TEENAGERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS ETHNICITY LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE: A CASE STUDY OF BATAK ANGKOLA LANGUAGE IN PADANGSIDIMPUAN

This study was conducted to describe teenagers’ attitude towards their ethnicity language maintenance in Padangsidimpuan. The objectives of this study are to describe 1) the Angkolanese teenagers’ attitudes toward the Angkola language, 2) to describe realizations of the attitudes among the Angkola teenagers, and 3) to state the reasons for the attitudes of the Angkola teenagers. The data were obtained from teenagers’ attitude in Padangsidimpuan which the age average in 16 to 18 years old by using descriptive qualitative method. The data collected classified into the types of attitude of the teenagers in Padangsidimpuan towards their ethnicity language maintenance. The data was described in data analysis by knowing the types of the attitude of the teenagers, the condition of the language in the society and the reasons caused the language should be maintained. The result that was taken from the data analysis 1) there are two type of attitudes of the Angkola teenagers towards their ethnicity language namely positive attitude and negative attitude, 2) the Angkola teenagers prefer using Indonesian language than Batak Angkola language in their daily conversation, and 3) the teenagers wanted to keep their ethnicity language because they are conscious that their ethnicity language was symbolized them and the wealthy of their the ethnic. The attitudes of the teenagers classified based on the respect and the pride of the teenagers in using their ethnicity language in their daily conversation. The result showed that the male teenagers were more respectful and pride in using the ethnicity language than the female teenagers. The efforts are needed to make the teenagers in Padangsidimpuan maintained their ethnicity language that is Batak Angkola language.