parents’ reasons for sending their...
TRANSCRIPT
PARENTS’ REASONS FOR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO
BILINGUAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Arinta Widyasari
112009116
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
i
PARENTS’ REASONS FOR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO
BILINGUAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Arinta Widyasari
112009116
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
ii
PARENTS’ REASONS FOR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO
BILINGUAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Arinta Widyasari
112009116
Approved by:
Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, M.A. Anita Kurniawati, M. Hum.
Supervisor Examiner
iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university.
To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously
published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text.
Copyright@ 2013. Arinta Widyasari and Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without
the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department,
Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
Arinta Widyasari
iv
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic community, I verify that:
Name: Arinta Widyasari Student ID Number: 112009116
Study Program: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Faculty: Language and Literature Kind of Work: Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
PARENTS‟ REASONS FOR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO BILINGUAL
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
along with any pertinent equipment.
With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains the right to copy, reproduce, print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a retrieval system or database, transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual property, in whole or in part without my express written permission, as long as my name is still included as the writer.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in : Salatiga Date : ________________
Verified by signee,
__________________ Approved by
Thesis Supervisor Thesis Examiner Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, M.A. Anita Kurniawati, M. Hum.
v
Table of Content
Cover Page .................................................................................................................. i
Approval Page ............................................................................................................. ii
Copyright Statement ....................................................................................................... iii
Publication Agreement Declaration ............................................................................... iv
Table of Content ......................................................................................................... v
List of Tables ............................................................................................................. vi
List of Figures ............................................................................................................. vii
Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2
The Study
Context of the study ...................................................................................... 9
Participant ...................................................................................................... 11
Data collection instrument ............................................................................ 12
Data collection procedures ............................................................................ 12
Data analysis procedures ............................................................................ 13
Discussion
The demand to be able to speak global language ............................................. 14
Prestige and pride .......................................................................................... 15
Parents‟ pretension to give future investment for children ........................... 16
Giving supportive language environment for children to socialize................... 18
Parents‟ ignorance about children‟s ability in learning languages.................... 20
Parents‟ attention in children‟s identity ......................................................... 22
Conclusion and Suggestion ........................................................................................ 24
Acknowledgement ...................................................................................................... 26
References .................................................................................................................. 27
Appendix .................................................................................................................... 29
vi
List of Tables
Table 1 : Parents‟ reasons of sending their children to bilingual
ECE (prestige and pride) ........................................... 15
Table 2 : Parents‟ point of view on children‟s future ............... 16
Table 3 : Parents‟ point of view on children‟s environment..... 18
Table 4 : Parents‟ perception about children ability in learning
languages ................................................................... 20
Table 5 : Parents‟ perception on children‟s identity related to
bilingual ECE ............................................................ 22
vii
List of Figures
Figure 1 : Parents‟ background education ................................. 11
Figure 2 : Parents‟ occupation .................................................. 12
1
PARENTS’ REASONS FOR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO
BILINGUAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Arinta Widyasari
Abstract
The importance of English has been widely acknowledged all around the
world along with the global growth. To prepare young generation (children) with
English, bilingual Early Childhood Education (ECE) has become trend in Indonesia
society, there are many Indonesian-English bilingual ECE emerging in Indonesia. In
this study, 36 parents of bilingual ECE students were given questionnaire
investigating about their reasons for sending their children to an Indonesian-English
bilingual ECE. This study revealed that parents‟ concern are mostly on social and
economic reasons, such the demand to be able to speak global language, prestige and
pride, parents‟ pretension to give future investment for children, and giving
supportive language environment for children to socialize. Apart from the parents‟
reasons above, the study suggests that in fact parents were not aware about the
children‟s ability in learning more than one language at the same time and the effect
of being bilingual to the children‟s cognitive development.
Keywords: bilingual, early education, children, parents, reasons, globalization.
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Introduction
The fact that English is now widespread around the world is indisputable.
This idea was strengthened by House (2003). She analyzed the increasing number of
English learners which showed that English is now no longer „owned‟ by its native
speakers only. Non-native speakers now use it for international contacts in various
aspects.
