this file 1587 3680 1 SM
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
Promoting Multilingualism in the
Classroom: A Case Study
of Elt Program
Muhammad NaiAnnury
naiannury@gmail.com, nai.annury@walisongo.ac.id
English Education Department UIN Walisongo Semarang
Abstract
The article gives a brief analytical survey of multilingualism
practices, its consequences, and its beneits in education and discussions on the appropriate ways towards its achievement in education. Multilingualism refers to speaking more than one language
competently. Generally there are both the oficial and unoficial
multilingualism practices. This study was descriptive qualitative.The
subjects of the study were eighty students and divided into two
classes actually. Purposive samplingtechnique was applied in identifying students who tended topractice multilingualism in education
in EFL class. The beneits of multilingualism practices in education
wererealized by relying on text analysis of the written materialson
education and psychology. Personal experience ineducational matters especially the educational processes in EFL class is also included.Findings were descriptively presented in a continuous prose. students still had problems on the way they speak and write in English
well. However, there were only 1.9% students who felt that they
luenced in speaking and even writing English well. It is quite a challenging issue towards students implementing multilingualism within
the classroom. Eventhough, they are already learned English since
they were from junior high school fortunately.
Key words: multilingualism, classroom, ELT, case study
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
129
Muhammad NaiAnnury
Introduction
Indonesian is societal multicultural marriages forms of cultural difference among difference languages. Besides the diversity
in dialect which is owned by Indonesian as the national language,
the needs for foreign language abolish proiciency especially English
strengthen the status of Indonesians into social multilingual. Many
languages in large cities, used various by various people, therefore,
make contact their language and culture inevitable. The language
use like this situation may of course has the potential to cause rivalry or conlicts (in dialect, national, and foreign langauges) and then
not observed and anticipated, however, can take socila disharmony
for survival language especially for venacular, so that it would need
a good planning as well.
Humans need an organized medium of communication inany
given social set up. This medium is normally referred toas language.
Though it appears dificult to clearly deine theterm language due
to its social complexity, it is generallyagreed amongst linguistic intelligentsia that it is a system ofsymbols designed for the purposes of
communication. Thissystem involves a collection of entities organized into awhole and arranged in such a way that they work together
toachieve a particular function (Lyon, 1981). Language as a medium
ofcommunication amongst humans possesses numerousattributes
such as being governed by rules, is a system andperforms such functions as giving information, expressingfeelings and emotions, establishing rapport, exercisingauthority and an identity marker (Webb,
2000). As humans use morethan one language then terminologies
such as bilingualism,trilingualism and multilingualism arise.
The term multilingualism which is the focus of this articleis
derived from two Latin words namely “multi” that meansmany and
“lingua” that means language (Bussmann, 1996). Thusmultilingualism is referred to as the ability of a speaker toexpress himself or
herself in several languages with equaland native like proiciency
(Bussmann, 1996). However, it has been realisedin both the written
and verbal communicative practices thatproiciency in one language
usually tends to dominate in amultilingual set up as compared to
the others.Multilingualism can also be regarded as the co-existence
130
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
ofseveral languages within a society (Lyon, 1981). These severallanguages can be oficial or unoficial, native or foreign andnational or
international.
Sometimes multilingualism is used interchangeably withbilingualism (Lyon, 1981) that refers to the ability to speak twolanguages with native like proiciency. Multilingualism isconsidered in this
article as an inclusive terminologycomprising bilingualism (ability
to speak two languagesproiciently), trilingualism (ability to speak
three languages)and there is also instances whereby one speaker has
theability to speak even more than three languages. Since thepreix
‘multi’ refers to more than one, both bilingualism andtrilingualism
will therefore technically refer to more than onelanguage. As we use
several languages, we becomemultilingual.
Any given country or society is generally considered as amultilingual one if its members or citizens are multilingual.The multilingual citizens on many occasions tend to showidentiiable full
range of communicative competence inseveral languages in place.
However, there is a rare perfectmultilingualism in practice. The rare
perfect practice occursbecause even if we acquire both or several
languages in place,there is always a notable tendency that one language willalways dominate over the others which are consideredsubordinates.
The tendency that shows a clear functional differentiationof
two languages is generally referred to as diglossia. In thiscase, one
language regarded as a low variety (L) may be usedat home or informal environments and the other regarded as a high variety (H)
is used in specialised formal functions.There are also instances
whereby functional differentiationof three languages is involved.
