Indonesian Language Maintenance: A Case Study of Indonesian Families in the United States

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Indonesian Language Maintenance A Case Study of
Indonesian Families in the United States

• By Nurenzia Yannuar

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Topic Area

• Sociolinguistics
• Language Maintenance
• Language Heritage

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Background/Justification

• Family plays important role in maintaining
  heritage language therefore, parents are
  encouraged to interact and communicate with their
  children in their heritage language. This study
  will investigate how Indonesian is being used by
  Indonesian families who reside in the United
  States.
• Beside looking at parents role in maintaining
  Indonesian as the heritage language, the study
  will attempt to determine the attitude of
  children towards Indonesian.
• It might be very difficult for children to
  maintain their heritage language in the United
  States when they are being exposed to English at
  school and in social communities. However, there
  are several factors that may support heritage
  language maintenance.

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References

• (1) Garcia, M. (2003) Recent research on language
  maintenance. Annual Review of Applied
  Linguistics, 23, p.22-43
• (2) Luo, S.H Wiseman, R.L. (2000). Ethnic
  language maintenance among Chinese immigrant
  children in the United States. International
  Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24, p.307-324
• (3) Canagarajah, A.S. (2008). Language and the
  family Questions from the Sri Lankan Tamil
  diaspora. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(2), p
  143-176
• (4) Joo, H. (2009). Literary practices and
  heritage language maintenance The case of
  Korean-American immigrant adolescents. Journal of
  Asian Pacific Communication 19(01).p 76-99

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Research Questions

• What is the role of parents in maintaining
  Indonesian as their heritage language?
• What is the attitude of children towards
  Indonesian as their heritage language?
• What are the strategies in maintaining a heritage
  language?

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METHODOLOGY

• Participants
• Two Indonesian Families
• Each family has five children

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Methodology

• Procedure
• Distribute background information questionnaire.
  It will document the background information of
  the participants.
• Focus group interview. The first focus group will
  involve children from both families, while the
  other session will combine parents and children.
  The sessions will be recorded.
• Observation. Researcher will join the families in
  order to be able to observe the natural use of
  language in their interactions.

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Analysis

• Qualitative Analysis
• Descriptive Analysis
• Transcribed data from the taped interview
  sessions
• Research Logs

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Expected Findings

• Parents play important role in maintaining
  Indonesian as the heritage language
• Children are reluctant to learn Indonesian,
  because they are exposed to the societally
  dominant language, English.
• Parents speak Indonesian, and children respond in
  English
• Parents use English when communicating to the
  children in order to make sure that they are
  understandable
• There are certain contexts in which one language
  is used

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Anticipated Problems/Limitation of Study

• Limited numbers of Indonesian families in Athens,
  Ohio
• Hard to generalize Language Maintenance performed
  by Indonesian families in the United States
• The families might perform differently because of
  the presence of a researcher
• Conducting Qualitative Research
• Anecdotalism