Cultural Experiences of Timorese Students in Studying ...€¦ · Culture, in turn, has no exact or definite meaning, although there are a lot of acceptable meanings among experts

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CULTURAL EXPERIENCES OF TIMORESESTUDENTS IN STUDYING ENGLISH IN

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Rofinus Daton Warat

Faculty of Language and LiteratureSatya Wacana Christian University

Salatiga

Abstract

This is a study about cultural experiences encountered byTimorese English Department in Satya Wacana ChristianUniversity. The data of this study were collected throughinterviews with three Timorese English Departmentstudents. These students had spent between four and fiveyears studying in English Department. The informationgathered from the interviews was grouped based on thesimilarity of the topic. These participants’ comments weremainly divided into nine topics which were their problematiccultural experiences. The findings showed that most of themmet cultural experiences mentioned in the questions of theinterview. They also reported various reasons forproblematic cultural experiences they encountered.

Key words: cultural experiences, cultural differences,difficulties

INTRODUCTION

Culture and language have been inseparable in linguisticsstudies, especially in the field of Second/Foreign LanguageAcquisition. This correlation has triggered many experts to doresearch to find out the role and influence of culture on languagelearning. Some of them tried to figure out the relationship betweeninter-cultural contacts with students’ motivation in learning a foreignlanguage. Take for example, Csizér and Kormos (2008) who

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investigated Hungarian school children’s motivation in learningEnglish and German in which the students learning English hadthe highest level of inter-cultural contact.

Some others paid attention on the correlation betweencultural background and the process of language learning. Aresearch carried out by Flores, Cousin, Tefft, and Esteban (1991)who took minority group in America such as Mexican American,African American, and Asian immigrants as the representation ofthe population of their study is a good example in this case. Theyheld a study on the students of these groups who had beenidentified and stereotyped as English learning disabled.

Other experts devoted their study on the relationshipbetween culture and students’ learning style in acquiring a secondlanguage. Kennedy’s (2002) research in the influence of Chineseculture on its students’ learning style is an instance of the study inthis field. There are plenty other studies concerning culture andlanguage learning, particularly Second/Foreign LanguageAcquisition. Those examples above are small representation ofthe study in this area.

These studies, as it is clearly indicated, were focused ontwo main elements: culture and language learning. They are alsothe research area of this study. Since these two big concepts areimportant in this study, it is obviously necessary to give furtherexplanation about them.

As an integrated part of civilization, culture dominates thewhole life of human beings in any society. But what is meant byculture? Each discipline which discusses culture has its owndefinition, and therefore the meaning of culture has been various.Culture, in turn, has no exact or definite meaning, although thereare a lot of acceptable meanings among experts. The sense ofthe word “culture” in the first sentence of this paragraph, forexample, is not clear enough because it is not bound to a certaincontext. William noted that “culture is one of the two or threemost complicated words in English language” (as cited inNakayama and Martin, 2007, p.81). Along with William, Samovarand Porter (2004) stated that the term culture is really complicatedand is not easy to define (p. 32).

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Considering the complexity of this concept, Nakayama andMartin (2007) provide the definition of culture in three differentperspectives: social science in which culture is considered theform of conception, interpretative which culture is seen as symbolicmeanings and critical perspective where they stated that cultureis multidimensional and dynamic. The core of these perspectivesis that culture is learned and shared (p. 84).

William (1994), on the other hand, pointed out threecategories in the definition of culture. He called the first categoryas ideal. Culture is defined as a notion to human perfectionconcerning universal values according to this category. The secondcategory or classification is documentary. He gave the meaningof culture in this category as the organization of human’s intellectualand imaginative work. He mentioned social category as the thirdclassification in which he described culture as an expression ofway of life with certain values and meaning (William, in Storey,1994, p. 56).

Although it has various definitions, culture has some commoncharacteristics. Experts figure out at least five features whichusually appear in discussions about culture.