This tendency generally givesrise to triglossia. A glimpse of triglossia can be witnessed in Indonesia whereby English is regarded as a
high variety used asthe sole medium of instruction of all disciplines
taught invarious schools and higher learning institutions. About
forty indigenous languages are basicallyspoken at homes and other
social places. It is very clear thatnone of the indigenous languages is
used as a medium oinstruction of disciplines in any of the learning
institutions in Indonesia.
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
131
Muhammad NaiAnnury
In general, the functional differentiation of languages tendto
give rise to other ways of classifying languages as mothertongue
(irst language of a speaker), vernacular (languagespoken in a particular area or speciic group of people but notgenerally an oficial),
national, oficial and the global orinternational languages.
This research was conducted to answer the following questions: (1) How is the students’ response about using multilingualism
in the classroom?; (2) What problems are revealed in implementing
multilingualism in the classroom?; (3) What is the beneit of implementing multilingualism in the classroom?
Bacground Literature
1. Language concept
The identity of any human society is a well developed language.The ideological stance of the sentences regarding the
maintenance of heritage languageand culture is made explicit in
two dialogues that relect a meta-discourse as well.
Greenberg (1971: 156) says:“Language is unique to man.
No other species possesses a truly symbolic”.Means of communication and no human society, however simple its material. In a
multilingualsign for example the dominant or more prestigious
language will often be in larger font.In a multilingualsign for
example the dominant or more prestigious language will often
be in larger font.
Noam Chomsky deines language, as a particular set of
sentences that can begenerated from a particular set of rules.
From above assertions, it is evident that language is an important feature thatdistinguishes man from other creatures. Also
language and society goes hand in hand. Language can be seen
as a medium of communication, among people of the same culturalbackground and beyond.
Language can serve other functions, apart from being a
medium ofcommunication. Haliday (1980:20) has the opinion
that understanding the nature andfunctions of language are key
elements in learning about language. Haliday (1973)identiied 7
functions which includes textual, ideational functions. Brynato
132
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
(1983)identiied transactional and interactional functions. Hyme
(1992) identiied emotive, poeticfunctions crystal (1997) identiied 8 functions, including language as an instrument ofthought.
The use of language in a society, has contributed immensely to
the socializationprocess in human society.
2. Multilingualism and language contact
Multilingualism, is a societal phenomenon that deals with
languages existing in asociety. When many languages exist in a
society, such society is said to be multilingual innature. A person
who is proicient in many languages, is refer to as a multilingual.Appel and Muysken (1987: 2-5), states the fact that varieties
of the samelanguage, may be in used, in a given situation. The
idea of language contact transcendsdialectal frontiers. It is an
issue which concerns two or more district and independentlanguages. It is evident that language contact, is a situation that
concerns two or morelanguages, co-existing in a particular society. Language contact phenomena results intosome phenomena,
such as code mixing, code switching, language shift, language
loss,interference, transfer.
Methods
The paper relied on a survey design whereby classroom practicing multilingualism in general communication and oreducational
functions were surveyed in the second semester of English department of FITK UIN Walisongo Semarang in the academic year of
2015/2016. There were eighty students and divided into two classes
actually.
Thearticle is basically a qualitative research. Purposive samplingtechnique was applied in identifying students who tend topractice multilingualism in education in EFL class. Beneits of multilingualism practices in education wererealized by relying on text
analysis of the written materialson education and psychology. Personal experience ineducational matters especially the educational
processes in EFL class is also included.Findings are descriptively
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
133
Muhammad NaiAnnury
presented in a continuous prose.
The data were collected with permission from lecturers and
students in English classes. The questionnaireswere distributed to
students enrolled in English courses. The researcher provided instructionson how to complete the questionnaire. To obtain the reliability of the data, this group of participantswas informed that there
was no right or wrong answer, and the questionnaire was only for
the researchpurposes. The data obtained from the questionnaires
were coded and statistically analyzed to establishfrequency distribution in the form of descriptive statistics. Likert scale used to know
students’ reponse of promoting multilingualism in the classroom.
Findings
1. Multilingualism in the Classroom
This section presents the results of the descriptive statistics. Generally, some of the responses receivedrendered signiicant results, while some others did not.This section is structured
into four broad thematic areas:irstly, the general survey of multilingualism practices in the EFL classrooms. Secondly, explanationsof the general consequences of multilingualism practices.
Thirdly, discussions on notable beneits of multilingualismpractices in the educational circles. Probably the most interesting
results, at least for our purposes, are thoserelating to proiciency in English. Questions 6a and 6b of the questionnaireasked
respondents to rate their own abilities in speaking and
writingEnglish.
