Scribd
Upload
569 views

Sociolinguistics (Essay)

Language choice is influenced by many social factors and varies between communities. In multilingual societies, speakers often choose languages based on who they are speaking to, the context or setting of the conversation, and the purpose of the communication. Some of the main factors influencing language choice include social status, culture, age, ethnicity, gender, and the participants in the interaction. People may switch between languages or combine languages based on these social and contextual factors.

Uploaded by

Youniverse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
569 views

Sociolinguistics (Essay)

Language choice is influenced by many social factors and varies between communities. In multilingual societies, speakers often choose languages based on who they are speaking to, the context or setting of the conversation, and the purpose of the communication. Some of the main factors influencing language choice include social status, culture, age, ethnicity, gender, and the participants in the interaction. People may switch between languages or combine languages based on these social and contextual factors.

Uploaded by

Youniverse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

Language Choice

(Yuni Kartika Harnum)

Language is one of the most important factors in human life, by using


language they can convey their opinions and questions clearly. In this era of
globalization, the spread of language is easier to do, people can learn the variety of
languages that exist so that the speaker can easily determining which language they
want to use. The language choice is also one of the most important factors for
speakers, they usually using the local language when they are in their city or village.

Language is an essential part of any community, and in some countries


speaking various languages is common. Sociolinguistics looks at how language is
affected by community; these cultural norms, gender, occupation, social status, social
setting, and other social constructs. Appropriate language for one social setting may
not be appropriate for another and may not be appropriate at all in another culture.

In sociolinguistics, language choice describes a society which communicate


with more than a single word. In these bilingual societies, speakers usually can decide
which language to use according they are speaking with, the setting of the dialogue,
and the function of the dialogue. For example, in these communities, people may find
it more suitable to talk to the elder or have an important conversation with their
family in their first language. Or if the speaker relaxes in a social occasion (such as
party) then the speaker may speaks casual language. Multilingual speakers may also
experience code switching (code is use for different languages), where the speaker
will switch between two languages in a conversation.

In 1964, Dell Hathaway Hymes, one of the most noted world sociolinguists,
suggested eight factors that bilingual, multilingual, or monolingual people may
consider when choosing a code. The factors were formulated into an acronym,
namely SPEAKING, which stands for Setting and Scene, Participants, Ends, Act
sequence, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms of interaction, and Genre.

According to Managan (2004) also believes that the choice of dominant


language provides people with prestige and the opportunity to socialize more with
others which leads to the possibility of expanding social networks and getting more
economic success. Once someone becomes a member of a particular language group,
this group becomes a social network and develops a sense of identity that can be
revealed through language choices and ways of speaking.

Bentahila (1983) states that language choice may be influenced by factors


related to individual speakers, certain languages and their associations, or aspects of
the social situation. It seems that certain choices can be influenced by a number of
variables, perhaps from different weights.

Fasold (1990) argues that multilingualism serves as an interactional source for


multilingual speakers. This means that one particular language can usually be used at
home or with close friends, while other languages can be used for trade and trade, and
even a third for dealing with government agencies.

David (2006) argues that language choice is triggered by such factors as social
status, gender, educational attainment, ethnicity, age, occupation, rural and urban
origin, speaker, topic, place, media and situation formality. This finding is supported
by Fasold (1990), Spolsky (2004) and Mugambi (2003).

Coulmas (1997) explains that people make linguistic choices for various
purposes. Individuals and groups choose words, registers, styles and languages to
fulfil their various needs about communication of ideas, associations with and
separation from others, domination or defence of domination. People are blessed with
the ability to adapt their linguistic repertoire to new situations and build their
language for a specific purpose.
From the definition above, the write can concludes that language choice is
commonly used and found in life especially in bilingual and multilingual community.
Therefore language choices are usually influenced by social status, culture, age and
ethnicity.

Based on Holmes (2013:22) language choices is a choice of language


interaction that happens in many speech communications. It means that in someone
communication, it usually find some people make a language choice in their
communication. Moreover, in multilingual communities will find people using more
than two languages. The use of more than one language by the speaker in
communication indicates that they make language choice. In other words, they will
choose one language or combine the languages when interact with each other. People
choose an appropriate language when they speak, people switch language into other
language, and they use different language in different context. They try to make
themselves confident to communicate with other community, although sometimes
they are not fluent to use the language.

According to Giles (1987), the analysis of language selection in multilingual


settings remains an important effort in sociolinguistic research. Early attempts by
linguists and sociologists in describing the use of language in general quantitative
terms have failed to explain the evidence for inter-community heterogeneity,
individuals and opportunities. Theoretically, subtle tools are needed to explain why X
languages are used in situation X, and why Y is used in situation Y.

According to Somarsono (2009:201), there are three kinds of language choice


in sociolinguistic field these are; code switching, code mixing, and variation in the
same language. First code switching, the speaker influenced by some factors;
participants, topic and situation. Second code mixing, it appears in phrases and
words. The last is variation within the same language, it is combining the same
language between formal and informal form. It is related with Fasold statement (as
cited in Chaer and Agustina, 2004:153) that language choice has three kinds of
choices, these are: code switching, code mixing, and language variation.

Everything that people do is usually influenced by something as well as


language choice. When people communicate with others they usually influence by
some factors like culture, age, ethnicity gender, and so on.

For example, in Indonesia, people usually use their own local language and
they also usually use Indonesian as the national language, some people even speak
English, for instance, Buginese is being able to speak Bugis (as their mother tongue),
also able to speak Indonesia as L2 some even speak English as L3.

A native speaker of Arabian, for instance, might prefer to use their language
wherever possible, but if he should himself in an environment where there are no
other Arabian speakers in a foreign country, for example, they would choose to use
their scond or third language.
References:

Oriana, Livida Widya and Erilta Rusnaningtias. 2018. The Language Choice
of the Members of Global E’s English Camp Program in Kampung Inggris, Pare.
Anglicist 07(01).

Dweik, Bader Sa’id and Hanadi A. Qawar. 2015. Language Choice and
Language Attitudes in a Multilingual Arab Canadian Community: Quebec-Canada: A
Sociolinguistic Study. British Journal of English Lingustics 3(1).

David, Maya Khemlani. 2017. Trajectory of Language Choices –from Kuala


Lumpur, Malaysia to New Delhi, India: a Case Study. International Journal of
Research in Sociology and Anthropologuy (IJRSA) 3(2).

Granhemat, Mehdi and Ain Nadzimah Abdullah. 2017. Gender, Ethnicity,


Ethnic Identity, and Language Choice of Malaysian Youths: the Case of the Family
Domain. Advances in Language and Literacy Studies 8(2).

Bissoonauth, Anu. 1998. Language Use, Language Choice and Language


Attitudes Among Young Mauritian Adolescents in Secondary Education. PhD Thesis,
University of Nottingham.

Ariesta, Ria. 2015. Kecenderungan Pemilihan Bahasa (Language Choice)


Kalangan Terpelajar. FKIP Universitas Bengkulu.

Utami, Rizki. 2017. Language Choice used by Javanese Students of English


Language Education Department in Daily Coversation. Walisongo State Islamic
University. Semarang.

Yusmawati., Cut Intan Lestari and Nurul Hidayah. 2018. Language Choice
Used by Chinese Family in Langsa. Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics,
Literature and Language Teaching 2(2).
Callahan, Ewa and Susan C. Herring. 2012. Language Choice on University
Websites: Longitudinal Trends. International Journal of Communication 6.

Fatmawati, Ade. 2018. Language Choice by Javanese in Multilingual Society


in Kelurahan Harjosari 1 Medan. Universitas of Sumatra Utara. Medan.

You might also like