Children’s use of Bahasa Indonesia in Jakarta kindergartens

At a very young age children living in Jakarta use both Colloquial Jakarta
Indonesia and Bahasa Indonesia. The children’s first and most used language
is Colloquial Jakarta Indonesia. In the formal school setting Bahasa Indonesia
is frequently used and stimulated on a daily basis, and the learning process of
Bahasa Indonesia is accelerated. The question addressed in this article is: how
do these children choose from their repertoire of language varieties at this
stage of language development? In our study 63 children (aged three to five),
were interviewed in a formal and an informal situation in three playgroups
and kindergartens. This study shows that even in the preschool setting, young
children are already developing their sociolinguistic competence, knowing when
to choose which language variety.