PRESERVING VERNACULARS IN INDONESIA: A BILINGUAL VERNACULAR-ENGLISH DICTIONARY APPROACH

Abstract

English learners in Indonesia learn the English language through the Indonesian language, the language oinstruction in the country's education, despite the fact that 80% of the country's population speakvernaculars as mother tongue. The provision of materials for learning, including bilingual dictionaries,therefore follow this convention while bilingual dictionaries accommodating the learners speakingvernaculars natively are barely provided. This condition insists that every Indonesian must comprehend theIndonesian language first to learn English albeit theories on foreign language learning suggest theotherwise. Apart from this, the use of vernaculars of Indonesia itself tends to decline yet the bilinguadictionaries linking the vernaculars with a widely-known language such as English still lack. This articleelaborates the issues of (1) English vocabulary learning and (2) the maintenance of the vernaculars oIndonesia with discussions about Butzkamm's theory and UNESCO's suggestion on foreign languagelearning, Nation's New General Service List as the core of the English vocabulary, and the application otechnology in the lexicography of bilingual dictionary. Choosing Cirebon dialect of Javanese as an example,this article suggests that the provision of a bilingual dictionary functioning as a reference material foEnglish vocabulary learning yet as a documentation of vernacular maintenance is possible.