CULTURAL CONTEXTUALIZATION:

A SURVIVAL STRATEGY FOR ENDANGERED INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

IN INDONESIA1

Hazairin Eko Prasetyo

Universitas Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa Yogyakarta
hazekpras@yahoo.com

The tension between globalization representing liberal Western cultural trends and local aspets representing
traditional Eastern wisdoms is getting more evident from year to year. The tension is publicly articulated in all
aspects of life including economy, politics, education, culture, religion, and so on. Therefore, to be able to manage
the tension successfully there should be efforts to set up more acceptable and sustainable strategies based on
intensive and comprehensive researches. This paper tries to present a survival strategy for more than one hundred
and forty indigenous languages in Indonesia which are endangered of being extinct. The strategy is called cultural
contextualization because culture in all its contexts holds a very decisive role in determining the survival of an
indigenous language. In such a strategy the government, both local and national, acts as a leading sector due to its
legal capability in issuing related policies and action plans and the native speakers of the indigenous languages act
as active counterparts to implement under very serious commitments all the plans and their targets. Depending on
the level of endangerment, the cultural contextualization is applied in three stages -minimal, optimal, and maximal-
each of which shows how much intervention would be provided to particular indigenous languages in certain areas
and situations. As an alternative strategy for surviving endangered indigenous languages in Indonesia, cultural
contextualization needs more exhaustive studies in terms of both underlying basic ideas and practical cultural
phenomena. The further step is to formulate the mechanisms of the three stages. It is, thus, expected that by
implementing such a survival strategy, the endangered indigenous languages would be able to conserve internal
values and stand against external factors affecting their future.

Keywords: cultural contextualization, endangered indigenous languages, survival strategy

Introduction

The significance of languages survival is emphasized because of its “strategic importance for people and
planet” (Promotion, 2012, para 1) and the main aspect of which is the function of languages, both existing
and endangered, in integrating human beings in one culture and incorporating cultures in one universal
human civilization. Languages, within their own limitations, have played important roles in shaping
cultural values across nations and preserving the values from generation to generation. The languages
have also developed the common identities that human beings share to make them equal and respect each
other. The development of such common identities is only possible because deep down in the heart of
every human being there is a need to sustain what he has achieved and expect for a better civilization.
However, as the history of human beings has generally recorded, there are always efforts of
domination among certain peoples over other peoples and bring with them all cultural aspects including
languages. Different phases of human civilization record defferent peoples dominating other peoples and
such imperalistic behaviours repeat from one century to another century, from one region to another
region, and from one dominating power to another dominating power. Consequently, imperialism in its
various forms and implications places some cultures over other cultures. The languages of the dominating
cultures develop and spread intensively through all means of social interactions, while the languages of
the dominated cultures are under the threat of endangeredness or even extinction. In such a situation, the
power of the dominating peoples is the key to all the cultural transformations.

1
Presented at International Seminar on Language, Literature, Culture, and How to Teach Them in the Development
of Human Character, the Language Office of North Sulawesi Province, August 28-30, 2013.

1
 What has been happening since the end of the Cold War in the beginning of the 1990s reflects the
return of another cycle of domination efforts. The victory of the West, under American domination, over
the East, under Soviet domination, in the war places human beings in a new imperialistic context which is
popularized as globalization and American English is the language of the new imperium. Oreintal
languages like Korean, Chinese, and Japanese try to play certain roles in the globalizing economy and
high technology; nevertheless, the advancement of information and communication technology is still
dominated by Western industries which bring with them all the cultural norms and values, not to mention
the language.
Every language has a risk of being exposed to this new shift in cultural transformation and the
most vulnerable is the one in the frontiest line. Javanese language, for example, is statistically spoken by
more than eighty million people throughout the country and, thus, it is regarded as the biggest Indonesian
vernacular. However, since most speakers of Javanese language live in modernized contexts belonging to
the frontiest transformation line, the exposure to the globalization language through various ICT
instruments would place the vernacular in the risk of being endangered and, even, gradually extinct
particularly when younger generations of this local language tend to be more interested in learning and
using the globalizaation language than their own mother tongue. Other smaller local languages face about
similar situations both internally, due to the decrease of native speakers, and externally, due to
globalization.
A practical problem in relation to such a phenomenon is a possibility of gradually losing valuable
vernaculars, and if it is so, then what Batchelder believes is true, “The loss of language is closely tied to a
loss of culture” (2000, p.1). in this case, the loss of the vernaculars is partly due to the shift in traditional
cultural aspects toward modernized and globalized cultural borrowings. For instance, the ownership of
cellular phone numbers in Indonesia, which surpasses the total number of population, should be regarded
as a cultural shift in public communications and interactions patterns replacing the existing tradition of
family gathering and visit on certain occasions. Therefore, the problem to be addressed in this paper is
thus how culutral contextualization strategy should be applied in surviving endangered Indonesian
indigenous languages. The objective of discussing the strategy is to analyze the opportunities that both the
government and soicety have in creating action plans to cope with this challenging condition. The
advantages of analyzing such opportunities include building common awareness among the government
and people about the significance of preserving endangered indigenous languages2, inviting related
parties for more intensive efforts and fund raising, and initiating national and international networks for
such a strategic cultural endeavour.

