LANGUAGE SHIFT AND MAINTENANCE AMONG CHINESE COMMUNITY IN SURABAYA: A CASE OF NON-MIGRANT COMMUNITY
Abstract
LANGUAGE SHIFT AND MAINTENANCE AMONG CHINESE COMMUNITY IN SURABAYA:
A CASE OF NON-MIGRANT COMMUNITY
Rizky Silvia Putri
Sastra Inggris, Language and Arts Faculty, State University of Surabaya
Drs. Slamet Setiawan, MA, Ph.D
English Literature, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Surabaya
slametsetia@yahoo.com
Abstrak
Bahasa Inggris merupakan bahasa Internasional dimana semua orang di dunia mengenal bahasa Inggris. Surabaya, sebagai kota besar di Indonesia menjadikan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa yang penting untuk dipelajari dan hal ini juga mempengaruhi area kerja dimana Bahasa Inggris adalah salah satu syarat untuk dikuasai oleh tenaga kerja. Fenomena ini membuat orang-orang mempelajari bahkan bahasa Inggris dipilih sebagai bahasa yang harus mereka kuasai. Penelitian ini berfokus pada komintas Cina di Surabaya yang memilih bahasa Inggris and menunjukan tanda untuk bergeser ke bahasa Inggris dan pemertahanan bahasa Indonesia. Keluarga yang dipilih yang mempunyai potensial untuk berbicara bahasa Inggris dan kemungkinan bergeser ke bahasa Inggris. Penelitian ini mempunyai tiga tujuan: 1.) untuk mendeskripsikan bahasa yang digunakan oleh keluarga-keluarga Cina, 2.) untuk mengetahui factor-faktor yang menyebabkan keluraga-keluarga Cina memilih bahasa Inggris, dan 3.) untuk mengidentifikasi bagaimana keluarga-keluarga Cina mempertahankan bahasa Indonesia. Penelitian lapangan dipilih dalam penelitian ini. Penemuan dalam penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa factor dalam memilih bahasa Inggris dari pada bahasa Mandarin dan Indonesia menunjukkan tanda pergeseran ke bahasa Inggris. Ini karena bahasa Inggris mempunyai peranan yang penting dalam factor pergeseran bahasa: sifat dan nilai, social, demografi, dan ekonomi dan politik. Pemilihan bahasa Inggris karena beberapa factor juga sebuah tanda dari tiga keluraga Cina untuk bergeser ke bahasa Inggris: era modern, komunikasi, pendidikan, kehidupan mendatang, dan bahasa kebiasaan. Walaupun begitu, bahasa Indonesia sebagai bahasa ibu dan bahasa mayoritas yang digunakan oleh orang Surabaya dipertahankan. Sikap yang positif yang ditunjukkan oleh para orang tua dan anak-anak menunjukkan cara dalam mempertahankan bahasa Indonesia.
Kata Kunci: pemilihan bahasa, pergeseran bahasa, pemilihan bahasa
Abstract
English is an international language where people around the world know English. Surabaya as urban and multilingual city in Indonesia put English as an important language to be learnt and it gives affect in working area where English one of language requirements where employees must able to speak it. This phenomena make people learn even choose English as one of language that they must mastered. This study focuses on Chinese community in Surabaya who chooses English and shows the precursor to shifts into English and the maintenance of Indonesian. The families have been chosen as they are potential agent to speak English and show the possibility to shift into English. The study has three goals: 1.) To describe the language is used by Chinese Family in Surabaya, 2.) To find out the factors that contributes Chinese family in choosing English, and 3.)To identify how do the Chinese Family maintain the Indonesian. Qualitative research approach has been chosen in this study. The instruments used were questionnaires and interviews. The findings of the study show that the factors of choosing English rather than Mandarin and Indonesian by three Chinese families as multilingual families show the precursor of shifting into English. This is because English has an important role to the factors of language shift: attitude and values, social, demographic, and economic and politic. The choice of English because of some factors also the precursor of these three Chinese families to shift into English: modern era, communication, education, future life, and language habit. However, Indonesian as mother tongue and majority language that is used by Surabaya people is maintained. The positive attitudes that are shown by parents and children show the way in maintaining Indonesian language.
