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Library's collection Library's IT development CancelIndonesia is a multilingual speech community with
two main groups of languages, Bahasa Indonesia and the
ethnic languages. While the main trend of language
behavior is a shift towards Bahasa Indonesia, there are
still many ethnic groups who maintain the use of their
ethnic languages. The same situation can also be observed
in Petra Christian University which, in respect to
multi-ethnicity and multi-culture, can be regarded as
Indonesia in a much smaller scale. Of the ethnic groups
who still maintain their ethnic languages are the
Ambonese and East Timorese students.
In this study the writer examines the process of
ethnic language maintenance in individual level and in
daily basis. The respondents, 30 Ambonese and East
Timorese students report their language behavior by
answering self-reported questions in questionnaires. The
questions are focused to answer three main questions in
this study: (1) What social factors influence the
respondents' maintenance of their ethnic languages in
daily interaction, (2) What are their reasons for the use
of the ethnic language, (3) Is there any relationships
between the respondents' duration of residence in Java
and their ethnic language proficiency and frequency of
ethnic language use.
From the data gathered, the writer finds out that
the Ambonese and East Timorese respondents have more or
less the same patterns of ethnic language use. They use
their ethnic language mostly with people who have the
same or lower status than they do, with people who have
high level of solidarity with them, mostly in informal
settings, to talk about non-serious topics, and for
affective purposes. Although their patterns of language
use are the same, the reasons behind their ethnic
language use are different. For most Ambonese
respondents, their ethnic language has a very practical
function, that is it enables them to express themselves
better. Meanwhile, for most East Timorese respondents,
their ethnic language has more symbolic significance,
that is it functions as a symbol of ethnic identity and
group solidarity. The effects of duration of residence
have on the respondents' ethnic language proficiency and
frequency of ethnic language use are also almost the same
between Ambonese and East Timorese respondents. In
general, the data show no strong relationship between the
respondents' duration of residence and their ethnic