THE ACQUISITION OF INDONESIAN
VERBS AND NOUNS BY TWO – YEAR – OLD
TOBA BATAK CHILDREN
A THESIS
WINNER
8106112022
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study
Program in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the
Degree of Magister Humaniora
APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
THE ACQUISITION OF INDONESIAN
VERBS AND NOUNS BY TWO – YEAR – OLD
TOBA BATAK CHILDREN
A THESIS
WINNER
8106112022
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study
Program in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the
Degree of Magister Humaniora
APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
iv ABSTRACT
Winner. The Acquisition of Indonesian Verbs and Nouns by Two-Year-Old Batak Toba Children. Thesis. English Applied Linguistics, Post Graduate Program. State University of Medan. 2013.
iii
ABSTRAK
Winner. Perolehan Kata Kerja dan Kata Benda Bahasa Indonesia oleh Anak Suku Batak Toba Pada Usia Dua Tahun. Tesis. Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2013.
Tesis ini berhubungan dengan Perolehan Kata Kerja dan Kata Benda Bahasa Indonesia oleh Anak Suku Batak Toba Pada Usia Dua Tahun. Tesis ini fokus dalam mendeskripsikan perolehan Kata Kerja dan Kata Benda Bahasa Indonesia yang diucapkan oleh Anak Suku Batak Toba pada usia dua tahun. Penelitian ini berlokasi di Jl. Kampung Kristen, Labuhan Batu Utara, Kota Pinang dan subjek dalam penelitian ini adalah anak pada usia dua tahun. Dalam mengumpulkan data, penelitian ini menerapkan dokumentasi dengan perekam audio visual sebagai alat dalam mengumpulkan data. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah teknik deskriptif dan data digambarkan melalui proses menyalin. Penelitian kualitatif dilakukan untuk memungkinkan peneliti untuk menjawab
pertanyaan-pertanyaan. Ada dua pertanyaan yang harus dijawab yaitu: (1) berapa jumlah kerja dan kata benda diperoleh oleh anak suku Batak Toba pada
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all the writer would like to express his grateful thanks to God for
His Blessing to the writer in finishing his thesis, because without God’s Miracles
the writer could not finish his thesis well. And the writer realizes that this thesis is
still far from completeness, therefore the writer welcomes all of comments from
the readers for the betterment of this thesis.
Besides that, the writer also realizes that this thesis could not have
accomplished without guidance, suggestion, and comments from several people
that always give the writer supports in finishing his thesis.
Firstly, the writer would like to express his great gratitude to Prof. Dr.
Busmin Gurning, M.Pd, as the Head of English Applied Linguistics Study
Program of State University of Medan and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S, as the
Secretary of English Applied Linguistics Study Program of State University of
Medan and also for Farid as the officer for their administration assistance in
English Applied Linguistics Study Program of State University of Medan.
Secondly, the writer also would like to express his great gratitude to
Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd as the first adviser of the writer and also Dr. Eddy Setia,
M.Ed., TESP as the second adviser of the writer for their guidance,
encouragement, kindness and advises that have greatly improved his rough draft
in doing thesis.
Thirdly, the writer’s indebtedness goes to all lecturers of English Applied
Linguistics Study Program of State University of Medan in transferring their
precious knowledge and experiences.
Fourthly, the writer’s never ending love for his beloved parents;
M.Marpaung and T.Siburian for their prayers every day for the writer in finishing
ii
sisters and their husbands (Eva Afriana Marpaung, S.Si and Fernando
Hasudungan Tampubolon, S.T and Henny Marlyna Marpaung, S.S and Henny
Marlyna Marpaung, S.S and Sahat .ASP, S.P) for their supports and prayers for
the writer).
Fifth, the writer also wants to express his depth love for his beloved
brother and his wife (Welman Marpaung, S.Pd and Ernita Sipahutar, S.S) for their
supports every time for the writer.
Sixth, the writer also expresses his never ending love for his nephews
(Matthew Willy Tampubolon and Martua Raja Sitanggang) and also for his
beloved nieces (Yemima Shaneisha Quenby Tampubolon and Hanna Dominic
Sitanggang).
Seventh, the writer wants to express his never ending love for his lovely
girlfriend (Dian Aulia Ningsih, S.S) for her supports and pray for the writer every
time.
Eighth, the writer would like to express his depth feeling to all his friends
for their supports and suggestions to the writer every time that hardly to mention
them one by one
Finally, the writer wants to express his depth gratitude to his friend (Erik
Sahat Marulitua Simanullang) for his patient in helping the researcher in finishing
his thesis very time.
