Observing the culture barriers in the English classes at the Rohingya refugee camp in Aceh: Preliminary findings

Abstract

Rohingya refugees who are being sheltered in Aceh Timur district, Indonesia, for the past year are taught English to prepare their future settlement in third countries determined by UNHCR (United Nation High Commission for Refugee). Therefore, to know how to use English in daily conversations is very important for them as their preparation to live abroad. At the moment, these refugees are taught by the local English teachers (Acehnese) or mentors at the camps. Consequently, some cultural barriers from both groups were observed in the learning and teaching process. Therefore, this study reports these cultural barriers faced by the mentors and the refugees in the class. The design of this research is qualitative; observationsand note taking were done during the teaching and learning process at the camps to collect data. This research is expected to give knowledge to the obstacles and effects due to cultural diversity faced by refugees in learning English with their mentors at the camps. The results show that etiquette and social habit were the noticeable cultural barriers for both the mentors and the refugees during the teaching and learning processes. Meanwhile, the use of body language and religious belief became the similar culture disclosed by both groups. These similarity benefits the teaching and learning processes in the class because they assistedthe mentors in explaining the topics being learnt and enabled the refugees to understand the instruction from the mentors.