Keywords: Language choice, language shift, language maintenance
English as an international language is nothing new in this modern world. Sharifi (2009: 2) said in general that English as an international language refers to a paradigm for thinking, research and practice. It marks a paradigm shift in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), SLA and the applied linguistics of English, partly in response to the complexities that are associated with the tremendously rapid spread of English around the globe in recent decades English has been categorized as an important language for non-native English speakers and the application of learning English for education even starts from in the very young age, for example in Surabaya. English has been taught in every school and needed almost in every working area.
Surabaya is known as urban city which the center of business, industry, trade, and center of education. This is one of the most favorable places where businessman or business woman begin their career, place of education, and for job seeker. Surabaya is the second larger city after Jakarta and the capital of the province of East Java, and with total of population reaching over 3 million which make Surabaya is called as an urban city (http://www.surabaya.go.id/profilkota/index.php?id=22). While Lowenstein (1977:23) said that In general, populations in places of 2,500 or over were urban; those in places of less than 2,500 were rural This makes English become an important language choice by people in Surabaya and perhaps people will try to learn English to get a better future in life because the competition is real in urban areas.
Chinese is one of ethnics which exist in Surabaya for a very long time ago. The first language brought in Surabaya was Mandarin because the Chinese at the first time was the result of migration. Meanwhile, the elder did not teach Mandarin as well as language inherited. This is happen because they do not living in China where Mandarin position as first and dominant language spoken. So, the situation is Mandarin does not function as the first language for young generation in Surabaya. In addition, it is considered too difficult with all its grammars, pronunciations, and intonations. It is said by Constance’s letter in Liu (2005:140) wrote that English was easier than Chinese because English only had twenty-six letters while Chinese had many characters and did not have a spelling system. So, the language most spoken by Chinese in Surabaya today is Indonesian and it is considered as mother tongue that inherits to the next generation.
In this case, Chinese people, who see a future must be a better future and life will think that English is needed to be learnt because there would be a competitor in urban city and must follow the modern era which make English is used almost in every places whether written or oral. Besides getting an English subject at school, parents might also put their children to the course, learning English and use it at home in daily communication. This use of language is chosen and spoken because of some favors. This is leading Chinese community tend to shift Indonesian into English. It is when people use a particular language in a particular area because of some favors. Chaer and Agustina (1995: 190) said that language shift is usually happened in a country or in an area which gives a big hope for the better social economic life.
There are three research questions; (1) what language is used by Chinese family in Surabaya, (2) what factors that contribute Chinese family choose English?, (3) how does the Chinese family maintain the Indonesian language?. The purposes of this study are to identify the language used by Chinese family in Surabaya and the factors that contribute the families choose English. This study is expected to be able to enrich linguistics study dealing with phenomena of language shift among Chinese people in Surabaya. This study uses three members of Chinese family in Surabaya and focuses only with non-migrant communities which mean that they have been living for the next of three generation after the first Chinese ethnic who had been migrated in Surabaya.
The topic language shift and it is not something new. It was already done by other ethnics who moved in Surabaya as migrants. The situation of choosing a new language in a new domain where they live in right now, make the use that language in order to be able in communicate with people in new domain. This situation makes them shift their ethnic language to other language because of some favors and the ethnic language on the other hand does not use in the new are where the majority of language used is in the place they live in now. This study was conducted by Wijayanti and Windarti about language shift that happen to migrant majorities.
The first study was conducted by Wijayanti’s (2008) of “language shift and maintenance found in bataknese families in surabaya” indicated that the Bataknese who lives in Surabaya shift to a new and maintain the old one. She also wants to describe the social contexts which are responsible for language shift and language maintenance by Bataknese in Surabaya. Wijayanti divided the informants into two groups: young and old generations of Bataknese in Surabaya which were chosen in random whom might represent their community in Surabaya. The young generation represented language shift while the old generation represented language maintenance.
While the second previous study was conducted by Windarti’s (2007) of “A Study of Language Shift among Flores People in Surabaya” is concerned about the shift of Flores language because of the speakers’ movement to another place (in this case, Flores people move to Java). Although the Flores people have very good ability to master Flores language, they have very positive attitude towards Flores language, and they also have such organization Flores family in Surabaya, most of the Flores people (parents) have never taught Flores language to their children. It is because Flores people think that it is unnecessary to teach Flores language in Surabaya. In addition, Windarti’s study took ten Flores families as the informants, who were divided into two categories, original Flores families (OFs), and mixed marriage Flores Families (MMs).