The first and the most significant characteristic for manyexperts is culture is learned. Throughout their whole lives, manlook for the meaning of their world. The meaning they give totheir experiences around their world is learned and based onculture. The whole process of learning their culture is calledenculturation (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2007, p. 21). Inaddition, Hofstede (1997) emphasized that culture is not inherited,but it is learned. It comes from a social setting (p. 5).

The second characteristic of culture is that it is shared.Nanda and Warms (2007) explained that members of a cultureshare the idea of values and norms. Norms related to how thingsshould be done, while values contain the idea of what is true,right, and beautiful and lead the culture members to react to thephysical and social environment (pp. 99-100). Culture, with itsnorms and values does not belong to certain members of a singlesociety or a specific generation of a culture, but it is shared.

The third feature of culture is it is based on the symbol.Cultural symbols take many patterns, including dresses, flags,

Cultural Experiences of Timorese Students In Studying in English...(Rofinus Daton Warat)

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religious icon and gestures. However, the most significant symbolof culture is language because people use words to representobjects and ideas in their culture (Samovar et al., 2007, p. 28).

Culture is dynamic. It is the fourth characteristic of culture.Culture is continuously changing, although with different speedfrom one culture to another. Modern cultures usually change morerapidly than the traditional ones. Cultural change can be causedby internal dynamic of a society or external influences. Conflict,persecution, consensus, and solidarity are issues that go alongwith cultural change (Nanda and Warms, 2007, p. 106).

Experts point out culture is an integrated system as the fifthfeature. A culture contains combination of various parts that areconnected one to another. When people deal with an aspect ofthe culture, it means they are tied to the whole culture (Samovaret al., 2007, p. 30). Nanda and Warms (2007), point out thatcomposition of many parts that affect each other makes culturean integrated system. However, it is not necessary to cooperatesmoothly among those parts (p. 99).

It has been stated in the third characteristic above thatlanguage is the most significant symbol of culture. It is used toverbalize the phenomenon within a culture and the thought of itsmembers (Samovar et al., 2007, p. 28). Language is even usefulin revealing the meaning behind other symbols. These statementsimply that learning a language means study to know and be familiarwith the culture of that language’s speakers (Brown, 2004, p.193). Therefore, language learning, to some extent, can be definedas a study of culture.

With a bigger stress upon Second Language Acquisition,Brown (1994), noted that SLA, among other things not totallyunlike first language acquisition, is a subset of human learning,involves cognitive variations, is closely related to one’s personhood,is interwoven with second culture learning; involve interference,the creation of new linguistic system, and the learning of discourseand communicative function of languages (p. 275).

As mentioned by Brown (1994) above, language learninginvolves interference. Language learners usually get confusedwhen meeting complicated patterns of newly acquired language.


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This confusion does not occur only because of the contradictionbetween the structure of the target language and learners’ mothertongues (Scovel, 2001, p. 21). It also takes place due to the contactwith the new environment of new language. Language learnersneed to go through this challenge in order to acquire their secondlanguage. Language acquisition then can be referred to some sortof change happens in the organism as a result of its interactionwith the environment. The change can reach high or low level ofpermanency (Kevin R. Gregg in Gass and Schachter, 1990, p.16).

There are some factors that affect students in their learningprocess to acquire a second language. Those factors are studentslearning expectations, students’ current circumstance, and students’personalities. They expect to meet similar situation in their newsecond language classroom which in turns will affect their behaviorand performance in language learning significantly (Senior, 2006,p. 105). They will take maximum advantage to access intensivelanguage classes provided for them. In addition, Senior (2006)emphasized that “different personalities of students can lead themto acquire the target language or to some sort of culture shock”(pp. 111-112). The factors above, mainly the second one, revealsthe importance of the role of culture in language learning. Differentcircumstances which means different culture in some extent,obviously affects the process of second language acquisition.

Concerning the significance of culture in language learning,Brown (2004) stressed that culture as an “ingrained set of behaviorsand modes of perception” becomes extremely important in secondlanguage learning (p. 189). Culture is deeply rooted in our existence,but we use language to express it. In Brown’s (2004) words“language is the most visible and available expression of that culture”.Therefore, interaction with other culture which has different languagecan create conflict because of the disruption of their identities. Thisdisruption may lead them to culture shock (p. 94).

