Heritage Narratives, Motivation to Learn English and the Development of National Identity : An Indonesian Perspective

Abstract

Although locality has been considerably discussed in the area of teaching of English as a foreign language, little is known how it relates to young learners' motivation and their sense of national identity. Framed by Canagarajah's (2005) local reclamation, this descriptive qualitative study investigates the potential impact of using Indonesian heritage narratives in English teaching on students' motivation to learn English and the development of their sense of national identity. Data are generated from English text-book analysis, a questionnaire administered to 100 students of junior and senior high schools and 20 English teachers followed by semi-structured interviews on the use of heritage narratives in the classroom. Students' motivation in the foreign language was classified into Dörnyei's (1994) types; language, learner, and learning situation. Meanwhile, students' identity development was analysed by Kelman's (1998) agency of identity development and Guibernau's (2007) dimensions of national identity. Analysis reveals that students' familiarity with the topic of heritage narratives can improve their language skills and motivation to learn English. How these heritage narratives can also lead to heightened sense of national pride, involving cultural, psychological and territorial dimensions is further explored. Keywords: local material in TEFL, Indonesian heritage narratives, national pride and identity IntroductionDespite a stronger force of globalization, one irony of our contemporary, more global world, is that locality has received greater attention. This phenomenon is often considered as "reinforcement of local cultures on global ideologies and pressures" (Wilson, 2006, p. 288) or maintenance of positive local culture values (Fu & Chiu, 2007). This global village with its linguistic interconnectedness and English as a lingua franca, to certain extent, has urged people to follow and adjust themselves to the dominant English inner circle culture (Kachru, 1992). As an effort to reclaim locality in language learning (Canagarajah, 2005), however, non-native English learners whose culture is different from the dominant inner circle often think it important that they also show, in various ways, their heritage culture as their signifying identity.The greater attention paid to locality may also mark the wider acceptance of multiculturalism, showing evidence that the world is not homogenous but has diverse cultures. Multiculturalism has enabled ethnic minority groups to come up with their own cultures and languages as signifying markers. Besides, postcolonial study has shown its power and strength by mainstreaming local colors and identities which include language and cultural values. In the area of English language education, there is a growing demand for "living multiculturalism" (Tanaka, 2006, p. 47) as indicated by World Englishes which focus on accepting language varieties that language users learn and use (Canagarajah, 2005;Kachru, 1992). 415 Many fields of endeavour have embraced the global-local iss...

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Efl undergraduate students’ self-regulation in thesis writing: help-seeking and motivation-regulation

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“…The mismatch between syllabus and teaching material can affect their attitudes and motivations in learning English. Thus, to design teaching material that involves Islamic-friendly content can give farther options for Muslim learners as it has been discovered that the familiarity of the local context can improve students' language skills and motivation to improve their national pride, psychological, and territorial dimensions (Muslim, 2017).…”