INDONESIAN DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF THREE AND
FIVE YEARS OLD ENGLISH SPEAKING CHILDREN
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By
MEILYN MINARIDA LUMBANBATU Registration Number: 8136111043
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
i
ABSTRACT
Lumbanbatu, Meilyn Minarida. Registration Number: 8136111043. Indonesian Developmental Stages of Three and Five years old English Speaking Child. Thesis: English Applied Linguistic Program, Postgraduate School. State University of Medan.2016
ii
ABSTRAK
Lumbanbatu, Meilyn Minarida. Registration Number: 8136111043. Indonesian Developmental Stages of Three and Five years old English speaking Child. Sebuah Tesis: Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2016
Acknowledgements
Being a bataknese, born in a traditional bataknese family, and with the
word “Meilyn” in the first word of my name, I feel happy to accomplish this
thesis. The first and foremost acknowledgement goes to my Almighty God, Jesus
Christ who gives me health and strength to accomplish this thesis. His kindness
and blessings, inspiring attitude and way of thinking have been of great value for
me. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my family, especially my
beloved mother Dra. H. Lumbansiantar, my dearest brothers, Osio Lumbanbatu,
Robby Lumbanbatu, Mealby Lumbanbatu, Labadia Lumbanbatu, my lovely
sisters in law, Scheila Tobing, Mega Siringo-ringo, Devy Manurung, my great
cousins, Chrisdayanty Lumbansiantar, Chathrine Lumbansiantar, and my aunty
Orry Lumbansiantar for the support to complete this research. I am also grateful to
my beautiful aunty Ika Mitchell with her two daughters, Annabelle Mitchell and
Sarah Nauli Mitchell who help me to give the good idea to accomplish this thesis.
I am so grateful to have them in my life, they encouraged me to focus on
my studies and they take a good care of me from the beginning to today so that I
can concentrate on my studies. I can not find another model family as great as
they are. They never say they miss me but I know they do very much. I must put
this into words and say that I love my family and respect my family so much and I
am so grateful and fortunate to be born as your child and the only girl in the
family. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M. Pd and Prof. Dr. Lince
my stay at the State University of Medan. And I am also grateful to Dr. Rahmad
Husein, M. Pd as the Head of Applied Linguistics Study Program, Dr. Anni Holila
Pulungan, M. Hum as the Secretary of Applied Linguistics Study Program, and
Prof. Dr. Bornok Sinaga, M.Pd as the Director of the Postgraduate School to give
me a chance to fulfill my education at the State University of Medan.
And I am also grateful to my handsome boyfriend, Anggiat Marpaung,
who always be with me, supports me in whatever situation and loves me as I am.
And for the last one that I am so grateful to my close friends, Irene Debora F. O.
Hutabarat and Octa Natasya Manurung, Kartika Simanjuntak, Titin Karina
Hutapea and Gemma Trihanda Nainggolan (RONDA), I love you guys. This
thesis as a proved to you guys that all of your supports make me believe that there
is no limitation to get deepest study in any kind of situation. Keep believing, keep
iii
2.1.3 Types of Bilingual Acquisition in Childhood .... 12
2.1.4 Stages of Language Development ... 14
2.1.4.1 The Developmental Stage of Bilingual Acquisition ... 14
iv
Chapter III Research Methodology ... 25
3.1 Research Design ... 25
3.2 Subject of the Study ... 25
3.3 Data and Source of Data ... 26
3.4 Techniques of Data Collection ... 26
3.5 Techniques of Data Analysis ... 27
3.6 Trustworthiness of the Study ... 30
Chapter IV Data Analysis And Research Finding ... 33
4.1. Data Analysis ... 33
4.1.1. The Developmental Stage of Bilingual First Language Acquisition of Sarah and Annabelle . 33 4.1.1.1 The Monolingual Like Stage ... 33
4.1.1.2 The Code Mixing Stage ... 41
4.1.1.3 The Bilingual Communicative Stage .... 43
4.1.2. The Reasons of Sarah and Annabelle using Indonesian Language ... 46
4.1.2.1 Personality Factor ... 46
4.1.2.2 Exposure Environment ... 49
4.2. Findings ... 53
4.3. Discussions ... 54
Chapter V Conclusion and Suggestion ... 56
5.1. Conclusion ... 56
5.2. Suggestion ... 56
v
LIST OF TABLES
Pages Table 4.1 The Similarities between Sarah and Annabelle in
Developmental Stage of Bilingual First Language
Acquisition ... 47
Table 4.2 The Differences between Sarah and Annabelle in