In multicultural contexts, especially schools, intercultural andinterpersonal pressures are never a problem in many languageclasses. Students in these classes can get along with each otherand enjoy the language learning process. To the contrary, studentsin some other language classes see their cultural difference as anissue (Senior, 2006, p. 113).


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The English Department of Satya Wacana ChristianUniversity is an institution which runs language learning programin multicultural circumstances. Learning a language is a kind ofexperience in which the learners also find cultural experience dueto the inseparability of language and culture. Therefore, it is obviousthat language learners in this faculty meet various culturalexperiences since they are studying with their friends and teachersfrom different cultural backgrounds.

Cultural experiences, especially those encountered bystudents often create difficulties for them. In other words, culturalexperiences can bring about problems, either academic ornonacademic in their study (Seyabi, 2008). It is assumed thatTimorese students of English Department also found theseproblems, especially at the beginning of their study. This study isaimed at finding cultural experiences encountered by TimoreseEnglish Department students, especially when they began to studyin this faculty. It focuses on Timorese students because they aresmall in number, but as an integrated part of this faculty they havemet various obstacles to make themselves accustomed to theirnew environment in English Department. It is important to seehow they go through these challenging experiences. Therefore,the results of this study are the answers to this research question:What cultural experiences are encountered by Timorese EnglishDepartment students in studying English in Satya Wacana ChristianUniversity?

By presenting the results of this study, it is hoped that itwould be helpful for the readers with necessary information aboutcultural experiences in this university, mainly in English Department.A theoretical understanding about the link between culture andlanguage learning is expected to be boosted after reading thispaper. Besides, further study can be conducted to find out culturalexperiences of students from different cultural backgrounds. Morepractically, the findings of this study can be a guideline for Timoresestudents, particularly those who want to study at EnglishDepartment of this university to adjust themselves with the newsituation in this campus.


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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The term “cultural experiences” as the center of this paperhas appeared many times up to this point. However, it does notclearly refer to any certain of experience. It is because this termis very closely related to the term “culture” which has no definitemeaning and almost covers everything. Cultural experiences,therefore, is difficult to be defined in an exact meaning.

Nevertheless, the sense of the term cultural experiencesused in this paper is mainly associated with some experiencesencountered by Timorese English Department students which arediscussed in the following section. The meaning of culturalexperiences in this case is in accordance with that of Seyabi (2008)described implicitly in her paper. She noted that students whotook part in Experiential Learning Program (ELP) had got profoundcultural experiences. What students experienced in this programwas that they saw the difference in the way people from othercultures dress, the language they use, the food they eat, theirreligions, and their norms. Besides, she also listed other experiencessuch as, the enhancing of confidence level, communication andteam working skills of students who participated in this programwhich was a multicultural program (Seyabi, 2008, p. 9).

It is apparent that Seyabi (2008) implicitly defines culturalexperiences as meeting and being involved in the different wayspeople do and use things in new environment. The effects of thismeeting and involvement are also considered cultural experiences.Therefore, what Timorese students met in the first time they joinedEnglish Department such as dissimilarity of teaching techniques,language, and food, difficulties in understanding teachers’explanation, doing team working, and lack of confidence arereferred to cultural experiences.

THE STUDY

Context of the Study

This study was conducted in English Department of SatyaWacana Christian University. It is located in Salatiga, a small townin the province of Central Java, Indonesia. The English Department


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is an institution which runs language learning program in thisuniversity. The students and teachers of this faculty come fromvarious cultural backgrounds. The Javanese dominate the numberof students in English Department, but there are students fromother places such as Sulawesi, Ambon, Sumatra, Timor, Sumba,etc. This multicultural circumstance offers a great chance for thestudents in this faculty to encounter cultural experiences, eventhe challenging ones.

