"I Have No More Ideas to Tell": The Implications of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in EFL Classroom

The study is proposed due to the fact that the discussion on Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in EFL settings remains limited in Indonesia. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis covers the notions of relativity and determinism in language and has had a profound impact on language, culture, and education. It assumes that the structure of one's mother tongue may strongly influence or entirely determine the worldview of the learner. Because it focuses on issues of language competence and language acquisition, it can also have heavy implications for EFL, especially language teaching methods and strategies. It can emerge from the lexicon and structure of students' English speech that contains cultural affiliation idiosyncrasies, language variations, and untranslatable terms. This paper attempts to investigate the implications of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that is applied or reflected in the EFL classroom. It adopts a qualitative study methodology, using students' coursework as the data source. After scouring through 23 written works, it reveals the signs of a stronger version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, in which students' Indonesian and local language influence how they communicate in English. The language is treated in an oral way, where it is stylized as a written transcript and sometimes not having a proper, written structure. Although students often showed struggling in delivering their ideas, it does not imply that students have lower language proficiency. Instead, it shows their limited language perceptions perceive their view of using English.