Table 1 1975 Survey Reports of Ability
to Speak English
Questions 6 (a) and 6 (b): How well do you speak (and write)
English?
Skill (Percentage Ratings)
Response
Speaking
Writing
Not at all
45.2%
46.2%
Only a little
22.1%
19.9%
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Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
Enough to communicate
simple needs
Enough to communicate
a wide range of ideas
Almost like a native
22.5%
23.0%
8.3%
1.9%
9.0%
1.9%
From the above table 1 we can thus conclude that at
least 32’.7% of the respondents reported an ability in speaking English that went beyond ‘only a little’ 1 thus responding
positively to the three ‘higher’ categories: ‘Enoughto communicate simple needs’, ‘Enough to communicate a wide range
oideas’, and’ Almost like a native’ 1 categories that broadly
correspond to an’adequate’, ‘good’, and ‘excellent’ rating of
one’s own ability in speaking· the language. Similarly, we can
observe that 33.9% of the sample indicate asimilar level of
proiciency in the written language. The survey report (British Council 1979) then goes on to discuss language use at
work 1language use for speciic purposes, English outside
work, reasons forstudying English, and language attitudes.
Based on the table above it is seen that there 45.2% students still have problem on the way how to speak and how to
write in English well. However, there are only 1.9% students
who feel that they luence in speaking and even writing English
well. It is quite a challenging issue towards students implementing multilingualism within the classroom. Eventhough, they are
already learned English since they were from junior high school
fortuneately.
Though there are vernacular and oficial language in Indonesia, English is predominantly introduced through formalschooling. Most of students still use their vernacular within
the classroom. Lectures often seem to use Inonesian and English for strengthening their ideas in delivering their subject matters. This condition is so common; therefore, students have to
explore their competency more during studying in this faculty.
Lecturers should encourage students to lots of things in penetrating academic atmosphere comprehensively within or outside
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
135
Muhammad NaiAnnury
of the campus.
The consequences of multilingualism are numerousranging
from linguistic and socio-political. Linguisticconsequences of
multilingualism include among others thecreation and growth
of lingua franca that normally developsbecause of the need
for cross group communication (Webb, 2000).Multilingualism
practice creates the development ofmixed languages mainly due
to intense language contact. Asa result speakers therefore tend
to involve a mixture olanguages during verbal communication.
This contact mayalso result into the creation of slangs. These
slangs aregenerally caused by urbanization, migrant labor and
alsoindustrialization as was witnessed in Indonesia.
Multilingualism practice generally develops crosslinguistic
communication strategies like code switching andcode mixing.
When people switch from one language used athomes to the
other outside the home environment then codeswitching occurs. This is witnessed in countries like Indiawhere switching
is witnessed between English, Hindu/Urdu, Bengali and Tamil.
Multilingualism creates an aspect of diglossia wherebywhen
there are two oficial languages, there is always onelanguage that
tends to dominate the other which is generallyreferred to as subordinate. This happens when viewed from afunctional point. A
glimpse of the diglossia situation inAfrica indicates that English,
French and Portuguese arecharacterized as the high languages
(H) and the indigenous Ones as low languages (L).
Multilingualism practice tends to create the developmentand general acquisition of cross-cultural communicationskills. In this regard people tend to learn different skills of thelanguages in place especially speaking, reading and evenwriting.
These cross-cultural communication skills enableone to gain
both the communicative and discoursecompetencies.Besides the
linguistic consequences, there is also apolitical consequence that
relies on the economic andpolitical order of the society (Webb,
2000). This in the long run createsthe majority and minority languages. Some of the majoritylanguages become more powerful
than others.
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Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
2. The Beneits of Multilingualism
It is estimated that over a billion people in the world speakmore than one language luently (Barasa, 2005). However, with
theincreased population of people in the world the number ofbilinguals may be currently twofold. This increased numberof
speakers is probably attributed to the regionalism andinternationalism principles that are now embraced by manycountries
especially in the ield of trade and commerce,innovation and
also the technological advancements. Theseprinciples call for
the speakers to be proicient in the workinglanguages to effectuate communication.
