THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS’ USE OF JAVANESE LANGUAGE

Abstract

This paper concerns the use of Javanese language by English department students of Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia. The students selected as the subjects of research are those of the second (2 nd ) and fourth (4 th ) semesters whose both parents are Javanese. In total, there were sixty-two (62) students participating in the research. The students were given questionnaires and discourse completion tasks to fill in; the questionnaires were used to elicit data regarding the students’ choice of codes in the family or home domain, and the discourse completion tasks (DCT-s) were used as a means to double check their answers in the questionnaires. The highest statistics of Javanese usage in the family domain is between the respondents and their older siblings because within this context they can use ngoko, the style of Javanese they master the most, whereas in interactions other than that with their siblings, the students must use krama, madya or ngoko alus styles, depending upon the participants’ ages, social status and distance. Most of the students, as is shown in the DCT-s, are at best in the ngoko style.