International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 42

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
Data were collected from observation of the author’s Facebook timeline. Similarities and
patterns of English linguistic features such as grammar, vocabulary and discourse style will
be identified. The history and the recent use of English in Indonesia will be explained in the
first section, followed by the role of internet in the development of a language variation.
The methodology is outlined in section two. Finally, the result of this study is disclosed in
the next section. A brief summary will conclude the study.
It should be noted that the sample of this study is limited. The participants are those
on the author’s personal online social network platform. Thus, this study might not
represent all of the Indonesian-English language variation.
Literature review
History of English in Indonesia
Kachru (1992a), cited in Jenkins (2015), indicated that Indonesia lies in the expanding circle
of the spread of English. In the expanding circle, according to Kachru (1992a cited in Jenkins
2015), English is used as a foreign language (EFL). Xiaogiong & Xianxing (2011) explained
that the use of English in the outer and expanding circles is influenced by the local histories,
literary traditions, pragmatic background and communicative norms. However, unlike in the
outer circle countries such as Bangladesh, India, Kenya where English has become
institutionalised and serves as a second language, English in the expanding circles performs
as a new variety and the standards are considered dependent (ibid).Yoo (2014) argued that,
since the people in the expanding circles do not use English to communicate among
themselves (it is rather used to communicate with people from different countries as a
lingua franca or a means of international communication), their own independent norms
will be difficult to establish. We may find ‘a native speaker of Indian-English’. However,
defining ‘a native speaker of Chinese-English’ or ‘a native speaker of Korean-English’ is less
feasible.
Historically, English was first taught to Indonesians in the middle schools in 1914
(Lauder, 2008). In this era, Indonesia was still occupied by the Dutch. Only few indigenous
Indonesians had access to education. Thus, English never functioned as a medium of
communication. Although British colonial power was exercised in Indonesia for a very short
time (1801 – 1824), it is difficult to see English as having been an official language in
Indonesia (Dardjowidjojo, 2003 in Lauder, 2008) in the colonial period.
However, since the mid-1990s, English has played a substantial role in Indonesian
education. English has been one of the compulsory subjects in middle and high schools
(Larson, 2014). English used to be a mandatory subject in primary school until 2013 when
the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture dismissed it. It then became an optional
subject in primary schools. Still, many schools decided to keep the English subject to boost
the school’s prestige.

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