Ethnopedagogy in English Language Teaching: Teacher Beliefs and Implementation of Brain-Based and Cultural Approaches in Senior High Schools, Tana Toraja

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This study investigates ethnopedagogical strategies in English Language Teaching (ELT) through the lens of teacher beliefs, specifically examining how Toraja cultural approaches are integrated by senior high school English teachers in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Employing a qualitative case study design, data were collected from three English teachers through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal that all three teachers hold strong and positive beliefs that integrating Toraja local culture including rituals, folklore, traditional food, and sacred sites facilitates students’ comprehension, memory retention, and confidence. Teachers view ethnopedagogy not only as an instructional strategy but as a moral responsibility to preserve Toraja culture and instill character values. Implementation analysis shows that ethnopedagogical strategies are most consistently applied in opening activities, speaking simulations, and closing reflections, while gaps remain in the use of culturally diverse audio-visual media and listening skill development. This study contributes to the growing body of research on culturally responsive ELT in indigenous contexts and recommends integrating ethnopedagogy with systematic professional development for teachers in culturally rich but under-resourced regions.

English Language Needs of Retail Store Employees: A Study on Communication Demands in Business Transactions

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This study investigates the English language needs of retail store employees in conducting business transactions and identifies the types of English-speaking activities required to support effective communication in retail settings in Toraja, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Employing a qualitative descriptive design with thematic analysis following Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s interactive model, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, workplace observations, and document analysis involving twelve retail store employees and four store managers across four retail establishments. Thematic analysis revealed five principal English language need domains: transactional communication, product knowledge communication, complaint and conflict resolution, relationship-building and rapport, and digital-mediated communication. Furthermore, seven essential English-speaking activity types were identified: greeting and service initiation dialogues, product inquiry and recommendation exchanges, negotiation and price discussion activities, complaint handling and problem-solving conversations, telephone and digital communication practices, cross-cultural interaction simulations, and professional presentation and reporting activities. The findings demonstrate that retail employees’ English communication needs extend significantly beyond basic conversational competence to encompass domain-specific vocabulary, pragmatic awareness, and interactional strategies essential for navigating the communicative demands of contemporary retail environments. These findings contribute to the needs analysis literature in English for Specific Purposes and offer empirically grounded implications for language curriculum design, workplace training programs, and English language policy in retail and service industries.

English Learning in the Interior of Papua: Unveiling Student Needs and Pedagogical Realities in Vocational Schools

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English language education in Indonesia’s 3T (Frontier, Outermost, and Disadvantaged) regions remains critically underexamined, particularly in vocational school contexts where language proficiency carries direct implications for students’ economic futures. This study investigates the characteristics of English learning currently implemented in vocational schools in the interior of Papua and examines students’ needs for more effective English instruction in 3T areas. Employing a qualitative case study design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with three English teachers and five Grade X vocational students, supplemented by non-participant classroom observations and document analysis. Data analysis followed Miles, Huberman, and Saldana’s (2020) interactive model of data condensation, display, and conclusion drawing. Findings reveal that current English instruction is shaped by ten intersecting themes, including persistent foundational skill deficits, teacher-led contextual and creative adaptations, severe resource scarcity, technology constraints with teacher-dependent access, and strategic use of local language as a pedagogical bridge. Analysis of student needs identified twelve themes, encompassing strong preferences for interactive and game-based activities, locally relevant content connected to Papuan cultural heritage, comprehensive skill development with emphasis on speaking and reading, critical access to basic learning resources, collaborative learning structures, and robust future-oriented motivation centered on career aspirations in tourism and hospitality. The findings underscore the urgent need for differentiated curriculum approaches, investment in foundational resources, infrastructure development, and culturally responsive pedagogical models tailored to the realities of remote Indonesian education.