Developmental Stage of Bilingual First Language
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages APPENDIX 1 The Monolingual Like Stage ... 61
APPENDIX 2 Table Code-Mixing Stage of Three and Five Year Old
English-Speaking Child ... 65
APPENDIX 3 The Bilingual Communicative Stage Of Three And Five
Year Old English Speaking Child In Conversation 1-12 78
APPENDIX 4 The Similarities between Sarah and Annabelle in the
Developmental Stage of Bilingual First Language
Acquisition ... 84
APPENDIX 5 The Differences between Sarah and Annabelle in the
Developmental Stage of Bilingual First Language
Acquisition ... 94
APPENDIX 6 Interview I ... 110
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of The Study
Bilingualism is a multi-faceted phenomenon, opening to a variety of
descriptions, interpretations and definitions. Bilingualism is the ability to use two
languages. Bilingualism is a topic which has been studied from many
perspectives. Broadly defined, bilingualism refers to knowledge and command of
two or more languages, albeit to different degrees. Due to the variety of factors
that define dual language speakers and hearers (some of which do not play a role
in monolingual acquisition) bilingualism comes in many shapes and
sizes(Grosjean, 1998). Two common parameters that distinguish bilingualism are:
(1)Age of acquisition(early in childhood versus late after puberty) and (2)Order or
sequence of acquisition in childhood (two languages being acquired
simultaneously versus one language being acquired successively, after the other).
Early bilingualism takes place before puberty and can be simultaneous or
sequential. Simultaneous bilingualism occurs in early childhood, before the
linguistic foundations of the languages are in place. It is also referred to as
bilingual L1 acquisition (Genesee, 2000) because the two languages develop
together as first languages (two L1s). Sequential bilingualism, on the other hand,
happens after the individual has acquired basic command of the first language,
2
In this situation, there is a first language(L1) and a second language(L2)
sequentially ordered.
Simultaneous bilingual children are exposed to two languages since birth or
before the age of 3, the latter being the approximate age when basic syntactic
knowledge is assumed to be in place. In other words, simultaneous early or infant
bilingual when the child develops two mother tongues from the onset of language,
which called LA and LB. LA and LB are the two languages acquired
simultaneously by the bilingual children, as for example; the child who comes
from a mixed-lingual family that each parent speaks almost exclusively his/her
native language to the child.
Recent research has found that bilingual children (around two years old) know
which language to speak “to whom” and in “what situation” (Quay, 1999; De
Houwer, 1995). Very young children easily switch languages and differentiate
their two languages, but there is much individual variation.
Two other parameters along which bilinguals vary greatly are proficiency and
relative balance in the two languages. Proficiency and balance are related to the
degree of ultimate attainment in the two languages. Although balanced
proficiency (with native-like command of two languages) is a possible outcome of
bilingualism, it is indeed rarely (Grosjean, 1998). The reality is that most
bilinguals are linguistically unbalanced, both functionally (in their language use)
and representationally (in their linguistic knowledge). Bilingual speakers typically
possess a stronger and a weaker language. The stronger language is more
3
languages fluctuates along the life span depending on a variety of factors, such as
age and order of acquisition, as well as what language is most often used and
preferred in the community (i.e., the sociolinguistic status of the languages as
majority or minority languages), and the contexts for use of each language (home,
church, school, work, etc.). The developmental stage of language acquired by the
bilingual children is the difference between the uses of two languages of
bilinguals in terms of the domain, skills used, aspects of language acquired. This
is based on the theory of Hoffmann (1991) saying that: (1) The use of the
languages may be unbalance, one is use more than one the other and (2) Dominant
bilingual is a bilingual whose competence in one of the two languages, usually his
or her mother tongue, is higher than his or her competence in all of the four
language skills in his or her dominant language.
