Formulation of the Problem.....................................................................................2
Operational Definitions............................................................................................3
Significances of the Research..................................................................................3
Previous Studies.......................................................................................................3
Research Design.......................................................................................................5
Setting and Participants............................................................................................6
Instructional procedures...........................................................................................6
Data Collection........................................................................................................6
Data Analysis...........................................................................................................7
Research Schedule...................................................................................................7
REFERENCE...........................................................................................................8

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 ABSTRACT

Evolving learners’ global and intercultural awareness (ICA) has

been one of the aspects education goals for 21st century learning
competencies. Nevertheless, the intercultural awareness has not been
commonly developed in EFL course. To fill this void, this article attempts
to provide a practical insight into the teaching by the use of folktales to
promote EFL learners’ intercultural awareness in an Indonesian EFL
course. Data are collected through interview, observation and students’
personal narratives. The results of this study will describe (1) how students
engage in analyzing the intercultural competence in folktales, and (2) how
the students evaluate and interpret their intercultural awareness through
folktales-mediated activities.

Keywords: Intercultural Awareness, Intercultural Competence, EFL

course, Folktales

A. Background
The assimilation of culture into the second language curriculum
has advanced rapidly in recent years. The education systems in several Asian
countries have extended to resolve themselves toward 21st century learning,
because in this century, with more Asian societies becoming increasingly
cosmopolitan (Lee et al., 2014). One of the aspects which has been indicated
among these education goals for 21st century learning competencies is
evolving learners’ global and intercultural awareness. Hill (2012) claims that
the essence of 21st century raises the concept of citizenship for international
perspective for some section of society ‘Education for international
understanding, as promoting loyalties beyond the nation’. This international
understanding is required to foster an ethos of curiosity, solidarity and shared
responsibility through education programs, such as intercultural education
(UNESCO, 2014, p.15).

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 Baker (2011) states that Intercultural Awareness (ICA) is a
conscious understanding of the role that cultural forms, behaviors, and
mechanisms of understanding may play in intercultural communication and an
ability to apply these conceptions in real-time communication in a responsive
and context-specific way. In correlation with ICA, Byram (2002) argues that
it is not necessary to travel overseas to teach intercultural expertise since ICA
is more concerned with developing skills and not the transmission of factual
information. Instead of going abroad, teachers can use folktales as a media to
transmit intercultural awareness. Folktales have significant intercultural scope
and can promote the historical background information to be discussed as well
as transmit values and morals on which their views would be formed (Dema
2012).
Freitas (2018) proposes that folktales are historically related and
represented a country's cultural identity, but it is also accurate that there are no
limitations to their symbolism. In certain circumstances, it is possible to
explore folktales in order to teach young learners about a range of traditions
and cultures. Lwin (2016) carried out a research of defining a comparative
examination of folktales from the community of learners and those from other
Asian cultures. The results indicate that learners can gain not only a critical
understanding of their own society, but also a knowledge of Asian societies'
rich cultural diversity.
As the Intercultural Awareness (ICA) has not been commonly
developed in EFL course (Posada, 2016), this study attempts to make certain
contributions to the related practical insight into the teaching. It is expected to
contribute in teaching based on socio-cultural as well as make students aware
of how important the intercultural understanding for their real lives.

B. Formulation of the Problem

The problem to be discussed in this research are:
1) How do students engage in analyzing the intercultural competence in
folktales?

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 2) How do the students evaluate and interpret their intercultural awareness
through folktales-mediated activities?

C. Operational Definition
1) Intercultural Awareness (ICA)
ICA is a conscious understanding of the role that cultural forms,
behaviors, and mechanisms of understanding may play in intercultural
communication and an ability to apply these conceptions in real-time
communication in a responsive and context-specific way (Baker, 2011).
2) Folktales
Folktales form part of folklore literature in general, and is most
generally referred to as folklore. Simply put, a folktale is a typical story
that was passed on by word of mouth before the advent of writing systems.
In general, folktales consist of distinctive linguistic and structural
characteristics, such as new words, onomatopoetic sounds and repeated or
parallel phonological or grammatical patterns that create fascinating
rhythms (Lwin, 2015).
3) EFL Course
EFL stands for 'English as a Foreign Language. An EFL course is a
course that helps students improve their English.

D. Significance of the Research

Engaging students’ in analyzing evaluating and interpreting the
intercultural awareness through folktales-mediated activities, this study is
expected to make certain contributions to the related populations including
the teacher, students and researchers of the same subjects.
1) This study is expected to make certain contributions to the related
practical insight into the teaching by using folktales to promote EFL
learners’ Intercultural Awareness.
2) It is also expected to contribute in teaching based on socio-cultural. By
engaging students in analyzing, evaluating and interpreting the

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 intercultural competence through folktales, teachers could make a
meaning making learning process.
3) Through the study, the students could know more about how important
the intercultural understanding for their real lives.
4) The study may serve as the foundation based on which further related
research would be carried out. Particularly, future research could be
made better after the limitations of the study are considered.

