International Journal of Instructions and Language Studies

BRIDGING MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE AND COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION: A UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ EXPERIENCES

2025-11-12T04:31:29+08:00

In an increasingly globalized world, the ability to communicate effectively across cultures is vital, particularly for English Foreign Language (EFL) learners navigating diverse communicative contexts. To be able to communicate effectively, one should have proper multicultural awareness-based competence. This study investigates the relationship between university-level EFL students Multicultural Communication Competence (MCC) and their Communication Apprehension (CA). Drawing on a sample of 120 learners, the study employs quantitative methods, including descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis, to examine how cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of MCC relate to various forms of CA, such as interpersonal, group, public speaking, and meeting-related anxiety. The results reveal a significant negative correlation between MCC and CA in which it suggests that students with higher multicultural awareness and adaptive communication behaviors are less likely to experience anxiety in cross-cultural interactions. The study underscores the need to integrate intercultural competence training into EFL curricula to reduce communicative barriers and foster greater linguistic and cultural confidence. Implications for pedagogy and future research directions are discussed

DIGITAL PORTFOLIO AS AN ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR ACADEMIC WRITING AND METACOGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENT AND LECTURER PERCEPTIONS, EVIDENCED OUTCOMES, AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES IN AN INDONESIAN UNIVERSITY

2025-11-13T15:31:57+08:00

The gap in student-centered assessments in practice in English Language Teaching (ELT) poses a challenge in the application of 21st-century skills and Indonesia’s Merdeka Belajar-Kampus Merdeka (Freedom to Learn-Independent Campus) policy, which emphasize innovation and student-centeredness. The practice of ELT, however, continues to be product-oriented and lacks the development of metacognition. Although the development of digital portfolios is considered a resource promising, research in the Indonesian ELT context examining the micro-level implementation and influences of digital portfolios is limited. This study investigated the implementation of a digital portfolio in an Indonesian university’s English Education Department. It aimed to analyze: 1) student and lecturer perceptions of its role in academic writing and metacognitive awareness; 2) evidence of metacognitive development (planning, monitoring, evaluating) in portfolio artifacts; and 3) the challenges in its execution as an assessment tool. A qualitative single-case study design was employed. Data were collected over one semester through semi-structured interviews with 16 students and one lecturer, non-participant observation, and document analysis of the students’ digital portfolios (Padlet), which were assessed using a reflective writing rubric. The portfolios showed contradictory results that they provided opportunities for some students to exert control and experience advancement, whereas, for others, they provided too much of a cognitive load due to the lack of clarity within reflection tasks and the technical difficulties involved. Cognitive overload and technical difficulties along with unclear reflection tasks overshadowed the self-assessment opportunities in the portfolios. The challenges involved a lack of lecturer recognition regarding the potential for unsustainable workloads, the digital gap, inflexible academic calendars, and the subjectivity of assessing a learner’s metacognition. The catalyst emerged through the lecturer’s strategic sequencing which clarified the purpose of the portfolio thereby operationalizing self-regulated learning within the framework of problem-oriented learning.

SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON AUTHORSHIP ANALYSIS IN THE CONTEXT OF AI-PLAGIARISM ON STUDENTS’ WORKS IN ENGLISH LESSONS

2025-11-12T04:36:04+08:00

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into educational environments has created new challenges for maintaining academic integrity, particularly concerning AI-assisted student work. As traditional plagiarism-detection tools prove insufficient against sophisticated AI-generated content, there is a growing need to explore teacher-driven detection strategies. This descriptive qualitative study addresses this gap by investigating teachers’ views on using authorship analysis as a method to identify AI-generated content in student assignments. The research utilised semi-structured interviews with ten secondary school teachers specialising in the English language. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed three primary themes: (1) The ELT Vulnerability to AI, highlighting an increasing concern about AI-assisted plagiarism in English language teaching; (2) The Resource Gap, where teachers express a lack of sufficient training and institutional resources to address the challenge effectively; and (3) The suggestion to combine AI detection tools, manual authorship analysis, and conversations with students as a strategy. The study highlights how institutional policies and the specific local educational context influence teachers' attitudes toward AI and academic integrity. There is a need to establish clear AI policies and promote AI literacy to students.

COHESION IN SPOKEN DISCOURSE: A DISCOURSE OF HARJAS SINGH SIDHU’S SPEECH ON THE PUBLIC SPEAKING ACADEMY YOUTUBE CHANNEL

2025-11-10T07:01:08+08:00

This study aims to analyze the cohesive devices used in Harjas Singh Sidhu’s speech on the Public Speaking Academy YouTube channel, addressing the problem of how cohesion contributes to the clarity and organization of spoken communication. The data were obtained from a recorded speech video, and the analysis applied a descriptive qualitative method. The instrument of this study was the researcher, supported by an observation sheet used to categorize each cohesive device. The data were collected through repeated viewing, transcription, and identification of cohesive elements, while the analysis involved classification, description, and interpretation of the findings. The results show that the speech contains two types of grammatical cohesion—Personal Reference and Demonstrative Reference—and two types of lexical cohesion—Reiteration (Repetition and Superordinate) and Collocation. No instances of Substitution and Ellipsis were found in grammatical cohesion, and no examples of Synonym or General Word occurred in lexical cohesion. Overall, the findings demonstrate that the use of cohesive devices supports the clarity, flow, and coherence of the speaker’s message. The novelty of this study lies in its focus on a high-performing non-native English speaker in a competitive public speaking context, offering insights into cohesion use in authentic, performance-based spoken discourse—an area that remains underexplored in previous research.

