Intercultural Topics in the Indonesian English Language Teaching Classroom: Contextualizing Local and Neutral Cultures to Target and Global Cultures

Abstract

Recently, there has been a phenomenon of reclaiming cultures other than those of the target language in English language teaching (ELT). This qualitative research explores intercultural topics in Indonesian ELT classrooms that are shown along with the target and global cultures. The research involves four English teachers from two Indonesian universities who have intercultural experience studying in universities overseas. Data were collected through observational fieldnotes, interview guides, audio recordings, and compilation of documents. The study reveals that local and neutral culture topics have functioned as templates to contextualize target and global cultures in Indonesian ELT classrooms in order to develop students’ intercultural awareness of local, target, and global cultures.