Zooming in on the Indonesian EFL primary school students’ intercultural sensitivity and their extroversion

Ahmad Sugianto, Eri Kurniawan, Didi Sukyadi

Abstract


Intercultural sensitivity and personality traits constitute eminent and inseparable elements associated with EFL learning. Nevertheless, to the best of the writers’ knowledge, limited investigations in an Indonesian EFL primary school level concerning these two variables were found; therefore, the present study was intended to scrutinize the Indonesian EFL primary school students’ intercultural sensitivity and personality traits. 96 students from the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of one primary school in Bandung were involved. An embedded design of a mixed-method was employed. The data were garnered using 4-Likert scale questionnaires gauging the students’ intercultural sensitivity and their personality traits focusing on extroversion, followed by some open-ended questions. The findings revealed that students’ intercultural sensitivity was considered good (the mean of 80.06 and standard deviation of 8.50), and most students tended to be extroverted (the mean of 72.62 and the standard deviation of 9.89). The students’ intercultural sensitivity was found to be significantly related to their extroversion at a 99% level of confidence (.000 < .01). Finally, the findings along with the previous studies explicating the intercultural sensitivity and personality traits advocate some pedagogical implications for facilitating students’ English learning. 


Keywords


extroversion; intercultural sensitivity; personality traits; primary school

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abdulrahman, T., Usu, R. N., & Tanipu, Z. (2016). Teachers’ perspectives on the integration of culture and EFL. JER: Journal of ELT Research, 1(2), 180–193.

Afifah, W. A., & Zuchdi, D. (2019). Developing culture-based English instructional materials for grade VII of junior high school students. English Language Teaching Educational Journal (ELTEJ), 1(2), 76–96. https://doi.org/10.12928/eltej.v1i2.390

Ahadi, S. A., Rothbart, M. K., & Ye, R. (1993). Children’s temperament in the US and China: Similarities and differences. European Journal of Personality, 7(5), 359–377. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2410070506

Ahmadi, H. S., Ansarifar, A., & Ansarifar, M. (2015). Exploring the relationship between willingness to communicate in English, and social/cultural capital among Iranian undergraduate English majors. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(2), 413–420. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0502.24

Aisyah, S., Sutrisno, & Madjid, A. (2020). The influence of parenting, teacher’s personality, peer conformity and Islamic school culture on the student’s extraversion personality at SMP IT Nurul Ilmi Medan, Indonesia. European Journal of Education Studies, 7(8), 353–365.

Allik, J., & McCrae, R. R. (2002). A five-factor theory perspective. In R. R. McCrae & J. Allik (Eds.), The five-factor model of personality across cultures (pp. 301–322). Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0763-5

Aybas, E. E. (1997). An investigation of the relationship between the personality traits of introversion-extroversion and the oral proficiency of learners of English in an EFL setting Turkey [Master’s thesis, Bilkent University]. Bilkent University Institutional Repository. http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/11693/17856/1.pdf?sequence=1

Aydin, B., & Şahİn, M. (2017). Some variables predicting the cultural sensitivity in counselor candidates. The Journal of Buca Faculty of Education, 43, 64–77.

Azizah, N., Inderawati, R., & Vianty, M. (2021). Developing descriptive reading materials in EFL classes by utilizing the local culture. Studies in English Language and Education, 8(2), 596–621. https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v8i2.18562

Bachman, L. F. (2004). Statistical analysis for language assessment. Cambridge University Press.

Barrett, L. F., & Pietromonaco, P. R. (1997). Accuracy of the five-factor model in predicting perceptions of daily social interactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(11), 1173–1187. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672972311005

Benitez-Devilbiss, A. (2018). Cross cultural transition success: Personality variables influencing cross-cultural transitions according to the perceptions of a population of third culture kids [Senior thesis, Liberty University]. Scholar’s Crossing. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1856&context=honors

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). Longman.

Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: A practical introduction for teachers. Language Policy Division, Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher Education, Council of Europe.

Caldwell-Harris, C. L., & Ayçiçegi, A. (2006). When personality and culture clash: The psychological distress of allocentrics in an individualist culture and idiocentrics in a collectivist culture. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43(3), 331–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461506066982

Callueng, C. M., Emam, M., & Oakland, T. (2020). Temperament styles of children from Egypt and the United States: A cross-cultural examination. Community Mental Health Journal, 56, 581–585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-019-00515-4

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2016). Personality and individual differences (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Chen, G.-M., & Starosta, W. J. (2000). The development and validation of the intercultural sensitivity scale. Human Communication, 3, 1–15.

Çivitci, N. (2020). The moderating role of openness to experience on the relationship between conscientiousness, extraversion and universal-diverse orientation in counseling students. E-International Journal of Educational Research, 11(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.19160/ijer.776966

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2000). Research methods in education. Routledge.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education (8th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315456539

Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first- and second-language proficiency in bilingual children. Language Processing in Bilingual Children, 70–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511620652.006

Dewaele, J. M., & Furnham, A. (1999). Extraversion: The unloved variable in applied linguistic research. Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies, 49(3), 509–544. https://doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.00098

Dornyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Draguns, J. G. (2009). Personality in cross-cultural perspective. In P. G. Corr & G. Matthews (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personality psychology (pp. 556–576). Cambridge University Press.

