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Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Introduction
There were three methods of obtaining data used for this study: 1 a questionnaire administered by a researcher, 2 a “matched guise” recorded test, and 3 observation. The questionnaire and the matched
guise test hereafter referred to as MGT were completed at the same time with each informant. Observations were carried out throughout a six-month period of residence in Jambi April–October 2001,
as well as during a structured observation time conducted for three days several months later May 2002. The questionnaire, MGT, and structured language usage observations took place in both Mudung Darat and
Mudung Laut, the two communities under study.
3.2 Questionnaire
A fifty-item questionnaire, based on questionnaires used in previous studies in Jambi City Sugeng, Arif, and Nani 1985 as well as sample sociolinguistic questionnaires found in Blair 1990, was devised and
translated into Jambi Indonesian, and administered in Jambi Indonesian or Jambi Malay. Please see appendix J and K to refer to the questionnaire, in both Jambi Indonesian and English versions. Ideas and
principles for designing questionnaires were also provided by Hochstetler and Tillinghast 1996. After obtaining demographic information from each informant, questions were asked in the following subject
categories: language usage, language strength, and language attitudes.
3.3 Matched guise test
Using an indirect method of eliciting information, such as a matched guise, is helpful for understanding language attitudes in more depth Agheyisi and Fishman 1970. Indeed, indirect methods are often
necessary, since “the prestige values attached to language are quite often covert and difficult to tap directly” Milroy and Milroy 1985:368. It may be even more so in Asian cultures, where direct speech is
not valued culturally.
The goal of the MGT is to see if there is a difference in how the informants respond to the speakers in one language variety versus another, the key being that the same speakers are heard in both
languages, unbeknownst to the informants. If informants consistently react more favorably to the same speakers in one language, but not the other, one can reasonably project that their attitudes toward that
language are more positive. The information gleaned from the matched guise test can then be compared with language attitudes revealed by other means such as a questionnaire.
Previous works suggest that tests of this nature are successful in accessing language attitudes. As Giles, Bourhis, and Davies pointed out 1979:589, there have been a number of studies which have found
that listeners can identify a speaker’s social class from his or her speech patterns cf. Rickford 1985. In fact, it has been shown numerous times that speaking the more prestigious form allows an individual to be
stereotyped favorably along many personality dimensions, relative to the non-standard form Giles, Bourhis, and Davies 1979, Woolard 1985.
The MGT design in this study was as follows: bilingual speakers of both Jambi Malay and Indonesian were recorded while reading a short passage about the batik cloth industry in Jambi, first in one
language and then the other see appendix L. There were a total of four speakers, two of which were female and two male. The four voices and eight passages on the tape were randomized, and a distance of at
least two speakers in between the same voice was ensured. A fifth “placebo” male voice was included in one language SI for extra insurance that the voices in one language would not be recognized to be the
same in the other language. The informants thus heard a total of nine recordings. The MGT design followed suggestions given by Grimes 1995.
Upon finishing the questionnaire, the MGT recordings were then presented to the informants who were asked to listen to each voice one at a time. After listening to each speaker, the researcher paused and
asked the informant to use the voice cues of the speakers to answer ten questions see appendices M and N for the English version.
The MGT questions were based on questions used in previous matched guise studies in Burkino Faso, Africa Showalter 1991 but were adapted to the social situation in Jambi and translated into Jambi
Indonesian. The questions attempted to uncover information in three main areas: amount of identification with the speaker questions a, h, and i, the social status of the speaker questions b, c, d.1, d.2, and the
character of the speaker questions e, f, g.
A note must be made here that in the selection of bilingual speakers to make the recordings, there was difficulty in finding resident speakers of the area of study who were fluent enough in both languages,
and able to read and talk on tape well. Due to this difficulty, the speakers that were selected all had in common higher education and higher social status, and the majority of the speakers were no longer residing
in Jambi Seberang. This could have lead to a potential skewing of data, whereby the responses were generally more positive than otherwise. Yet, considering that all of the speakers had relatively equal
education levels and social statuses, it can be said that differences in responses to them were due to factors other than social status. And, according to the answers given to the questions, it is clear that the informants
were unable to judge the speakers’ actual situations.
3.4 Observation
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