INTER AND INTRA-CULTURE-BASED GROUP DISCUSSION TO PROMOTE LEARNING AUTONOMY IN A BICULTURAL CLASS

• Main Author: Erna Iftanti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) Kediri 2019-05-01
• Series: JEELS (Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies)
• Subjects: inter culture based group discussion, intra culture based group discussion, bicultural class, learning autonomy
• Online Access: https://jurnal.iainkediri.ac.id/index.php/jeels/article/view/1195

Learning as a systematic change in knowledge, insights, behavior, and motivation occurs either in-classroom or out-of-classroom context. Yet, for bicultural class consisting of Indonesian and Thai EFL students in Indonesian context, to achieve such goals of learning is challenging, since the EFL students staying in such a class comprising those from two different cultural backgrounds faced some underlying learning problems. Therefore, to establish learning autonomy is significant. This article is then aimed at describing inter and intra-culture-based group discussion which proved to be able to promote their learning autonomy. This research done qualitatively through observation, interview, and questionnaire revealed that the learning problems found in a bicultural class i.e. learning readiness, learning style, learning habits, and motivation can be solved by building and implementing both inter and intra-culture-based group discussion conducted in and out-side classroom settings. This finding can be considered as important insight to create EFL students’ learning autonomy which contribute to prevent them from encountering learning problems in a bicultural class so that the EFL learning goals can be better achieved.