Participants

The participants of this study were three Timorese studentswho had spent more than three years studying in EnglishDepartment of Satya Wacana Christian University. There weretwo females among them and the other was male. The age ofthese students were between 21 and 24 years old and had beenliving in Salatiga between 4 years and 5.5 years. There were twostudents who had been studying for 10 semesters, while the otherhad spent 12 semesters studying in English Department. Thesestudents used Timorese dialect in their daily lives, but they oftenneeded to switch to Javanese dialect since they came to Salatiga.They were randomly selected among other Timorese students asthe participants of this study because they had spent a great dealof time facing cultural differences in English Department.

Instruments of Data Collection

The instrument utilized to gather the data in this study wasinterview comprising ten major questions. Semi-structuredinterview was used in this study in which a list of written questionsplayed a role as framework, while additional comments from theinterviewees were allowed. The questions in the interviews weredelivered after the respondents were given an overview of thereason and intention of carrying out the interview. All threeinterviews were recorded and later transcribed. Interviews wereconducted in Indonesian to keep respondents feel comfortable inanswering questions. Besides, more in-depth information can begathered in Indonesian rather than English which is not their firstlanguage.


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Data Analysis

The results of the semi-structured interviews were groupedaccording to the similarity of topics. The division of topics is basedon the questions which actually were a list of cultural experiences.The respondents’ comments related to question one through fivebelonged to academic cultural experience, while the answersgrouped in question six through ten were non-academic culturalexperiences.

Although questions in the interview seemed to be categorizedin two parts, it is not intended to separate them significantly as thegoal of this study is to figure out cultural experiences (whetheracademic or non-academic) of Timorese English Departmentstudents. The data were descriptively analyzed further to find outthe reasons where the respondents implied that they found thesecultural experiences problematic (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2008).

DISCUSSION

The report in this section describes cultural experiencesencountered by Timorese English Department students, particularlythe first time they came to the English Department of SatyaWacana Christian University. The data from the interviews aredisplayed and interpreted based on the cultural experiencesencountered by the participants. This part focuses more deeplyon discussing problematic cultural experiences.

Difficulties in following the teaching techniques

The finding related to this small topic demonstrated that thestudents tended to compare teaching techniques they found intheir senior high school with ones they had in English Department.Basically, all of the interviewees had a similar perception thatteaching techniques applied in English Department were betterthan those in their senior high school. However, they informedthat they faced troubles in the first time engaged in the classeswith new teaching techniques.

Two of the interviewees gave different examples of difficultteaching techniques in to be followed English Department. One ofthem took story telling technique in Speaking class as the example.


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She reported that she could not participate meaningfully in this classwhere story telling technique was used. It could be seen from whatshe said,

Awalnya tu sangat sulit, ya.. Soalnya kalau di sekolahsebelumnya saya tidak dibiasakan untuk kalau storytelling harus di depan, harus pakai AVA, harus berbicaradi depan teman-teman lain yang otomatis dari budayayang berbeda, dengan background knowledge yangberbeda. . . Sedangkan dulu kan palingan tetap di tempatduduk langsung menyampaikan pendapat. Kadang-kadang menyampaikan pendapatnya ramai-ramai, jaditidak takut. (In her senior high school, the interviewee didnot use to do the story telling in front of class. It made herdifficult to do it in front of her friends from various culturalbackgrounds) (Diny, April 14, 2011).

The other interviewee picked role play technique as anexample of a difficult teaching technique. She described herexperience as follow:

Kalau misalnya role play itu sendiri kan melakukannyadi depan teman-teman; di depan kelas istilahnya. Jadi,masih ada… masih ada rasa gugup, rasa takut karena dipengalaman sebelumnya di kelas Bahasa Inggris belumpernah ada metode seperti itu. Jadi masih sangat baruuntuk saya. (She was nervous to perform in the role playbecause she had to do it in front of her friends, and themethod was new for her) (Maya, April 26, 2011).

