A study on the maintenance of spoken Chinese by young generation of Indonesian Chinese in Surabaya

The study under report was done to answer the following research questions:(1)do young generation of Indonesian Chinese in Surabaya maintain Chinese? (2)what factors influence young generation of Indonesian Chinese to maintain Chinese? And (3)in what ways do young generation of Indonesian Chinese in Surabaya maintain Chinese? This study uses Sociolinguistics: (a) Language of Minority, (b)Language Maintenance, Speech Community and Indonesian Chinese in Surabaya as the underlying theories. In analyzing the data, the writer uses a set of questionnaires and recorded interviews which had been transcribed into phonetic symbols to elicit answers from ten informants whether they maintain Chinese or not, why and how they maintain it. There are two parameters used to analyze the data. The first parameters consist of ( 1) socio-economic factor which related to job-opportunity in the society, (2) demographic factors which deal with domains, parents' role and learning age, (3)attitudes toward Chinese which consists of symbol of group identity, solidarity and self-competence, ( 4) cultural factor which covers preservation of the customs and traditions, and (5) linguistic factors which point out feeling of convenience and habit in speaking Chinese. The second parameters consist of (l)taking a private lesson, (2)going to places of worship where the priest speaks Chinese, ( 3) reading books, (4) reading magazines, (5)reading newspapers, (6)watching films and (7)listening to music. The analysis results show that some of young generation of Indonesian Chinese in Surabaya maintain Chinese and some of them do not. The factors which influence them to maintain Chinese are in the following order of importance: (1)demographic factor, (2)attitude factor, (3)socio-economic factor, (4) linguistic factors and (5)cultural factor. Then, the ways which they take to maintain Chinese are in the following order of frequency: ( 1) taking a private lesson, ( 2) speaking regularly, ( 3) watching films, ( 4) listening to music, ( 5) going abroad to learn and (6) reading magazines. Finally, the writer concludes that Chinese is not maintained well by young generation of Indonesian Chinese in Surabaya. Although there are factors which can influence them and many ways they can take, without Indonesian government's policy toward Chinese itself, it will be a problem. From the findings, the writer suggests that this research might be an important contribution for other students to make another research concerning Chinese or another minority dialects in Indonesia or the influence of Indonesian or Javanese language toward Chinese