Fostering Students' Curiosity through Pop Culture: Insights from English Lecturers in Indonesia

Abstract

Curiosity is the driving force behind learning, innovation, and human progress, while popular culture, comprising a spectrum of modern media and entertainment, is an integral part of contemporary student life. This study explores how popular culture can be used in English classrooms to spark students' curiosity. The research was a qualitative investigation involving six English lecturers in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, actively participating in focus group discussions and individual interviews. The results showed the potential of using pop culture to increase students' curiosity. The lecturers integrated various forms of pop culture in discussion activities, role-playing, voiceover exercises, storytelling sessions, vocabulary expansion exercises, dictation tasks, extensive reading, creative writing endeavors, comic and video making, vlogging, social media interactions, and interviews. The lecturers underlined that integrating popular culture into teaching practices engages, relaxes, and effectively stimulates students' curiosity. It can also foster closer relationships with students, encourage more in-depth and meaningful learning experiences, and significantly, students show enthusiasm and positive attitudes towards learning by incorporating popular culture.
Keywords: curiosity, English lecturer, learning activity, pop culture