CONTESTING REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND GLOBAL IDENTITIES THROUGH THEATTITUDE OF INDONESIAN LANGUAGE STUDENTS

Abstract

This paper examines the way six language students from the Faculty of Humanities,Diponegoro University, contested their identities through their attitude towards languagesthey master or study. In this paper, identity is defined as It is the way someone positions him/herself and is positioned by the others. Self construction of identity refers to the waywe represent ourselves, position ourselves and act out our thought, beliefs, and emotionsin the social world. Using focus group discussion to gather data, I found that the respondents constructed their identities as Javaneses and Indonesians who have a dreamto be members of global citizens. They positioned themselves as inferior comapred to thenatives of foreign languages such as English, Korean, and Japanese. On the other hand,eventhough they claimed that they are Javanese, they feel that they are outsiders whenthey are forced to speak in the Krama Javanese.