The paper considers discussing the beneits of practicingmultilingualism in the education sector not only in the formaleducation in learning institutions alone but also informalcircumstances probably at homes. Therefore, some majorbeneits of
multilingualism in education whether formal orinformal include
the following:
Knowledge of more than two languages allows us tocommunicate with many people in both personal andprofessional contexts. This is owing to the fact that the vastamount of
knowledge that people possess is often onlyeffectively accessible through particular languages (Webb, 2000) whether oficial or unoficial. However, the unoficiallanguages that in most
African contexts are generallyregarded as native tend to be a
viable medium for effectiveand clear presentation of knowledge
that we possess. This isclearly manifested in proven situations
whereby knowing anindigenous language is believed to provide
an access to avast reservoir of wisdom, expertise, knowledge
and skillscontained in the bodies of speakers of the languages
concerned(Webb, 2000). Therefore multilingualism is a big
resource(Webb, 2000). When one knows the oficial language
and perfectlyspeaks the indigenous languages then the person
will be ableto synthesis knowledge and express it accordingly.
It istherefore necessary to include indigenous languages ineducation so as to realize the beneits of synthesizing andclearly
expressing knowledge.
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
137
Muhammad NaiAnnury
Other scholars like (Bolinger, 1981) argue that anybody
who knowsonly one language is generally not different from
an animalthat is restricted in communication. Thus a monolingual canbest be described as a restricted animal with a barrier
incommunication referred to as ‘ixity of reference’ (Bolinger,
1981). Thismeans that animals have messages connected with
just onething in the real world like a growl to an enemy, a particularscent to an attraction to mate and a cluck to a summon
toabroad of ducks (Bolinger, 1981). Speaking one language can
also beequated to a holophrastic stage of language development
(Lyons, 1981).This means that a monolingual can be regarded
as one who isstill in the process of language acquisition and development and should learn other languages to effectuatemulticommunication. Thus multilingualism opens doors forquicker
and easy communication. To remove the notion of‘ixity of reference’, entrenching multilingualism ineducation will of course
enable one to avoid restrictions incommunication thus enabling
him to move to another stageof communication.
Multilingualism practices enhance intellectual lexibilityand creativity. Recent studies have indicated that childrenwho grow up in a supportive environment speaking morethan
one language from an early age are more perceptive andintellectually lexible than those who speak one language(King, 2007)By
using the ‘double irst language acquisition’ modelas indicated
by (King, 2007), children with parents constantlyspeaking different languages grow up being equally luentand comfortable with
the two home languages and can evenlearn a third and fourth
language. Though this researchfocused on the home contexts,
this is also practical in theclassroom contexts whereby students
who are exposed tomany languages will tend to be intellectually
lexible.
Conclusion
When foreign and indigenous languages are included inthe
multilingualism practices in education, then we shouldalways try
to avoid imposing these languages to the people.A keen measure
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Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
and clear framework should be taken intoaccount because imposing
languages to people is dangerousand may cause tensions amongst
different ethnic and or speech communities (Bolinger, 1981). Furthermore as you impose alingua franca and or foreign languages to
people withoutdeveloping also the indigenous languages then this
may leadto language death. There are more than 3,000 languagesspoken in the world today that are at the point of dying andsome are
already extinct (Opala, 2002).
Causes of language death may include among others thefollowing factors: imposition of languages on the others,language
colonialism, foreign language dictatorship andassimilation of languages (Ochieng, 2002).
Other ways of language death include crudesuppression of
native languages as was the practice by thecolonizing states.In a nut
shell, depending on the composition of the society,multilingualism
practice in education should embrace the indigenous, national, oficial and foreign languages as equalpartners in the language policy
development and education.
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
139
Muhammad NaiAnnury
REFERENCES
Barasa, S. N (2005). Linguistic Internationalism: A Step towardsHarmonious WorldRelations? In Proceedings of 17th18thMarch on Across Borders: Beneiting from CulturalDifferences, DAAD Regional Ofice in Africa, Nairobi,300-12,
2005.
Bolinger, D. A Sears. Aspects of Language, HarcourtBrace Javanovich, Inc., New York, 1981
Bussmann, H. (1996). Rout ledge Dictionary of Language andlinguistics, Rout ledge, London, 1996.
King, A. (2007). Speaking in Tongues. In Reader’s Digest, Readers
Digest Association, Inc., USA, 96-101, 2007.
Lyons, J. (1981). Language and Linguistics: An Introduction,Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1981
Ochieng, P. (2002). The Dictatorship of English. In Daily
Nation,Wednesday, March 6th, Nation Media Group, Nairobi, 11,2002.
