Religious Value, Content Language Integrated Learning and a

Model of Students’ Character Building in Nutrition Study Program

Suciana Wijirahayu

English Education Study Progam, Graduate School, Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof. DR. HAMKA, Jakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Critical Awareness, Religious Value, EFL, CLIL, Character Building

Abstract: This article is about the exploration of the university students critical awareness who learn English as well

as the concept of Nutrition in their major on the same time. There are some elements of language and

culture related to nutrition that are naturally developing in the society that would be explored in building

the character expected by the department. To overcome the challenges as well as to foster the development

of English as a foreign language (EFL) learning, religious values, Content Language Integrated Learning

(CLIL) were be integrated in and utilized. Two classes of the second and the third semester students in

Nutrition Study Program who learn English as one of their subject participated in this research. Ten of them

involved intensively. Multimedia instruction in the form of video, texts and journals related to nutrition

from websites, task based question generated strategies and observation are used to explore and develop a

model of the religious value and critical awareness of the students. Field notes from the students

presentation and the essays created by the students are part of the data that is reported and discussed in this

article. Knowledge, beliefs, values and cultural practices in the society reported in English as the

reflection of critical awareness developed by the students and value building are shown as the result.

1 INTRODUCTION

Developing critical awareness through any subjects

learned in college is one of the goal of the Public

Health Science Faculty in the university in which

this study was conducted. In the Nutrition study

program, during the study, the second semester

students were introduced to the importance of

English as global language in their major and in the

second and the third semester. This study aimed to

explore the implementation of CLIL through English

language teaching by integrating religious value.

The development of their English mastery as well as

the literacy in nutrition as their major related to

the society where they apply any theories as well as

skills they learnt were reported. Therefore, texts in

English related and integrated to the other matters in

Nutrition study program were used and introduced to

build the awareness.

The teaching learning process of English as a

Foreign Language (EFL) was developed based on

the institution vision an mission of UHAMKA as

one of Muhammadiyah University in Jakarta.

Therefore, Islamic values were integrated in the

classroom practices. Various responses were found

in form of behavioral, cognitive and emotional

aspects of attitudes especially in EFL. This findings

is completely essential to be explored since English

literacy is one of important factors that is needed to

develop the students’ skill during their study.

Communication skill, would also be used in

applying the knowledge in the society. Even more,

as Moslem, religious values they have learnt would

be beneficial for their future carrier.

Brown 2001 argued one model of learner

centered instruction namely Content Based

Instruction that contrast with many practices. It is

when language becomes the medium to convey

informational content of interest and relevance to the

learner. Language in this approach, takes on its

appropriate roles as vehicles for accomplishing a set

of content goals.

Content and Language Integrated Learning

(CLIL) is the name given to a kind of teaching (and

earning) where the students study a subject such as

biology, math or citizenship and at the same time

learn the language they need to understand and talk

Wijirahayu, S.

Religious Value, Content Language Integrated Learning and a Model of Studentsâ

Z Character Building in Nutrition Study Program.

DOI: 10.5220/0008371500280032

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Determinants of Health (ICSDH 2018), pages 28-32

ISBN: 978-989-758-362-9

about the subject in a second language Harmer

(2012). He strengthen the argument about CLIL that

it’s different from general English teaching. The

expert of CLIL suggested that it should stress on

social interaction,, students’ collaboration,

scaffolding the students with language experiences,

supporting the students to use metacognitive skills

and asking them to think creatively in the classroom.

2 SUBJECTS AND METHODS

This study applied qualitative research design. There

are two classes of the second and the third semester

students in Nutrition Study Program joining English

course participated in this research. Ten of the

students intensively involved in supporting detail

information about the teaching learning process and

result. To overcome the challenges as well as to

foster the development of English as a foreign

language (EFL) learning, the religious value from Al

Qur’an reading set in every beginning of the classes

and Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

were integrated in and utilized. Multimedia

instruction in the form of video, texts and journals

related to nutrition from websites, task based

question generated strategies and observation are

used to explore and develop a model of the religious

value and critical awareness of the students. Field

notes from the students presentation and the essays

created by the students are part of the data that is

reported and discussed in this article. Knowledge,

beliefs, values and cultural practices in the society

reported in English as the reflection of critical

awareness developed by the students and value

building are shown as the result.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Behavioural Aspects of Attitudes

Three sub-variables were investigated related to

behavioural aspects were self-confidence, learning

environment, and learning experiences. They are self

confidence, learning environment, and learning

experience. Combination of behavioural aspects

developed from learning EFL and Nutrition

integrated to Islamic values were introduced as a

model to developed supportive attitudes toward their

English mastery as well as professional prospect.