Digital Marketing Communication Strategies and The Implementation of Sharia Financing Values in Agribusiness Msmes: Case Study of Kebun Binar Bumi

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This study aims to analyze digital marketing communication strategies and the implementation of sharia capital values in agribusiness MSMEs through a case study of Kebun Binar Bumi. Amid rapid digitalization and the expansion of Islamic financial inclusion, agribusiness MSMEs face a dilemma between utilizing digital market opportunities and maintaining conventional distribution systems through middlemen. This study adopts Karl E. Weick’s sensemaking perspective to understand how MSME actors interpret digital transformation, market uncertainty, and post-pandemic financial risks. Furthermore, this study incorporates the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework to evaluate how massive digital marketing efforts trigger consumers’ internal trust and drive behavioral responses, such as repeat orders. Using an interpretive qualitative case study approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, social media observation, and documentation studies. The findings reveal that: (1) Kebun Binar Bumi successfully implemented inbound digital marketing through Instagram and WhatsApp by emphasizing educational communication, storytelling, transparency, and trust-building; (2) the enterprise adopted a bootstrapping strategy as a form of sharia-oriented financial prudence due to limited literacy regarding Islamic financing contracts and concerns over unstable market conditions ; and (3) post-COVID-19 collective economic trauma strongly influenced financial behavior, causing the business to become more risk-averse toward external financing. This study identifies a significant gap between the availability of Islamic financial products and the psychological readiness of MSME actors. The study recommends that Islamic financial institutions move beyond financing-oriented approaches and develop business incubation, mentoring, and market stabilization models for MSMEs.

Analysis of The Equivalent Land Use (ELU) in the Milpa System Intercalated with Fruit Trees (MIAF) in Axochio, Veracruz

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The Intercropped Maize and Fruit Tree System (MIAF) represents an agroecological alternative aimed at improving the productivity, sustainability, and resilience of tropical agroecosystems in the face of the limitations of traditional monocultures. In this context, Land Use Equivalent (LUE) is a fundamental indicator for evaluating the productive efficiency of diversified systems. The objective of this research was to evaluate the Land Use Equivalent in the MIAF system established in Axochio, Veracruz, in order to determine its efficiency compared to monocultures. The research was conducted during the years 2024, 2025, and 2026 at the MIAF-INIFAP Module in Axochio, San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz. The evaluated system consisted of 16 species, including fruit trees and annual crops. To determine the LUE, the yields obtained in association within the MIAF system and the national yields for monoculture reported by SIAP and SIACON were used. The results showed high productive diversity, highlighting species such as sapodilla, Persian lime, starfruit, and maize. The total land use efficiency (LUE) obtained was 4.83, a value greater than one, indicating that the integrated agroforestry system (MIAF) uses land more efficiently than monocultures. The largest contributions to the UET came from maize and starfruit. It is concluded that the MIAF system promotes ecological complementarity among species, optimizes resource use, and constitutes a viable strategy for strengthening sustainability and food security in tropical regions.

War News Exposure and Household Economic Anxiety: The Perceived Impact of the United States–Israel–Iran Conflict on Fuel and Food Price Concerns in Depok, Indonesia

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This study examines the effect of exposure to war news on household economic anxiety, focusing on public concern over fuel and food price increases in Depok, Indonesia. The research was motivated by the increasing intensity of global conflict coverage and its potential to shape local perceptions of economic risk. Using a quantitative explanatory approach, this study surveyed 103 respondents who had access to mass or digital media and were exposed to news about the United States–Israel–Iran conflict. The independent variable was war news exposure, measured through frequency, duration, attention, and multiplatform intensity. The dependent variable was household economic anxiety, measured through concerns about fuel prices, food commodity prices, household living costs, and family economic stability. The data were analysed using simple linear regression. The findings show that war news exposure has a positive and significant effect on household economic anxiety, with a significance value of 0.000 and a regression coefficient of 0.642. The coefficient of determination indicates that exposure to war news explains 35.9% of the variation in economic anxiety. These findings suggest that global conflict news can shape local economic concerns through media exposure.

A Comparison of Some Common Source Domains in Vietnamese and American English Political Discourses

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This article identifies, describes, and compares a number of common source domains in Vietnamese and American English political discourses, with the aim of clarifying how politicians select source domains. In doing so, it affirms that through source–target mappings, abstract concepts and messages in political discourses are made concrete and more accessible to the public. A qualitative survey and analysis of 39 Vietnamese political discourse texts and 83 American English political discourse texts reveals that certain universal source domains such as JOURNEY, CONSTRUCTION, and FAMILY appear in both discourse systems, reflecting the way people conceptualize politics as a goal-directed process or a form of social construction. However, Vietnamese political discourses tend to prioritize source domains that emphasize collectivity, stability, and long-term orientation such as FAMILY and CONSTRUCTION; whereas American English political discourses are characterized by source domains that are competitive, confrontational, and individualized such as WAR, COMPETITION, and BUSINESS. These differences reflect the cultural characteristics, ideological orientations, and political organizational models of each country. The findings thus contribute to clarifying the relationship between language, cognition, and power in political discourses.

