Getsempena English Education Journal Volume 9.
Number 2, 2022 pp.
P-ISSN: 2355-004X E-ISSN : 2502-6801
Open Access: https://ejournal.
id/geej THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN LEARNING HERITAGE LANGUAGE: A CASE
STUDY OF ACEHNESE FAMILY
Idaryani Idaryani*1.
Fidyati2 1,2Universitas Malikussaleh * Corresponding Author: idaryani@unimal.
ABSTRACT
The old pattern of learning the heritage language has been Article history:
Received August 10, 2022 disturbed because nowadays, some parents do no longer Revised September 11, 2022 speak their heritage to their children as a mother tongue Accepted October 12, 2022 that consequently may result in a language shift among Available online November 30, 2022 Acehnese children.
The study aims to find out the role of Keywords:
parents in speaking Acehnese as a mother tongue to their Heritage Language.
ParentsAo role, children and how speaking Acehnese as a mother tongue Mother Tongue.
Language Shift.
Language Maintenance for the children impacts on language maintenance and language shift among Acehnese children.
This research is a case study that employed qualitative description.
The data was collected based on interviews and observation.
The informants of the study are six Acehnese people who live in Blang Puntuet village, one of the suburbs in Lhokseumawe The informants consist of three female parents and three Acehnese youths aged over 16 years old.
The result of the study shows that from three families, one parent is actively speaking Acehnese to their children, one other parent is actively speaking Indonesian to their children, and the rest one is actively speaking Acehnese only to one of her three Therefore, the study indicates that once the old pattern is disturbed the ability of the children in speaking their heritage language is also disturbed because they are no longer actively speaking Acehnese in home in speech community.
ARTICLE INFO
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.
Copyright A 2021 by Author.
Published by Universitas Bina Bangsa Getsempena
INTRODUCTION
A heritage language is a reflection of identity of its speakers (Amery, 2.
and part of the cultural diversity of the people in Indonesia.
Thus, the heritage language reflects the cultural rules and values contained in the identity of a speaker as part of an entity from the plurality of society in Indonesia.
Acehnese as one of the heritage languages of Indonesian reflect identity of Acehnese people who have different rules and values from other ethnics of Indonesia.
Acehnese language as one of the heritage languages in Indonesia is spoken by majority of Acehnese residing in coastal areas such as Pidie.
Lhokseumawe, and Aceh Utara.
Acehnese language is the majority spoken language along with other heritage languages such as Bahasa Kluet.
Aneuk Jamee.
Devayan and Alas.
Therefore.
Acehnese is only spoken and not written language because in most occasion.
Indonesian as a national language is used for both written and spoken in formal and non-formal domain in P-ISSN: 2355-004X E-ISSN : 2502-6801
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Acehnese speech community and among non-native speakers of Acehnese (Idaryani & Fidyati, 2.
Through the heritage language, the culture is passed down from generation to Thus, if a heritage language becomes extinct, then a culture as part of Indonesia's wealth and diversity also becomes extinct.
Likewise, with the Acehnese language which is one of the heritage languages in the Aceh Province which is located on the island of Sumatra and in the westernmost part of Indonesia where the cultural values, and historical values of the Acehnese people are strongly influenced by the values of Islamic teachings in their daily lives that is reflected in Acehnese language.
Therefore, the Acehnese language and characteristics of its speakers are an inseparable unit that reflects the distinct nature of Acehnese community and its region.
Meanwhile.
Indonesia is a national lingua franca and formal language for medium of instruction in formal sector particularly in education.
Therefore.
Indonesia language as a national language is also crucial for Acehnese community to be able to communicate with Indonesian people with vernacular language because Indonesian language is the symbol unity for Indonesia people with multicultural backgrounds.
A language will remain and sustain as long as its speakers keep using it but a language is extinct if the domain use of the language is shrinking or keep declining and the speakers are reluctance to use it in speech community.
Due the status of Indonesian language as a national language, the Indonesia is considered as a symbol for prosperity by its speakers and has higher prestige than Acehnese community.
Consequently.
Indonesian become the dominant language among Acehnese community both in formal and in non-formal domain (Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022.
It is a growing trend that Acehnese parents are favor to speak Acehnese to their children at an early age due to various reasons such as educational pressure (Teuku Alamsyah, et.
al, 2015.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022.
and the symbol of Indonesian language as prosperous people (Ewing.
Previously.
