MULTILINGUALISME MAHASISWA THAILAND: PEMILIHAN BAHASA YANG MENGUNTUNGKAN (Studi 4 Mahasiswa Thailand Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FIP UMJ)

Abstract

Sociolinguistically, the language community in Thailand recognizes three languages, namely: Thai language as the national language and simultaneously as the language of the country; regional languages with relatively large numbers and varying speakers' population; and foreign languages taught or used in formal education, such as Arabic and English. This opinion is based on the results of a qualitative study conducted through a questionnaire on 4 Thai students who are studying English at the Faculty of Education University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta (PBI FIP UMJ) academic year 2017-2018. The phenomenon of the ability to use more than two languages or multilingualism in various forms of their activity can be seen in their daily activities. However, the use of language differently will be influenced by the background. Based on this, it is often concluded that there is a correlation between the aspects of a person's utterance with the place of birth or where he or she grew up, education, social group, even his or her work. The choice of language or variety of languages is based on certain variables, such as who speaks, to whom he or she speaks, about what is being said, and where the event said is happening. In addition, in speaking (consciously or unconsciously), a person changes the way the speech is adapted to the person he or she speaks, the level of familiarity with the other person, and the surroundings during the speech process. It requires every member of the community said to have sociolinguistic competence in order to be able to use the language in a particular speech event.

Keywords: Sociolinguistics, Multilingualism, Thailand, PBI FIP UMJ