A case study of a high intercultural awareness (ICA) setting in Sabah, Malaysia :Away of promoting the concept of ICA in the EFL curriculum in Japan

Recently, culture has taken an important role in language education in Japan, particularly the notion that creating a global cultural consciousness in the EFL classroom can eventually yield solutions to Japan's ·communication weaknesses. This dissertation reports on an exploration of the language-culture connection and its consequences for Japan in a globalizing world, and argues for a need to create a context in which Japanese students are imbued with the awareness of global culture in order to facilitate the transformation of the Japanese cultural identity into a more globally conscious one. It was postulated that creating a global cultural consciousnE;SS among Japanese second language (L2) learners can help bridge the gap between linguistic ability and functional intercultural communication. Due to the absence of such an authentic situation in Japan, where a low level of intercultural awareness (ICA) is evident, the study was conducted in an idealized setting where a high level intercultural awareness (ICA) is evident despite a multiethnic and multi-religious population. Kata Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia was thus selected as the research site. In order to explore the language-culture connection, the study focused on a popular Sabah religious-cultural celebration known as Kaamatan. The relationship between the ICA and the language was examined, focusing on two main lines of enquiry; namely, (1) how Kaamatan was perceived; and (2) what cultural elements of language contribute to a context of high level of intercultural awareness in Sabah. Adopting a quaritative case study approach, two main data elicitation instruments were used; (1) observations via field notes and video-camera; and (2) interviews via semi-structured interview protocol. A total of 34 participants celebrating Kaamatan in the Kadazandusun Cultural Association (KDCA) in Penampang, Kota Kinabalu took part in the study. Interviews took place over a period of nine days; two days at KDCA and seven days in Keningau. The field notes, interview transcripts and linguistic and cultural artefacts were analysed for contents, based on a self-developed analytical framework which I termed "Sacredness-Visibility -Consciousness Matrix (SVCM). Findings obtained show that there was no significant difference between Kadazandusun and other ethnic groups, although the former appeared to respond with deeper feeling, as they felt a greater sense of ownership toward the Kaamatan. It was also found that the condition of sharing beliefs of culturally important words in the common language used amongst Sabahans from different cultural backgrounds was instrumental in maintaining a society of high tolerance and high intercultural awareness. The findings were then meta-analysed and applied to the situation of ICA and the global language in Japan. Based on the extrapolated findings, further discussion on the Japanese English education system was made. The study concludes with a discussion of the formation of a new cultural identity for Japanese EFL students and its implications. In general, the link between intercultural awareness and language was established and recommendations for Japanese English education were formulated