Acehnese was learnt by children at their homes pre-school period as first language and children later learnt Indonesia as the second language at school, and from the environment outside their home (Muhammad, 2013.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022.
This is in line with the statement from Ewing .
that nowadays.
Indonesian children do not speak their heritage language as their mother tongue but instead acquire Indonesia as their first language which disturb the old pattern of using heritage language in home Consequently, many Acehnese children no longer speak Acehnese fluently as a means of communication in their daily basis or even do not speak Acehnese at all with their parents (Aziz & Aulia, 2021.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022.
Previous study has been focused on the attitude of the parents and young Acehnese in speak Acehnese in family domain (Al-Auwal, 2017.
Aziz et al.
, 2021.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022a, 2022.
, therefore this study aims to fill the gap on the parentsAo role in Acehnese language learning to their children as a mother tongue.
This study tends to find out the influence of parentsAo role in speaking Acehnese at early age.
The study focuses on the following issues:
How does the parentsAo role influence their childrenAos speaking ability in Acehnese How does learning heritage language in early age among Acehnese children
impact on Acehnese language maintenance and language shift? P-ISSN: 2086-1397 E-ISSN : 2502-6860
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Sociolinguistics is a study on the human beings as part of society in using the language (Spolsky, 1.
and is part of an effort to gain knowledge about parents' role in speaking Acehnese to their young children at home as a mother tongue and the role of parents in maintaining the use of to their children that influence the attitude parents in the use of the Acehnese language in the future.
In addition, this research is also a step to obtain information about the problems that cause the young Acehnese to be reluctant to speak Acehnese as a means of communication on their daily basis.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Language shift is the use of one language is more dominant than another language, or speakers of a particular language choose not to use their mother tongue and prefer another language as a means of communication in various conditions and Language shift occurs in a bilingual society or a society that uses two or more languages as a means of communication during the process of social contact.
In other words, language speakers prefer one language as a means of communication and abandon the other.
Language shift can be interpreted as a partial replacement of a language or language abandonment caused by another language that is more dominant (Al-Auwal, 2.
Baker .
defines language shift as the loss in the language proficiency or decreasing use of the particular language in different domains.
There are several factors that cause language shift, namely bilingual factors or the use of more than one language in social contacts of a society, social and economic factors, political factors, attitudes and values adopted by the speaker, and migration factors (Baker, 2.
One of the factors causing the threat of the existence of heritage languages is the existence of a national official language policy by the Indonesian government where the official language of the state is Indonesian.
This policy has a negative impact on the sustainability of heritage languages (Ansori, 2.
and the pressure of the dominant language in a multilingual society.
Language can be managed within a national policy framework using the motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, but this concept ultimately causes the threat of the existence of heritage languages (Arka, 2.
Acehnese people use Indonesian to signify the prestige position of the speaker's social status in the midst of society in the community because of the status of Indonesian as the official language and national language (Al-Auwal, 2017.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2.
Many linguists state that mastery of language from an early age provides several advantages that are not necessarily obtained after a young age, including the achievement of a perfect accent or dialect of the language being studied.
The golden period when a young age makes it easier to master language is called the Aucritical periodAy (MarinovaTodd et al.
, 2.
The Critical Period (CP) is a period where learning a language is very easy to master and can get the best results compared to learning outside the age of CP.
The age considered during the CP period is under 9 years of age.
Pulvermyller & Schumann .
explain that the level of brain flexibility is much reduced at puberty and will not return to its original state as before puberty and this condition will be permanent.
Therefore, mastery of language with perfect dialects or accents is not possible at the age after puberty, especially when learned in adulthood (Krasen, 1982, as cited in Singleton.
This statement is in line with Lenneberg .
7, as cited in Marinova-Todd et al.
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that puberty causes biological changes in a child related to the ability to process language on the left side of the brain.
Therefore, the period before the onset of puberty, neurologic development of the brain occurs very quickly.
Lamendella later .
7, as cited in Marinova-Todd et al.
, 2.
introduced the term sensitive period in which language acquisition will be perfect if it is done only in childhood.
Several studies have proven that the introduction of a second language from a young age can perfect the dialect pronunciation of the language being studied (LarsenFreeman & Long, 2.
so that the introduction of Indonesian at an early age can threaten the sustainability of heritage language as a mother tongue.
This can be found from the research conducted by Rahman et al.
on the influence of age in language learning which shows that the language taught from a young age will produce the perfect accent or dialect of the language.