Medan, 30th April 2013
The Writer,
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……… i
ABSTRACT………... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……….. v
LIST OF TABLES………. viii
I. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the Study 1 1.2 Problem of the Study 4
1.3 Objectives of the Study 5
1.4 Scope of the Study 5
1.5 Significance of the Study 5
II. THEORETICAL ORIENTATION 7
2.1 Language Acquisition 7
2.2 Theories of Language Acquisition 8
2.3 Approaches in Language Acquisition 10
2.3.1 Behavioral Approach 10
2.3.2 Linguistic Approach 11
2.3.3 Cognitive Approach 12
2.3.4 Contextual Approach 13
2.4 Stages of Language Development 15
vi
2.4.2 Babbling 16
2.4.3 One-word or Holophrastic 17
2.4.4 Two-word Stage 18
2.4.5 Telegraphic Stage 19
2.5 Children Determine the Meaning of Words 20
2.6 Previous Relevant Research 21
III. RESEARCH METHOD 23
3.1 Research Design 23
3.2 Subjects of the Study 24
3.3 Instruments of Data Collection 24
3.4 Technique of Data Collection 25
3.4.1 Interview 25
3.4.2 Observation 26
3.4.3 Techniques of Data Analysis 26
IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Data 28
4.2 Subjects’ Background 29
4.3 Data Analysis 30
4.4 Findings 54
vii
V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions 58
5.2 Suggestions 59
REFERENCES 60
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Language is uniquely human gift of evolution. It is subtle, abstract and
cultural phenomenon that no doubt come in the human biological system at a
relatively later date. One of the remarkable characteristics of human beings is that
every single one acquires language at a very young age. And later on the
acquisition occurs and develops in its social context. The study of language
acquisition potentially can tell us a great deal about the psychological and
intellectual functioning of the children as they mature. The use of language is
considered to have a tremendous affect on the children’s relationship with
themselves and environments.
Babies are not born talking. They learn language immediately from birth.
They hear sounds and words, meaning and constructions. They need to know what
to use, where and when, how to integrate language with other modes of
communication, how to make them understood and how to understand others,
(Clark, 2003:1). During the infants or very clearly childhood period, children
learn to express things by using speech sounds. Whenever they feel hungry,
thirsty or hurt, they produce speech sound such as crying, which is also a part of
the process of communication, where the infants start to use their articulation to
communicate with other people because they are still not able to say perfectly
2
Human beings are born to speak, with an innate gift for figuring out the
rules of the language used in the environment. Environment influences the
children in conversation. Infants need other people such as their caretakers,
parents, friends and people who live around them to motivate them to
communicate through crying, cooing, uttering sound or meaningful words which
help them to be able to carry out conversations and to communicate their needs
and wants with other people in the community. Darjowidjojo (2000:49) explains
that the adjustment in the caretakers speech register served two functions, namely
to facilitate understanding and to get the child to be involved in the conversation.
Clark (2003:12) mentions that the first language acquisition requires a
comprehensive look at where and when children acquired the language. It
integrates social and cognitive approaches on how children analyze, understand
and produce sounds, words and sentences as they learn to use the language to
cooperate and achieve goals.
In the process of acquiring the language, there are some problems which
are occurred that make the product of the acquisition is not obtained normally, it
is called language acquisition disorder. The child who suffers from the disorder
will find it difficult to utter the language he has acquired. Language acquisition
disorder is a disturbance in the acquisition or application of the rules of the
language (Michael, 2006). Other definition is stated by Schirmer (2004), language
acquisition is an abnormal development of verbal and/or written expression and
reception.
Indonesia is the fourth populous nation in the world and Indonesian
3
extensively as a first language in urban areas and usually as a second or third
language in more rural parts of Indonesia. Indonesian is the language used in
radio, television and magazine. It is the language of government and business
administration, media, literature and everyday life in the big cities.
There exist a huge number of Indonesian words that can be classified into
two types of words. They are content words and structural words. Content words
are words that convey meaning and can be understood. Kinds of content words are
nouns (buku, meja, kursi, lemari and susu), verbs (minum, makan, bermain,
melihat and membaca), adverbs (selalu and sekarang) and adjectives (cantik,
tampan, tinggi and pendek).
Another type of words is structural words which mean words that exist to
create grammatical or structural relationship among words. They are simple and
small words. The meaning of a sentence will not change if the structural words are
omitted. Kinds of structural words are prepositions (ke and di), pronouns (aku,
kamu, mereka and dia) and conjunctions (dan and sementara).
