Voices of English Teachers and Students on Blended Culture as a Model of English Language Teaching and Learning at Vocational High Schools in Yogyakarta

Abstract

This study deals with the voices of English teachers and their students on the use of blended culture as a model of English language teaching at vocational high schools in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It primarily aims at describing the voices of the utilisation of blended culture and documenting the difficulties encountered by English teachers and their students. To obtain the objectives, the researcher invited 20 English teachers and 300 students from 9 vocational high schools in Yogyakarta to be involved in this study on voluntary bases. The research instruments were questionnaires, observation sheets, and interview guides. To back up the data collection, the researcher provided video recording. The data were analysed by using descriptive qualitative techniques. Research findings are as follows. First, most of the English teachers of vocational high schools tend to focus more on the development of microskills (grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation) than on the macroskills of English: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Second, most English teachers state that they have not been familiar with the model of blended culture used in the process of English language teaching and learning (ELTL). This is supported by students’ responses during the interviews, reporting that their English teachers do not highlight the incorporation of target and local culture in the process of ELTL. Third, teachers show strong supports for the utilisation of blended culture as a model of ELTL at vocational high schools. Fourth, efforts are needed for designing lessons that incorporate blended culture and importing local and target culture into the textbooks in the teaching of English at vocational high schools. In summary, blended culture has to be applied in the process of ELTL because blended culture represents the use of language according to the contexts to facilitate students to maximally acquire the target language.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3p459