Elsen, A., & St. John, O. (2007). Learner autonomy and intercultural competence. In M. J. Raya & L. Sercu (Eds.), Foreign language teaching in Europe: Challenges in teacher development: Learner autonomy and intercultural competence. Peter Lang.

Fatini, A. E., & Tirmizi, A. (2006). Exploring and assessing intercultural competence. World Learning Publications. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/worldlearning_publications/1

Gaias, L. M., Garstein, M. A., Fisher, P. A., Putnam, S. P., Raikkonen, K., & Komsi, N. (2012). Cross-cultural temperamental differences in infants, children, and adults in the United States of America and Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 53(2), 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2012.00937.x

Goldner, L., & Scharf, M. (2013). Attachment security, personality, and adjustment of elementary school children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 174(5), 473–493. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2012.709201

Greenholtz, J. F. (2005). Does intercultural sensitivity cross cultures? Validity issues in porting instruments across languages and cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(1), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.04.010

Guba, E. G. (1981). Criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. Educational Communication and Technology, 29(2), 75–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02766777

Gunay, O. (2016). Teachers and the foundations of intercultural interaction. International Review of Education, 62, 407–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9570-9

Haerazi, H., & Irawan, L. A. (2020). Developing Intercultural Language Learning (ILL) model to teach writing skills at Indonesian private universities. EduLite: Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture, 5(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.30659/e.5.1.43-54

Hakim, M. A. R. (2015). Experienced EFL teachers’ challenges and strategies in teaching speaking for introvert students. European Journal of Social Sciences, 48(4), 437–446.

Halonen, J. S., & Santrock, J. W. (1999). Psychology: Contexts & applications. McGraw-Hill.

Hamied, F. A. (2017). Research methods: A guide for first-time researchers. UPI Press.

Hammer, M. R., Bennett, M. J., & Wiseman, R. (2003). Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27(4), 421–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(03)00032-4

Han, S., & Pistole, M. C. (2017). Big five personality factors and facets as predictors of openness to diversity. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 151(8), 752–766. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2017.1393377

Hashim, N. M. H. N., Alam, S. S., & Yusoff, N. M. (2014). Relationship between teacher’s personality, monitoring, learning environment, and students’ EFL performance. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 14(1), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.17576/GEMA-2014-1401-07

Hyder, Z. J. (2015). Intercultural competence: The intersection of intercultural sensitivity and self authorship [Senior thesis, The University of Tennessee]. TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1869

Jacobsen, T., & Hofmann, V. (1997). Children’s attachment representations: Longitudinal relations to school behavior and academic competency in middle childhood and adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 33(4), 703–710. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.4.703

Jialing, W. (2019). The relationship between learners’ personality traits and EFL learning. Sino-US English Teaching, 16(4), 135–142. https://doi.org/10.17265/1539-8072/2019.04.001

Khodadady, E., & Younesi, M. (2017). Factors underlying characteristics of acquisition of English language in EFL classrooms. Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning, 19, 73–90.

Kiss, T., & Weninger, C. (2017). Cultural learning in the EFL classroom: The role of visuals. ELT Journal, 71(2), 186–196. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccw072

Marcellino, M. (2015). English language teaching in Indonesia: A continuous challenge in education and cultural diversity. TEFLIN Journal - A Publication on the Teaching and Learning of English, 19(1), 57–69. https://doi.org/10.15639/teflinjournal.v19i1/57-69

Masgoret, A. M., Bernaus, M., & Gardner, R. C. (2000). A study of cross-cultural adaptation by English-speaking sojourners in Spain. Foreign Language Annals, 33(5), 548–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2000.tb01998.x

McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1989). More reasons to adopt the Five-Factor Model. American Psychologist, 44(2), 451–452. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.2.451

Miftakh, F. (2017). Intercultural English teaching and learning to young learners. Proceedings of the Fifth International Seminar on English Language and Teaching (ISELT-5), 5, 359–366.

Morgan, D. L. (1998). Practical strategies for combining qualitative and quantitative methods: applications to health research. Qualitative Health Research, 8(3), 362–376. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973239800800307

Morse, J. M. (1991). Approaches to qualitative-quantitative methodological triangulation. Nursing Research, 40(2), 120–123.

Nadeem, P., & Haroon, Z. (2019). Personality traits, altruism and intercultural sensitivity among undergraduate students of individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Journal of Research & Reviews in Social Sciences Pakistan, 2(2), 389–413.

