Fourth Grade Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Javanese
Language Text
Linda Nurmasari, Slamet Subiyantoro and Siti Sutarmi Fadhilah
Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Javanese Language Text, Students’ Difficulties.
Abstract: Javanese language is a mandatory local subject in Central Java Province, Indonesia. Javanese language is
also a mother tongue that should be well understood by students. However, all the students involved in the
study stated that the Indonesian language (national language) is easier than the Javanese language. One of
their difficulties is understanding Javanese language texts. This study is a qualitative descriptive study that
aims to describe: (1) difficulties faced by students in understanding the Javanese language texts, (2) factors
causing the difficulties, and (3) efforts that have been done by the teacher to overcome the difficulties.
Ninety-three students and three teachers from three primary schools involved in the study. Observations,
tests, questionnaires, and interviews were used as data collection techniques. The data obtained were
analyzed with interactive technique where the data is collected, reduced, verified, and presented. Results of
the study showed that: (1) students have difficulties in: recalling and understanding new vocabularies,
making predictions of reading content based on reading contexts, determining key ideas, theme, conclusion,
and moral values from the text, (2) factors causing the difficulties are the differences in the application of
Javanese language at school and at their daily life, as well as the lack of Javanese language lesson hours,
and (3) there still haven’t been specific strategies used by teachers to improve reading comprehension of
Javanese language texts.
1 INTRODUCTION
A mother tongue can be defined as a language learnt
before any other languages have been learnt
(Indriyani, Ngatman and Joharman, 2014). From this
definition it can be said that Javanese is the mother
tongue for almost all students in Central Java,
Indonesia. Javanese is a language used by Javanese
ethnic that spreads almost in all parts of Indonesia.
The current estimated number of speakers of
Javanese is 84.3 million (Cohn and Ravindranath,
2014). However, even a language with over 80
million speakers can be at risk (Cohn and
Ravindranath, 2014). Javanese language speaker
continue to decline. In 1980, 40.44% of the
Indonesian population speak Javanese and declined
to 34.70% in 2000. In the other side, Indonesian
speaker increased rapidly from 11.93% in 1980 to
34.00% in 2000 (Montolalu and Suyadinata, 2007).
Minister of National Education in the opening of
the Fourth Javanese Language Congress in 2006 in
Semarang revealed that currently, Javanese language
is threatened with extinction due to abandoned
speakers as the result of globalization and
technological developments (Utari, 2013). Javanese
is only used in informal situations and rarely or even
never used in formal situations. Prior to 1990,
Javanese was used as medium of instruction in the
first three grades of primary school in Javanese-
speaking areas. Since 1990, government has made a
policy that Indonesian should be used as the formal
language from kindergarten to university. However,
another government’s policy was promulgated in
various forms. Between 1989 and 1993 Javanese had
been allowed to reappear at schools, but as a taught
subject rather than as the medium of instruction
(Musgrave, 2014).
Since children were born, they are accustomed to
see and hear Indonesian in every media, such as
television, radio, or internet. Parents are also used to
using Javanese as well as Indonesian language in
daily life. Trias Yusuf, an expert in culture of
Diponegoro University said that parents tend to
educate their children in Indonesian or other foreign
languages instead of Javanese (Kitnan, 2009). It
means that Indonesian is acquired by children at
Nurmasari, L., Subiyantoro, S. and Fadhilah, S.
Fourth Grade Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Javanese Language Text.
DOI: 10.5220/0007169704870492
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 487-492
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
487

almost the same time as their mother tongue
(Maryanto, 2008).
The current language policy promotes
Indonesian as the most important medium of
instruction, even in the territories where the ethnic
language is more appropriate (Alwasilah, 2013). The
rarely use of Javanese language makes students’
ability in Javanese is also very low. It is also stated
that a language will be gradually “deprived” if it is
less used in educational, political, and other public
situations (Purwoko, 2011). Efforts to preserve local
languages can be done through the education sector.
Previous studies about Javanese language
emphasized more on the use of Javanese language in
certain communities and ignored the importance of
teaching and learning at an elementary school level
in order to preserve Javanese language. Indeed,
preserving and introducing linguistic diversity and
cultural pluralism to pupils, is vital (Harwati, et. al.,
2016). Previous work by Setiawan (2012) and
Nurmasari (2017) also shown that student’s
proficiency in Indonesian language (national
language) is better than Javanese language (as their
mother tongue).
The language of instruction used in school is
Indonesian. The time allocation for Javanese lessons
in elementary school is only two hours per week.
Students complain about the difficulty of Javanese
because what they learn in class is very different
with the Javanese they used every day. Vocabularies
in the Javanese language textbooks are also
unfamiliar for them. One of the main difficulty that
prevented them from learning Javanese was a low
comprehension of Javanese language texts.