Opala, K. How Kenya Stands to Lose More than 10 Tribes. In Daily
Nation,Wednesday, March 6th, Nation MediaGroup, Nairobi,
11, 2002
Webb, V. Kembo Sure. (2000) African Voices: An Introductionto
the Languages and Linguistics of Africa, OxfordUniversity
Press, Southern Africa, 2000
140
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in the
Classroom: A Case Study
of Elt Program
Muhammad NaiAnnury
naiannury@gmail.com, nai.annury@walisongo.ac.id
English Education Department UIN Walisongo Semarang
Abstract
The article gives a brief analytical survey of multilingualism
practices, its consequences, and its beneits in education and discussions on the appropriate ways towards its achievement in education. Multilingualism refers to speaking more than one language
competently. Generally there are both the oficial and unoficial
multilingualism practices. This study was descriptive qualitative.The
subjects of the study were eighty students and divided into two
classes actually. Purposive samplingtechnique was applied in identifying students who tended topractice multilingualism in education
in EFL class. The beneits of multilingualism practices in education
wererealized by relying on text analysis of the written materialson
education and psychology. Personal experience ineducational matters especially the educational processes in EFL class is also included.Findings were descriptively presented in a continuous prose. students still had problems on the way they speak and write in English
well. However, there were only 1.9% students who felt that they
luenced in speaking and even writing English well. It is quite a challenging issue towards students implementing multilingualism within
the classroom. Eventhough, they are already learned English since
they were from junior high school fortunately.
Key words: multilingualism, classroom, ELT, case study
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
129
Muhammad NaiAnnury
Introduction
Indonesian is societal multicultural marriages forms of cultural difference among difference languages. Besides the diversity
in dialect which is owned by Indonesian as the national language,
the needs for foreign language abolish proiciency especially English
strengthen the status of Indonesians into social multilingual. Many
languages in large cities, used various by various people, therefore,
make contact their language and culture inevitable. The language
use like this situation may of course has the potential to cause rivalry or conlicts (in dialect, national, and foreign langauges) and then
not observed and anticipated, however, can take socila disharmony
for survival language especially for venacular, so that it would need
a good planning as well.
Humans need an organized medium of communication inany
given social set up. This medium is normally referred toas language.
Though it appears dificult to clearly deine theterm language due
to its social complexity, it is generallyagreed amongst linguistic intelligentsia that it is a system ofsymbols designed for the purposes of
communication. Thissystem involves a collection of entities organized into awhole and arranged in such a way that they work together
toachieve a particular function (Lyon, 1981). Language as a medium
ofcommunication amongst humans possesses numerousattributes
such as being governed by rules, is a system andperforms such functions as giving information, expressingfeelings and emotions, establishing rapport, exercisingauthority and an identity marker (Webb,
2000). As humans use morethan one language then terminologies
such as bilingualism,trilingualism and multilingualism arise.
The term multilingualism which is the focus of this articleis
derived from two Latin words namely “multi” that meansmany and
“lingua” that means language (Bussmann, 1996). Thusmultilingualism is referred to as the ability of a speaker toexpress himself or
herself in several languages with equaland native like proiciency
(Bussmann, 1996). However, it has been realisedin both the written
and verbal communicative practices thatproiciency in one language
usually tends to dominate in amultilingual set up as compared to
the others.Multilingualism can also be regarded as the co-existence
130
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
ofseveral languages within a society (Lyon, 1981). These severallanguages can be oficial or unoficial, native or foreign andnational or
international.
Sometimes multilingualism is used interchangeably withbilingualism (Lyon, 1981) that refers to the ability to speak twolanguages with native like proiciency. Multilingualism isconsidered in this
article as an inclusive terminologycomprising bilingualism (ability
to speak two languagesproiciently), trilingualism (ability to speak
three languages)and there is also instances whereby one speaker has
theability to speak even more than three languages. Since thepreix
‘multi’ refers to more than one, both bilingualism andtrilingualism
will therefore technically refer to more than onelanguage. As we use
several languages, we becomemultilingual.
Any given country or society is generally considered as amultilingual one if its members or citizens are multilingual.The multilingual citizens on many occasions tend to showidentiiable full
range of communicative competence inseveral languages in place.
However, there is a rare perfectmultilingualism in practice. The rare
perfect practice occursbecause even if we acquire both or several
languages in place,there is always a notable tendency that one language willalways dominate over the others which are consideredsubordinates.
The tendency that shows a clear functional differentiationof
two languages is generally referred to as diglossia. In thiscase, one
language regarded as a low variety (L) may be usedat home or informal environments and the other regarded as a high variety (H)
is used in specialised formal functions.There are also instances
whereby functional differentiationof three languages is involved.