Olino, T. M., Klein, D. N., Durbin, C. E., Hayden, E. P., & Buckley, M. E. (2005). The structure of extraversion in preschool aged children. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(2), 481–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.02.003

Oliver, J. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In R. W. Robins & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and Research (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 102–138). Guilford Press.

Piri, S., Pishghadam, R., Dixon, L. Q., & Rasekh, Z. E. (2018). Predictors of L2 achievement: Testing a model based on EFL learners’ emotional, social, and cultural capitals. Issues in Educational Research, 28(3), 737–755.

Putra, T. K., Rochsantiningsih, D., & Supriyadi, S. (2020). Cultural representation and intercultural interaction in textbooks of English as an international language. Journal on English as a Foreign Language, 10(1), 168–190. https://doi.org/10.23971/jefl.v10i1.1766

Ramalu, S. S., Rose, R. C., Uli, J., & Kumar, N. (2010). Personality and cross-cultural adjustment among expatriate assignees in Malaysia. International Business Research, 3(4), 96–104. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v3n4p96

Rindfleisch, A., Malter, A. J., Ganesan, S., & Moorman, C. (2008). Cross-sectional versus longitudinal survey research: Concepts, findings, and guidelines. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(3), 261-279. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.45.3.261

Roccas, S., Sagiv, L., Schwartz, S. H., & Knafo, A. (2002). The Big Five personality factors and personal values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 789–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202289008

Rosyidi, A., & Purwati, O. (2018). Revealing intercultural communicative competence in an EFL high school textbook. Proceedings of Social Sciences, Humanities and Economics Conference, 108, 65–69. https://doi.org/10.2991/soshec-17.2018.13

Setyono, B., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). The representation of multicultural values in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture-Endorsed EFL textbook : a critical discourse analysis. Intercultural Education, 30(4), 383–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2019.1548102

Shatz, M. (2007). On the development of the field of language development. In E. Hoff & M. Shatz (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of language development (pp. 1–15). Blackwell Publishing.

Silvia, A. (2015). The representation of culture in English textbooks prescribed for high schools in Indonesia. IJEE (Indonesia Journal of English Education), 2(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v2i1.1432

Sugianto, A. (2020). Intercultural competence in ELT: Does it really matter for English teachers in Indonesia ? Proceeding of UHAMKA International Conference on ELT and CALL (UICELL), 4, 203-218.

Sugianto, A., & Ulfah, N. (2020). Construing the challenges and opportunities of intercultural language teaching amid COVID-19 pandemic: English teachers’ voices. JELTL (Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics), 5(3), 363–381. https://doi.org/10.21462/jeltl.v5i3.454

Sugianto, A., & Wirza, Y. (2021). Cultural contents of an EFL textbook: How is the potential for students ‘ intercultural communicative competence development during the COVID-19 outbreak ? Proceedings of the Thirteenth Conference on Applied Linguistics (CONAPLIN 2020), 546, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210427.001

Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology; How to choose a sampling technique for research. International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM), 5(2), 18–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3205035

Telaumbanua, Y., Yalmiadi, Martini, & Hasbi. (2020). E-political caricatures-assisted cooperative learning: Disengaging EFL learners from individualistic, competitive and racial discrimination’s learning settings. Studies in English Language and Education, 7(2), 504–526. https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v7i2.16492

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2018). The future of education and skills Education 2030. Directorate for Education and Skills-OECD. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf

Tinto, V. (1997). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 68(6), 599–623. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.1997.11779003

Triandis, H. C. (2000). Cultural syndromes and subjective well-being. In E. F. Diener & E. M. Suh (Eds.), Culture and subjective well-being (pp. 87–112). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2242.003.0005

Ward, C., & Chang, W. C. (1997). “Cultural fit”: A new perspective on personality and sojourner adjustment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 21(4), 525–533. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(97)00023-0

Wurf, G. C. (2018). Culture and personality in international schools: Are trait differences in students’ personalities attenuated or amplified? Intercultural Education, 29(3), 418–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2018.1438589

Yu, Y., Zhao, Y., Li, D., Zhang, J., & Li, J. (2021). The relationship between big five personality and social well-being of Chinese residents: The mediating effect of social support. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(March). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613659

Yue, J. (2019). Use of foreign films in cultivating intercultural communicative competence in ELT—A case study. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 9(2), 198–203. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0902.09

Yuen, K. M. (2011). The representation of foreign cultures in English textbooks. ELT Journal, 65(4), 458–466. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccq089

Zafar, S., Khan, Z. A., & Meenakshi, K. (2017). Extraversion-introversion tendencies and their relationship with ESL proficiency: A study of Chinese students in Vellore, India. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 25(2), 687–703.

Zafarghandi, A. M., Salehi, S., & Sabet, M. K. (2016). The Effect of EFL teachers’ extrovert and introvert personality on their instructional immediacy. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 5(1), 57–64. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.1p.57




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v9i1.21478

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 0 times
PDF - 0 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Print ISSN: 2355-2794, Online ISSN: 2461-0275

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


View Journal Stats