The present study investigated the use of English in the linguistic landscape of Jakarta. Research areas included Prapatan road in Central Jakarta, Halim Perdanakusuma road in East Jakarta, Baru Ancol Selatan road in North Jakarta, Antasari road in South Jakarta, and Kembangan Baru road in West Jakarta. Geographical sampling was adopted to determine the research areas.
A total of 390 signs were photographed. Signs included government notices, traffic signs, commercial and non-commercial advertisements, announcements of public interests, warnings, and also signs on buildings and windows that were readable from the street. From the total number of signs, 324 commercial signs were selected to be the samples of the study. A qualitative research method was applied to get an in-depth understanding of the prevalence of English and of the distinctive characteristics of English as revealed by the signs in the five research areas. To find out the prevalence of English, the signs were classified into five categories: (1) all English, (2) half English, (3) more English, (4) fewer English, and (5) no English. The signs were also categorized into five sectors of establishment: (1) Finance/FIN, (2) Education/EDU, (3) Health/HEA, (4) Mechanic/MEC, and (5) Travel/TRA. Signs in which English was considered prevalent were those that belonged to category (1) and (3) above within a particular sector of establishment. To find out the distinctive characteristics of English, the signs were categorized into three: (1) monolingual signs, (2) bilingual signs, and (3) bilingualized signs. Bilingualized signs included signs that contained English borrowing, code-mixing, code-switching, and English idiosyncrasy.
Results of the study revealed that the prevalence of English was influenced by an official policy, i.e. spatial planning and sector of establishment. English was most prevalent in Prapatan road. It was also prevalent within signs that belong to the Finance sector of
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establishment in all research areas. In other words, English would be prevalent in an area that was zoned for business as well government center.
Findings of the study also suggested that the typology of signs used in Jakarta linguistic landscape involved monolingual, bilingual, and bilingualized signs, which extended Backhaus’ (2007) typology of multilingual signs. In addition, the characteristics of English on public signs were also identified. More complex use of English with Indonesian have been found not only in the forms of (1) English borrowing, (2) code mixing, (3) idiosyncrasies, and (4) code switching, but also in combinations of the four incidents above.
The prevalence and characteristics of English that were found in this study may indicate that Jakarta is a city with Indonesian speakers as the main targeted audience. English has been used to fulfill the semantic gap particularly in terms of internet communication system, technology, business, clothes, food and drink. Findings also confirmed the role of English as a language for international business. |