Both of previous study above concerned about the language shift which occurs to the speaker who migrate to the another city and shift the language to majority language that is Surabaya language. Migration is the position which showing that most people who migrate to another city will use the language use in the place they migrate to.
While in this study is concerned about the choice and the intensity of using English language that make three Chinese families tend to shift into English. The status of English in the world is one of factors that lead them to choose English. The subjects were 3 families consist of parents and children. The children here is represented their community who potential to choose English as language communication. The parents represented the figure that supported the children to use English and maintain Indonesian as mother tongue and majority language spoken by Surabaya people.
There are some theories that are used in this study, but there are five main theories that support to answer the three research questions in this study. The first theory is about multilingualism that is said by Quay in Auer and Lie (2007: 45) that with the greater mobility of people and consequent cross-linguistic and cross cultural relationship, an increasing number of children are growing up with early exposure to two languages in the family. Indeed, more than two languages may be in the linguistic repertoire of the family, rendering a case of family multilingualism, the second is about the ability of multilingual that is said by Sridhar in Wardhaugh (2006: 96) who says that Multilinguals develop competence in each of the codes to the extent that they need it and for the contexts in which each of the languages is used. The third is theory about factors of language choice by Setiawan (2013) suggests the certain reasons for language choice in bilingual or multilingual society from the city parent’s view: Emblematic value, strategic reason (politeness), pragmatic reason. The fourth is about factors contribute language shift by Holmes (2001) who says that there are several factors that contribute to language shift: Values and attitude, social, demographic, and economic and political. The last is about language maintenance by Chaer and Agustina (1995: 193) who explain that language maintenance is the matter with the attitude to be consistent in using a language among other languages.
RESEARCH METODE
Qualitative or field research design is used in this study which mean to showing of human phenomena in the social interaction. The qualitative study is based on the quality which means to examine social meanings and grasp multiple perspectives in natural setting. According to Neuman (2007: 278), field research is based on naturalism, which is also used to study other phenomena (e.g. oceans, animals, plants, etc.). It involves observing ordinary events in natural settings, not in contrived, invented, or researcher-created-settings.
The subjects in this study were 3 Chinese families in Surabaya who were born in Surabaya and living for the next of three generation for the first migration in Surabaya. The three Chinese families were multilingualism who able to speak three languages: Indonesian, Mandarin, and English. In this case, Indonesia was their mother tongue, not Mandarin.
The sources of the data in this study were 3 Chinese families in Surabaya. They were parents and children. The data were information and opinion from each member and its parents. The data of research question number one, two and three are opinion and information about language used, factors contribute language shift, and the way of maintaining the Indonesian. The data are gotten from observation, Interview and questionnaires that are given to the subjects of the study; parents and children.
Since the subjects of this study were humans, the writer collected the data in the form of written and oral words from the subjects being observed. Besides that, the instruments and tools were used to support to the data collection technique. There are two kinds of techniques applied in this study; questionnaires, interview. The three instruments were used to answer the three research question; (1) language used by Chinese family in Surabaya, (2) factors contributes language choice, and (3) the maintaining of Indonesian language. After that the data that had been obtained will be transcribed, and then classified the data. The last process is analyzing the data with the theory used in this study.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
In this section, it collects all the data findings in result section and to be related with the theories provided. The data has founded is Multilingualism, Factors contribute language choice and the effort in Maintaining the Indonesian Language.
