Wed, 15 Sep 1999

Language modernization needs collective effort

By A. Chaedar Alwasilah

BANDUNG (JP): People living in the modern world may claim that they speak a modern language or, at least, consider it as undergoing modernization.

Modernization entails an ongoing process with five characteristics: Societies become increasingly urban, the size and density of the population increases, the divisions of labor become more specialized, the knowledge base becomes more specialized and industry overshadows agriculture. Language modernization is gauged by the extent the language facilitates or reflects the above five characteristics.

Economically, the dramatic population increase in this country has been anticipated on the one hand with concerns and anxiety. On the other hand, this increase sociolinguistically implies an increased number of Indonesian speakers, thus contributing to the increased popularity and vitality of the language.

Urbanization has been a social phenomenon in this country. Employment created by industries in cities, especially those in Java, has attracted people from remote areas. Many unskilled workers leave the agricultural sectors behind come to industrial cities to find an even harder life.

As sociolinguists see it, the industrial workplace promotes not only the use of common language but also the contact of languages. Workers with different native languages are bound to speak a common language, namely, Indonesian. By dint of industry people become more active and competent bilingual speakers. In the long run, however, they will prefer to use Indonesian as the dominant language to the neglect of less dominant languages.

Theoretically, the more industrialized a country becomes, the more likely it is to be linguistically homogeneous. This hypothesis holds true when juxtaposing industrialized and developing countries. By way of comparison, look at the group of seven (G-7) industrialized and developed countries: the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Britain and Japan. They all share a commonality -- relative homogeneity in terms of national culture, religion and language.

Meanwhile, developing countries -- most Asian and African countries -- demonstrate just the opposite -- relative heterogeneity in terms of national culture, religion and language. We often boast with emotional pride of Indonesia as a multicultural, multireligious and multilingual archipelago, thus affirming the homogeneity-heterogeneity hypothesis. Apparently, there is a correlation between the degree of multilingualism and that of modernization.

Language modernization presupposes the extensive use of language among a population. Consequently, the more modernized the country becomes, the more likely its population becomes monolingual. The minor languages or vernaculars will automatically be sidelined, allowing the national language to be the common language of modern daily communication. Many do not expect this to happen, but that is the price of modernization and industrialization a country has to pay.

Language modernization implies a collective and elaborate effort to make the language an appropriate medium of communication for modern life. As indicated above, new topics and specializations are characteristics of modernization discourse. The modern language should be expressive enough to describe these topics and specializations.

Consequently, varieties of the Indonesian language come into existence, such as Indonesian for business, science, technology, laws and commercial activities, all of which are subsumed under the umbrella of Indonesian for specific purposes (ISP). ISP, therefore, is worth an autonomous study and should be given emphasis in the curriculum of College Indonesian, commonly called Mata Kuliah Dasar Umum Bahasa Indonesia (general Indonesian course).

The orientation of modern societies toward knowledge, technology, production and specialization of labor as elaborated above, stimulates linguistic elaboration. New knowledge and technology demand new terms. Likewise, new professional organizations demand new genres or forms of discourse. The publication of standardized grammar books, general as well as professional dictionaries (banking, accountancy, laws, education, etc.), manuals and professional journals is inevitable in modernizing a language.

Language elaboration is often exchangeable with language cultivation. The latter suggests the idea of treating matters of correctness, efficiency, register specialization and style, especially in developed languages. Many language planners embrace the idea of language modernization as elaboration and cultivation of language. The role of pembinaan (cultivation) and pengembangan (development) of national languages (Indonesian and vernaculars) is officially delegated to the Center for Language Cultivation and Development.

Discussing modernization will be incomplete without mentioning the role played by English as the world's most important language. English has played a significant role in modernizing not only its own country, but also the world in general. Nowadays, English is the major medium of scientific publications, politics, economy and trade. It is apt to hypothesize that modernizing the country implies a collective effort of the population to acquire English. Many go even further to hypothesize that mastering English is the only way to modernize Indonesian language.

The hypothesis suggests that modern people have a modern outlook of the world and outward-looking orientation, think and behave critically and creatively, and -- basic to all the characteristics -- use science and technology as a point of departure in almost every aspect of life.

To be modern, one has to develop a reasonable degree of modern literacy to function maximally in the industrialized society. To meet all of these challenges, one has to virtually master English.

From the discussions above, a set of principles of language modernization and their educational implications follow.

* Modernization is the transition from traditional to modern principles of economic, political and social organization. Language modernization then implies the attempted creativity, flexibility and appropriateness of the language as a medium of modernization in the above aspects. Language, therefore, undergoes changes and modifications so as to be commensurate with new developments.

* Modernization is transitional, suggesting that a country falls in the continuum between what is traditional and what is modern. Likewise, a language falls in the same continuum between the two extreme stages of modernization. Modernization is made possible only through education. Modernization is, as a matter of fact, the management of language education.

* Language reflects culture. Language modernization mirrors a process of cultural change in three aspects -- attitude, speech and behavior. Linguistic changes in language indicate superficial aspects of modernization. To change the attitude is most difficult of all. We may find people who are modern in speech but traditional in attitude. Language modernization is essentially educating people, namely to change their attitude toward all attitudinal objects in their lifetime.

* Linguistically, all languages are neutral and universal in character. They are capable of generating infinite sentences by dint of a finite set of grammatical rules. The traditional-modern dichotomy is irrelevant as applied to language. It is an anthropological dichotomy to describe the society. It is true that some cultures have new concepts in technology, such as supersonic jets and computers, which have no immediate equivalent in primitive cultures.

* Modernization is a collective effort by the whole population. Modern and effective communication is dependent on a high literacy rate among the population. Mass communication through the mass media is a form of language modernization, which is a matter of necessity for modernization.

Everybody agrees that we are already entering the third millennium. To compete globally, we are now modernizing the nation through education. The degree of modernization is commensurate with how much we invest in education.

The writer is a senior lecturer at the graduate school of the Teachers Training College (IKIP) in Bandung.