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RESEARCH METHOD
This study is a case study that employed a qualitative descriptive method.
The data was gathered based on the result of the unstructured interviews and observation to the informants as the two main instruments in collecting the data.
The interviews were implemented with three Acehnese female parents from Desa Blang Punteut, one of the suburbs in Lhokseumawe city.
Aceh Province.
Indonesia.
However, this study only focuses on female parents.
The interviews were conducted with the informants without the time and day agreed prior to the interview.
This is because the availability of the time of the informants are unpredictable, however, before the interview, they were acknowledged that this data was collected for study Therefore, the interviews were done either in the morning or the evenings or during the weekends.
The informants were selected based on Chambers and TrudgillAos .
criteria, which is NORMF that stands for non-mobile, older, rural, male, and female.
The non-mobile is a permanent community that has not migrated from the research area meanwhile the rural means who have lived in the village.
The female informants were selected to find out the language pattern used by the parents to their children at an early age or as a mother tongue.
Questions pertaining to the pattern of heritage language used as a mother tongue by the parents including the question of AuWhat language do you speak at home before your children going to school?Ay The interviews were recorded using voice recorder from smartphone.
The informants were 38 years old and above, therefore, all their children are already in All parents are native speakers of Acehnese.
The informants aged 38, 45, and 47 years old.
The first female parent aged 43 years old has three female children aged 21, 17, and 7 years old.
The second informants age 47 years old and has 6 children aged 23, 20, 17, 15, 10, and 8 years old with 2 females and 4 males.
The third informant age 38 years old and has 2 two daughters aged 19 dan 17 years old.
The observation had been conducted by interacting with the informants for long time because the first author is also the neighbor and friend of the informants.
Questions that were posed during the interview and communication with the informants were questions related to the time of the informants speak Acehnese to their children, the current language used by their children in their home and outside of the homes, and the frequent usage of the Acehnese language between the parents and their children.
The parents were also asked how, particularly they used the Acehnese language in their home and outside of their homes with their children.
Furthermore, the data were transcribed, decoded, and classified based on Miles et , .
The informants were coded as follows:
Inf1.
6: informant first.
6 children Inf2.
3: informant second.
3 children Inf3.
: informant third.
2 children
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Broken Old Patterns and Language Shift among Children The result of the study shows that overall, the patterns of learning Acehnese by informantsAo children of Inf2.
3 and Inf3.
2 are as follows:
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Figure 1: The Learning patterns of mother tongue used by Inf2.
Figure 2: The Learning patterns of mother tongue used by Inf3.
According to chart 1, the Inf2.
3 uses Indonesian as a mother tongue to her first and third daughters massively before school age.
Therefore, her first and third children are actively speaking Indonesian instead of Acehnese.
The Inf2.
3 mixed both Indonesian and Acehnese languages on daily communication with her first and second daughters however, she keeps speaking Indonesia intensively with her
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youngest daughter.
She admitted that she mixes the language because she had limited ability in speaking Indonesian.
However, she kept trying her best speaking Indonesian when it comes to her youngest daughter.
Therefore, her first daughter today is actively speaking Indonesian and admit reluctant speaking Acehnese.
Her first daughter admitted that she feels more comfortable speaking Indonesian than Acehnese.
The Inf2.
3 also said that her first daughter often responds Indonesia if she speaks Acehnese to her.
This also happens to her third daughter that speaks Indonesian as her first language.
Therefore, her first and third daughter have little opportunity to be exposed and to communicate with their mother tongue.
Consequently, they are more courageous to speak Indonesian and demotivated speaking Acehnese.
The inf2.
3 acknowledges that she discourages her youngest daughter to speak Acehnese because she considers that Acehnese is less important than Indonesian as an educational language.
Therefore, she is not worried if her youngest daughter is unable to speak Acehnese.
Furthermore, the study shows that her first and the youngest daughters of 3 have excellent accent in speaking Indonesia.
However, her first daughter has medium accent in Acehnese although her first daughter is not actively speaking Acehnese.
However, the inf2.
3 admitted that her third daughter is not able to speak Acehnese and are found dumbfounded when her teachers speaking Acehnese to her children in school.
This study shows that the third daughter of the inf.
3 has lost her ability to speak her heritage language because her mother speaks Indonesian intensively with her as a mother tongue.
The worse is that the inf.