From the data above, it is clear that the respondents hadalmost the same reason of why they did not take part meaningfullyin the class with new teaching techniques for them. Both of themimplied that they were nervous to speak in front of class sincethey did not use to do so in their previous schools. The unfamiliaritywith teaching techniques was another reason behind this difficulty.

There is no wonder that what is called by Senior (2006) asstudents’ current circumstances factor gives effect to thesestudents in language learning process. The presence of classmatesfrom various cultural backgrounds and the newness of the appliedteaching techniques were new environments for them. Timoresestudents experienced this obstacle in the first time they joined theEnglish Department.


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Difficulties in understanding foreign teachers’ explanation

Scovel (2001) points out that new circumstances of newlanguage also results in confusion for language learners. Listeningto the foreign teachers or native speaker teachers delivering thematerials in the classroom was a new experience for them. Itwas the first time for all of the interviewees for this study to haveclass with foreign teachers. They reported the foreign teachers’pronunciation and their speaking velocity as factors that causedthem confused to follow their explanation when they were teaching.

About foreign teachers’pronunciation, one of the intervieweessimply said,

Pertama sulit. Sulit beradaptasi dengan pronunciationdosen asing . . . Tapi sebenarnya ada rasa bangga karenaoh, akhirnya diajar sama dosen asing, bukannya dosenlokal . . . (Initially, the participant found it difficult to followforeign teachers’ pronunciation; however, she was proudof being taught by foreign teachers) (Maya, April 26, 2011).

Related to the foreign teachers speaking velocity, oneof the respondents said,Ada kesulitan. Kami para mahasiswa mengalami kesulitanwaktu mendengarkan pelajaran yang disampaikan olehdosen asing. Itu cara bicara mereka terlalu cepat. Sampaikita lihat satu sama lain, “Apa artinya ini?”. . . (Theteachers spoke too fast that students asked each otherabout what was being talked about) (Ronald, April 28, 2011)

The excerpts above revealed the difficulties of TimoreseEnglish Department students in following foreign teachers’explanation. It can be inferred from the first quotation that theinterviewee was not familiar enough with foreign teachers’pronunciation that made her confused to understand materialsdelivered. The act of students asking each other in the secondexcerpt, on the other hand, proved that the participant could notfollow his foreign teachers’ explanation. The velocity of theirforeign teachers speaking was the reason behind this obstacle.The foreign teachers were considered speak too fast.


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Difficulties in understanding local teachers’ explanation

The students pointed the domination of Indonesian using intheir English classes in their previous schools brought about troublesto grasp local teachers’ explanation. The following excerpt fromone of the participants reflected this evidence.

Waktu awal masuk susah. Susah ngikutin dosen lokalyang ngajar. . . apa mereka menyesuaikan dengan anak-anak yang sudah ada di Jawa, atau memang seperti itucara mengajar mereka. . . Tapi yang jelas, pertama masuktu susah mengikuti karena kalau dibandingkan dengansekolah sebelumnya kita bahasa Inggrisnya dari 100persen mungkin hanya dipakai 20 sampai 30 persen.Sedangkan yang di sini, itu kan full English. Nah, ituyang awalnya sangat, sangat kesulitan . . . (Therespondent found it difficult to follow local teachers’explanation because in her senior high school the teachersmostly used Indonesian in English classes. They usedEnglish only around 20 to 30 percent when they wereteaching) (Diny, April 14, 2011).

Considering that their English skill was lower than theirJavanese friends, these students were stressed-out to find thatlocal teachers treated them equally to their friends. These studentsexpected to meet identically or resemble situation they experiencedin their senior high schools where Indonesian was used mostly intheir classes. They also hoped that local teachers would noticetheir limited ability and helped them with this problem. Assuggested by Senior (2006), students’ expectation is another factorthat has a significant impact on language learning. These Timoresestudents could not understand local teachers’ explanation in theirearly semester because their expectations were not fulfilled.