Discussions

Cultural contextualization3 in terms of surviving endangered indigenous languages in Indonesia should

place cultural rights as the most important base for discussions. According to Article 5 of the Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) “cultural rights are an integral part of human rights,
which are universal, indivisible and interdependent.” Therefore, every human being, wherever they live,
has his own rights to speak his own mother tongue and, as it is stated in Indonesian constitution, the

2
Such a step in preserving endangered indigenous languages is very important to take because languages change
thorugh time and “languages change for a variety of reasons. Large-scale shifts often occur in response to social,
economic and political pressures. History records many examples of language change fueled by invasions,
colonization and migration. Even without these kinds of influences, a language can change dramatically if enough
users alter the way they speak it.” (Mahoney, 2012).
3
The idea of cultural contextualization is partly related to what Rehbein has written, “In some respects, language is
a formalized system and thus tends to uniformity, while in other respects it is socially differentiated and closely
linked to specific social groups. In any event, it is intelligible only in the context of a particular cultural background,
which in turn is based on specific historical circumstances” (2007, p. 88).
2
government has a responsibility “to protect all those who are born here in this country” including their
vernaculars4. However, to understand the term cultural contextualization more comprehensively it is
necessary to learn what happens to local languages5 in the rapid change in international communications
after the collapse of communism and the victory of capitalistic values bringing with them a new strategic
position for (American) English language as a common lingua franca in various fields of life, especially
economic and business. What happens to local languages, and cultures as well, is vividly illustrated by
Pattel (2007, p.5) in the following diagram showing how Western Society, represented by white-

coloured Australians in Pattel’s study, influences all the levels of Aboriginal society’s lives involving
personal, family, communal, and cultural aspects.
Even though Pattel’s study needs more elaborations to be applied in different socio-cultural
settings, it is by far helpful in presenting illustrations on the depth of Western cultural “invasion” on
traditional societies through all menas of information and communication technologies. Therefore, by
understanding what happens to the local languages recently, especially in how intensive the impact of
Western influences is on the aspects of traditional lives, in relation to government’s role in preserving
endangered local languages, there are two approaches that can be taken in implementing cultural
contextualization: intervention6 and non-intervention. In the first approach, the government, either
regional or national, plays certain roles in the preservation of endangered local languages; in the second
approach such an effort is in the most parts performed by local communities and the government keeps
away from directly intervening the process of preserving the endangered languages.
4
There are reasons why we should care about the loss of about fifty percent of the world’s 6,000-7,000 languages.
Malone (2012) mentions three important reasons: “a) The enormous variety of these languages represents a vast,
largely unmapped terrain on which linguists, cognitive scientists and philosophers can chart the full capabilities—
and limits—of the human mind, b) Each endangered language embodies unique local knowledge of the cultures and
natural systems in the region in which it is spoken, and c) These languages are among our few sources of evidence
for understanding human history.”
5
There are two factors causing the acceleration of local languages endangerment: “globalization and the pressure in
indigenous communities to integrate into the dominant culture” and, consequently, hundreds of languages
worldwide are under very serious conditions of disappearing. This is “more than a loss of words” because what
actually happens is “the destruction of a way of seeing life” (More, 2011).
6
The most important reason for intervention approach is, for example, put forward by Reyhner: “I do not argue for
keeping indigenous languages alive just for the sake of not seeing them disappear, for antiquarian reasons. Rather, I
see these languages as conduits for indigenous cultures that have real value in our modern world. Students who are
not being passed down their languages and cultures are often not successfully assimilating into the more positive
aspects of mainstream culture. Instead, caught between two cultures without a thorough cultural foundation laid in
the home, they often don't learn their tribal language or English very well and are prone to join gangs to seek the
cultural identity and sense of belonging that is being denied them along with their ancestral language.” (1999)

