Immersion in Obama’s Multicultural Discourse: A bite of multicultural literacy

This paper focuses on some tips for English teachers in Indonesian contexts to develop multicultural literacy using authentic English teaching materials engrossed with multicultural concern to be used at college level. Students are immersed not only in selected authentic language situations but also on multicultural issues that are to be discussed in the class progress. Students are encouraged to gain multicultural competence in terms of understanding multicultural knowledge, values, beliefs and patterns of behavior as stated by the excerpts being discussed. The excerpts and videos were selected from Barack Obama’s electoral speeches that may provide both close reading and listening enrichment for upper intermediate students of English. The teaching material as offered is to focus on Barack Obama’s persuasive texts and their delivery on some crucial multicultural issues in the U.S.A. The ultimate goal is to bring to the level of the students’ consciousness construction the multicultural perspectives and practices derived from the selected English-speaking situations as they are designed to experience. This instructional activity may hopefully enhance the students’ multiculturalism competence in the Indonesian context.