Result
In this section, it presents all data analyses gotten by related to research question number one, two, and three. In this part, there is no theory to be discussed which relate to the result. It will answer three research questions; language used, factors contribute language choice, and maintain Indonesian language. Then, the result is explained in the following parts:
Language Used by Chinese Families in Surabaya
The three Chinese families were known as multilingual families because they were able to speak in three languages; Mandarin, Indonesian and English. These languages have its position and function towards these families. The position and function of these languages will be explained below:
Mandarin Language
Mandarin was one of languages that were used by three Chinese families in Surabaya. Mandarin still considered as minority language and not all people in Surabaya understood and wanted to spoke this language. As the result, Mandarin was only spoken by people who able to speak this language, such us Chinese who worked at international Chinese company and Mandarin teacher who used Mandarin in teaching and learning method in school and Mandarin course places. It had been spoken also by the elder who had been living in Surabaya in past time but it did not now. The children also argued that Chinese was important but they did not speak it because they were not living in country where Mandarin is positioning as Majority. This opinion was gotten from the subject of the study that both children and parents were giving the same opinion about their ethnic language. The conversation is written below:
Data 1:
Mother A: menurut saya bahasa Mandarin itu penting karena menunjukkan identitas kami sebagai orang Cina. Tapi bahasa Mandarin jarang dipakai jadi saya tidak ngomong dengan bahasa Mandarin. Dan juga menurut saya bahasa Mandarin terlalu ribet dan sulit. Saya cuman bisa sedikit tapi hanya dipakai sama saudara dan temen. (I think Mandarin is important because it shows our identity. But, I also understand that it is not a majority language to be spoken in Surabaya because in here people use Indonesian. And it is also considered to be difficult. I only speak a little with my sibling and my friends).
In this case, mother A only used Mandarin with her friends but only a little. This was because she did not speak well and it was too difficult. Mandarin language was only a sign to show her identity.
Indonesian Language
Indonesian language is the majority language that is spoken by people in Surabaya. Since Mandarin did not inherit to the three Chinese families, Indonesian was known as their mother tongue. Mother tongue is the language that is used and taught by parents to their children in daily activities and the result of mother language usually comes up as the first language of the children and parents. The evidence of Indonesian language as mother tongue for Chinese family can be seen on the information of each parent below.
Table 1. The evidence of Indonesian language that is used as mother tongue
Mother A
Mother B
Mother C
bahasa indonesia ya bahasa ibu dikeluarga kami. Soalnya dari kecil orang tua ngomongnya ya pakek bahasa Indonesia. (Indonesian is our mother tongue because it inherits by my parents).
dari kecil saya pakek bahasa Indonesia, soalnya orang tua kalo ngomong ke kita ya pakek bahasa Indonesia. (I use indonesia since I was a kid because my parents also speak Indonesian to us).
I was speaking Indonesian when I was a kid because parents taught that language to me. Meanwhile, we are living in Surabaya, so we must understand about Indonesian.
From the table above, it proved that the three Chinese families used Indonesian as mother language because they were living in the area where Indonesian was used by people surrounding. In addition, the old generation also taught them spoke Indonesian. So, Indonesian was recognized as Chinese mother tongue.
English Language
English was the language that was also used by three Chinese families. English was becoming their language because it had an important role in many aspects: education and job opportunities. It was also known as International language and positioned as foreign language. English was one of foreign languages that are taught at every school since a long time.it was seen that Child C learnt English since she was a child. And it was also her language used.
Data 2:
Child C: yeah,, My parents taught me English since I was a child. They also sent me to English course.
From the information above, English was her language used. It was proven that she her parents taught her English when she was a child and they also sent her to English course. It means that she used English as one of her languages used.
On the other hand, English became a dominant language used by three Chinese families in Surabaya. It was argued by Family A and B that English must become the children’s dominant language. They are stated as follow:
Data 3:
Father A: kami sudah terbiasa ngomong pakek bahasa Inggris. Itu sudah terbiasa karena digereja dan tempat kerja ya bahasa inggris yang dpakai. Di rumah kami juga ngomong pakek bahasa inggris.. ya biar tambah lancar aja apalagi sama anak saya. Wajib itu mbak, meskipun gak setiap hari. (we used to speak in English. it is so because I speak it in church and working place because English is used there. I also speak English at home.. it is because we will be fluent in it, especially with my children. It is a must even not in everyday communication).
English became a dominant language to family A because they used to speak English almost in many domains: church, home, and working area. Father A supported his statement that English was also used at home in order to fluent their family English speaking. And it was strongly said that “wajib itu mbk meskipun gak setiap hari (it is a must even not in everyday communication)”. So, from the statement above, English is recognized as their dominant language.
It was proven that three Chinese families were multilingual families because they were able to speak in three languages; Mandarin, Indonesian, and English. Indonesian was their mother tongue because it is inherited through generations. Mandarin was their ethnic language that is functioned to show their identity, and English was used as their dominant language use. In this case, they are considered as multilingualism, this is the ability of speaking more than two languages
Factors of Choosing English Language
There were several factors why did three Chinese families choose English as their language communication. The factors are represented in the form of tables which consists of; modern era, communication, education, future carrier, and language habit. Here are some factors why did these families choose English.