The adults influence the development of children’s language. The children
carefully follow the movements of mother’s mouth and try to imitate them.
They distinguish voice and showing a particular preference. They are sensitive to
the rhythm and intonation of adults talk (de Boysson-bardies, 1999:37).
Parents provide predictable repeated situations in which meaning of utterances is
clear to the child. And they effectively teach their ideas over to the children.
The children never make conversation with other people seriously, but they
4
One of the requirements in the process of studying a child’s language acquisition
is to understand the child’s family background. It is an important fact to be
studied so that the development can be well understood and will give a great deal
of contribution to the process of a child’s mental development.
Every child has different cognitive development. It means even at the
same ages they do not have the same abilities in acquiring verbs or nouns.
Their abilities are different in acquiring verbs and nouns in their lives and beside
that their abilities influenced by two factors, namely internal and external factors.
In this proposal the writer will do a research that consists of two Toba
Batak sons. Those are at the same ages, but they come from different family
backgrounds.
The process of acquiring a language is regarded as a very complex and
interesting to be studied. The writer is very much interested in conducting a
research on two Toba Batak children. The writer is very curious to observe the
acquisition of words specifically the acquisition of verbs and nouns, and to
discover whether the two Toba Batak children differ in the terms of the total
number of verbs and nouns.
1.1 Problems of the Study
In relation to the background that has been presented previously, the
problems of the study are formulated as follows:
1. How are the contents of verbs and nouns acquired by two-year –old Toba Batak
children?
5
These questions will be answered through the analysis of the data, which will be
obtained in the research.
1.1 Objectives of the Study
In the relation to the problems, the main objectives of this study are
1). to investigate the contents of verbs and nouns acquired by Toba Batak
Children.
2). to compare verbs and nouns acquired by the Toba Batak children.
1.2 Scope of the Study
The process of a child’s language acquisition is a broad area to be studied
because there are so many aspects to be covered. In this research, the writer limits
his observation only on the acquisition of verbs and nouns by two-year-old Toba
Batak children. The children who will be observed are two Toba Batak sons who
speak Bahasa Indonesia.
1.3 Significance of the Study
Findings of this research are expected to the relevant and valuable inputs
that can enrich the study on the development of language acquisition. It is
expected that the findings can show significant relevancy to the theoretical and
practical aspects.
Theoretically, the research findings can provide a basis for a further
research on different stages of the children’s language acquisition. Practically, on
6
especially parents who are interested in the process of introducing new words to
young children as related to the theory of language acquisition. It will be also very
useful for a reference in assisting or facilitating their children in the process of
language acquisition.
Findings of this research will be expected to give answers to some of the
problems faced in the process of language acquisition, especially by two-year-old
children, in the aspect of acquiring early words. While for the future researchers,
this research will be useful for them as guidelines in conducting more in-depth
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
At the last part of this thesis, the researcher presented some conclusions
and suggestions related to the findings of the research. In this research the subjects
produced 352 nouns and 166 verbs. WT produced 173 nouns and WM produced
179 nouns, the researcher concluded that WT produced fewer nouns than nouns
that were produced by WM but in pronunciations WT was better than WM.
Beside that, in producing verbs, the subjects produced 166 verbs. WT produced
72 verbs and WM produced 94 verbs.
As stated above, WT also produced fewer verbs than verbs that were
produced by WM, but in pronunciations WT was still better than WM. It was
caused because WT was an active son in talking with other people whom he met
at the first time and he was not shy to talk with them. But WM was an enactive
and shy son and he did not want to talk with other people whom he met at the first
time, but he only wanted to talk with people whom he knew well, such as his
parents and other his family members.
The researcher concluded that the subjects acquired Indonesian verbs and
nouns purely from their surroundings, whether they were influenced by their
family members and friends. Beside that, the subjects sometimes used body
language when they talked and played with their friends and family members to
59
5.2 Suggestions
In the process of acquiring early words, parents have to guide their
children in learning to communicate as good as possible in order to the children
can communicate well and effectively with other people in their environment.
Beside that, in generally children do not want to communicate to people
whom they do not know well. In order to make a good communication and
conversation, it is suggested to make approaches to the children’s behaviours and
habitual, such as tempt them snacks, fruits and some of dinks.
If the parents want their children can acquire words well, they have to
introduce words well and also guide them to pronounce it every day when they
talk with their children, because by doing this it means that the parents help their
children acquiring words well in communicating. If the parents do not do this to
their children it can make the children acquire words slowly or even very slow.
Finally, encourage the children to communicate politely and to produce the
correct words or sentences and if they make mistakes, give the correct words and
60
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