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.

2

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

6

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

7

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.

8

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).

11

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.

15

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

16

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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29

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.