This tendency generally givesrise to triglossia. A glimpse of triglossia can be witnessed in Indonesia whereby English is regarded as a
high variety used asthe sole medium of instruction of all disciplines
taught invarious schools and higher learning institutions. About
forty indigenous languages are basicallyspoken at homes and other
social places. It is very clear thatnone of the indigenous languages is
used as a medium oinstruction of disciplines in any of the learning
institutions in Indonesia.
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
131
Muhammad NaiAnnury
In general, the functional differentiation of languages tendto
give rise to other ways of classifying languages as mothertongue
(irst language of a speaker), vernacular (languagespoken in a particular area or speciic group of people but notgenerally an oficial),
national, oficial and the global orinternational languages.
This research was conducted to answer the following questions: (1) How is the students’ response about using multilingualism
in the classroom?; (2) What problems are revealed in implementing
multilingualism in the classroom?; (3) What is the beneit of implementing multilingualism in the classroom?
Bacground Literature
1. Language concept
The identity of any human society is a well developed language.The ideological stance of the sentences regarding the
maintenance of heritage languageand culture is made explicit in
two dialogues that relect a meta-discourse as well.
Greenberg (1971: 156) says:“Language is unique to man.
No other species possesses a truly symbolic”.Means of communication and no human society, however simple its material. In a
multilingualsign for example the dominant or more prestigious
language will often be in larger font.In a multilingualsign for
example the dominant or more prestigious language will often
be in larger font.
Noam Chomsky deines language, as a particular set of
sentences that can begenerated from a particular set of rules.
From above assertions, it is evident that language is an important feature thatdistinguishes man from other creatures. Also
language and society goes hand in hand. Language can be seen
as a medium of communication, among people of the same culturalbackground and beyond.
Language can serve other functions, apart from being a
medium ofcommunication. Haliday (1980:20) has the opinion
that understanding the nature andfunctions of language are key
elements in learning about language. Haliday (1973)identiied 7
functions which includes textual, ideational functions. Brynato
132
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
(1983)identiied transactional and interactional functions. Hyme
(1992) identiied emotive, poeticfunctions crystal (1997) identiied 8 functions, including language as an instrument ofthought.
The use of language in a society, has contributed immensely to
the socializationprocess in human society.
2. Multilingualism and language contact
Multilingualism, is a societal phenomenon that deals with
languages existing in asociety. When many languages exist in a
society, such society is said to be multilingual innature. A person
who is proicient in many languages, is refer to as a multilingual.Appel and Muysken (1987: 2-5), states the fact that varieties
of the samelanguage, may be in used, in a given situation. The
idea of language contact transcendsdialectal frontiers. It is an
issue which concerns two or more district and independentlanguages. It is evident that language contact, is a situation that
concerns two or morelanguages, co-existing in a particular society. Language contact phenomena results intosome phenomena,
such as code mixing, code switching, language shift, language
loss,interference, transfer.
Methods
The paper relied on a survey design whereby classroom practicing multilingualism in general communication and oreducational
functions were surveyed in the second semester of English department of FITK UIN Walisongo Semarang in the academic year of
2015/2016. There were eighty students and divided into two classes
actually.
Thearticle is basically a qualitative research. Purposive samplingtechnique was applied in identifying students who tend topractice multilingualism in education in EFL class. Beneits of multilingualism practices in education wererealized by relying on text
analysis of the written materialson education and psychology. Personal experience ineducational matters especially the educational
processes in EFL class is also included.Findings are descriptively
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
133
Muhammad NaiAnnury
presented in a continuous prose.
The data were collected with permission from lecturers and
students in English classes. The questionnaireswere distributed to
students enrolled in English courses. The researcher provided instructionson how to complete the questionnaire. To obtain the reliability of the data, this group of participantswas informed that there
was no right or wrong answer, and the questionnaire was only for
the researchpurposes. The data obtained from the questionnaires
were coded and statistically analyzed to establishfrequency distribution in the form of descriptive statistics. Likert scale used to know
students’ reponse of promoting multilingualism in the classroom.
Findings
1. Multilingualism in the Classroom
This section presents the results of the descriptive statistics. Generally, some of the responses receivedrendered signiicant results, while some others did not.This section is structured
into four broad thematic areas:irstly, the general survey of multilingualism practices in the EFL classrooms. Secondly, explanationsof the general consequences of multilingualism practices.
Thirdly, discussions on notable beneits of multilingualismpractices in the educational circles. Probably the most interesting
results, at least for our purposes, are thoserelating to proiciency in English. Questions 6a and 6b of the questionnaireasked
respondents to rate their own abilities in speaking and
writingEnglish.