Modern Era
See the advanced of high technology in modern era, it is proven that there so many communication tools with high technology that are used to interact with other people in order to get an easy ways to communicate with them. High technology facilitates the people to interact with people who live in foreign country. The three children were used English to chat with their foreign friends through social media. In this case, high technology helped them to interact with people who had long distance. The table below shows about English as language choice to interact with their foreign friends through social media.
Table 2. Language Choice by Child A, B, and C in Modern Era
Child A
Child B
Child C
I like to speak in English with my foreign friends in social media.
In social media, I am used to speak English with foreign friends.
I have chat friends from Singapore. She is the daughter of dad’s friend. I am used to talk with her in English. So, I like it.
From the information on the table above, high technology was useful for three children to communicate with their foreign friends. English was usually used in high technology. It meant that social media was one of the result of high technology that used English as main language in the display. So, with the ability of speaking English by the children is helping them in using the technology to communicate with their foreign friends through social media.
Communication
The choice of language in a communication is affected both for speakers and addressees. It means that the language is chosen in order to get an effective ways to communicate with one to another. Three Chinese families used English in some domains and with certain addresses. It means that they used English with people who spoke English too. It was also said that the used of English was chosen because in some domains English was used. In this case, all people used English in church domain..
Family B, on the other hand used English in church, working area, and home. This was because English was the language choice in church and working area, while it was their language used at home. Mother B showed that she spoke English in church, home, and working area.
Data 4:
Mother B: saya ngomong bahasa Inggris di rumah, tempat kerja, sama Gereja. Dirumah saya biasanya bicara sama suami sama anak-anak juga. Kalau ditempat kerja, saya ngomong pakek bahasa inggris sama GM soalnya dia dari India. Jadi bahasa kita ya Inggris sebagai penghubung. Kalau di gereja biasanya ya ngomong bahasa inggris sama head church sama temen-temen aja. (I speak English at home, working area, and church. I speak English with my husband and children. I also speak English at the office with general manager. This is because he is from India and English is our language. If it is at church, I speak English with the head of church and fellows).
The intensity of using English language was a precursor for the family to shift into English. This was because English had become their dominant language used.
Education
Education sometimes becomes a place where English is used in state and public school but it is most used in international school. This was shown by three children of Chinese families who schooled at international language. The use of English was crucial in there and this was an obligation of each student to speak in English.
Table 3. Language Choice by Child A, B, and C in Education
Child A
Child B
Child C
I speak English at school with teachers and friends.
At school, I speak English with my teacher and friends
I speak English at schools with teacher and friends
The choice of English in school area is obvious. This is because it is the dominant language used in school. The school of three children is international school and English is language used in there. English is used to communicate with teacher and students in the classroom and used with friends outside the class.
Future Carrier
Future carrier always becomes a crucial part for someone to choose a language that gives a big role to the successful in working area. English is the language that gives a big contribution in future carrier. Most companies use English as one of language requirements for applicants who want to apply and get a job.
Consider that Surabaya was urban city, big chance to get a good job in big companies. English must be the language that requires in there. It was argued by mother A that English was one of languages that were needed in big companies.
Data 5:
Mother A: pasti itu mbak. Karena pekerjaan sekarang banyak yang menggunakan bahasa inggris. Di Surabaya banyak sekali perusahaan-perusahaan yang syarat diterima untuk bekerja salah satunya adalah menguasai bahasa inggris. (ofcourse, this is because there are so many jobs that use English. in Surabaya, there are companies where one of conditions that the applicants can be accepted is able to speak in English).
Saw Surabaya as urban city made mother A concerned about choosing English as one of language used in her family. This was because there were big companies that choose English as requirement for applicant who wanted to enter it. It was supported by her child who saw English as an important language for good job carrier in Surabaya.
Data 6:
Child A: because Surabaya is a big city after Jakarta and it is recognized as urban city where everything is in here. Everything means good education, good job, beautiful house, good technology, etc.
It was argued by child A that in Surabaya had everything; good education, good job, beautiful house, good technology, etc. it means that to get all of them she must has a view to pass all of these. By learning English was one of steps to pass it because when she mastered it, she could work wherever she wanted.
