Language ability in Indonesian children: Sentence production

Frista Nanda Pratiwi, Niken Pramanik

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The development of human cognitive abilities starts from childhood and it is closely linked to the development of language abilities. In terms of language abilities, gender is an interesting variable in sociolinguistics research. The current studies show that there are differences in language abilities in boys and girls. For example, Kanaris and Millard in Jones and Myhill (2007) stated that girls tend to be better than boys. On the other side, Jones and Myhill (2007) showed that boys are more competent than girls. The gaps from previous studies encourage the researchers to further investigate the influence of gender on language abilities among children. The significance of this study is to contribute to the psycholinguistic discipline about cognitive abilities of children, especially the language abilities of middle age children. This study is also expected to contribute to the sociolinguistics discipline about the influence of gender on the child's language abilities. The purpose of this research is to identify the production of sentences in the writing of children (both boys and girls) aged 10-11 years, focusing the number and type of sentences based on the number of clauses. This study also aims to identify the influence of gender on the number and type of sentences produced by children. The respondents in this study are 63 boys and 63 girls attending Grade 5 of a Primary School in the City of Depok, West Java. The sources of data are children's writing on the topic of means of transportation and obtained through direct communication technique. The method used in this research is mixed methods. The type of sentences based on the number of clauses was analyzed based on Kridalaksana's (1999) theory. A comparison of findings on each sentence pattern between boys and girls is statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software. These findings are also associated with the previous research on children language abilities. The results show that girls produced significantly more sentences than boys. Furthermore, the comparison on the production of single sentences, compound sentences, and plated sentences between girls and boys is not statistically significant, as opposed to the production of compound sentences, complex sentences, and compoundcomplex sentences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOn Language, Education, Politics, and Identity
Subtitle of host publicationA Cross-Linguistics Perspective
PublisherNova Science Publishers, Inc.
Pages199-211
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9781536193374
Publication statusPublished - 19 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • Complex sentences
  • Compound sentences
  • Compound-complex sentences
  • Indonesian children writing
  • Type of sentence

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