These are challenges especially in a big class of 25

to 35.

3.1.1 Self-confidence

In the beginning of the course the survey of the first

semester students joining English course revealed

that 50 % feel embarrassed to speak English in front

of the classroom. Also, almost half of the students

were not relaxed whenever they had to speak in

front of the class. Then, such items represented that

the students were not confident enough to perform

their English speaking.

To increase the confidence, the students should

be convinced that they have potential to convey the

message in English better by providing more

chances to practice in the class as well as outside the

class. Performing in a group as well as personally

were encouraged. Joining speaking contest was

appreciated and supported.

3.1.2 Learning Environment

Although half of the students tended to be neutral,

more than 60% agreed to the statement that their

peers’ English skills motivated them to be better,

and 70 % agreed that they would like to have many

English-speaking friends. The students’ success of

learning is inseparable to their surroundings.

Collaborative learning and Content Language

integrated Learning (CLIL) were applied to create

more conducive and scientific classroom

environment. Some versus from Al Qur’an ( adopted

package of sequence used in UHAMKA Education

Faculty ) were read aloud in the beginning of every

session continuously as the implementation of

Islamic values. The translation in English from the

same package was also read aloud. The version in

Bahasa was provided to complete the discussion

related to the topics about nutrition developed in the

lesson. Integrated explanation about the relation

between the Qur’an reading and the source of

nutritious food and its process in growing the

plantation as well as the animal, how it is digested in

cell and involved in human metabolism to produce

energy and other topics were prepared and

discussed.

3.1.3 Learning Experiences

The percentage of 75% revealed that the students

paid attention to the lesson while the rests mostly

were neutral. Also, 70% of the students asked the

homework or lesson taught while missing the class.

Due to the importance of learning experiences as a

Religious Value, Content Language Integrated Learning and a Model of Studentsâ

Z Character Building in Nutrition Study Program

basic thing that form attitude, the process of teaching

and learning should give good impressions. For a

non English major classroom practices, variety of

prior knowledge and experiences may have a great

influence on motivation (Wijirahayu, 2008)

Therefore, the classroom activities should be

designed to minimize the students’ negative

experiences in learning.

Presentation about nutritious substances in

colourful fruit were assigned in a group as on going

assessment as well as final project. Personal task in

sharing experience of Ramadhan fasting and

celebrating Lebaran especially relating to food and

eating habit were given as the final assignment.

Basically telling about that special month for

moslem is motivating. Yet, for some students in this

study, it is also challenging. It is uniquely exposed

since the students came from different parts of

Indonesia that culturally different in nature.

In the third semester, the students were assigned

in a group to think of different procedures they have

learned from the other subject matters in the

previous semester . Each of the group is asked to

study the terms related to the procedure and find

pictures of figures representing their understanding

about one it and share their understanding in the

form of presentation in the class.

Journal in English related to their subject

matters in Nutrition selected by the students

themselves in a group of three based on their interest

were explored, explained and presented. It is to

develop more self-confidence of the students to

communicate scientifically in their major.

Comprehension were built and increased by

completing the presentation with some pictures or

figures in power points representing their

understanding about the content of the journal.

Task to generate questions from the journal

abstract were given to improve the students English

mastery as well as to raise the students critical

awareness about their subject matters. There are

more than eleven different journal titles chosen and

discussed in the class in this study. From this

activity the students could learn different terms and

contents presented and explained in English by their

friends from the other groups.

3.2 Speaking and Writing Performance

Test Result

To highlight, topics development showed satisfying

mean score of overall aspects, revealing that some

students is successful in increasing their confidence

and skill in conveying ideas spoken. Yet, some of

them seemed to find difficulty in providing relevant

information by developing key ideas. Accumulation

score revealed that 78% of students demonstrated

their communication satisfactorily in overall;

however, the rests were categorized at a level

indicating that their communication is limited. The

general descriptions of speaking rubrics notice that

the group of students at that level was actually

connected to the task, but some information was

missing that obscure the meaning.

All of the task they have learned in the class

were also evaluated again in the final exam. In that

written exam the students were asked to reveal their

understanding about the Islamic values they have

learned from Qur’an reading related to their subject

matters they have studied and discussed in the class.