ETHICAL CONDUCT IN THE DIGITAL SPACE: AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' LINGUISTIC POLITENESS IN ONLINE LEARNING AT ITB STIKOM BALI (A PRAGMATIC STUDY)

2025-12-03T07:37:35+08:00

This study analyzes the level and patterns of linguistic politeness among ITB Stikom Bali students in online learning interactions, with the aim of understanding how interpersonal ethics are maintained in a fast-paced virtual environment. Using the Politeness Principle framework as a pragmatic approach, this study examines the utterances of 76 students in two general courses during one academic semester. The results of the analysis show that the level of linguistic politeness is not uniform: there is high compliance with the Maxim of Tact (89.6%), which indicates hierarchical awareness and polite lexical choices, but significant violations were found in the Maxim of Agreement (40.0%) and the Maxim of Generosity (38.4%). Thus, the level of politeness among students can be said to be relatively high in terms of respect for hierarchy, but scattered and inconsistent in terms of maintaining social relationships. This pattern reflects the influence of digital culture, which emphasizes time efficiency and speed, thereby shifting empathy and academic professionalism. This study recommends curriculum interventions to integrate humanistic digital ethics as a bridge between technical competencies and interpersonal skills in a technology-based campus ecosystem.

TRANSLANGUAGING AS A PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY IN EFL CLASSROOM A THEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON LEARNING OUTCOMES AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES

2025-11-10T06:45:17+08:00

This study’s main focus is the most recent literature, published in 2020-2025, which represents the use of translanguaging as a teaching strategy in the English as a Foreign language classrooms. Nevertheless, translanguaging has gained popularity for its potential to support multilingual learners, many of the teachers still lack of guidance on how to implement it systematically. To address this gap, this study employed a thematic literature review of eight empirical articles selected across major academic database through strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The research objective is to identify how translanguaging is practiced in EFL classrooms across various contexts, and what impact it has on EFL learning outcomes and classroom activities. The literature is pulled from a variety of journal articles related to the topic of the translanguaging, learning, and teaching in a multilingual framework. The final results pointed out that the use of translanguaging in the classroom has facilitated student’s lesson comprehension, language comprehension, eliminates language anxiety and increases engagement. It helps the teacher to explain challenging information, learn student backgrounds, and connect the lesson to their personal life. However, it also showed several constraints namely teacher unpreparedness, school restrictions on language use, and student reliance on the first language. Therefore, the application of translanguaging has benefits and cons to the language teacher and students, thus it’s effective use should be encouraged. This study contributes a synthesized overview of learning outcomes and classroom practices across diverse context by offering a clearer map of translanguaging’s pedagogical value and its practical challenges. It suggests that additional teacher education on the matter is needed, and schools should allow a more lenient stimulation. Thus, this method can be successfully applied, because it is active and efficient.

THE IMPACT OF VOCABULARY BREADTH AND DEPTH ON STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF DIFFICULTY IN IELTS READING: A STUDY ON TEST ANXIETY AND COPING MECHANISMS

2025-11-12T02:12:03+08:00

This study investigates the relationship between vocabulary breadth and depth and students’ perceived difficulty in the IELTS Reading Test, as well as how these perceptions relate to test anxiety and coping mechanisms. Vocabulary breadth refers to the number of words known, while depth reflects how well each word is understood, including its synonyms, collocations, and contextual meanings. Thirty EFL learners from an English learning community in Kediri, Indonesia, participated in this quantitative descriptive study. Data were collected through a Likert-scale questionnaire distributed via Google Form, which explored students’ vocabulary knowledge, reading strategies, anxiety levels, and perceptions of reading difficulty. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and interpretive analysis to capture both numerical trends and underlying perceptions. The results indicate that while most participants demonstrated adequate vocabulary breadth, many still struggled with vocabulary depth particularly in recognizing paraphrases, collocations, and polysemous words. These lexical gaps were strongly linked to their perceived difficulty with synonym and paraphrase-based questions in the IELTS Reading section. Additionally, the majority of students reported experiencing anxiety when encountering many unfamiliar words, often relying on coping strategies such as contextual guessing or skipping sentences to maintain reading flow. However, panic triggered by lexical unfamiliarity remained a significant barrier to comprehension. Overall, the findings highlight that vocabulary depth, rather than breadth alone, plays a more critical role in reading comprehension and perceived difficulty. The study suggests integrating explicit depth-oriented vocabulary instruction with anxiety-reduction strategies to enhance students’ reading performance and test confidence