Lacking confidence in discussion sessions

Senior (2006), notices that cultural differences in a classroomcan be an issue for its students. Timorese students who wereinterviewed for this study faced problems in taking part activelyin discussion sessions when they first enrolled classes in EnglishDepartment. Being among Javanese with a perception in mind


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that students from this ethnic group were superior in the classroom,these students were reluctant to express their opinion. This resultwas in line with Csizér and Kormos’ (2008) in which they emphasizedthat to which extent the classmates respect their friends knowledgeof English very significantly affect how students see their ownpotential in language learning. These Timorese students had a veryhigh mental picture about their Javanese friends’ English knowledgewhich put them into a feeling of being underestimated. The statementof one of them below was the best description of this finding:

Sebenarnya bukan rasa saya tidak mau, tapi saya maludan takut salah. . . Dan juga itu tadi saya bilang, diawalnya saya sudah bisa melihat, mengukur apa yangsaya dapat di SMA dulu dengan di sini sangat berbedajauh. Sangat ketinggalan jauh. Jadi saya benar-benartakut untuk berpartisipasi dalam berdiskusi. (Theinterviewee thought that what she got when she was insenior high school was too far left behind which made herafraid to participate in discussion) (Maya, April 26, 2011).

The tendency of Javanese students to use their local languagein discussion sessions was also Timorese found to affect students’confidence. The local languages of these two ethnic groups aretotally diverse, and it is expected that Indonesian or English canbridge this gap in the discussion sessions. Ironically, Javanese studentspreferred to use their mother tongue to discuss materials in EnglishDepartment’s classes. This made these Timorese students lessconfident to convey what they were thinking. One of the participantsexpressed this difficulty as she said,

. . . Soalnya karena mayoritasnya Jawa, jadi otomatis sayabergabung satu kelompok selalu dengan anak-anak Jawa.Mereka kalau berdiskusi lebih sering menggunakanbahasa Jawa yang saya sama sekali tidak mengerti. Danjuga mereka lebih sering…lebih mendengarkan pendapatteman-teman yang menggunakan bahasa Jawa itu. . . (Asthe Javanese were majority number in the classroom, theinterviewee was always joined with them. They often usedJavanese, and she did not understand at all. Moreover, theytended to listen to their friends who also spoke Javanese)(Maya, April 26, 2011).


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Difficulties in doing group work with friends from differentcultural backgrounds

English Department provided its students plenty of opportunityto work in group with their friends from dissimilar culturalbackgrounds. This offered students a big chance to interact deeperwith their group mates from other ethnic groups. As mentionedabove that the number of Javanese students dominated classes inEnglish Department and their local language was unlike Timoresestudents. This fact was a problematic situation for these students.

Brown (2004) noted that the interaction with other culturewhich has different language may create problems. TimoreseEnglish Department students also met obstacles in the context ofcarrying out group work with their friends, especially Javanese. Itwas not surprising that the main problem they got in this case wasthe same as one they encountered in the discussion sessionsbecause in these methods they completed the task in groups. Allof the students interviewed complained about similar thing: thetendency of their Javanese friends to use their first language.This habit often resulted in misunderstanding for Timorese studentsaffected and their participation in their groups. One of themdescribed her experience as follow:

Ya…ada tugas yang harus dikerjakan dengan teman-teman dari latar budaya Jawa dan itu awalnya sayakesulitan. Karena teman-teman saya itu, ketika merekasudah berkumpul dengan sesama mereka, mereka bukanpakai bahasa Indonesia lagi. Pakainya bahasa Jawa. Itusangat sulit buat saya untuk mengerti apa yang merekaomong. . . (It was difficult for her to participate in groupwork because she did not understand what her Javanesefriends were talking about in their mother tongue) (Diny,April 14, 2011).

Difficulties in making friends with students from differentcultural backgrounds

The excerpt below shows the students’ of experiencerelated to this topic.

Awalnya terpaksa. Karena memang tidak ada teman lain,hanya teman-teman dari Jawa. Dengan terpaksa saya


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harus ya. . .bersama mereka, berjalan dengan mereka.Tapi setelah ke belakang-ke belakang sekarang itu not aproblem. (At the beginning of her study in EnglishDepartment, the respondent felt like being forced to makefriends with ones from other cultural backgrounds, especiallyJavanese) (Diny, April 14, 2011).