3
 Implementing Fishman’s concept of Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale for Threatened
Languages, Reyhner (1999) proposes eight stages of intervention based on different stages of language
endangerment as follows:
Current Status
Suggested Interventions to Strengthen Language
of Language
Implement Hinton's (1994) "Language Apprentice" Model
Stage 8: Only a
where fluent elders are teamed one-on-one with young adults
few elders speak
who want to learn the language. Dispersed, isolated elders
the language.
can be connected by phone to teach others the language (Taff, 1997).

Establish "Language Nests" after the Maori and Hawaiian

Stage 7: Only adults
models where fluent older adults provide pre-school child-
beyond child bearing
care where children are immersed in their indigenous
age speak the language.
language (Anonby; Fishman, 1991).

Stage 6: Some inter-  Develop places in community where language is encouraged, protected,
generational use of and used exclusively.
language.  Encourage more young parents to speak the indigenous language in
home with and around their young children.

 Offer literacy in minority language.

Stage 5: Language is  Promote voluntary programs in the schools and other community
still very much alive institutions to improve the prestige and use of the language.
and used in community.
 Use language in local government functions, especially social services.
 Give recognition to special local efforts through awards, etc.

 Improve instructional methods utilizing TPR (Asher, 1996),

 TPR-Storytelling (Cantoni) and other immersion teaching techniques.
 Teach reading and writing and higher level language skills (Heredia &
Stage 4: Language is Francis, 1997).
required in elementary
 Develop two-way bilingual programs where appropriate where non-
schools.
speaking elementary students learn the indigenous language and
speakers learn a national or international language.
 Need to develop indigenous language textbooks to teach literacy and
academic subject matter content.
Stage 3: Language is
used in places of  Promote language by making it the language of work used throughout
business and by the community (Palmer, 1997).
employees in less  Develop vocabulary so that workers in an office could do their day-to-
specialized work areas. day work using their indigenous language (Anonby).

4
Stage 2: Language is
used by local govern-
ment and in the mass
media in the
minority community.
 Promote use of written form of language for government and business
dealings/records.
 Promote indigenous language newsletters, newspapers, radio stations,
and television stations.

Stage 1: Some language
use by higher levels of
government and in
higher education.
 Teach tribal college subject matter classes in the language.
 Develop an indigenous language oral and written literature through
dramatic presentations and publications.
 Give tribal/national awards for indigenous language publications and
other notable efforts to promote indigenous languages.