Language Habit
The use of language in everyday communication will make this as language habit. Language habit can be a result of dominant language because it is the language used that is almost spoken. English was spoken at home as daily language because the parents wanted the children fluent their English. Father A showed that the using of English at home would make his family used to speak it.
Data 7:
Father A: iya. karena dengan memakai bahasa inggris dirumah kami jadi terbiasa untuk berbicara bahasa inggris.(yes, because with using English at home we will use to speak English).
English was spoken in home domain where it was a crucial place to the acquiring the language that became the habit. It was supported by his child who used English as language habit because that was the perfect way in practicing of English.
Data 8:
Child A: Because practice makes perfect and if we think that English is important, we need to use it every day
Child A said that the using of English for everyday communication was important. The used of English was showed as the real practice to make it perfect because it was because her daily language.
The tendency of choosing and using English make English become the language habit. This is because they want to master English by using it as daily communication which makes English as their language habit.
The factors of choosing English language show that English has an important role. The spread of English in many aspects make these three Chinese families choose English over other languages. The intensity of using English language show a precursor for these families to shift into English and it is unavoidable that these families will shift into English when they start to abandon their mother tongue and choose English as their new language.
On the other hand, the precursor of shifting into English was also shown by three Chinese families because of some factors; attitude and values, social, demographic, and economic and political. The factors that give these three Chinese families precursor to shift into English will be explained below.
Attitude and Values
Attitude is one of the factors to occur the language shift. The choice of a language where dominant language is chosen than mother tongue will give a big tendency to them who tended to shift into English. It is show by Family A, B, and C who agreed that English has a high value.
Table 4. Father A, B, and C’s opinion about the value of English language
Father A
Father B
Father C
People will see us as an educated people. Because English is considered as international language and it is important.
It will show our family background. It is also the language in the world that is used by various people.
The spread of English in the world is admitted. So, at least, people must learn English for better future.
See the Value of English and the attitude of each family make English has high status. This is because the important of learning English is no doubt. The tendency of using English is one of ways that will make them look educated which shows their background of family and by seeing the value of English these families showed the positive attitude by teach their children even used it in everyday communication. Children themselves showed the precursor of shifting into English by used in daily.
Demographic
Demographic is also the one of factors that contributes Chinese family who tended to shift into English, especially for the children. Moreover, English is used in big and international companies. So, people must able to speak English as one of requirements in get in that companies.
All families agreed that demographic was one of factors that made them learning English in order to get a better job among other people who come to Surabaya to find a better job too. It was shown by mother A that English was one of ways to compete with other job seekers.
Data 9:
Mother A: intinya mbak, saya ingin anak belajar bahasa inggris agar bisa mendapat pekerjaan yang bagus. Karena banyak orang yang datang ke Surabaya untuk mencari pekerjaan. Jadi ya, dengan bahasa Inggris kami bisa berkompetisi.(the point is, I want my children to learn English in order to get a good job. There are people who come in Surabaya to get a job, so only with English we can compete with them).
From the opinion that was said by mother A, it proved that the competition in urban city was real. This was because there were many people who came from another city to get a good job in Surabaya. So, the only way to compete with them was able to speak in English because in big companies must use English as one of the requirement. If people wanted to be a success people, they must start it from big companies where so many chances could be found.
Chinese people, with all their vision and to see the future must being the best future was about a competition in urban city. People who live in urban city with such kind of opportunities will make Chinese people not give up upon everything.
Economic and Political
Economic and political factors are considered as an obvious factor in language shift.
From the data gotten, economic aspect gave a big contribution for three Chinese families who tended to shift into English. Child C went to international school and English course to fluent her English ability.
Data 10:
Child C: I go international school and having various kinds of friends. I also go to English course to learn English. My parents said that by learning English I will be a successful person and get much money so I can make them proud of me.
It was seen that by studying English since the children was a kid will let them ready to the get a better life by having a good job.
Social
Social gives a big contribution to the shifting of one language to dominant language used. English was used by people in wider community; Church, working area, and environment. All parents and children were used English in church. The communities (addressee) in church were used English too to communicate with others. It happened to family C who tended to shift into English. Besides school and church, environment and working area were the area where family C used English as their daily language. It happened because some of their neighbors were mixed marriage couple.