As a language of wider communication, English continues to spread and
permeate globally, crossing the boundaries of different nationalities. As a result, Non-
English speaking countries are competing to prepare their young people with high
quality of English such as Indonesia. Indonesia uses bahasa (Indonesian language)
and some local languages as its daily languages and in this country English seen as a
foreign language. Nowadays, many education institutions in Indonesia are struggling
to find the most effective way to keep balance with the global growth. One of the
solutions is by conducting bilingual Indonesian-English education for children that is
Early Childhood Education abbreviated as ECE.
Davies (2005), in her article mentioned that many parents in Jakarta (one of
major cities of Indonesia) are thinking hard on their children‟s education. It is almost
inevitably that the topic English comes to their mind as a consideration. Parents want
their children to acquire English not only as a foreign language but also as a language
of instruction. But many parents are worried of children ability in the English
language will not sufficient to follow the instructions in the learning process. Some of
3
the parents mentioned that they believed that children may suffer from confusion of
languages. It means that parents in Jakarta are aware of children‟s ability in learning
more than one languages at the same time. On the other hand, Tare and Gelman
(2010) argue that children actually have special ability in learning languages which
make them to acquire languages naturally and easily.
There are many Indonesian-English bilingual ECE emerging in Indonesia, it
means that the number of the students of bilingual ECE is increasing day by day. It
comes up with a problem that is the indistinctness of parents‟ reasons in sending
children to a bilingual ECE. There are some possible reasons, whether parents are
aware with the consequence of bilingual children or only following the trends of
bilingual ECE.
Although there is a lot of research that show pros and cons in bilingual
education for young learners, there are still a small number of research investigating
about parents‟ reasons for sending children to Indonesian-English bilingual Early
Childhood Education. Knowing parents‟ reasons is beneficial. Educational institution
can develop better programs for bilingual Early Childhood Education‟s future based
on parents‟ reasons to full fill their intentions. This research aims at investigating
parents‟ reasons of sending their children to Indonesian-English bilingual pre-school.
The research question to be answered in this study is “What are parents‟ reasons for
sending their children to bilingual Early Childhood Education?
4
The Definition of Bilingual Education
The term bilingual refers to bilingualism, that is the ability to communicate in
two (or several) languages independently of the relative level of the competence
based on the modes and ages of acquisition (Lüdi, 2003). In the educational area,
bilingual education means the use of two or more languages as medium of
instructions (Ball, 2011). This argument also supported by Hamers and Blanc (2000).
They believe that bilingual education is defined as an education which uses two or
more languages as the media of instruction for any part of or the entire school
curriculum including the other subjects.
Exerting those beliefs, the school which has bilingual programs in Indonesia
apply both children‟s mother tongue (Indonesia) and foreign language (in this study is
English) as the media of communication in the learning process. Using both
languages in the learning process aimed children‟s familiarity in English because it is
spoken. When the languages are spoken, it gives more opportunity for children to
interact with the language itself.
Negative Impacts of Being Bilingual
Nonetheless, forcing children to learn two languages at the same time has
negative impacts. Day (2002) argues that the use of language shows our identities and
membership in groups. In this study the group of identity being discussed is
Indonesian identity because children‟s community is Indonesian that uses bahasa
Indonesia in daily communication. When children are forced to use English, it will
5
immolate their mother tongue which will cause lack ability in bahasa Indonesia.
Troubles might happen when children have to access appropriate lexical items. For
children who live in Indonesian community, lack ability in bahasa will be an obstacle
for their social interaction. The other negative impact was found out by Lee (1996),
who claims that the extrusion in two or more languages can be barrier for cognitive
growth and will cause mental confusion for children. It will block their cognitive
development. From both Day‟s and Lee‟s statements, it can be said that forcing
children to learn more than one languages brings cognitive and social disadvantages.
The other problem of forcing children to learn more than one languages found
out by Tsushima and Hogan (1975), they found out that ten to eleven year old
Japanese-English bilinguals scored lower on measures of verbal ability than
monolinguals in a comparison group (Lee, 1996). This conclusion was also supported
by De Houwer (1999). He believes that children who haven‟t acquired their first
language but forced to acquire another language will experience mental confusion.
