The impact of parental language ideology and family language policy on language shift and language maintenance: Bilingual perspective

Abstract

This study aims to investigate parents� language ideology and family language policy (FLP) among Acehnese families that impact on language shift and language maintenance of Acehnese as a heritage language. The participants of the study were 10 female parents from one of the suburbs in Lhokseumawe City, who have young children from 2 years to 15 years old. The study employed a descriptive qualitative method. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The result of the study shows that the majority of parents� belief that Indonesian is significant for their children's education, has resulted in parents prioritizing Indonesian for their children as the dominant language to speak at home. Furthermore, the family language policy adopted by parents has an impact on language shift among Acehnese children to the Indonesian language. �Parents are reluctant to speak Acehnese to their children as a mother tongue and tend to abandon their heritage language. There are two significant points that are lost due to the consequence of parents� belief and there the family language policy to choose only Indonesian as a mother tongue to their children; first, it has led their children to grow as monolingual people that somehow is a big loss for the Acehnese children in order to gain various benefits culturally, cognitively, and communicatively from being bilinguals; second, Acehnese is under serious threat as Acehnese children ability in speaking their heritage language keep decreasing. Thus, strong efforts need to be done by all parties for Acehnese language preservation as a part of the unique identity of the Acehnese people.

The Role of Parents in Learning Heritage Language: A Case Study of Acehnese Family

“…However, the Inf.3.2 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 daughters. This is in line with the studies conducted previously (Alamsyah, 2018;Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022b).…”

“…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, 2022b) This is in line with the statement from Ewing (2014) 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 domain. 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 Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022b). Previous study has been focused on the attitude of the parents and young Acehnese in speak Acehnese in family domain (Al-Auwal, 2017;Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022a, 2022b, therefore this study aims to fill the gap on the parents' role in Acehnese language learning to their children as a mother tongue.…”

“…Anderbeck (2015) 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 parents' 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, 2022b).…”

“…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 Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022b). Previous study has been focused on the attitude of the parents and young Acehnese in speak Acehnese in family domain (Al-Auwal, 2017;Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022a, 2022b, therefore this study aims to fill the gap on the parents' role in Acehnese language learning to their children as a mother tongue. This study tends to find out the influence of parents' role in speaking Acehnese at early age.…”

“…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, 2022b) and the symbol of Indonesian language as prosperous people (Ewing, 2014). 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, 2022b) This is in line with the statement from Ewing (2014) 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 domain. 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 Idaryani & Fidyati, 2022b).…”