Indonesian Language Courses Boost Linguistic Politeness Among UNITRI Students Via Campus Impact Program

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FORMOSA NEWS

Researchers Muhammad Yusi Kamhar from Universitas Tribhuwana Tunggadewi (UNITRI) Malang and Erma Lestari from Universitas Merdeka Malang examined how a Campus Impact Program approach improves linguistic politeness among cross-cultural students. Published in 2026, this study investigates how structured instruction within Indonesian Language courses transforms students' verbal and digital communication ethics. This research is vital because multicultural university environments frequently face miscommunication challenges arising from differences between regional linguistic norms and formal academic politeness standards.

Contextual Background At multicultural campuses like UNITRI Malang, students originate from diverse regions across Indonesia, including Java, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Maluku, Papua, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. Their regional communicative habits often clash with the formal politeness standards expected in higher education, particularly during student-lecturer interactions. This dynamic highlights the necessity of reorienting Indonesian language instruction from a purely grammatical focus toward building social awareness and practical communicative politeness in daily campus life.

Research Methodology The researchers employed a qualitative descriptive method involving 40 cross-cultural students from four study programs at UNITRI Malang. Over eight course meetings, the research team observed classroom communication patterns, interviewed 12 students and three lecturers, and analyzed digital communication documentation, such as WhatsApp messaging and formal letter assignments. The analysis focused on three primary interactional domains: student-lecturer communication, peer interaction, and digital messaging ethics.

Key Findings The study revealed substantial improvements following structured instruction in politeness strategies:

• Diverse Baseline Conditions: Prior to the intervention, students from Eastern Indonesia tended to use direct requests without honorific address forms (Pak/Bu) and omitted formulaic greetings in digital messages. Meanwhile, Javanese students frequently introduced regional vocabulary into formal academic contexts that required standard Indonesian.
• Improved Politeness Strategies: By the fourth course meeting, all student groups consistently utilized appropriate honorific address forms and formulaic greetings. By the eighth meeting, written communication in formal letter assignments showed marked improvement, featuring more polite language and appropriate closing formulas.
• Independent Out-of-Class Initiatives: The Campus Impact Program approach inspired students to apply politeness beyond the lecture hall. Students voluntarily established a dedicated WhatsApp group to share and evaluate examples of polite and impolite communication around campus as a shared reflective exercise.

Implications and Impact These findings demonstrate that integrating the Campus Impact Program into coursework can drive community-level cultural transformation across campus, rather than merely improving individual language skills. Muhammad Yusi Kamhar and Erma Lestari emphasize that Indonesian Language courses, when oriented toward tangible social impact, serve as a highly effective vehicle for cultivating a culture of linguistic politeness in multicultural universities without suppressing students' regional identities. This instructional model provides a valuable reference for higher education curriculum designers and policymakers to integrate pragmatic competence and politeness strategies as core learning outcomes across Indonesia.

Author Profile

• Muhammad Yusi Kamhar is an academic and lecturer at Universitas Tribhuwana Tunggadewi (UNITRI) Malang specializing in language pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and pragmatic instruction.
• Erma Lestari is an academic at Universitas Merdeka Malang focusing on applied linguistics and language education development.

Research Source:

• Article Title: Enhancing Indonesian Language Politeness at UNITRI Through Indonesian Language Courses: A Campus Impact Program Approach
• Authors: Muhammad Yusi Kamhar, Erma Lestari
• Journal: Contemporary Journal of Applied Sciences (CJAS)
• Publication Year: 2026
• DOI/URL: https://doi.org/10.55927/cjas.v4i6.173