3 are not worried if her daughter is unable to speak Acehnese and cannot communicate with friend in Acehnese.
She further illustrated that almost all family members speak Indonesian to her youngest daughter including her husband and her siblings.
Therefore, only the youngest daughter of the Inf.
3 that has no access to be exposed to Acehnese language in home and outside her home that finally is resulted in reluctance of her youngest daughter and demotivated to speak Acehnese.
However, the different scenario happened to second daughter of the Inf2.
Her second daughter actively speaks Acehnese with her because the Inf2.
3 speaks Acehnese to her second daughter as a mother tongue.
Therefore, her second daughter uses Acehnese as a means of communication every day with her.
Her second daughter also has good accent of Acehnese and speak Acehnese dominantly.
However, the Inf.
3 seems not confident with her second daughter in speaking Indonesia because her daughter speaks Indonesian intertwined with Acehnese.
The study also finds the similar phenomena to the children of Inf.
2 that her daughters are not able to speak Acehnese fluently or understand Acehnese well because the inf.
2 uses Indonesian as their mother tongue.
So far, both of her daughters speak mainly Indonesian as means of communication in their home and also do not have access to speak Acehnese outside of their home including the sibling of the Inf.
2 because her siblings also speak Indonesian actively with their children as the first language and to her two daughters.
However, the Inf.
2 also confesses she is not worried that her daughters are not able to speak Acehnese appropriately because she considers that Indonesian is ultimately important for education of her
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This is in line with the studies conducted previously (Alamsyah, 2018.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022.
The result of the study reveals that when the Acehnese is not spoken as their children first language, the children will not enliven with their parentsAo heritage language.
This is in line with the statement of Marinova-Todd et al.
, .
that young age is the critical period for the children to acquire the language easily, and the research conducted by Rahman et al.
on the influence of the language taught from a young age can attain the perfect accent or dialect of the language.
Thus, the early introduction of Indonesian by parents to their children will eliminate the distinct dialect of the Acehnese language and lead to the children to lose their ability to speak their parentsAo heritage Consequently, the children shift their heritage language to Indonesian in their homes and actively speak Indonesian as a means of communication on their daily basis.
Unfortunately, those phenomena have increased among Acehnese parents that they are more favor on speaking Indonesian to their children (Muhammad, 2013.
Idaryani & Fidyati, 2.
, and disturbed the old pattern of learning heritage language as the mother tongue in home.
When the children lost their parentsAo role in learning Acehnese as a mother tongue at home, it leads to language shift among Acehnese children as Ewing .
previously warned and the parents in speaking Indonesian as a mother tongue to their children is going trend (Amery, 2.
that contributes negative consequence for Acehnese language maintenance because it influences the usage of Acehnese in the future and the domain use of Acehnese language may keep shrinking particularly in non-formal domain due to the reluctant of young Acehnese speaking their heritage language where Indonesian should not be used in speech community.
This is in line with some previous study conducted .
ee: Muhammad, 2013.
Al-Auwal, 2017.
Aziz et al.
, 2021.
) that the ability of children speaking Acehnese is decreasing.
Ansori, .
once warned that the heritage language can be extinct if its speakers are reluctant and demotivated to speak it.
Ansori .
has underlined that the role of parents who are no longer actively speak their heritage language to their children lead to the heritage language extinction.
Old Patterns and Language Maintenance among Children The result of study indicates that all the five children from the Inf1.
6 are fluent in speaking Acehnese because the inf1.
6 speaks Acehnese as a mother tongue before her children started school and it becomes a means of communication on daily basis, except her youngest child who actively speaks Indonesian because her husband started speaking Indonesian as his mother tongue.
However, the Inf1.
6 still mix in speaking to her youngest son and he is also able to speak and understand Acehnese very well although he keeps speaking Indonesian dominantly when he communicates with his siblings and his Meanwhile, the rest of his siblings actively speak Acehnese with him.
Therefore, he still has adequate input from his sibling and his mother to speak Acehnese.
The language learning patterns for mother tongue used by Inf.
6 can be illustrated as in the following figure:
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Figure 3.
Language learning patterns for mother tongue used by Inf.
The third diagram illustrates the pattern of Inf.
6 speaking Acehnese as a mother tongue to their children.
Five of her children are actively speaking Acehnese in home and outside their homes, only one her youngest child is Indonesian speaking actively because of her husband was speaking Indonesian as a mother tongue.