3.3 Cognitive Aspects of Attitudes

All of the task based activities were assigned to

create cognitive aspect of attitude that shaped the

character of the students. Integrating Islamic values

to the learning content of the students in their major

through English as a tool of communication created

scientific atmosphere that developed their critical

awareness about the topics discussed. Question

generating strategies and performance task based

applied in learning EFL in this study led the students

to creative thinking classroom practices (Wijirahayu

& Ayundhari, 2019)

3.3.1 Beliefs and Thought

More than half of the students believed that they had

more knowledge and more understanding when

studying English. The items revealed the majority

believed that English is important for their lives, and

found to have clear objectives of learning English. In

fact, beliefs about language learning and language

learning strategies influence not only learners but

also lecturers in the EFL classroom practices

(Wijirahayu, 2017).

Some values reflecting their beliefs and reported

by the students in the final task were about the

importance of reading ( Al Alaq), the values gain in

reading Al Qur’an especially in Ramadhan (Al

Qadr), the civilization of one generation (Al

Mujjadilah 11), about living creatures and inorganic

ones on earth (Ali Imran 11-19) and the universe

created by Allah (Al Baqarah). Some of the

expressions are in Bahasa, for example: “ …

ICSDH 2018 - International Conference on Social Determinants of Health

seseorang harus banyak membaca karena dengan

membaca kita akan tahu dan paham, sehingga kita

sadar bahwa Allah sang Maha Pencipta. ”

Nevertheless one of the scientific goal of education

from Islamic beliefs was achieved since the

education process encouraged the learners closer to

Allah.

3.3.2 Skills, Knowledge Or Abilities

The study revealed that the students were in

doubtless that they could summarize the important

points in English lessons since almost all agreed to

it. As a matter of fact, 65% of the students found it

was not hard to apply English lessons in their real

lives. It is argued that the behavioral aspects showed

the lowest mean score since the participants did not

feel relaxed when they had to speak English. In the

aspects of emotional, the participants preferred using

their mother tongue to English language. The

students had negative attitudes towards their

learning experiences were reported by Lin and

Warden (1998). Still in the same negative

dimension of attitudes, the study conducted by Paker

and Devrim (2012) entitled “Attitudes and

Perceptions of the Students and Instructors towards

Testing Speaking communicatively” showed

negative result towards their speaking performance

that was mostly caused by the lack of preparation

and speaking test experiences. The attitude could be

affected by bad experiences in EFL learning and

increase the anxiety (Irawan, Warni, Wijirahayu,

2018)

3.4 Emotional Aspects of Attitudes

Two sub variables elicited were, feeling-involved

learning and learning preferences. Related to

feeling-involved learning, majority showed that they

were enjoyable at studying English. Interestingly, 75

% stated that they were looking forward to English

speaking activities. Related to language learning

preferences, the survey revealed that 80 % like

studying English better than other foreign languages.

Sharing similar study result that the respondents

have positive attitudes in overall aspects,

Wijirahayu & Dorand (2018) argued that such

condition should be at the advantages as the students

who engage in learning activities emotionally would

grow the other attitude aspects. Soleimani and

Hanafi (2013) also confirmed that the key to

obtaining target language can be achieved if the

teachers successfully define the importance of each

activity and motivate the students to have learning

responsibilities. The students had a positive

emotional aspect of attitudes as they felt excited to

have speaking activities; yet, the students showed

negative behavioral aspect, as they did not feel

relaxed whenever they had to speak in front of the

classroom. Furthermore, the other item showed that

most of the students felt embarrassed to speak that

represented low mean score and negative behavioral

aspect towards speaking.

4 CONCLUSION

A model of university students’ character building

that is promoted in this study by integrating Islamic

religious value with CLIL majoring in Nutrition

Study Program in EFL learning context has shown

prospective results. English mastery in form of

spoken and written English performance of the

students were increasing in line with the behavioral

as well as cognitive aspects of the students attitude.

Islamic values learned from the application of the

model shown in the result of their final exam were

promising. Literacy and awareness from their

scientific performances in English and Islamic

values were reflecting in their work. Nevertheless,

some difficulties experienced by the students in

communicating the ideas in English should be

observed further intensively for providing more

significant solution in applying CLIL in this field of

study.

ACKNOWLEDMENTS

First, the writer would like to thank to the chief of

UHAMKA Research Institution and the staffs who

support this research. Second, appreciation is

delivered to the Dean and the Vice Dean of Public

Health and Sciences Faculty in UHAMKA as well

as to the Head of Nutrition Study Program who

involved in the study. Appreciation is also delivered

to the ICSDH committees that provide forum for the

publications. Last but not least, appreciation is for

the Director of UHAMKA Graduate School and its

English Education Study Program who are part of

the supporters in this study.

Religious Value, Content Language Integrated Learning and a Model of Studentsâ

Z Character Building in Nutrition Study Program

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ICSDH 2018 - International Conference on Social Determinants of Health