Language Choice of Balinese and Japanese Mixed Marriage Children

Abstract

Japanese and Balinese mixed marriage children have become bilingual since the early years of the language acquisition period. They acquired the inheritance of the languages (Indonesian, Japanese, and Balinese) from their parents. This research was conducted to find the language choice of mixed marriage children of Balinese and Japanese in Bali. The language use domain is divided into two: family and social. In each domain, the topic, the background of the situation, and the people involved are determined. The data was gathered using questionnaires employed to 10 mixed married families. The method includes observation and interviews. The result of data analysis showed that in the family domain there are variations of the children's language preferences when communicating. The children choose Indonesian when communicating with the father, and Japanese with the mother. However, there are also other options for using mixed code between Indonesian, Japanese and also English. In the social domain, the language choice is more homogeneous, which is Indonesian. Meanwhile, it was found that there was resistance towards the use of Balinese by Japanese-Balinese Mixed Marriage Family (JBMF) and the factors that affected the children's language choice were also discovered.