Comprehension is a process in which readers
make meaning by interacting with text through the
combination of prior knowledge and previous
experience, information in the text, and the views of
readers related to the text (Gilakjani and Sabouri,
2016). Subject matter in the Javanese text in the
fourth grade, like geguritan (Javanese poetry),
puppet story of Yudhistira, and nonsastra texts about
tradition are rarely they hear in everyday life, so that
it is difficult to get an understanding of what they
read. Good reading ability is very important to be
mastered by students so that they are able to gain a
deeper understanding of Javanese lesson subject
matter.
This study aims to describe: (1) difficulties faced
by students in understanding the Javanese text, (2)
factors causing the difficulties, and (3) efforts that
have been done by the teachers to overcome the
difficulties.
2 METHODS
This research is a descriptive qualitative study.
Ninety-three fourth graders and three teachers from
three primary schools were involved in the study.
This research was conducted in Central Java,
Indonesia in the first semester of 2017/2018
academic year. Researchers working with teachers to
determine the text used in the learning activities for
eight meetings in each school (eight weeks). In order
to gain a deeper understanding of students’
difficulties in understanding Javanese language text,
researchers also act as teacher.
Observation, test, questionnaire, and interview
were used as data collection techniques.
Participatory observation was used during the
learning process and interesting things were
recorded. Essay tests was used to check students'
understanding of the text content and specified the
difficulties. Interview with students were used to
determine their views of Javanese texts and the
causes of their difficulties in understanding Javanese
texts. Respondents were chosen purposively
according to the need. Interviews with teachers were
conducted to determine the efforts that teachers have
made to improve students' reading comprehension
skills. The data collected then reduced, verified, and
presented.
3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Many difficulties faced by students in understanding
the Javanese language texts. Before it is discussed
one by one it is necessary to know that the text
learning material in this research is in accordance
with the curriculum, there are Javanese poetry,
puppet stories about Yudhistira, and the nonsastra
text about tradition. The study was conducted for
eight meetings. At each meeting there is one short
text taught. Learning materials or texts during
research activities are presented in Table 1.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
488

Table 1: Title of Javanese text used.
Subject
Matter
Text Tittle
Source
of Text
Number
of
Words
Note
Javanese
poetry
with the
theme of
Budi
Pekerti
(character)
Kentir ing
Ombyak
Majuning
Jaman
(Drifted in
the Waves of
The Age
Progress)
Student’s
Textbook
134
All texts
have been
consulted
with
Javanese
linguists and
then edited
or
summarized
according to
their
suggestions,
except for
the poetry.
Wutah
Getihku
(“My Blood
Spilled”, in
Indonesia it
is mean “My
Country”)
Internet
88
Nalika Aku
Pamit
(When I
Asked
Permission)
Student’s
Textbook
72
Puppet
Stories
about
Yudhistira
Yudhistira,
Ratu sing
Ora Gelem
Perang
(Yudhistira,
the King
Who Do Not
Want to War)
Student’s
Textbook
220
Ratu Amarta,
Prabu
Yudhistira
(King of
Amarta,
Prabu
Yudhistira)
Student’s
Textbook
251
Nonsastra
Text about
Tradition
Tradhisi
Resik
Sendhang
(Cleaning
Springs
Tradition)
Student’s
Textbook
244
Tradhisi
Nyadran
(Nyadran
Tradition)
Internet
192
Tradhisi
Ruwatan
(Ruwatan
Tradition)
Internet
263
3.1 Difficulties Faced by Students in
Understanding Javanese Texts
Students have many difficulties in understanding
Javanese texts. First, the difficulties in recalling and
understanding new vocabularies. Percentage of new
vocabularies of the text presented in Figure 1.
Number of vocabularies that no student has ever
heard or that no student can answer the meaning are
calculated and then compared to the total number of
words. Apart from new vocabularies contained in
this table, there are still many vocabularies that are
considered difficult by most students.
Figure 1: Percentage of difficult words.
From Figure 1 it appears that there are still many
vocabularies that have not been known by the
students. The most difficult text is Javanese poetry.
According to the students, the language used in
geguritan is an unusual language they hear. Many
interesting things happen during the learning
process. Based on the observations, in table II
presented some examples of new vocabularies and
students' predictions about the meaning after they
read the text.
Table 2: Words meaning prediction by students.
No.
Difficult
Vocabularies
Student’s
Prediction
The Correct
Meaning
1
kentir
Coquettish
Drifted
2
kencana
horse-drawn
carriage
Gold
3
kawentar
advanced,
free
Famous
4
nyenyet
Icy
Quiet
5
labet
labet bird
Serve
6
bebaya
Crocodile
Danger
The data from Table 2 showed that students’
prediction is very different with the real meaning.
They have not been able to connect between words
with the reading context. And it is their second
difficulty to make predictions of reading content
based on the reading context. For example, when
students read geguritan entitled Wutah Getihku and
then students were asked to write the meaning of
wutah getihku, 68.8% of them answered "vomiting
blood", 20% answered "war", while the rest
answered "spilled blood". No one answers precisely
that the meaning of wutah getihku is "my country"
or "my homeland".
