LINGUA LITERA Journal of English Linguistics and Literature Representation of the Language Spoken by Children from the Nias Ethnic Group in Banuaran

An Informal Abstract This research aims to identify the language used by children from Nias ethnic families in Banuaran as well as the reason for using the language. The writers wanted to know what language is used and the possible use of other languages and code-mixing performed by these children in various situations, including at home, in the community of Nias, and in other places. The authors would like to know the reason of the selection and use of the language. The authors used and presented the analysis based on the data obtained is descriptive. The authors conducted observations on the use of language by children at home and in the community of Nias Banuaran Family Association (IKNB). The authors uses several instruments in retrieving data in the form of recordings and the questioner to be filled by children and parents. It was found that children from the Nias ethnic group in Banuaran use Indonesian and Minangkabau language. They use the languages due to neighborhood environment, family condition, and negative perception on Nias ethnic group. This reveals that the children‟s language choice is functional/motivated.


Background of the Problem
Mother tongue or mother language is the language that a person learns to use from the beginning of his/her life.
According to Oxford Dictionary, mother tongue is "the language that you first learn to speak when you are a child." It is the very first language in which a child develops his/her speaking capability. One usually inherits one's mother tongue from one's parents and it usually shows a person"s origin. Mother tongue is learned by children unconsciously throughout their early lives and perfected during teenage and adult age. It is done through the process of getting able to know and use a language in the process of language acquisition.
Though the basic assumption is that children will automatically grasp and absorb language knowledge mainly from their parents" communication at home, yet it will not guarantee that the children will be able to use their parents" language as their mother tongue. There are other factors which also determine whether the children will use the mother language of their parents or not. One of these factors is the dwindling of the children's eagerness to learn and use their ethnic group language. When this happens, it leaves the parents' mother tongue without any successor to the language and knowledge it brought. This situation leads to "language death", which is defined by Matthews (1997) as "disappearance of a language, especially when speakers shift progressively to another or others." In Indonesia as throughout the world,

Identification of the Problem
The question arises as to whether the children of parents who belong to the Nias ethnic group in Banuaran are able to use the Nias language well. The environments of multiculturalism and the fact that these families live not in their ethnic origins area, are closely related to language acquisition and the code they use in their spoken interaction. The need of interaction with people who are native to other languages will force these children to be able to break the barriers when they communicate.
Based on the background that has been described above, the writers set out two problems related to the language spoken by children of Nias ethnic group in Banuaran as follows:  (1933) claims that "A bilingual should possess "native-like control of two or more languages"", but that "Others, such as Weinreich (1953) andGrosjean (1997) propose definitions that are based on language use rather than language competence." In this study the writers define both bilingual and multilingual as 'able to speak more than one language', or "able to communicate by using more than one language no matter the languages mastery of the speaker."

Language(s)
The language used by someone depends on several factors. Holmes (1992, p.12)  leads people to know and use more than one language in order to bridge the mind between the speaker and the addressee.
In contrast with adult in determining the language used to communicate, children are less able to adjust their spoken language consciously. Instead, they must learn to master at least a language with assistance of the people who have spoken interaction with them. Clark et al. (1985, p.19) state that the language that will be acquired by children is the language they are exposed to and that is spoken to them.
This statement is further emphasized by Hoff (2009) who states that "in order for language acquisition to occur, the environment must meet those abilities by providing children with communicative experience. Linguistically rich and responsive communicative environments promote optimal language development." According to Dantas et al. (2011, p.53), some parents from certain ethnic groups have a tendency to avoid the use of their native language for their children first language acquisition. This is because they see their ethnic language as impractical for their children in their communication. The concept is that there is another language that would bring more benefits to the children than the parents" ethnic language.
Thus, the children will be encouraged to be able to use a language which has broader use outside their ethnic group. Clark et al (1985, p.20) claimed that though a child was born into one community, it does not automatically implicate the child as a native speaker of the community. The native language for a child is basically the language used at home and child"s interaction in community.
Hence, it is impossible for someone to be proficient to a language without sufficient exposure to the language.
In terms of the transmission of a language from one generation to another, the use of more than one language has significant effects. Dantas et al. (2011, p. 53)  According to Romaine (2015, p. 32), "Because such a large part of any language is culture-specific, people often feel that an important part of their traditional culture and identity is also lost when that language disappears".

Previous Studies
Octorina ( Research done by Suandi (2013) showed the malformations in the language used by ethnic Chinese speakers in the city This means that even though English is taught in every school, the school itself has the right to use several languages, mainly those spoken by the majority of students in the learning process to ensure that the children grasp the materials.

Type of Research
The research in this study is qualitative rather than quantitative.
Qualitative research, as defined by Creswell (2009, p. 4) Stainback et al (1988, p.12) saying that the purpose of qualitative research "is geared toward gaining and increased understanding of the ideas, feelings, motives, and beliefs behind people"s actions".

Data Collection
The writers collected the data needed according to the qualitative research data collection method. As Atmazaki (2007, p. 209)

Data Analysis
After collecting all of the data required to do the analysis, the writers compared the data. Then the data were sorted into categories according to the language the children use. After that, these data were compared, with the research that has been done by previous researchers and theories proposed by experts as presented in chapter two of this research, and then interpreted, discussed and presented according to qualitative descriptive manner.

IV. Findings
In this section, the writers present the findings of research, and discuss them.

Language Used by Nias Ethnic
Group Children in Banuaran.  The adults tend to use Indonesian language.

Children of Nias families in
The influence of their ethnicity during their speech to the children is very limited to the tone of their speech sound.
The interaction among children during the meeting was also done in Indonesian language. Children spoke to each other by using Indonesian language.
They rarely inserted Minang words.
Another finding was that during March through July meeting, the writers observed that children never used any Nias language among themselves. Not even a single Nias word was spoken during child-to-child conversation.

Group Children Use a Language
Children  We would like to express our best gratitudes to thank Dr. Lea Brown,M.A.
who gave us detailed comments and corrections on the draft of this paper. .