Data 11:
Child C: I also speak with my friend, Farah. She lives next two blocks from my house. Her family is from Singapore.
The tendency of using English by all families in certain domains and addresses in some situation make them tended to shift from Indonesian into English. The obvious way is showed by the children. The condition where English is used in certain domains and situations see the precursor of language shift where English replaces Indonesian.
The choices of English as communication tool and the intensity that are shown by three Chinese families show the precursor of language shift. This is because they use English almost in their daily language. The factors of language shift also become the precursor by three Chinese families to shift into English.
Language maintenance towards Indonesian Language by Chinese Family in Surabaya
Chinese families were living in Surabaya where Indonesian is the majority language used by people in Surabaya. However English comes to Surabaya and influence all aspects in it, still, the majority language that was spoken in Surabaya was Indonesian. It was shown by family A who cared about Indonesian language as majority language in Surabaya. It was supported a reason given by Mother A:
Data 12:
Mother A: iya lah mbak. Semua harus bisa bahasa Indonesia, soalnya kita kan tinggal di Surabaya. terus kalo mau kemana-mana ya dominan nya pakek bahasa Indonesia. (Yes, of course. All my family must able to speak in Indonesian because we are living in Surabaya. If we want to go somewhere, the dominant language that is spoken is Indonesian).
The positive attitude towards Indonesian was showed by the family. It was shown that Indonesian is important to be learnt and spoken. Chinese family, especially parents inherits Indonesian to their children. This is because they are living in Surabaya. The positive attitude toward Indonesian that is spoken at home makes its language long- maintained.
Discussion
In Discussion section, it collects all the data findings in result section and to be related with the theories provided. The data has founded is Multilingualism, Factors contribute language choice and the effort in Maintaining the Indonesian Language. Those data that have been related to the theories provided will be discussed below:
Language Used by Chinese Families
The finding shows that both parents and children of Chinese families were able to speak in three languages; Mandarin, Indonesian, and English. Indonesian was their mother tongue because it inherited to their children. Mandarin was their ethnic language that was learnt in order to show their identity, and English was their dominant language used among three Chinese families because the intensity of using English was more than Indonesian and Mandarin. In this case, they are considered as multilingualism because they able to speak more than two languages. Quay in Auer and Lie (2007: 45) said that with the greater mobility of people and consequent cross-linguistic and cross cultural relationship, an increasing number of children are growing up with early exposure to two languages in the family. Indeed, more than two languages may be in the linguistic repertoire of the family, rendering a case of family multilingualism.
Factors of Choosing English Language
There were some factors that contributed three Chinese families chose English language in their daily communication. They were modern era, communication, education, future carrier, and language habit. High technology was useful for three children to communicate with their foreign friends. English was usually used in high technology. It meant that social media was one of the result of high technology that used English as main language in the display. So, with the ability of speaking English by the children is helping them in using the technology to communicate with their foreign friends through social media. In communication factor, these families chose English to communicate to because the addressees had the same potential of speaking English and because of some reasons made these families chose English; working area and neighborhood. The intensity of using English language could precursor them tend to shift into English. This was because English had become their dominant language used.
In addition, the families chose English to communicate to because the addressees had the same potential of speaking English and because of some reasons made these families chose English; working area and neighborhood. Schooled in international language was the reason by three Chinese children to choice English in education area. This was because it was the dominant language used in international school. English is used to communicate with teacher and students in the classroom and used with friends outside the class. In future life factors, it was said by the three Chinese families in Surabaya that they were trying many ways to prepare their children to have a good quality of life in future. By studying English since the children was a kid, put them in international school and English course will let them ready to the get a better life by having a good job in the future.
It was shown by the three Chinese families that the tendency of choosing and using English in certain domains and addresses in some situation make English became the language habit. This was because they wanted to master English by using it as daily communication which made English as their language habit. Setiawan (2013) suggests the certain reasons for language choice in bilingual or multilingual society from the city parent’s view: Emblematic value, strategic reason (politeness), pragmatic reason. And the factors of language choice by Chinese families is related with the pragmatic reason that is connected to practical purposes; modern era, communication, education, future carrier, and language habit
The intensity of using English is the precursor that is shown these families to shift into English which was also shown by three Chinese families in some factors; attitude and values, social, demographic, and economic and political. The factors that give these three Chinese families precursor to shift into English will be explained below.