The data above obviously shows that the large number ofJavanese students in English Department put these students in asituation where the participant had to make friends with studentsfrom this ethnic group. When Timorese students first enrolled inEnglish Department, they saw intercultural and interpersonalpressures as a problem (Senior, 2006). Actually, they wanted tomake friends with those from the same hometown, but the pressureof different culture and situation dragged them to the fact that theyneeded to make friends with students from other culturalbackgrounds, especially Javanese.

Difficulties in understanding Javanese friends’ accent whenthey speak Indonesian

The excerpt from one of the participants below showedthe evidence related to this topic.

Kalau aksennya sih tidak terlalu mengerti, soalnyateman-teman Jawa sini kan “medhok” sekali istilahnya;istilah orang Jawa. Jadi masih sangat sulit. Tapi karenamereka bicaranya tidak terlalu cepat jadi bisa dipahami.(The interviewee could not really follow Javanese accent,but she could understand it later because Javanese usuallyspoke slowly) (Maya, April 26, 2011).

The data displayed proved that although it was a problematicexperience, Timorese students commonly needed shorter time tomake themselves accustomed to Javanese accent. In their opinion,it was much easier to follow Javanese accent than their mothertongue. Moreover, Javanese usually speak more slowly thanTimorese. This helped them get familiar with this accent faster.

As it is suggested by experts, language is the most significantsymbol of the culture (Samovar et. al., 2007; Brown, 2004). Accent,on the other hand, is a small feature of the language as a whole,


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but plays an important role in communication. Since theseTimorese students joined English Department, they heard (andlater used) Javanese accent everyday. It was because most ofthe people around them used this accent to communicate in theirdaily lives.

Difficulties in adapting Javanese friends’ habits

This was another non-academic problematic culturalexperience encountered by Timorese students in EnglishDepartment besides one mentioned previously. Take for example;they used to speak fast with high tone. When they came to thisfaculty, they met contrast manner in the way people talked toeach other. Javanese, especially, usually spoke slowly and in alower tone than Timorese did.

It was interesting to see that these students shared the samestory about their Javanese friends’ perception towards their accent.They told that their Javanese friends were very surprised as theyheard these Timorese students having conversation with their otherfriends from the same hometown. Related to this, one of theinterviewees said,

Sangat-sangat halus. Kadang kadang saya harusmenyuruh mereka mengulang lagi. . . kalau ngomongsama mereka, mereka selalu bilang kalau saya ngomongsama teman-teman satu daratanlah, istilahnya saturumpun, itu mereka bilang “Kalian bertengkar ya..”Padahal kita nggak bertengkar. Cuman lagi cerita-ceritatapi dengan tone-nya kita sendiri yang sangat tinggi.(According to the interviewee, Javanese tone was verysoft. She also told that her Javanese friends thought thatshe was arguing with her Timorese friends when they weretalking, even though they were not) (Diny, April 14, 2011).

Javanese were generally reported to respond in the similarwords when they were in this setting. They thought that Timoresestudents were quarrelling when they were talking to each other.In Javanese ears, the way Timorese students speak was too harsh.Realizing this difference, Timorese students tried to soften theirtone especially when they were talking to Javanese friends.


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Getting problems with food in Salatiga

The following excerpt was one of the parts of the interviewthat showed this problem:

Kalau dari makanan….awalnya saya nggak suka. Karenamakanan Jawa itu beda rasanya. Kalau bentuknya sihnggak mempengaruhi. . . Karena di Timor, kita lebihcenderung makan makanan yang pedis asin. Nah, kalaudi Jawa, meskipun ada rasa pedisnya, tapi ada juga rasamanisnya. Itu yang saya benci. Saya nggak suka. (Therespondent compared the Timorese and Javanese food’staste and admitted that she did not like Javanese food whichwas sweet) (Diny, April 14, 2011).