This problem will immolate children‟s cognitive growth because children‟s mentality
is not ready to absorb the input. From the previous study above, it implies that early
bilingual education gives disadvantages for children‟s cognitive development.
The Advantages of Bilingual Education
Although there are some statements which are against to children bilingual
education, Guido (2009) stated that the use of English is important and it produces an
“investment” both for children‟s future education and for the parents since we are in
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globalization era. Investment here means that through English, children may get
many better opportunities in their future education because nowadays many job
vacancies need applicants who are fluent in English. It means that bilingual children
have more opportunities than monolingual children.
Despite there is an attack on children‟s cognitive development, there is still
exuberate evidence supporting early bilingual education. Pacific Policy Research
Center (2010) pointed out that children who achieve bilingual education perform a
better achievement academically. This conclusion was also supported by Winsler,
Diaz, Espinosa and Rodriguuez (1999). They analyzed children who attend a
bilingual school to see whether learning a second language will immolate the first
language or not. The result showed that children who learn two languages at the same
time made greater gains over time in their lexical production. It means that forcing
children to learn another language brings advantage for children‟s cognitive
development.
Most recent studies (Lao, 2004; Shin, 2000; Shannon and Milian, 2002;
Young and Tran, 1999; Lindholm-Leary and Borsato, 2002) proved the positive
effect of early bilingual education existence. Their findings show the positive side of
giving two languages for children to learn at the same time. Their conclusions
showed that children who have bilingual ability have more opportunities to have a
better job. In term of globalization, there is a global language which is needed to keep
balance with global development in all aspects such as economic, education, medical
and so on. By getting bilingual education, children will get better future because
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children will have the basic access to study abroad that is English as the global
language. Those findings revealed parents‟ reasons for sending their children to a
bilingual school.
Children as Language Learners
When children are familiar with English, they will be more likely to acquire
the language well. This thought was supported by Gordon (1956), Lennerberg (1967),
and Chomsky (1959) as stated in Zacharias (2010) who believe that children language
ability is innate; they have “language instinct” and “Language Acquisition Device” or
LAD which enable them to learn language naturally. Moreover early language
learners have intuitive understanding of whether or not a second language sentence is
well-formed grammatically. It proves that childhood is the best time to acquire more
than one language.
As stated in Gordon (2007) children are able to master language better than
adults because children learn by using both procedural memory to learn grammar and
declarative memory to learn new words. On the other way, adults rely on declarative
memory only to learn both grammar and new words. Adults learn new language in
the same way as they learn a new fact so that they find difficulties in learning a new
language. Gordon (2007) also mentioned that children learn language in the same
way as they learn their first language. In other words children learn language
naturally.
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Children as natural language learrners also proved by Tare and Gelman
(2010). They argue that children have the ability to differentiate two input languages;
they have the ability to use different language appropriately with interlocutors who
speak in different languages. Their conclusion was also supported by Werner Leopold
(1949) as cited in Lee (1996) that bilingual children are able to focus on the content
of words because they learn early on the abstractness and symbolism of words. They
are forced to separate two different words for each referent so that they could
differentiate the two languages.
Parents’ Role in Children’s Education
Reflecting on the belief that children are better language learners than adults,
it motivates educational institutions in Indonesia to build bilingual ECE. A lot of
bilingual ECEs are emerging in Indonesia. This fact motivates parents to force their
children to learn English from the earlier age by sending their children to bilingual
ECE. Examined in the light of Norton‟s theories (2001), when someone learns a
language, he has a concept in his mind about his “future objective” related to the
language they learnt. “Future objective” here means that when someone learns a
language, he has a desire to heighten his/her ability. But in this study, the context is
children‟s education, and the one who owns “future objective” is parents. In other
words, the one who wants to learn English is not the children themselves. It is their
parents‟ want based on various reasons and purposes (Zacharias, 2010). This
statement was also supported by other researcher, who said that children who are
9
learning bilingual language are the result of parents' intentional choice because the
one who decided where children have to study is parents (Lüdi, 2003).
