Culturally Responsive English Language Teaching Through Dayak Punan Oral Tradition: A study of Vocabulary Acquisition in a Remote Primary School

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31963/rial.v4i2.6460

Keywords:

vocabulary acquisition, culturally responsive teaching, Dayak Punan Oral Traditions, English Language Teaching, Remote Primary School, North Kalimantan

Abstract

This study explores vocabulary acquisition outcomes and learner perceptions among fourth-grade students at SDN 005 Mentarang, a remotely situated primary school in Kalimantan, following instruction delivered through a culturally responsive English Language Teaching (ELT) framework built on Dayak Punan oral traditions. Adopting a descriptive quantitative design, the investigation drew on two data sources: a structured vocabulary test and a five-item Likert-scale perception questionnaire administered to thirty purposively selected participants. The vocabulary test yielded a class mean of 74.67, with 66.67% of students satisfying the Minimum Mastery Criterion (KKM) and 63.33% attaining Good or Excellent proficiency ratings. Questionnaire analysis produced a strongly positive aggregate reception, with 89.86% of all responses falling within the Agree or Strongly Agree categories; items measuring learning motivation (96.5%) and vocabulary retention (90.0%) recorded the highest endorsement rates. These findings affirm the instructional value of anchoring English vocabulary teaching in indigenous cultural materials and carry meaningful implications for ELT curriculum development in geographically remote and culturally distinct Indonesian learning environments.

Author Biography

RAMLI, Universitas Borneo Tarakan

Ramli is currently a lecturer at the English Education Department, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Universitas Borneo Tarakan, North Kalimantan, Indonesia. His teaching and research interests encompass language skills development, educational technology in English Language Teaching (ELT), and English grammar.

References

Anyichie, A. C., & Butler, D. L. (2023). Examining culturally diverse learners' motivation and engagement processes as situated in the context of a complex task. Frontiers in Education

Aronin, L., & Singleton, D. (2022). Multilingualism (2nd ed.). John Benjamins.

Chomeya, R. (2010). Quality of psychology test between Likert scale 5 and 6 points

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2023). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (6th ed.).

Dewaele, J.-M., & Meftah, F. (2024). Disentangling the causal role of motivation, enjoyment, and anxiety in second language speech learning: A final report. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Advance online publication.

Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). SAGE.

Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2022). How to design and evaluate research in education (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Fulcher, G. (2024). Practical language testing (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Gay, G. (2021). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (4th ed.). Teachers College Press.

Hammond, Z. (2020). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin.

Hattan, C., Alexander, P. A., & Lupo, S. M. (2024). Leveraging what students know to make sense of texts: What the research says about prior knowledge activation. Review of Educational Research. Advance online publication.

Isbell, R., Sobol, J., Lindauer, L., & Lowrance, A. (2021). The effects of storytelling and story reading on the oral language complexity and story comprehension of young children. Early Childhood Education Journal

Kayi-Aydar, H., & Miller, E. R. (2021). Positioning in classroom discourse studies: A state-of-the-art review. Classroom Discourse.

Krashen, S. D. (2022). Principles and practice in second language acquisition (Reprint ed.). Pergamon Press.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2021). I'm here for the hard re-set: Post pandemic pedagogy to preserve our culture. Equity & Excellence in Education.

Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2021). How languages are learned (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

López-Gopar, M. E. (2022). International perspectives on critical pedagogies in ELT. Palgrave Macmillan.

Mafulah, S., Rachmawati, D., & Sari, R. (2024). Local folklore integration in EFL classrooms: Enhancing vocabulary through culturally grounded narratives. Journal of Language and Cultural Education.

McCarty, T. L., & Lee, T. S. (2021). Indigenous knowledges and education: Engaging philosophy, theory, and practice. Routledge.

Meyer, L. H., & Whitinui, P. (2023). Indigenous education and culturally sustaining pedagogy. In International encyclopedia of education (4th ed., pp. 112–120). Elsevier.

Nation, I. S. P. (2022). Learning vocabulary in another language (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Prasetijo, A., & Nugroho, Y. (2023). Forest-based oral traditions and ecological knowledge transmission among the Dayak Punan community. Indonesian Journal of Anthropology.

Rahmawati, D., & Anwar, K. (2023). Integrating local storytelling traditions into English vocabulary instruction: A culturally responsive approach. Asian EFL Journal.

Robin, B. R. (2021). The power of digital storytelling to support student learning. Digital Education Review.

Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. (2020). Vocabulary in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Schroeder, J. L., Bird, L., Bird, E., Weasel Fat, G., & Marshall, S. (2022). Supporting Indigenous children's oral storytelling using a culturally referenced, developmentally based program. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Shin, J. K., & Crandall, J. (2022). Teaching young learners English: From theory to practice (2nd ed.). National Geographic Learning.

Suryanti, S. (2020). Culturally responsive materials in EFL classrooms: Bridging the gap between global content and local realities. Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies.

Widiati, U., & Cahyono, B. Y. (2021). Cultural relevance in ELT materials for rural Indonesian schools. TEFLIN Journal.

Downloads

Published

2026-08-24

Issue

Section

Research Articles

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.