Since the future of the world is English, many countries now include English in their primary education curriculum, so language proficiency can be achieved more quickly and effectively. As two or more languages knowledge are competing linguistically in the brain, the early introduction to English means putting the other languages known by the Indonesian English language learners in a competition. On the other hand, despite its controversy, bilingualism and multilingualism, when achieved fully and proportionally, is cognitively and socially beneficial. This article reviews the potential effects of including English early in the Indonesian curriculum and the recommendation for the Indonesian’s future multilingual education and research. The discussion resulted in some important conclusions. Firstly, considering the Indonesian-English far typological distance, learning English requires some time and cognitive effort. For Indonesian bilinguals/multilingual, this means early introduction to English means higher confidence in producing the language verbally later on. During this early learning of English, the Indonesian language (and any other ethnic language that forms the speaker’s identity should also be used simultaneously to create the same purpose; a sense of belonging towards and confidence in using the language(s). In short, multilingualism that includes foreign language instruction; national and minority language use and maintainance,  should be enhanced and normalised from childhood.

This study aimed at putting an experiment to young learners in acquiring through the use of gestures as the treatment process. This study was carried out under the procedure of the quasi-experimental approach with repeated measurement design. There were 35 primary school students involved in this study. The data were gathered through pretest-posttest. After the pretest was administered, the treatment process was carried out during the three following weeks by teaching the students verb vocabulary using gestures. The post-tests were then administered repeatedly in the 4th, 6th, and 7th week after the treatment to see the level of their memory retention. Later, the data obtained were analyzed using repeated test analysis. The results unveiled that the use of gestures can definitely enhance the students’ vocabulary intake. It implies that EFL teachers—especially those teaching youths—should consider integrating their teaching method with gestures, but they are expected to be more creative in generating understandable gestures to convey abstract verb vocabulary.

This study aimed, firstly, to observe the phonological change of the Standard Indonesian (SI), particularly the final-k syllabic pronunciation used in the journalistic videos aired between 1980 – 2019. Secondly, the study investigated the nature of the sound change by taking into account the theories of Lexical Diffusion. Lastly, the plausibly cause of the sound change was figured out, considering the sociolinguistic factors; orthographic re-regulation, post-colonial language policy, borrowing, and contacts. Methodologically, it is a diachronic study using a set of television news videos as the main source of data. A battery of findings from other related studies was employed to support the discussion on the nature and the reason for the sound change. The results show that the phonological shift of coda /ʔ/ ~ /k/ happened to most final -k syllabic words across the periods observed, but with varying degrees of rapidity, where the high-frequency words tend to be more sustained. The results also indicated that phonological shift of coda /ʔ/ ~ /k/ that occurred in the Indonesian TV-broadcast language was transferred from the Jakartan dialect, although some evidence of the 1972’s alphabetic writing system reformation also plays a considerable role in the TV News readers’ final -k sound shift.

Instagram is now a photo and video-sharing social media platform used around the world, and English is increasingly used in captions by non-English speaking Instagram users. This study was aimed to figure out why students at Serambi Mekkah University write English captions on Instagram. This study involved 30 students majoring in English at the University of Serambi Mekkah. The research design used was a descriptive study. To collect data, a close-ended yes-no question questionnaire was distributed online through Google Form. The questionnaire measured the responses in terms of English learning and self-image factors. The results show that the reason students of Serambi Mekkah University used English in their Instagram captions is mainly driven by their need of improving their English proficiency, specifically the spelling and vocabulary. The self-image factor plays a relatively important role too, as half of the participants confessed that they used English in their Instagram post for the sake of being regarded cool and creative. This study suggests that EFL learners use social media not only to improve their English but also to show people their competency in using English.

This study examines the sound shift from plosive /ʔ/ to /k/ as a coda in final -k syllabic words, such as duduk, anak, bisik, and pojok in the Indonesian-Aceh dialect. The Indonesian dialect developed in Aceh province area has /ʔ/ variant for most words with final-k spelt syllables. However, due to the increasing popularity of and contact with the Standard dialect via television, internet and travels, there is now a new variant of final plosive production for orthographically final -k syllabic words. The present study aimed to verify if this sound shift is occurring in the dialect by asking 25 Acehnese who spoke the Indonesian-Aceh dialect for daily basis to read an Indonesian text consisted of 39 final -k words with varied vowel letters preceding it, and varied degrees of word-frequency effect. The results show that the final -ik and final -ek syllables tend to be more prone to change to the Standard dialect. The position of the syllable also determines the rapidity of the shift, as /ʔ/ positioned as the coda in the non-final syllable, like words makna anda paksa, changes faster to /k/ sound compared to those positioned in the final syllable. It can be summed up that the sound shift from coda /ʔ/ to /k/ in the Indonesian-Aceh dialect context confirms the lexical diffusion theory, with the speed of the change determined by factors that include word frequency, the position of the syllable (whether at the beginning or the end), and the onset-nucleus combination of the syllable.