The example for this phenomenon can be seen by the following. Annabelle
and Sarah are bilingual children. They become bilinguals because their parents
speak in two languages to them which is their father speaks in English and their
mother speaks in Indonesian from birth. They are bilinguals because there is also
an exposure from their mother that the mother speaks in Indonesian since they are
in pregnant and till now. And also one of them, Annabelle has ever lived in
Indonesia for two years but after she grows up she moves to Australia, Annabelle
cannot speak in Indonesian fluently as like as her sister Sarah and indeed Sarah
has never lived in Indonesia before.
Annabelle should master speaking in Indonesian because she has ever lived in
4
also from the community which support her when she lived in Indonesia. It is
quite different from her sister, Sarah who is a three years old child. In fact, she
never lives in Indonesia but she gets an exposure with Indonesian language from
her mother for 24hours. Therefore, she speaks more fluently in Indonesian than
English in responsing to mother’s utterances than Annabelle. Because of this
phenomenon, the researcher is interested to investigate what makes the difference
of the developmental stages of language acquired by the children. The researcher
is also interested to investigate whether there is influence of the community where
they live to acquire the languages which in turn makes Sarah speaks Indonesian
language better than Annabelle. The process of acquiring a language is regarded
as a very complex and interesting to be studied.
1.2Problems of the Study
In relation to the background of language acquisition acquired by Annabelle
and Sarah above, the problems of the study are formulated by the following:
1. In what developmental stage is the acquisition of Indonesian by the three
and five years old English-Speaking child?
2. Why do the three and five year old English- Speaking child used
Indonesian the way they do?
1.3Objectives of the Study
5
1. To find out the developmental stages of Indonesian from the three and five
years old English-Speaking child.
2. To find out the reasons of the three and five year old English-Speaking
children used the way that they did.
1.4Scope of the Study
The process of a child being a bilingual is a broad area to be studied because
there are so many aspects to be covered. In this research, the researcher limits her
observations only on the developmental stages of language acquired by the
bilingual children. The children who will be observed are the five years old child
and three years old child that have an exposure from the mother and environment.
1.5Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the research findings can provide a basis for a futher research
on different stages of the children’s bilinguality in language acquisition.
Practically, on the other hand, this research can be made as guidelines for adults,
teachers, especially parents who do the intermarriage and who are interested in the
bilingualism and second language acquisition to young children to rely on the
theory of bilingual first language acquisition. In addition, this research will be an
answerto some of the problems that occur in the process of bilingual acquisition,
especially the three and fiveyear old English-Speaking child in bilingual first
6
useful in helping them to conduct more in depth studies in bilingual first language
acquisition.
Findings of this research are expected to the relevant and valuable inputs that
can enrich the study on bilingual first language acquisition. It is expected that the
findings can show significant relevancy to the theoretical and practical aspects.It
will be also very useful for a reference in assisting or facilitating the child in the
56 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusions
Based on data analysis, the conclusions were drawn as follows:
1. The two children acquire the developmental stages differently. The
developmental stages of five years old English speaking child, Annabelle,
has acquired all the three stages, they are: the monolingual like stage, the
code-mixing stage, and the bilingual communicative stage while Sarah,
who is a three years old English speaking child, has acquired two of the
three stages, they are: the monolingual like stage and the code-mixing
stage.
2. The reasons underlying the difference between the two subjects of the
study are the types of personality, Sarah is extravert while Annabelle is
introvert, and the second reason is the exposure environment of the
subjects. Annabelle got less exposure although she was born and raised in
Indonesia, Bali while Sarah got more exposure although she was born and
raised in Australia.
5.2 Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, suggestions are offered as the following:
1. It is suggested to further research, to analyze the children who come from
57
environment factor and personality factor to enrich the researches and the
reader’s knowledge in Bilingual First Language Acquisition.
2. It is suggested to parents, to apply the different language equallyto the
58
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