Attitude and Values
Saw the important value of English made Chinese families showed the positive attitude towards English language. This was because English was considered as international language which has high value in the world. The attitude of parents by put their children to the international school showed that the important of English was obvious. It is supported by Holmes (2001:61) that when second language has status of an international language, it can contribute to positive attitude towards the language and it is chosen by the speakers over first language. This positive attitude toward the value of English made these families tended to shift into English.
Demographic
Consider that Surabaya is urban city, English is used in big and international companies. So, people must able to speak English as one of requirements in get in that companies. It was shown by three Chinese families who learn English to compete with other people in order to get a good job. With many populations and the competition in big city are reasons for these families to learn English. Holmes (2001:59) said that resistance to language shift tend to last longer in rural than urban areas. This is partly the fact that rural groups tend to be isolated from the centers of political power for longer.
Economic
It was found that three Chinese families in Surabaya were trying many ways to prepare their children to have a good quality of life in future.by studying English since the children was a kid will let them ready to the get a better life by having a good job. It is supported by Holmes (2001:58) that economic is the factor that leads community to shift from using one language to another language by seeing an important reason for learning the second language to get a good jobs.
Social
The tendency of using English was showed by all families in certain domains and addresses in some situation make them shift the Indonesian into English. It is supported by Myers-Scotton (2006) that in case after case, when a younger generation is exposed to a more dominant language in the nation than the L1 (through schooling and school peers) and it is hard to stop a shift to that second language by the next generation.
The effort in Maintaining the Indonesian Language
The important figure to maintain Indonesian is parents. And all three Chinese family has already shown the effort to maintain Indonesian by inherit it to their children. And the most obvious effort was that the use of Indonesian in home domain, even only a little. This is one of the ways to maintain Indonesian. Children used it to appreciate the Indonesian speakers and the appropriate ways of language contact with Indonesian speakers. The positive attitude toward Indonesian makes its language long- maintained. It is supported by Chaer and Agustina explain that language maintenance is the matter with the attitude to be consistent in using a language among other languages (1995: 193).
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
In this chapter, there are two sections that are displayed. Those are conclusion and suggestion. The conclusion is drawn based on the results and discussions that relate to the statement of the problem in this research in the chapter 4 which also presented. In addition, the suggestion is the section to give any information or advice that will lead the further researcher related to the area of language shift and maintenance in specific and sociolinguistic in general.
Conclusion
Three Chinese families are known as multilingual families because they are able to speak in three languages; Mandarin, Indonesian, and English language. Mandarin is known as their ethnic language because it has a function to show their identity. Indonesian is known as their mother tongue because it inherits through generations. English, on the other hand is known as their dominant language because the intensity of using English was more than Mandarin and Indonesian. Regards to the multilingual family, they use the three languages in different domains and addressees.
There are some factors that support these families choose English as language in communication. They are modern era, communication, education, future carrier, and language habit. In addition, the choice of English because of those factors gives a precursor for these three Chinese families, especially for the children. It is also shown that they tend to shift into English. The factors contribute language shift appear in three Chinese families that show the precursor to shift into English. The factors are attitude and values, social, demographic, and economic and political. The choice of English becomes the precursor of these families to shift into English. The shifting may be happen if the children show the negative attitude towards Indonesian which can be said that they abandon their mother tongue and replace it with the new language.
The positive attitude that is showed by three Chinese families is the way to maintain Indonesian. Besides, Indonesian language is known as mother tongue of each family, it is considered as the majority language used by Surabaya people. So, these make three Chinese families maintain Indonesian language.
Suggestion
Through this study, it can be seen language shift can occur to anybody and any situation even the process to become shifting. Language shift and maintenance are the obvious situation that can happen to all people in a city, country, even village. It is just the way and effort of every people to shift or maintain their language from the changing of culture, language, or even economic. The researcher hopes that the study of Language shift and maintenance by non-migrant community; Chinese families in Surabaya who show the precursor of language shift would help the next researchers to find more phenomena about language shift and maintenance that is done by other ethnics who come from non-migrant community in Surabaya. The next researcher may use the theory from Joshua A. Fishman about language shift.
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