A study about parental attitudes towards bilingual education and policies done
by Pugliese (2010) showed that parents felt bilingual programs were helpful for
children, for obtaining billiteracy and gaining self-esteem. Unfortunately, parents
were not sure about their knowledge on bilingual education programs itself. Parents
do know the advantages but they do not know the negative impact of bilingual
programs. It can be seen that parents actually have low understanding on bilingual
programs.
Supportive and concerned parents are critical ingredients in the success of
children‟s education (Pugliese, 2010). Parents are the one who are capable at deciding
children‟s school and what children have to learn. Parents definitely want the best for
their child. Because of this trigger, bilingual ECEs compete to give the best result for
the children by giving promise that the children will acquire English well in their
school through various programs served.
The Study
This study is a qualitative research. The qualitative data were gathered by
using a close-ended questionnaire.
Context of the study
The setting of the study is a small town of Central Java, Indonesia named
Salatiga. English is rarely used in the daily life but nowadays a lot of bilingual ECEs
10
(Early Childhood Education) have been emerging in this town. The subject of this
small scale study is a bilingual ECE named Satya Wacana Children Centre
abbreviated as SWCC, located in the area of Satya Wacana Christian University. The
school classifies the students based on the age. There are four different classes. The
youngest is Twigs class (Preschool), for students whose ages are two to three years
old. Buds class (Play group) is the class for students whose ages are three to four
years old. The other classes are Blossom (Kindergarten A) which is for four to five-
year-old students and Bloomers (Kindergarten B) which is for five to six-year-old
students. The learners come from various origins. Some of the learners are Indonesian
and Chinese-Indonesian. There are also learners who are Australian, Dutch and
Korean.
In this school, English is not only used as a subject being taught but also as an
instructional language. Even though this school is a bilingual school, English is used
much more than Bahasa Indonesia. One of the programs of this school is English
language and communication, which gives the learners great opportunities to learn
and communicate using English. English Club is an additional class to make the
young learners get closer to English. Although there are many bilingual ECE in
Salatiga, SWCC was chosen because of the availability access for gathering the data
(sample of convenience).
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Participants
This study investigated parents‟ reasons for sending their children to a
bilingual Early Childhood Education. Thereby, the participants selected are all
Indonesian parents in Satya Wacana Children Centre from 4 classes (Twigs, Buds,
Blossoms, and Bloomers). The parents of the children there came from different
background of education. Figure 1 below shows parents‟ background education, there
are four categories. The four categories are high school graduate (10%), diploma
graduate (8,75%), bachelor degree (58,75%), and post graduate (22,5%).
Figure 1. Parents’ Background Education
Figure 2 bellow as an illustration of parents‟ occupation. Parents of SWCC
students have various occupation either mother or father, there are lectures, company
10.00% 8.75%
58.75%
22.50%
High School Graduate Diploma Graduate Bachelor Degree Post Graduate
Parents' Background Education
Parents' Background Education
12
workers, entrepreneur, housewives, and others (mariner, doctors, reverends, and
teachers).
Figure 2. Parents’ Occupation
Data Collection Instrument
This study followed a close-ended questionnaire because close-ended
questionnaire is easy for the participants to answer and the responses given are fixed
and controlled. The questionnaire consist of 16 statements which require „yes‟ or „no‟
answer from the participants. Considering that not all the parents know English well,
the writer used bahasa (Indonesian language) in the questionnaire. There was no
questionnaire piloting due to the time limitation of the study.
Data Collection Procedures
The writer spread the questionnaires to all (44) parents in Satya Wacana
Children Centre but only 36 returned. The questionnaires were given to the parents
18.48%
31.52%
15.21%
7.60%
16.30%
Lectures Company Workers
Others Entrepreneur Housewives
Parents'Occupation
Parents'Occupation
13
when they were dropping and picking up their children to school. Some of them filled
out the questionnaire directly and some brought it home, in one or two days they
returned it to the writer. The whole data collection lasted about two weeks, started
from March 4th 2013 to March 15th 2013. Considering the participants are parents,
the writer decided to meet the parents one by one and extend the questionnaire
directly in order to prevent random answer. There are forty seven Indonesian
students; six of them are come from the same family, therefore the questionnaires
distributed were forty four. Thirty six questionnaires out of forty four were returned.
