Actually, I don’t really remember when I learned language at the first time. I mean, no one in this world knows when he/she at the very first time said a word like “mama” or “papa” (babies always say one of those word as their first word). However, according to Bruder Stanis, in his subject material “Teaching English for Young Learners”; babies start to learn language when they are in the womb. So, how can people remember that, while at that time, they even don’t know if they will be born safe or not. That is why, in this note, I will not try to remember from I was in the womb.
I realize that, learning the first language for children is a must; babies must learn language or they will die. I mean, no one can live without knowing language. Even a baby was born with disabilities like has ear disfunction or dumb, they will learn a language (their language). What if we didn't have names for things? What if we didn't have experience making statements, asking questions, or talking about things that hadn't actually happened? Would we be able to think? What would our thoughts be like? Can you experience sensations, impressions, feelings without language? The point is, it is imposible to live without knowing a language.
In my family, we speak two languages; Indonesian and manggarai language, but most of time we speak Indonesian. The problem here is, I am not really sure whether my first language is manggarai language or Indonesian. The fact is, I know both languages from when I was child, and I always use them randomly. Mr. Ikin ever asked me, what is my first language and I said “Indonesian”. I don’t know why I said like that, while I also know manggarai language since I was child. Then I found the answer, maybe my first language is Indonesian because even in this age, sometimes I have to ask my friend some words in manggaraian language that I never heard before. I know it is not a good answer, but I think I am good in using Indonesian rather than manggarai language.
In this reflection, I will divide the points of my experiences in five parts. In the first part, I will tell my experience in learning language in my family environment. In the second part, I will tell my experience in learning language with my teacher, the third part, I will tell my story in learning language with my friends in school, the fouth part, with my friends in neighborhood, and the last is with adults in my neighborhood. I choose these parts because I think, I learned language in different way in each part. So, let us move to the first part.
Experience in Learning Language in My Family Environment
I was born in Pitak-Ruteng, 26 years ago and I can’t remember any experiences I did until I was three years old. From my birth day until 7 years old, my parents, my sister and I lived in my grandfather’s home at Pitak. Like I stated above, in my family environment, until now, we speak two languages; Indonesian and manggarai language, but most of time we speak Indonesian. Why did we speak Indonesian? The first, my grandfather was a PNS, and always spoke Indonesian and he always tried to familiarize his children and his wife (I mean my grandmother) to speak Indonesian. The second, my parents also always speak Indonesian. My father is a PNS too and my mother was a teacher (after giving birth to me, she resigned from her proffesion as a teacher). I always remember when I was child, my grandfather always said to my parents when they spoke to me in manggarai language; “pake melaju, awas jadi ata kampong”. I also remember, my parents always gave my sister and I a quiz like; “apa bahasa indonesianya “kode”? jarang? etc”. I think, that was the way my family taught me Indonesian and I loved the way. About manggarai language, of course I also learned a litle from them. Sometimes they spoke manggarai, but not with my sister and me. They always tried to speak indonesian with us or like my grandfather said; “pake melaju, awas jadi ata kampong”. I ever read an article that says “ motivation can influence language learning outcomes independently from language aptitude (Gardner, 1972; Wigfield & Wentzel, 2007)”. I think, it was what happened with how I learned my first language in my family environment. Like I stated above, aptitude and motivation gave a big impact to me in learning Indonesian as my first language.
Experience in Learning Language with My Teacher at school
I will start telling my experience in learning language with my teacher at school from when I was in Kindergarten. In 1995, I entered Dharma Wanita Kindergarten. I was a young child at that time. I was about 4 years old. In my kindergarten, it was like it was my first interaction with adults outside my family environment. I remember, a month I was in kindergarten class, I always cried. All I want was my mother must be outside the class waiting for me. Yeah, then my mother did not go home because of me. In kindergarten school at the first time we entered, my teachers taught us using two languages; Manggarai language and Indonesian. They used two language, maybe because they knew that not all their students acquired Indonesian at home, but the most they used was Indonesian. The language used also was very simple. It was like they asked us to draw or play some games. But actually, I learned more Indonesian from them. So, from my kindergarten teacher, I leared two languages. Even just a litle for Manggarai language.
It was contrast with when I was in the primary school; in SDK Ruteng V, the teacher used Indonesian as language teaching. In primary school, I started learning more Indonesian vocabularies, learned alphabet, learn how to write and many more. At this stage, I developed more thing about my fisrt language; Indonesian. By learning also, I could communicate well with my friends using Indonesian. I remember, like in every children’s experience, “Ini Budi” become a famous sentence in my mind. I think “Budi” also helped me in learning language. BTW, Thanks “Budi”.
Krashen ever said that “monitor is anything that corrects your language performance and pressures one to communicate correctly and not just convey meaning”. I think, it was what happened when I was in kindergarten and primary school. By monitoring, I could learn and acquire my first language with my teachers’ assistance. It cannot be like how I speak now if I did not enter school at the past and got some language knowlegde from my teachers. I think, my teachers had done a great job for my language development.
My Story in Learning Language with My Friends at School
Besides in my family environment and teachers’ teaching, I think I also learned language from my friend when I was in kindergarten and primary school. I mean, from what teachers’ said in class, when I got chances with my friends, I always tried to practice it with them.
In my interaction with my friends, I use two languages; Indonesian and Manggarai language, but most of time I used Indonesian, especially in primary school. The first reason why I used Indonesian the most when I communicated with my friends in primary school was because most of my friends were “baba/ aci/ chinese”. For sure, they never spoke Manggarai language at school. They always spoke Indonesian. By that, my skill in using Indonesian was also increased. Sometimes, I used Manggarai language, but it was when I was with my friends who originally is from Manggarai. Therefore, I spoke two languages at primary school; Indonesian and Manggarai language, even most of time I used Indonesian.
0 komentar:
Post a Comment
No SARA ya Guys...