Table 1 1975 Survey Reports of Ability
to Speak English
Questions 6 (a) and 6 (b): How well do you speak (and write)
English?
Skill (Percentage Ratings)
Response
Speaking
Writing
Not at all
45.2%
46.2%
Only a little
22.1%
19.9%
134
Jurnal Vision, Volume 6 Number 1, 2017
Promoting Multilingualism in The Classroom ...
Enough to communicate
simple needs
Enough to communicate
a wide range of ideas
Almost like a native
22.5%
23.0%
8.3%
1.9%
9.0%
1.9%
From the above table 1 we can thus conclude that at
least 32’.7% of the respondents reported an ability in speaking English that went beyond ‘only a little’ 1 thus responding
positively to the three ‘higher’ categories: ‘Enoughto communicate simple needs’, ‘Enough to communicate a wide range
oideas’, and’ Almost like a native’ 1 categories that broadly
correspond to an’adequate’, ‘good’, and ‘excellent’ rating of
one’s own ability in speaking· the language. Similarly, we can
observe that 33.9% of the sample indicate asimilar level of
proiciency in the written language. The survey report (British Council 1979) then goes on to discuss language use at
work 1language use for speciic purposes, English outside
work, reasons forstudying English, and language attitudes.
Based on the table above it is seen that there 45.2% students still have problem on the way how to speak and how to
write in English well. However, there are only 1.9% students
who feel that they luence in speaking and even writing English
well. It is quite a challenging issue towards students implementing multilingualism within the classroom. Eventhough, they are
already learned English since they were from junior high school
fortuneately.
Though there are vernacular and oficial language in Indonesia, English is predominantly introduced through formalschooling. Most of students still use their vernacular within
the classroom. Lectures often seem to use Inonesian and English for strengthening their ideas in delivering their subject matters. This condition is so common; therefore, students have to
explore their competency more during studying in this faculty.
Lecturers should encourage students to lots of things in penetrating academic atmosphere comprehensively within or outside
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of the campus.
The consequences of multilingualism are numerousranging
from linguistic and socio-political. Linguisticconsequences of
multilingualism include among others thecreation and growth
of lingua franca that normally developsbecause of the need
for cross group communication (Webb, 2000).Multilingualism
practice creates the development ofmixed languages mainly due
to intense language contact. Asa result speakers therefore tend
to involve a mixture olanguages during verbal communication.
This contact mayalso result into the creation of slangs. These
slangs aregenerally caused by urbanization, migrant labor and
alsoindustrialization as was witnessed in Indonesia.
Multilingualism practice generally develops crosslinguistic
communication strategies like code switching andcode mixing.
When people switch from one language used athomes to the
other outside the home environment then codeswitching occurs. This is witnessed in countries like Indiawhere switching
is witnessed between English, Hindu/Urdu, Bengali and Tamil.
Multilingualism creates an aspect of diglossia wherebywhen
there are two oficial languages, there is always onelanguage that
tends to dominate the other which is generallyreferred to as subordinate. This happens when viewed from afunctional point. A
glimpse of the diglossia situation inAfrica indicates that English,
French and Portuguese arecharacterized as the high languages
(H) and the indigenous Ones as low languages (L).
Multilingualism practice tends to create the developmentand general acquisition of cross-cultural communicationskills. In this regard people tend to learn different skills of thelanguages in place especially speaking, reading and evenwriting.
These cross-cultural communication skills enableone to gain
both the communicative and discoursecompetencies.Besides the
linguistic consequences, there is also apolitical consequence that
relies on the economic andpolitical order of the society (Webb,
2000). This in the long run createsthe majority and minority languages. Some of the majoritylanguages become more powerful
than others.
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2. The Beneits of Multilingualism
It is estimated that over a billion people in the world speakmore than one language luently (Barasa, 2005). However, with
theincreased population of people in the world the number ofbilinguals may be currently twofold. This increased numberof
speakers is probably attributed to the regionalism andinternationalism principles that are now embraced by manycountries
especially in the ield of trade and commerce,innovation and
also the technological advancements. Theseprinciples call for
the speakers to be proicient in the workinglanguages to effectuate communication.
