LANGUAGE ATTITUDE OF THE TOBA BATAKNESE PARENTS TOWARDS TOBA BATAK LANGUAGE IN STABAT

This study deals with the language attitude of the Toba Bataknese parents towards Toba Batak language in Stabat. A qualitative descriptive research design was applied. The aim of the study is to know the attitudes of the Toba Bataknese parents towards Toba Batak language. The subjects of the study are six of the Toba Bataknese parents at the age of 40 – 60 years old. The instruments used for this study were observation and interview. Observation applied to find out the appropriate participants, and interview applied to get information about the Toba Bataknese parents’ attitudes from their opinions towards Toba Batak language. The data was analyzed by using the interactive model of Miles & Huberman (1984) technique. Based on the data analysis, it was found that the attitudes of the Toba Bataknese parents in Stabat showed positive and negative attitudes towards Toba Batak language. The Toba Bataknese parents in Stabat realized their language attitude towards Toba Batak language in three ways, i.e: they use Toba Batak language at home, they use Toba Batak language with close friends, and they use Toba Batak language in religious rituals. It was also found that the attitudes of the Toba Bataknese parents in Stabat caused by some reasons, i.e: because they are loyal and maintain Toba Batak language, because they are proud and make Toba Batak language as their identity, and because they have awareness of language norms towards Toba Batak language. It implies that the language attitude influences the speakers to use the language frequently, raises a sense of loyalty and a sense of pride to the language, and also make the speakers have the eagerness to maintain the language.