English Teachers Promoting Intercultural Awareness in Multilingual Context of Indonesian Pesantren

The growing recognition of English as a global language has positioned intercultural awareness as an essential dimension of English language teaching. Within this perspective, teaching English is not limited to the mastery of linguistic forms but extends to preparing learners to negotiate cultural diversity, critically reflect on values, and engage meaningfully in multilingual and multicultural interactions. This study aimed to explore teachers’ initiatives in promoting intercultural awareness within ELT in the multilingual context of Islamic boarding schools, called pesantren. Involving ten English teachers of pesantren schools in Lampung province, Sumatra, Indonesia, the research investigates how English teachers integrate intercultural perspectives into classroom practices while navigating religious, local, and linguistic diversity. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. The findings reveal that teachers embed intercultural content through local wisdom (e.g., traditional stories), comparative cultural discussions (e.g., contrasting religious rituals across countries), and collaborative language tasks (e.g., group projects on cultural storytelling) that reflect students’ sociocultural and multilingual realities. Teachers leverage students’ diverse linguistic knowledge—such as Indonesian, Javanese, English, and Arabic—to scaffold understanding, build cultural connections, and foster critical reflection. These initiatives demonstrate a context-sensitive approach that not only enhances intercultural competence but also positions multilingual repertoires as resources for meaningful ELT. The study contributes to the growing body of work on localized, teacher-driven innovations in intercultural language education.