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| The portrait of Dr. Arif Budi Wurianto, M.Si., an Indonesian Language Education Lecturer at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM). (Photo by Fathur PR of UMM) |
Nowadays, many local languages have been abandoned. Urbanization and globalization make Indonesian the country’s primary language, widely spoken by families. Additionally, some educational institutions have used English and Arabic as instruction languages.
This social phenomenon garnered an Indonesian Language Education Lecturer’s attention at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), Dr. Arif Budi Wurianto, M.Si. As he said, a language basically has a dynamic nature: changing and developing with the times. In Indonesia today, local languages are not widely taught by parents. Instead, most prefer to speak Bahasa Indonesia as their daily language for interaction.
“Current young people know the local language from their social environment. For example, Borneo children who migrate to Java. When they return to Kalimantan, they end up understanding Javanese from the social spheres they experience in Java,” added the Lecturer.
Arief is unfortunate for this case, given that regional languages have potential. For instance, the Balinese language has a strong identity, so people there continue to speak it daily. However, Indonesia remains preserved and expressed as the nation’s unifying language.
Several steps can be taken to avoid local language extinction. Among them are speaking and preserving it through certain local communities. The (language) preservation consists of the regional and Indonesian languages.
“If we look now, Javanese has been spoken as the second language in the community. For example, it is used as street and shop names and other writings. Some are even followed by Javanese scriptwriting underneath. It is superb so that people will be familiar with the language. Additionally, this will indirectly increase public interest (to know the local language),” said Arief.
Another applicable step (to preserve local language) is to enclose local languages in the learning curriculum and establish a comprehensive political policy to further lead to local language preservation. For example, using local languages in every airport or place has the potential to be visited by many foreign and local tourists.
“The pattern of teaching parents about local languages must also be cultivated since children are young. They are taught the languages first, followed by good and correct Indonesian,” added Arief.
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He continues his explanation that the government can constitutionally issue policies that protect regional languages from extinction because, in essence, they are the Indonesian’s wealth. Also, a political movement, which establishes the overall existence of local languages, is necessary.
“Last but not least, each school in the region also needs to create a policy whose learning curriculum contains local languages. Thus, children indirectly acquire their respective regional languages since childhood. This measure can help improve the existence of regional languages," concluded the Indonesian Education Lecturer. (imh/fat/wil)
