Mobilizing Indigenous Cultural Capital Through Arts-Based Pedagogy for English Literacy Acquisition Among Kensiu Orang Asli Pupils in Malaysia

Abstract

Indigenous pupils in multilingual communities face compounded barriers to English literacy acquisition that conventional deficit-oriented pedagogy fails to address. This study investigates how arts-based Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) mobilizes the cultural capital of Kensiu Orang Asli pupils in Baling, Kedah, Malaysia, a community navigating a Triple Language Hurdle from their mother tongue (L1 Kensiu) through Bahasa Malaysia (L2) to English (L3). Grounded in Bourdieu's Cultural Capital Theory and Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, the study evaluates how the My Story Stones intervention transforms pupils' embodied capital into scholastic currency. An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods design was employed with a total population census (N=50) at SK Siong. Baseline profiling confirmed a Capital Mismatch ,high embodied capital (M=2.62) alongside scarce objectified resources (M=1.25) ,correlating strongly with low initial English literacy (r=.682, p<.001). Following an eight-week intervention, statistically significant literacy gains were recorded (t(43)=−23.21, p<.001, d=1.00), with mean performance rising from TP 2.45 to TP 3.57. Student engagement also improved significantly (t(43)=28.45, p<.001, d=4.20). Qualitative analysis yielded five themes centred on translanguaging, cultural familiarity, and semiotic mediation. The study introduces the Cultural Capital Mobilization Model, demonstrating that indigenous embodied capital, when pedagogically activated through arts-based CRP, serves as a legitimate bridge to English literacy acquisition.