Data Analysis Procedures
The data collected was analyzed and processed using Microsoft Excel
including the statistical data. From the statistical data, the writer developed „tentative‟
themes to find the major theme of parents‟ reasons.
The Discussion
The purpose of this study is to find out parents‟ reasons for sending their
children to a bilingual Early Childhood Education. From the data collected, there are
4 major factors that led parents to send their children to a bilingual Early Childhood
Education. This study revealed that parents‟ concern are mostly on social and
economic reasons, such the demand to be able to speak global language, prestige and
pride, parents‟ pretension to give future investment for children, and giving
supportive language environment for children to socialize. The other findings show
that parents do not understand about the essential of teaching English for young
14
learners such as children‟s thinking ability in learning language and children‟s
identity.
The Demand to Be Able to Speak Global Language
The result confirm that 34 parents out of 36 (94%) parents agree with the
statement “I want my children following world‟s development that is be able to use
more than one language, especially English”. Parents send their children to a
bilingual school because nowadays is a globalization era. Parents want their children
to follow world‟s development which requires an ability to communicate fluently
with others moreover with foreigners. This demand encourages parents to give
opportunity, even forcing children to learn global language at the early age. The
growth of technology is the other background of this reason. By knowing English, it
is easier for children to use technology such as a computer which requires English to
operate it.
Parents‟ choice on bilingual school shows parents‟ intention who wants their
children to participate on global growth. Parents think that children have to learn
global language. This perception is supported by Ingram and Sasaki (2003), who
believe that people nowadays must learn a language that can be a bridge to deal with
and to survive in the global era because the world is diverse and varied culturally,
linguistically, and racially. Knowing English and be able to use it actively will gain
one step ahead for bilingual children compared to monolingual children because the
key to follow global development is communication.
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Prestige and Pride
The existence of bilingual schools in Salatiga became a hot topic among
parents because they are suddenly appearing. This situation has made parents think
twice before deciding where they will send their children, whether to a regular
(monolingual) or a bilingual school. The following table (Table 1) is the sum up of
the parents‟ reasons which are showing their prestige and pride in sending their
children to bilingual ECE.
No. Statements Agree Disagree Abstain
1. I choose bilingual ECE because nowadays
there are so many bilingual ECEs appearing
in my town.
50% 50% -
2. I think that children who can speak English
are impressive.
69% 25% 6%
3. I am proud because my son/daughter can
speak English.
78% 19% 3%
Table 1: Parents’ reasons of sending their children to bilingual ECE
(prestige and pride)
From table above, out of 36 participants, 18 (50%) agree that they send their
children to a bilingual school because of trend. The number of students in bilingual
school is increasing year by year along with the emergence of bilingual school. It can
be seen that people started to trust bilingual school. They do not want their children to
be left behind in educational field especially in language subject. Then the results
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show that 78% of parents feel proud because their children can speak English.
Further, the results show that 69% of participants agree that children who can speak
English are impressive. From the three statements above (table 1) it can be seen that
prestige and pride become parents‟ reasons for choosing a school for children.
Parents’ Pretension to Give Future Investment for Children
Parents choose bilingual school for future investment. Future investment in
this study is a perception of parents who think that by giving English as soon as
possible, it will give benefit for children‟s future. The following table (Table 2)
shows parents‟ point of view on children‟s future by sending them to a bilingual
ECE.
No. Statements Agree Disagree Abstain
1. Being able to speak English will make my
son/daughter more confident to get along
with people.
67% 28% 5%
2. After graduating from this bilingual ECE, I
wish my son/daughter would be able to speak
English well.
61% 39% -
3. Children who can speak English have bigger
chance to enter a superior school (sekolah
unggulan).
69% 31% -
4. I want to facilitate my son/daughter, so that
he/she can get a good job easily in the future.
