An Analysis of Students' Language Preference in Bilingualism at Public Health Students in an Islamic Public University

Abstract

The diversity of UIN Alaudin Makassar students who come from various regions creates bilingualism in students. Bilingualism occurs even though both parents are Indonesian, this happens because children are not only taught one language from the young age. This study discuss about what language do the students prefer to use and what are the role of mother tongue in students’ Bilingualism. The approach in this research is descriptive quantitative method. It aimed to find out the description of the students’ ability, their preference in using mother tongue and Bahasa Indonesia, also their obstacles and the role of mother tongue in speaking bilingual ( Mother Tongue and Bahasa Indonesia) at the students of Public Health in UIN Alauddin Makassar. Research instrument is used to obtain or collect data in order to solve problems in achieving the goals of the research study. The instruments are interview and Questionnaire. The result of the study note that the students frequently used Indonesian as the second language when they talk to the friends and lecturers. According to the result of interview, these participants explained that the role of their mother tongue is to communicate with family and relatives. It shows that all of them use their regional language as their mother tongue. It can facilitate them to communicate with each other in their daily life. These interview results are related to the questionnaire result also, it is evident that the most students in bilingual use their regional language when they are at home or in their hometown.