When the parents actively speak their heritage language before school age, it enlivens the children to their heritage The result of study shows that Inf1.
6 role in speaking Acehnese as a mother tongue to her children indicates how significant is the role of parents in speaking their heritage language as a mother tongue since an early age or before school age.
The children become the potential Acehnese speakers in home as one of the non- formal domains and have perfect dialect of Acehnese that reflects its own unique dialect as an identifier of the identity of Acehnese.
By being introduced to Acehnese as a mother tongue, the children will feel that they own the language and inherent as part of their identity.
This is in line with research conducted by Rahman et al.
on the influence of the language taught from a young age can attain the perfect accent or dialect of the language.
So, by choosing the Acehnese as a mother tongue to their children, the parents have maintained their heritage language among Acehnese young generation in the future as Canagarajah .
once stated that families have a big role in maintaining and introducing heritage languages as mother tongues to their children as part of the wealth of cultural heritage when compared to the role of educational institutions.
New Patterns on Learning Heritage Language According to the pattern suggested by Ewing .
, the old pattern of learning mother tongue is that parents speak their heritage language to their children at home before school age.
Later on, the children learn Indonesian language as their second
language at school and outside of their home when school time, or the parents start
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speaking Indonesian to their children when they children start going to school.
However, the result of the study confirms that the Acehnese parents has broken old pattern of learning mother tongue.
In contrary, two respondents have used the new patterns on learning mother tongues.
They speak Indonesian as a mother tongue to their children and later on their children learn Acehnese as a second language outside of their home therefore the parents have neglected their heritage language since the first day they decide to speak Indonesian as a mother tongue to their children.
Although the environment may improve the ability of the children of speaking Acehnese as the second language but it does not have as effective and crucial impact as the role of the parents particularly female parents as an agent in acquiring the heritage language by Acehnese Anderbeck .
once said majority of Indonesian parents rely on the environment outside of the house for their children to acquire their heritage language.
However, it does not have as massive impact as the parentsAo role have to their children because the environment has changed with the massive development of digital technology and rapid grows of social media that can be accessed easily by the children and the children can have massive input in Indonesian easily from an early age inside and outside of their homes but the Acehnese language source is limited and difficult to access (Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022.
Therefore, the role and awareness of parents play an important role to give the access of the Acehnese language to their children as a means of communication at an early age in for Acehnese language maintenance and to maintain sustainability and the original dialect of the Acehnese language.
The family is a fundamental place in the inheritance of the Acehnese language and the robust domain from generation to generation to learn their heritage language because nowadays parents are the only and crucial resource for heritage language to their children among massive use of Indonesian both spoken and written from media in and outside the house, and from teachers in their school.
The strong efforts are needed to be implemented by Acehnese government to restore the confidence of the Acehnese parents to keep speaking their heritage language as a mother tongue to their children particularly in the current era of globalization where it is very easy to be influenced by outside cultures which causes the generation of native speakers of Acehnese to feel inferior to speak their heritage language, and that finally they lose their sense of appreciation and pride as Acehnese from their own cultural heritage (Septiyana & Margiansyah, 2.
CONCLUSION
The role of parents in preserving the heritage language as a mother tongue to their children is very important.
This is because the role of parents to speak Acehnese at early age to their children will enliven their children and the dialect of Acehnese is attainted perfectly if a language is taught at early age which reflects the identity of Acehnese as part of multicultural community of Indonesia.
It is suggested that certain policies have to be carried out and adopted by the government and other stakeholders as the effort to maintain the Acehnese language for the future Acehnese generation, and the certain language policy should be performed by the government to restore the confidence of Acehnese parents in speaking Acehnese as a P-ISSN: 2086-1397 E-ISSN : 2502-6860
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mother tongue to their children among the education pressure on using Indonesian The role of school particularly teachers should be highlighted on mixing between heritage language and Indonesian to their students during the school hour.
Therefore, it is suggested that this study can raise the awareness of the Acehnese stake holder to make a policy or certain program to mix Acehnese and Indonesian as medium of instruction among the teachers and encourage the school environment to keep speaking both Acehnese and Indonesian with their students.
Therefore, further study should be implemented to find out on how is important immersion approach conducted in school during the teaching hour to get used to the students to speak their heritage language in school domain and other formal contexts as an effort to promote the heritage language to its speakers who have neglected their heritage language.
REFERENCES