94% 3% 3%
5. I believe that by sending my son/daughter to
a bilingual ECE, at the higher education level
he/she will be more intelligent than others.
31% 67% 2%
Table 2: Parents’ point of view on children’s future
17
From the table above we can see that 67% parents believe that by learning
English, children will be more confident when they socialize with others in the future.
Further, parents‟ intention is to facilitate children in their language ability. Sixty one
percent of parents insist that after graduating from bilingual ECE children will be able
to speak English well. The table also shows that 69% of parents assert that bilingual
children will have more chance to enter a superior school or an international level
school which uses English as its communication media. On the contrary, parents
think that children who are bilingual are not more intelligent than monolingual
children when they are in the higher educational level, which can be seen in the fifth
statement. Sixty seven percent of parents think that both monolingual and bilingual
children will have the same thinking ability in the future.
The parents‟ view is contrary to the previous study by Ingram and Sasaki
(2003). In education area, children who are able to use more than one languages have
higher thinking ability. From their research in Canada and Australia, they found that
learning languages give benefit for learners in some areas, such as in intellectually, in
educational attainment, in achievement in their first language, in attitudes to other
people, in creativity, and in many other ways relevant to intellectual and affective
development and to educational attainment. Moreover, Ben Zeev (1997), Cummins
(1976), Hakuta (1986), and Lasagabaster (1997) on Barnes (2006) believe that
children who are bilingual even multilingual have more developed metalinguistic
awareness. This result shows that parents actually do not understand about children
18
ability in learning languages which is become the other benefit of teaching English to
them.
Still connected to future investment, almost 100% of parents believe that by
enclosing English to children in the early age will bring positive benefit in the future.
This is understandable since in this global growth, job vacancies demand the one who
is multilingual (fluent in more than one languages) especially in English. This
situation will give plus point for bilingual children later. Graddol (1997) supports this
idea. He argues that we have entered an era in which language and communication
have become the central role than before such as in political, economics and culture
life because the emergence of a global language.
Giving Supportive Language Environment for Children to Socialize
Social Environment becomes one consideration for parents to decide
which school they will choose for their children because it takes important
role in education. In this study, the environment discussed is leaning towards
community. From this following table (table 3) we can see that parents do
consider about children‟s environment for the learning process.
No. Statements Agree Disagree Abstain
1. I want to give good environment to my
son/daughter as his/her first socialization
community.
100% 0% -
2. I want my son/daughter get along with
friends who are foreigners.
97% 3% -
Table 3: Parents’ point of view on children’s environment
19
Parents send their children to a bilingual school in order to make children
familiar with the target language, English. To achieve this goal, they choose certain
social community that is school which use English as its media of communication or
even a school which has native English students. One hundred percent of the parents
agree that bilingual ECE has a good environment as media to learn English. Parents
want to give the best for their children so they will choose the best school with good
environment and facility although they have to pay more, because bilingual ECE‟s
fee is higher than a regular school. Almost all of parents agree that by sending their
children to a bilingual school, it means they give more opportunity for children to get
along with active English speakers. The active English speakers here are foreigner
students and English speaking teachers so that children can apply the language they
learn actively. Bakhtin as cited in Day (2002) proved this idea; he argues that learning
a new language needs a process where a foreign language should be used as dialogic
language so that learners can deliver their thoughts with appropriate words to
appropriate persons and thus their ability in the foreign language will develop
gradually. Uemura (1999) said that community cannot be separated from students‟
achievement. Education is embedded in local social relations thus school and
communities are closely linked to maximize educational delivery. There is a
perception that social environment could give a positive effect and prepare children to
contribute to the betterment society in which they operate. In bilingual school
children can apply the language they learn in the daily conversation and improve the
20
language unconsciously. This activity brings benefits for children‟s communication
skill.
Other Findings
This study has revealed four parents‟ major reasons in sending children to
Indonesian-English bilingual Early Childhood Education. The other findings show
about parents‟ ignorance about children‟s ability in learning languages and also
parents‟ attention in children‟s identity.
