A Sociolinguistic Perspective of Betawi Adolescents' Attitude Towards Mother Language

Abstract

The research aims to describe 1) the language attitudes of Betawi adolescents towards their mother tongue, 2) their attitude towards the influence of the Bahasa language shift to their mother tongue. 3) their attitudes towards the influence of foreign languages ​​shift to their mother tongue. This is a descriptive, quantitative, and qualitative research, with respondents randomly selected from five Jakarta areas, namely Central, North, West, East, and South. In addition, data were also taken from buffer cities such as Bekasi, Tanggerang, and Depok. Data were described and interpreted using Lambert's theory, which stated that attitudes consist of three aspects, namely cognitive (knowledge), affective (assessment), and conative (behavior). Furthermore, the World Health Organizationstated that the description and interpretation of adolescents’ conception comprises of three criteria: biological, psychological, and socio-economic. The results showed that 1) The language attitude of Betawi adolescents towards their mother tongue was negative, 2) Their attitude towards Bahasa positively shifted their mother tongue. 3) Their attitude towards foreign language negatively shifted their mother tongue.