Abstract
This study focuses on looking at how Indonesian students view themselves as Indonesians and as members of certain ethnic groups in relation to their ability to speak in the local/heritage languages. This article also covers their attitude towards their heritage languages in comparison to English, as a foreign language. The data for this study were collected through paper-based questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. It is found that participants with the ability to speak in their local language felt more confident in stating their ethnic identity. There was also a lead to confusion of their ethnic identities, for those few who can't speak any local language. These youths are proud Indonesians, with their Indonesian languages. However, as predicted by Rini (2014), among other languages in Indonesia, English will still be a more important foreign language. This study adds that English appears to be more important than any local language to these Indonesian students.
Highlights
Ethnicity was once astounding when talking about Indonesia
Indonesian as the national language and English as the international language has overruled the local languages in Indonesia
The languages they speak ranging from Indonesian, English, and local languages
Summary
Ethnicity was once astounding when talking about Indonesia. Indonesia boasts its thousands of islands and hundreds of different ethnicities, not less than 1340 ethnicities (Kominfo, 2017). It was published that there have been 718 local languages identified all across Indonesia, and the number is still growing. Indonesia is second only to Papua New Guinea with the most languages spoken across the globe (Sunendar, 2019). It is acknowledged that 14 local languages have perished, and 341 languages need more attention, as they are slowly dying. Sunendar claimed that it is likely due to our lack of awareness and knowledge of how vulnerable our cultural heritage is
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