Parents’ Ignorance about Children’s Ability in Learning Languages
Parents are the decision maker for children‟s education. But in this study,
there are some findings which show different results from the expectation. In fact, the
result of the questionnaire on the table below shows that actually parents do not know
about children‟s ability in learning two even more languages at the same time. This
following table 4 illustrates parents‟ perception about children ability in learning
languages.
No. Statements Agree Disagree Abstain
1. Children have language learning ability
better than adult.
8% 92% -
2. Learning two languages at the same time
is easy for children.
28% 67% 5%
3. Bilingual children have better thinking
ability than monolingual children.
64% 33% 3%
Table 4: Parents’ perception about children ability in learning languages
21
The data shows that actually parents do not understand about children ability
in learning more than one languages at the same time. Sixty seven percent of the
parents think that learning two languages at the same time is difficult for children.
Moreover, most of the parents (92%) do not agree with statement “children are better
learner comparing to adults”. This result is adversative with Zacharias‟s (2010) who
believes that childhood is the best time to acquire more than one languages because
children language ability is innate. As stated by Gordon (1997) children are better
learners than adults because they learn a new language in the same way as they learn
their first language. Parents‟ view on this matter is totally different from the theory
proved by Zacharias and Gordon.
Based on the result of items number 1 and 2 above, it can be seen that actually
parents do not know the advantages of teaching languages for children. It can be seen
that parents consider social reasons only. But item number 3 reveals that 64% of
parents agree that bilingual children have better thinking ability compared to
monolingual children.
Moreover, actually there are two similar statements in the questionnaire. The
first one is that “I believe that by sending my son/daughter to a bilingual ECE, at the
higher education level he/she will be more intelligent than others” (statement A, on
table 2 item number 5) and the second is “Bilingual children have better thinking
ability than monolingual children” (statement B, table 4 item number 3). Thirty one
percent of parents agree with statement A but more half of parents (64%) agree with
statement B. These results give the evidence about parents‟ confusion about the idea
22
of bilingual children‟s thinking ability. From this result, it can be seen and proved
that parents really do not have any idea about children‟s ability in learning more than
one language at the same time.
Parents’ Attention in Children’s Identity
The following table (table 5) describes parents‟ perception on children‟s
identity related to Indonesian-English bilingual Early Childhood Education.
No. Statements Agree Disagree Abstain
1. Learning English is important although
it can be obstacle for children‟s ability
to use Indonesian.
34% 58% 8%
2. By learning English in early age,
children will learn western culture.
20% 72% 8%
Table 5: Parents’ perception on children’s identity related to bilingual ECE
From the data, it can be seen that parents know and do consider about
children‟s identity especially being able to speak in their mother tongue (bahasa).
Item number 1 shows that more than half of the participants (58%) agree that English
will not be an obstacle for children‟s development in their mother tongue. Parents
believe that learning English is important and learning it will not make them loss their
mother tongue. This believe proved by Tare and Gelman (2010) who believe that
children are be able to differentiate two language input which enable them to learn
two different languages at the same time. Seventy two percent (72%) of parents also
agree that learning a foreign language does not mean learning its culture which can be
23
boundaries for their own culture. It means that learning western culture is not parents‟
intention. Parents believe that learning English does not mean damaging children‟s
identity. From table 5, it can be seen that parents are aware in children‟s identity as
Indonesian.
24
Conclusion and Suggestion
The aim of this paper was to find out parents‟ reasons for sending their
children to an Indonesian-English bilingual Early Childhood Education. In
connection with the aim, this research focused on the question investigated “What are
parents‟ reasons for sending their children to bilingual Early Childhood Education.
From the findings discussed about parents‟ reasons for sending their children
to bilingual ECE Satya Wacana Children Centre above, it is clearly observed that the
participants of this study mostly focus on social and economic reasons. Almost all
parents agree with the social and economic reasons like This study revealed that
parents‟ concern are mostly on social and economic reasons, such the demand to be
able to speak global language, prestige and pride, parents‟ pretension to give future
investment for children, and giving supportive language environment for children to
socialize. Further, parents disagree with the statement that said children‟s language
learning ability is better compared to adults and they believe that learning more than
one language is difficult for children. It proved that actually parents do not
understand about it. Parents are also less aware of the effect of bilingualism towards
children‟s cognitive development which is one more benefit for bilingual children. It
is essential for knowing children ability so that parents as decision maker could give
the best education treatment for children. Furthermore, the positive finding is that
parents are aware of children‟s identity. Parents assert that they send children to
bilingual ECE without an intention to learn Western culture.