 

Real-Time Monitoring of Kindergarten Safety Using YOLO-11-Based Detection of Children and Adults

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Ensuring the safety and well-being of children in kindergartens requires continuous monitoring of their interactions with caregivers and the surrounding environment, as even short periods of inattentiveness can lead to accidents or unnoticed risky behavior. In this work, we present a computer-vision–based monitoring system that uses an improved YOLO-11 object detection model to localize and classify adults and children in surveillance video streams in real time. Based on the detection results, the system infers whether each child is currently supervised or unsupervised, and whether a child is present near predefined dangerous zones (such as exits, staircases, or other restricted areas) defined in the camera field of view.

To support this task, a custom dataset was created and annotated with bounding boxes for “child” and “adult” classes using both publicly available images and collected video frames from kindergarten-like environments, covering different viewpoints, illumination conditions, and crowd levels. The YOLO-11 model was trained and evaluated using standard detection metrics (precision, recall, F1-score and mAP) on separate training, validation, and test splits. In addition, a simple geometric reasoning module was implemented on top of the detector outputs to derive high-level safety events, such as “unsupervised child in the room” and “child entering a danger zone.”

A prototype implementation demonstrates that the proposed approach can robustly separate adults and children, operate at real-time frame rates on GPU hardware, and automatically flag frames where a child remains alone or moves toward restricted areas, thus providing timely cues for caregivers. These preliminary results confirm the feasibility of applying modern YOLO-family detectors to real-time kindergarten safety monitoring and provide a practical foundation for further extensions toward action recognition (e.g., falling, aggression, social isolation), spatio-temporal behavior analysis, and affective state estimation in early childhood education settings.

Which Financial Signals Drive Stock Returns the Most? Evidence from Indonesia’s Miscellaneous Industry Sector 2022–2024

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This study examines the effects of profitability, liquidity, company size, price-to-book value, and leverage on stock returns of companies in the Miscellaneous Industry Sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the 2022–2024 period, grounded in signalling theory. The study employed a quantitative approach using purposive sampling, selecting 40 companies with a total of 120 observations across three years. Data were analysed using multiple linear regression, preceded by classical assumption testing including normality, multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity, and autocorrelation tests.

The results show that all independent variables simultaneously exert a significant effect on stock returns (F = 12.267; p < 0.001), with the model explaining 32.1% of the variation in stock returns. Partially, profitability measured by Return on Assets has a positive and significant effect on stock returns, while price-to-book value emerges as the most dominant predictor with a standardised coefficient of 0.605 and a p-value below 0.001. In contrast, liquidity measured by the current ratio, company size measured by total assets, and leverage measured by the debt-to-equity ratio show no significant effect on stock returns.

These findings suggest that investors in this sector respond more strongly to signals of profitability and market valuation than to liquidity, asset scale, or debt structure. This study contributes to the literature on financial signal-based investment decision-making in developing country capital markets and reinforces the practical relevance of signalling theory in emerging market contexts. Company management should prioritise improving profitability and managing stock market value to attract investor interest and sustain stock return growth.

Misrated Meanings: A Multimodal Semiotic Critique of Age Classification in Streaming Animation

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The globally increase of streaming media has changed not only the circulation of animation but also the structures through which this media content is categorized and controlled. This research critically studies the semiotic boundaries of age classification contexts practical to animated content on platforms like Netflix, arguing that existing age rating is rely unreasonably on superficial-level elements while ignoring the multimodal complexity of making meaning. Based on a qualitative multimodal content analysis of selected animation, K-pop-inspired demon-hunter narratives, this research examines how visual signs, sound design, narrative, and affective intensity interact to produce meanings that exceed their given ‘child-friendly’ category. This research shows that animation has bright color palettes, musical performance, and stylized character design is often considered as suitable for younger children without considering the presence of semiotically dense elements such as demonic symbolism, identity fragmentation, and emotionally intense transformation sequences. The results recommend that existing rating systems inadequately account for the affective and symbolic dimensions of media, particularly in hybrid forms that combine entertainment aesthetics with complex thematic content.