PLURILINGUISMO ENDOGENO O MONOLINGUISMO IMPERIALISTA? UNO STUDIO DI CASO IN UNA SCUOLA PRIMARIA NELLA PROVINCIA DI BANTEN (INDONESIA)

Abstract

The present chapter focuses on teachers’ attitudes towards multilingualism in
a primary school in the province of Banten, Indonesia. It represents only a small
piece of the complex sociolinguistic and educational patchwork concerning
multilingualism in this ‘superdiverse’ country. The aim is to provide an overview
of the attitudes of primary school teachers and their implicit role in spreading a
culture of multilingualism, focusing on their view on indigenous languages and
Indonesian, the national and official language of the country, analysing both
their understanding of multilingualism and the pedagogical aspect towards
multilingualism. Data has been collected through the usage of a questionnaire
with various statements concerning multilingualism, as well as its perception
and teaching, which the informants had to agree or disagree with. The results
of the survey have been looked at from a double perspective: the perception of
endogenous multilingualism, and the established and/or desired pedagogic
practices. I argue that even though there is an apparent widespread positive
opinion of multilingualism and indigenous language maintenance, the teachers’
actual attitudes highlight that the importance and hegemony of Indonesian
outweigh the willingness to maintain the indigenous languages, and it leads to
an ‘imperialist-oriented’ view in favour of the sole language representing unity
and identity.