Foreign Language (English) Learning in Cross-Cultural Communication in Indonesia

Introduction

The use of English in Indonesia almost covers all aspects, politics, economics, defenses, etc. Indonesia's education saw this phenomenon of globalization then immediately responded by developing new educational system which presented in English (Willyarto et al., 2017). English as a foreign language in Indonesia is a lingua franca that is used internationally. The demand for using English will probably remain high for years to come. English language teaching is becoming the most important to acquire the English language for Indonesian people, not only for adults but also for every student in all level of education. English as a global language nowadays plays an important role in Indonesia’s foreign language education, especially to Indonesian people who perceived English as a foreign language. Some of the children in certain situation obtained sufficient communication in English from their surroundings, such as school, friends and family. This exposure makes them absorb English instantly. As the result, they are able to communicate in English appropriately. Indonesian children have substantial ability to imitate and express a number of sentences in English relatively close and similar to the pronunciation of native speakers, due to the influences from movies and television series. It is widely recognized that English is important for Indonesia and the reason most frequently put forward for this is that English is a global or international language. This means in effect that approximately one in four of the world’s population are capable of communicating to a “useful level” in English. That is potentially a lot of people for Indonesians who know English to communicate with (Lauder, 2008). Language policy in Indonesia has to contend with a highly multicultural and multilingual society. English, its status, and its role or function in the functioning of the nation and in education in particular has to be seen against the backdrop of where it takes a place in the third of three main categories, Bahasa Indonesia, the regional vernaculars, and foreign languages.

Many challenges are still faced by education stakeholders in integrating technology for English language teaching, particularly for teachers as the agent of educational mobility. Researches have been done on cross-cultural communication findings from different countries in order to determine what factors might be best applied to the Indonesia situation to improve learning and teaching. In addition, the use of technology for teaching can be a countless message for agents of education particularly for teachers in choosing the most adaptive technology tools within their pedagogy setting. However, more research on technology integration and technology tools for English language are still needed to be explored to enrich research on education, such as more areas of technology to investigate, for instance, on finding more varied technology types to be applied in teaching language skills (Ammade et al., 2018). productive skills such as speaking, and writing had become the priority. The integrated nature of language and culture was emphasized. Communication across cultures also gained an important position (Wahyudi et al., 2018). The information of lecturers’ perceptions and the strategies used to promote intercultural competence. It portrayed that learners were to be more inclusive, aware of their own culture and acquire more understanding of other cultures, acknowledge commonalities, and respect differences. More importantly, learners have to be able to interact harmoniously and reciprocally with people from cultures other than their own (Abduh & Rosmaladewi, 2018).