In Indonesia, exposure to the English language is primarily mediated through the use of English textbooks. What cultural knowledge and whose culture are represented in these textbooks become a critical issue because culture interweaves both language and thought. With this in mind, this study aims to examine how Indonesian cultural diversity and whose cultures are represented in middle school English textbooks. We argue that diversity and multicultural perspectives represented in these textbooks are the core of English language learning and teaching. We also contend that language textbooks play a pivotal role in the acquisition of both linguistic and cultural knowledge of English. Drawing on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) semiotic approach to analyzing textual and non-textual representations of cultures, we found that the 2013 English textbooks for Grades 7 and 8 permeate Indonesian cultural values and practices that do not provide a balanced and equal depiction of Indonesian cultural diversity. The findings suggest the importance of inclusive representation of the richness of Indonesian local culture in a more salient manner, especially those of minority groups. Pedagogically, teachers are expected to design language materials with cultural sensitivity and appropriation for the inclusiveness of other cultural values that might not be covered in the textbooks.

This study aimed at finding out the psychological effects that have been drawn by the implementation of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on university students. The approach implemented in carrying out this study was a descriptive qualitative approach. There were 140 students involved as respondents. The instrument used was a questionnaire set that was generated from Wiles (2020). Before proceeding with data collection process, the validity of the instrument was checked, and the items were valid. Then, the data were analyzed using Interactive Analysis as suggested by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014). The result shows that from the seven mental effects raised from increased screen time, the students admit that they most likely feel fatigued (100%), they experience physical pain such as headache, shoulder sore, eyesore, and others (100%), they have bad time management (98.6%), they feel isolation being drawn from their classmates (68.6%), and they experienced uncertainty about the lecturer's explanation during the online classes. Hence, it is suggested that there is a special unit to care about the students' mental health during online learning in this pandemic.

The research sought to understand the value of patriotism in the Hikayat Prang Sabi by using a qualitative approach. Hikayat was referred to narratives (saga) of war rooted in Acehnese cultural tradition, and Prang Sabi in Acehnese language meant ‘Holy War’. As a literary work, Hikayat Prang Sabi embodied the concept of jihad, which was usually sung during the time of war in the Acehnese history: Portuguese in 1511, Dutch in 1873, Japan in 1942, and the Republic of Indonesia in 1976. The source of the data was verses or stanzas of Hikayat Prang Sabi that contained patriotic values. These verses were then treated as the unit of analysis. A hermeneutic approach was employed to analyze the data. The findings show that Hikayat Prang Sabi contains two types of patriotic values: national and religious. National value refers to the sense of nationalism, ethnicity, and humanity. Religious value, on the other hand, displays the value of spirituality, prophecy, and peace. These values indicate the foundation of thinking and doing of the Acehnese people manifested in a literary work, which then can be transferred into the notion of character education.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there was significant difference on the students’ reading comprehension of narrative text between those who were taught through Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) method and those who were not. Forty-nine students were selected as the sample and quasi-experimental, non-randomized pre-test and post-test design were employed. The analysis of covariance showed that the students who were taught by using CIRC method statistically outperformed those who were not on their reading comprehension of narrative text, (F (1, 48) = 13.56, p < .05). This result implies that CIRC is an effective method to teach reading comprehension, particularly on narrative text. Since this study only focused on narrative text, future researchers might be interested to seek the effect of CIRC on other text genres. Similar study though may be conducted with a randomized design of larger population.