25
Based on the result, there is a need for the educational institution to do some
approach to inform parents about bilingual education in order to socialize the benefits
and focuses of bilingual education for children. Parents with high conscious on
education will help to maximize the effectiveness of children‟s education. Parents‟
involvement in children education will give more benefits such as improvements in
children‟s academic performance, social skill, emotional and social development
(Thompson, 2001; Jordan et al., 2002; Henderson & Berla, 1994; Henderson and
Mapp, 2002; Daniel, 2005). Thus it is important for educational institution to invite
parents to attain the success of children‟s education.
Although the research has reached its aims, there were some unavoidable
limitations. First, because of the time limit, this research was conducted only on a
small size of population that is in one institution only. Therefore, to generalize the
results for larger groups, the study should have involved more participants in more
than one institution. Second, not all questionnaires were returned, some parents were
giving reasonable reasons like they were out of town so they were unable to fill out
the questionnaire but some were not returned it without any reasons.
In addition to widening the scope of study and the perspectives in future
research, it could be seen as very interesting to study parents main direction by
sending children to a bilingual Early Childhood Education in Indonesia considering
the issue of English subject disbandment for childhood education in Indonesia. It
would be interesting to dig deeper about parents‟ intention about children‟s
education.
26
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, praises and thanks to the God, the Almighty, for His
showers of blessings throughout my research work to complete the research
successfully. Second, I would like to express my deep sincere gratitude to my
supervisor, Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, M. A., and my examiner, Anita
Kurniawati, M. Hum., who read my numerous revisions and helped some sense of the
confusion. Also, I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love, prayers, caring
and for educating and preparing me for my future. Also I am extending my thanks to
my participants and amazing SWCC family for their support during my research
work. I also thank my biggest supporters Lita, Yosi, Bungkus, and also my numerous
friends who endured this long process with me and always offering support and love.
Finally, my thanks go to all the people who have supported me to complete the
research work directly or indirectly.
27
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APPENDIX
Questionnaire Sheet
Dear Parents of Satya Wacana Children Centre students,
I am interested in researching parents‟ reasons in sending children to a
bilingual Early Childhood Education. Your participation in this study will help me to
complete my thesis in English Department at Satya Wacana Christian University.
Please kindly spare a few minutes of your time to fill out this questionnaire. Your
response to this questionnaire will be treated with utmost confidence.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Ms. Arinta
Please give a check () in the „agree‟ or „disagree‟ box, according to your opinion.
The following statements are the reasons why I choose Indonesian-English
bilingual Early Childhood Education for my children.
No. Statements Agree Disagree
1. I want my children following world‟s development
that is be able to use more than one language,
especially English.
2. I choose bilingual ECE because nowadays there are
so many bilingual ECEs appearing in my town.
3. I think that children who can speak English are
impressive.
4. I am proud because my son/daughter can speak
English.
5. Being able to speak English will make my
son/daughter more confident to get along with
people.
30
6. After graduating from this bilingual ECE, I wish
my son/daughter would be able to speak English
well.
7. Children who can speak English have bigger
chance to enter a superior school (sekolah
unggulan).
8. I want to facilitate my son/daughter, so that he/she
can get a good job easily in the future.
9. I believe that by sending my son/daughter to a
bilingual ECE, at the higher education level he/she
will be more intelligent than others.
10. I want to give good environment to my
son/daughter as his/her first socialization
community.
11. I want my son/daughter get along with friends who
are foreigners.
12. Children have language learning ability better than
adult.
13. Learning two languages at the same time is easy for
children.
14. Bilingual children have better thinking ability than
monolingual children.
15. Learning English is important although it can be
obstacle for children‟s ability to use Indonesian.
16. By learning English in early age, children will learn
western culture.