The eight stages of intervention can be classified into three strategies as follows,
1. Minimal strategy which is applied to stages one, two, and three in which formal use of local
languages is very much effective and, thus, the level of endangeredness is still under control. The
most important reason is that government officials use the vernaculars for daily communications. This
is especially true in almost all rural areas of the country in which enthusiasm to preserve local
languages is manifested through a constant use of the languages among key persons in their
communities (higher education, higher levels of government, local government, local mass media,
business, and informal sectors). The reason why intervention should be given at a minimum level is
due to the fact that all the key persons are independent and, in certain communities, have significant
influences on the local communities as their role models. The forms of intervention to be given in
such a strategy are strengthening commitments among those key persons in using the vernaculars
through regular meetings, setting agenda for futrure plans in preserving the local languages, and
firming criteria for particular positions in the government and higher learning institutions in terms of
cultural preservation.
2. Optimal strategy which is applied to stages four, five, and six. In this strategy, the government needs
to manage how the delivery of the local languages to elementary school students in learning situations
and how people are encouraged to use the languages in daily communications. Such interventions are
necessary because the use of local languages is limited to certain situations and, thus, the level of
endangeredness is more eminent. Formal and measurable instruments should be developed to monitor
the progresses of the two programs (local language learning among elementary school students and
societal encouragement). Budgetting is, then, necessitated to guarantee the success of this strategy
although initiatives could be encouraged among members of local communities through annual
cultural development program bidding procedures.
3. Maximal strategy7 which is applied to stages seven and eight. In this strategy more comprehensive
government policies are needed to avoid “the loss of generation symptom” in the use of local
7
The need for preserving an endangered language is clearly stated by Sapir, “The truth of the matter is that language
is an essentially perfect means of expression and communication among every known people. Of all aspects of
culture, it is a fair guess that language was the first to receive a highly developed form and that its essential
perfection is a prerequisite to the development of culture as a whole” (1949, p. 1). In a situation when Western
cultural influences are too extensive and local cultures are under continual pressures, the only choice the government
has is setting maximum intervention stretegies to prevent the replacement of cultural rights with civil rights.
Fishman notes how the emphasis on individual rights in modern western democracies detracts from the recognition
of traditional group rights. He writes, “The denial of cultural rights to minorities is as disruptive of the moral fabric
of mainstream society as is the denial of civil rights. Civil rights, however, are focused on the individual, while
cultural rights must focus on ethnocultural groups. Such groups have no recognized legal standing in many Western
democracies where both establishment capitalist thought and anti-establishment Marxist thought prophesies the
5
 languages from happening because there is a wide range of linguistic shift in daily communications
from the vernaculars to the “global” languages. The arrangements of human resources, financial
supports, and learning facilities involved in the preservation of the endangered languages are under
government’s responsibility and control. Short-term, mid-term, and long-term planning is developed
by involving as much as possible the participation of existing traditional communities and interested
experts. The ultimate goal of such a massive and comprehensive effort is a more sustainable condition
for the endangered languages to gain back their places in the people’s hearts and minds.

The second approach, non-intervention, is applicable in a situation where nationalism has been strongly
developed through times and experiences, and linguistic endangeredness8 is considered to be a matter of
adjusments. This is particularly true when economically and politically speaking a country is independent
enough to cope with the trending globalization atmosphere and, thus, what they need is to adjust certain
aspects of its cultural incremental values without risking to lose its grip over its own historic traditional
values including the preservation of its local languages9 and every citizen feels obliged to stand where
they have stood so far to deal with the coming external influences and interests.

Conclusions

The three stages of cultural contextualization in preserving Indonesian endangered indigenous languages-
minimal, optimal, and maximal- involve both people and government. The most important step in all the
stages is the teaching of indigeneous languages to all students of schools and universities as a national
movement. Therefore, commitments to national cultural values must be fostered among younger
generations through all available media of communications, including this seminar.

References

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eclipse of culturally distinct formations and the arrival of a uniformized, all-inclusive ‘modern proletarian’ culture”
(1991, p. 70).
8
UNESCO defines that “a language is endangered when it is on a path toward extinction. Without adequate
documentation, a language that is extinct can never be revived. A language is in danger when its speakers cease to
use it, use it in an increasingly reduced number of communicative domains, and cease to pass it on from one
generation to the next. That is, there are no new speakers, adults or children” (2003a, p. 2).
9
In this situation, history notes a strong exception to common belief, as stated by Turner and Rojek, that “there are
good practical reasons why individuals no longer feel rooted to place or bound together by common interests.
Globalization has transformed the popular conception of the relationship between place and identity” (2001, p. 197).

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Curriculum Vitae
Hazairin Eko Prasetyo completed his American Studies graduate program from Gadjah Mada University
in 1990 and has been working for English Language Education Department of Teachers Training and
Education Faculty, Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University since 2003. He teaches Literary Appreciation,
Literature Seminar, and Cross Cultural Understanding. In 1991, as a co-author, he published Javanese
Lives: Man and Woman Living in Modern Indonesia (Rutgers University Press). His recent interest in
green education and sociolinguistics is academically expressed in papers presented for international
conferences as follows:
1. “Indonesian Paperless Education: An Integrated Strategy for A More Sustainable Development”
in Engaging Science, Technology and Culture to Accelerate the Achievement of A Sustainable
Development, Mahasaraswati University (Indonesia), University of Florida (USA), and
Bansomdejchopraya Rajabhat University (Thailand), 2012, pp. 1-11.
2. “Preserving Indigenous Languages through A More Integrated National Cultural Strategy” in
Language Maintenance and Shift II, Diponegoro University, 2012, ISSN: 2088-6799, pp. 423-
427.