The paper considers discussing the beneits of practicingmultilingualism in the education sector not only in the formaleducation in learning institutions alone but also informalcircumstances probably at homes. Therefore, some majorbeneits of
multilingualism in education whether formal orinformal include
the following:
Knowledge of more than two languages allows us tocommunicate with many people in both personal andprofessional contexts. This is owing to the fact that the vastamount of
knowledge that people possess is often onlyeffectively accessible through particular languages (Webb, 2000) whether oficial or unoficial. However, the unoficiallanguages that in most
African contexts are generallyregarded as native tend to be a
viable medium for effectiveand clear presentation of knowledge
that we possess. This isclearly manifested in proven situations
whereby knowing anindigenous language is believed to provide
an access to avast reservoir of wisdom, expertise, knowledge
and skillscontained in the bodies of speakers of the languages
concerned(Webb, 2000). Therefore multilingualism is a big
resource(Webb, 2000). When one knows the oficial language
and perfectlyspeaks the indigenous languages then the person
will be ableto synthesis knowledge and express it accordingly.
It istherefore necessary to include indigenous languages ineducation so as to realize the beneits of synthesizing andclearly
expressing knowledge.
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Other scholars like (Bolinger, 1981) argue that anybody
who knowsonly one language is generally not different from
an animalthat is restricted in communication. Thus a monolingual canbest be described as a restricted animal with a barrier
incommunication referred to as ‘ixity of reference’ (Bolinger,
1981). Thismeans that animals have messages connected with
just onething in the real world like a growl to an enemy, a particularscent to an attraction to mate and a cluck to a summon
toabroad of ducks (Bolinger, 1981). Speaking one language can
also beequated to a holophrastic stage of language development
(Lyons, 1981).This means that a monolingual can be regarded
as one who isstill in the process of language acquisition and development and should learn other languages to effectuatemulticommunication. Thus multilingualism opens doors forquicker
and easy communication. To remove the notion of‘ixity of reference’, entrenching multilingualism ineducation will of course
enable one to avoid restrictions incommunication thus enabling
him to move to another stageof communication.
Multilingualism practices enhance intellectual lexibilityand creativity. Recent studies have indicated that childrenwho grow up in a supportive environment speaking morethan
one language from an early age are more perceptive andintellectually lexible than those who speak one language(King, 2007)By
using the ‘double irst language acquisition’ modelas indicated
by (King, 2007), children with parents constantlyspeaking different languages grow up being equally luentand comfortable with
the two home languages and can evenlearn a third and fourth
language. Though this researchfocused on the home contexts,
this is also practical in theclassroom contexts whereby students
who are exposed tomany languages will tend to be intellectually
lexible.
Conclusion
When foreign and indigenous languages are included inthe
multilingualism practices in education, then we shouldalways try
to avoid imposing these languages to the people.A keen measure
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and clear framework should be taken intoaccount because imposing
languages to people is dangerousand may cause tensions amongst
different ethnic and or speech communities (Bolinger, 1981). Furthermore as you impose alingua franca and or foreign languages to
people withoutdeveloping also the indigenous languages then this
may leadto language death. There are more than 3,000 languagesspoken in the world today that are at the point of dying andsome are
already extinct (Opala, 2002).
Causes of language death may include among others thefollowing factors: imposition of languages on the others,language
colonialism, foreign language dictatorship andassimilation of languages (Ochieng, 2002).
Other ways of language death include crudesuppression of
native languages as was the practice by thecolonizing states.In a nut
shell, depending on the composition of the society,multilingualism
practice in education should embrace the indigenous, national, oficial and foreign languages as equalpartners in the language policy
development and education.
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REFERENCES
Barasa, S. N (2005). Linguistic Internationalism: A Step towardsHarmonious WorldRelations? In Proceedings of 17th18thMarch on Across Borders: Beneiting from CulturalDifferences, DAAD Regional Ofice in Africa, Nairobi,300-12,
2005.
Bolinger, D. A Sears. Aspects of Language, HarcourtBrace Javanovich, Inc., New York, 1981
Bussmann, H. (1996). Rout ledge Dictionary of Language andlinguistics, Rout ledge, London, 1996.
King, A. (2007). Speaking in Tongues. In Reader’s Digest, Readers
Digest Association, Inc., USA, 96-101, 2007.
Lyons, J. (1981). Language and Linguistics: An Introduction,Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1981
Ochieng, P. (2002). The Dictatorship of English. In Daily
Nation,Wednesday, March 6th, Nation Media Group, Nairobi, 11,2002.
Opala, K. How Kenya Stands to Lose More than 10 Tribes. In Daily
Nation,Wednesday, March 6th, Nation MediaGroup, Nairobi,
11, 2002
Webb, V. Kembo Sure. (2000) African Voices: An Introductionto
the Languages and Linguistics of Africa, OxfordUniversity
Press, Southern Africa, 2000
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