E. Previous Study
P. M. Ribeiro (2016) conducted a study featuring 140
questionnaires on developing intercultural awareness using digital storytelling.
The results show that Digital Storytelling has been able to involve students in
a critical and constructive dialogue about technology-enhanced learning and
cultural gaps, encouraging them to build new interpretations for individuals
and communities and improve their intercultural awareness. On the other
hand, Kusumaningputri & Widodo (2018) suggest that intercultural activities
mediated by digital photography help students increase their critical awareness
of cultural realities represented in online images. This research shows that it is
possible to use both intercultural tasks and visual images as culturally-laden
learning tools to support the IC of learners in English language classrooms.
In line with these researches, Dugartsyrenova & Sardegna (2019)
revealed that in order to optimize student interaction, it isimportant to
understand the relational variables of learners and their individual preferences
and requires when selecting telecollaboration and CMC resources. The
research ends with a range of pedagogical tips for teachers involved in
carrying out initiatives that can increase the intercultural awareness of their
students through resources for telecollaboration. Abida & Kuswardani (2018)
also conducted a research of using poem to develop intercultural awareness.
The findings show that The use of English poetry at high school level has the
ability to encourage literacy and to expose students to intercultural awareness.

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 Relating to the use of folktale as the implications for the socio-
cultural-based English language teaching, Lwin (2016) carried out a research
of defining a comparative examination of folktales from the community of
learners and those from other Asian cultures. The results indicate that learners
can gain not only a critical understanding of their own society, but also a
knowledge of Asian societies' rich cultural diversity. Kim et al. (2018)
Examines the interchange of multimedia, bilingualism, and cultural
competence activities by investigating the response to animated folktales by
children of Korean origin and the debates they sparked regarding common
cultural values.
However, In the field of language teaching, with the advent of
communicative approaches there have been many studies on using folktales as
IC tools, but studies of the methods or ways to promote learners’ intercultural
awareness for Indonesian EFL course learners are even fewer. A few studies
did not demonstrate how folktales promoted learners’ intercultural awareness.
To fill this void, this article attempts to provide a practical insight into the
teaching by using folktales to promote EFL learners’ Intercultural Awareness.
It also highlights a socio cultural dimension of students’ learning engagement.

F. Research Method
1. Research design
This study is designed as an action research study, which is based
on the descriptive analysis of the class activities. By referred to (Byram,
1997) intercultural theory, this research is a representation of intercultural
awareness, which includes the analysis, evaluation and interpretation of
sociocultural realities. The researcher will choose two folktales which
have the same storyline but different cultural background.
2. Research setting and participants
This action research study will be conducted in one of the EFL
Course located in East Java. Related to research participants, this study
will be carried out in a single classroom consisting of 10 EFL learners.

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 They are students from different schools who take EFL course. Ten
students aged 11-13 will volunteer to engage in this research. They are
early English learners who have had a three-month English course.
3. Instructional procedures
Therefore, there will be 6 stages which will be conducted in this
research.
1) Warm-up activity
In advance, the researcher will explore the story or prepare
a multiple choice or matching questionnaire regarding the topic.
The researcher not only anticipates the topic, but also enhances the
enthusiasm of the students and involves them in the topic by doing
warm-up exercises.
2) While-reading activity
Students would be drawn to folktales as a while-reading
practice. In the first phase, the researcher will allow students to
explore the responses to questions given and then students will
sequence the tale of summarized chapters.
3) Post-reading activity
The researcher will arrange a folktale-related speaking
activity. As students are young, a simple task as recognising and
analyzing feelings such as sadness or loneliness or beliefs or
optimistic behaviors such as respect, empathy or solidarity will be
implied. There will also be comparisons between what the
characters feel at the beginning of the plot and what they felt
afterwards, the language differences, and the assumption of
similiarities. Students could improve their critical thought and
optimistic attitudes toward others by contrasting them to existing
circumstances. For example, students should consider what will
happen when the story ends. Written exercises will also be
suggested.

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 4) Role play
The researcher will challenge students to do some story-
related role playing. Strong and optimistic values, such as respect,
tolerance, openness and understanding towards others and their
cultural identity and diversity, are required to develop their
character in this practice.
5) Directing students’ reflection in learning
The researcher will engage students in reflecting on and for
learning strengths and weaknesses of their work and performance
on the stages before. The researcher will also give students the
opportunity to evaluate their work and performance by telling
students to narrate their feelings and attitudes.
6) Facilitating feedback on learning
The researcher will evaluate and comment on students’
work and performance and also respond the students’ personal
narratives.

4. Data collection
The data will be collected through interview, observation and students’
personal narratives.
a) Interview
The researcher will use Bahasa Indonesia for the interviews
considering the use of first language in interviews can avoid
misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the questions and offer
fair opportunities for students to provide opinions (Papadopoulou
& Vlachos, 2014). The interview results will be transcribed by the
researcher and translated into English.
b) Students’ personal narratives
Students’ personal narratives on ICA through folktales-
mediated activities will reflect on learning strengths and
weaknesses of their work and performance during the class. It is

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 students’ opportunity to evaluate themselves by narrating their
feelings and attitudes.
c) Observation
During the study, direct observation will be done. In order
to support the interviews and documentation, the purpose of the
direct observation exercise is to provide additional information on
the subject being examined. This observation will therefore define
the activities in the classroom initiated by the researcher.

5. Data Analysis
The researcher uses thematic analysis from (Braun & Clarke, 2016)
to identify patterns and find themes through data which has been collected.
Widodo (2014) proposes five steps that the researcher needs to consider.
These include: (1) Listening continuously to a recording; (2) Transcribing
the data; (3) Interpreting the data using each term and participants’
sequences; (4) Conversing whether the data corresponds to the intent of
the participants; and (5) Creating data integrity by asking participants
regarding feedback on data interpretation.
Then, to minimize the misinterpretation, the researcher uses
Byram’s Intercultural theory.
G. Research Schedule
Submission of research topic : August 2020
Research topic approval : September 2020
Writing research proposal : October 2020
Proposal approval : November 2020
Seminar proposal examination : December 2020
Conducting and writing the research : December 2020
Estimation of thesis examination : January –February 2021

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