<![CDATA[The integration of local cultural content into English language instruction has been widely advocated, yet in Papua such content remains marginal in classroom materials, which continue to privilege foreign cultural references, while technology-based media are increasingly adopted without local grounding. Addressing this condition is urgent because cultural relevance and technological accessibility must be considered simultaneously in multilingual and geographically isolated regions such as Southwest Papua, where culturally distant materials weaken engagement while unstable connectivity limits access. This study examines how students and lecturers perceive the integration of Papuan local content—folktales, traditional practices, local landscapes, and community values—into technology-based EFL learning media at the tertiary level. Employing a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, the study involved 74 undergraduate students of an English Education study program in Sorong who completed a validated 24-item Likert-scale questionnaire, and six EFL lecturers who participated in semi-structured interviews; the qualitative strand was used explicitly to explain the questionnaire results. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and qualitative data thematically. Students held highly positive perceptions (overall mean 3.41 of 4.00), highest for cultural relevance and cultural identity and lowest for technology usability. Lecturers viewed the integration as pedagogically valuable and identity-affirming, but identified four constraints: limited internet infrastructure, uneven digital competence, the scarcity of documented Papuan cultural sources, and the risk of cultural misrepresentation. Because the data are perception-based, the findings provide an empirical basis for developing culturally responsive and infrastructure-sensitive digital EFL media—offline-capable, lecturer-supported, and validated by cultural custodians—rather than evidence of improved learning outcomes, which would require subsequent design-based and experimental verification.]]>
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