Influence of children’s language choice on behaviour

Abstract

The phenomenon of language choice undergone by children is a form of social behaviour formed by individual behaviour that refers to the patterns of culture in the community. Based on this idea, the paper examined the tendency of children’s language choice, the reasons of tendency, and its influences on children’s behaviour in everyday life. Furthermore, the author intended to highlight the hypothesis of Sapir-Whorf based on facts in the use of children’s language in Malang city. From the results of the discussion on several examples of children’s speech in Malang city, it can be concluded that: 1) children’s language choice is limited to BJ Ngoko and BI BJ Kromo and BJ Kromo Inggil; 2) factors causing children’s language use are the development of industrialisation and urbanisation, and 3) children’s language choice influences the behaviour that is not polite to older people.