The Cultural Filter: Developing Awareness Between Teachers and Students to Enhance the Learning Journey

Abstract

This presentation explores intercultural challenges faced by teachers and students in English
language learning environments in Indonesia. The classroom is understood as a space where
language learning journeys and specific cultural frameworks coincide. Within these spaces,
cultural expectations and assumptions accumulate between teachers and students. These
processes are inseparable from the pedagogical process itself. Subjectivity necessarily
influences language learning development and methods of communication. The subject is
understood here as an active cultural being, engaged in learning. All learning requires
communication. It cannot be assumed that communication is simply absorbed by the student
as the teacher intended it, moving unscathed from A to B. Instead, it passes through
numerous filters, of which ‘culture’ is one.
Within this presentation, I suggest that teachers have a particular responsibility to develop a
self-reflexive awareness of their role within this complex space. Effective learning
environments require sensitivity towards cultural, social and religious factors at play while
the learning process unfolds. Drawing on my teaching experience in Indonesia, this
presentation explores situations where such environments have been successfully created, and
others where this process has faltered. By setting up a comparative analysis of this sort, I aim
to show where opportunities for growth lie, and how such growth enhances English language
learning experiences for Indonesian students.