MBKM: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUES AND UNDERSTANDING OF STUDENTS^ MULTILINGUAL IDENTITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS Desvalini Anwar (a*), Muhd. Al-Hafizh (b)
a) Faculty of Languages & Arts, Universitas Negeri Padang, Jalan Prof. Dr. Hamka, Air Tawar Padang 25131
desvalinianwar[at]yahoo.co.id
b) Faculty of Languages & Arts, Universitas Negeri Padang, Jalan Prof. Dr. Hamka, Air Tawar Padang 25131
Abstract
This paper critically explores the opportunities made available by the MBKM policy to facilitate intercultural dialogues and understand students^ multilingual identities in the English language classrooms in Indonesia. The launch of the policy of ^Merdeka Belajar- Kampus Merdeka^ (MBKM) or Freedom to Learn-Independent Campus is intended to open up more opportunities for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to be more autonomous, independent, less bureaucratic, and innovative. Being faced with unprecedented challenges of globalisation and a faster rate of technological developments, English language classrooms in Indonesia particularly in Padang are forced to deal with performance benchmarks which are too often shaped by market mentality which pushes both students and teachers to lend themselves to scientific calculation instead of to attend to the specific nature that make up their English classrooms and more importantly to ^language^ which is the core aspect that makes up the conversations they have in their everyday world . The data is drawn from the narratives that the students produce and the interview responses were approached as narrative accounts.