This was a small problem, but frequently happened toTimorese students as new comers in Salatiga. All of theinterviewees experienced it when they first came to Salatiga. Thefinding of this study showed that the major factor affecting thesestudents to have problems with food was the taste of the fooditself. Timorese students, as they informed, used to consume saltyor highly seasoned and spicy eat food in their hometown. Whenthey arrived in Salatiga, they had to convert to sweet and oilyfood. Initially, they often got stomachache because of this change.This was another familiar non-academic cultural experience facedby Timorese English Department students.

CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

The results of the study demonstrated that EnglishDepartment students from Timor encountered various culturalexperiences as they were studying in Satya Wacana ChristianUniversity. Those experiences belonged to academic and non-academic which in some cases were problematic. The mostsignificant problematic cultural experience according to the findingsof this study was related to the language. Two experiences wereworth noted in relation to difficulties in this area.

The first one was the obstacle with English itself. Newteaching methods, teachers and friends’ various cultural backgroundswere contributing to this problematic experience. Another factorcaused this difficulty was the perception of Timorese students who


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perceived themselves to have lower English skill than their friends.The last one was the use of Javanese in group work and discussionsessions. Due to inability to understand Javanese, it resulted inminimum participation of Timorese students both in group work anddiscussions.

All of cultural experiences discussed in the previous sectiondepicted the most important characteristic of the culture that islearned (Samovar et. al., 2007; Hofstede, 1997). These experiencesalso portrait the inseparability of culture and language learningbecause Timorese students went through them mainly in the contextof English learning (Brown, 2004). In addition, multiculturalclassroom setting in English Department apparently could createproblems for students (Senior, 2006). The finding related to thisarea was absolutely in line with this statement.

English Department as a multicultural institution has takencultural differences into consideration in running its program.However, these Timorese students’ problematic experiences revealthat not all students who enroll this faculty feel comfortableparticularly the first time they join English Department. There is nowonder that these experiences give impact on their academicperformance. Pre-course program, therefore, is needed to bringfresh students closer to the faculty’s programs, and culturaldifferences and its implications in English Department.

REFERENCES

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Brown, D. H. (2004). Principles of language learning andteaching (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Csizér, K., & Kormos, J. (2008). The relationship betweenintercultural contact and language learning motivation amongHungarian students of English and German. Journal ofMultilingual and Multicultural Development , 29, 1.Retrieved March 7, 2011, fromhttp://eprints. lancs.ac.uk/1759/1/jmmd0290030.pdf

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68, 5. Retrieved February 24, 2011, fromhttp://education.uncc.edu/btkissel/READ%206252/Flores_Transforming%20Deficit%20Myths.pdf

Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2008). How to design andevaluate research in education (7th ed.). new York:McGraw-Hill.

Gass, S. M., & Schachter, J. (Eds.). (1990). Linguistic perspectiveon second language acquisition. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Hofstede, G. (1997). Culture and Organizations: Software ofthe mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Kennedy, P. (2002). Learning culture and learning styles: myth-understanding about adult (Hong Kong) Chinese learners.International Journal of Lifelong Education , 21, 5.Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://elechina.super-red.es/kennedy.pdf

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2007). Intercultural communicationin contexts (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Nanda, S., & Warms, R.L. (2007). Cultural Anthropology (9th

ed.). Belmont: Wardsworth.

Samovar, L. A., & Porter, R.E. (2004). Communication betweencultures (5th ed.). Toronto: Wadsworth.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. (2007).Communication between cultures (6th ed.). Belmont:Wadsworth.

Scovel, T. (2001). Learning new languages: A guide to secondlanguage acquisition. Scarborough: Heinle & Heinle.

Senior, R. M. (2006). The experience of language teaching.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Seyabi, F. A. (2008). Expanding EFL students’ culturalexperiences via integration in international schools:Vignettes heard from university students in Oman .


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Cultural Experiences of Timorese Students in Studying ...€¦ · Culture, in turn, has no exact or definite meaning, although there are a lot of acceptable meanings among experts