STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE ATTITUDES TOWARD INDONESIAN, ENGLISH, AND LOCAL LANGUAGES ON CAMPUS: LANGUAGE CHOICE, PRESTIGE, AND MAINTENANCE IN A MULTILINGUAL UNIVERSITY CONTEXT

Abstrak

Indonesia’s multilingual higher education context requires students to navigate Indonesian, English, and local languages across diverse communicative domains. Yet, positive attitudes toward multilingualism may not translate into sustained language practices. This study investigates undergraduate students’ attitudes toward these languages, focusing on language identity, choice, perceived prestige, and local language maintenance. A descriptive mixed-methods design involved ten students in the English Education Study Program at Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar. Data were collected through a 20-item five-point Likert-scale questionnaire and five open-ended questions, analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Findings reveal positive attitudes across all dimensions, with language identity receiving the highest mean (4.44), followed by maintenance (4.06), choice (3.84), and prestige (3.36). Indonesian dominated cross-regional interaction, English served academic and professional purposes, while local languages were largely confined to same-region peers. The study reveals an attitude–practice gap and contributes evidence for multilingual policies that create meaningful domains for sustained language use.