Many interesting things happen when teachers
invite students to discuss content of the text. One
teacher reveals that students often think differently
with the teacher thinks, so it is often happening that
students' answers make the class rowdy because the
answer sounds like “humor”. The teacher's
expression is reinforced by an interesting
Fourth Grade Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Javanese Language Text
489

conversation between teacher and students, as shown
in the following conversation.
Teacher : Aswatama iku anake Begawan ...?
: Aswatama is the child of Begawan ...?
Students : Solo
: Solo
In the above dialogue, the teacher asked open ended
question about Aswatama who the son of Begawan Durna
is. But some students answered Solo, while Solo is the
name of the city and Bengawan Solo is the name of the
famous river in that city. Some students answer
spontaneously because they think that begawan
(ascetic/noble) is tantamount to bengawan (river) and this
shows that they have not been able to understand what
they read. Students’ mistaken also shown in the dialogue
below.
Teacher : Kembang iku bisa kanggo talirasa
duhkita utawa sungkawa, contone nak ana pralaya, ana
wong menehi kembang tulisane turut berduka cita utawa
turut “berbela....”?
: Flowers can be a sign of grieving or
condolence, for example if there is death, there are people
who give flowers that say sorrow or “berbela ....”?
Students : bangsa
: nation
The dialogue shows that students also do not understand
what they have read. In the text there is already a sentence
that flowers can use for a sign of grief or condolence
(berbela sungkawa). Some students, however,
spontaneously answer about the nation's defense (berbela
bangsa) because it is a phrase they often hear.
Teacher : Punden iku panggonan sing dianggep
kramat dening “para ...”?
: Punden is a place that is considered
sacred by “para ...”?
Students : gapit
: gapit
In the above conversation the teacher actually
meant is para warga (community). But a student
responded with para gapit (division), while other
students just silent. This indicates that the student
only reveals what he thinks spontaneously without
being able to relate with the content of the text.
Other students also do not understand the question
of teachers because they just silent to hear the
answer from his friend.
The next difficulty faced by students is the
difficulty in determining the main ideas, themes,
conclusions, and moral values of the reading.
Students have difficulty determining the underlying
idea because students do not understand the contents
of the reading, so that students only write one
sentence contained in the text without thinking
whether it is the main idea or just explanation.
Furthermore, when asked to determine the theme,
students tend to write the theme according to the title
of reading. For example, when students read the text
entitled Tradhisi Nyadran, most students replied that
the reading theme is "tradhisi nyadran", not
"tradition" or "culture". Students are also less able to
make inferences from the content of the reading.
When asked to make a conclusion student tend to
write down what they understand from the text or
what they remember, and not the essence of the
passage. And only few students that have been able
to determine the moral values of reading such as
honesty, love of the homeland, and so forth.
3.2 Factors Causing the Difficulties
There are several factors causing the lack of
students’ understanding to the Javanese text. First,
Javanese language used by students every day is
different from what they find in textbooks. Javanese
lessons is much more complex with the subject
matter that they rarely hear.
Second, students are accustomed to reading
Indonesian texts and rarely read Javanese texts.
There are many differences in the writing and
pronunciation of Indonesian with Javanese. Students
often read Javanese with pronunciation as in
Indonesian, for example kencana is read kencana (a
read like u in word "subject"), when it should be
read "kencono" (o read like o in the word "wrong").
These difficulties in reading technique has a bad
effect on their reading comprehension.
Another factor is the existence of speech level in
Javanese, namely ngoko 'low' and krama 'high'
which enable its speakers to show intimacy,
deference, and hierarchy among the society
members (Laksana, Suarsa, and Budiarsa, 2013).
Four from eight Javanese language texts used in this
study contain Javanese krama. Although in those
text krama does not dominate but this still makes the
students feel frustrated. Krama is usually used to
speak with older people or talk to respected people.
Krama is also used in certain traditional ceremonies,
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
490

such as Javanese traditional marriage. However,
Javanese krama is now very rarely used, especially
by children. All the students in this study were asked
to fill out a questionnaire about the language they
use every day at home and the data are presented in
Figure 2.
Figure 2: Language used by students at home.
From the data, it is clear that most students use
Javanese variety of ngoko at home and no students
speak only krama to their parents. There are even
children who do not speak Javanese but Indonesian
at home. Children who use ngoko and krama are
interviewed and they reveal that krama language
they used at home is very limited, for example nggih
(yes) and mboten (no). Therefore, when they found
text that contains Javanese krama they feel that it is
very difficult.
3.3 Teachers Efforts to Overcome the
Difficulties
Javanese language lesson is only two hours per
week, while the subject matter of Javanese language
is very complex. Skills that must be mastered by
students not only reading, but also speaking,
listening, and writing. This makes pressure for
teachers. Teachers are more emphasis on the
delivery of the subject matter rather than teaching
specific reading skills. So far there has been no
specific strategy used by teachers to help the
students having good reading technique.
4 DISCUSSIONS
Many difficulties faced by students in understanding
Javanese texts. A specific strategy is needed to
improve students’ ability in understanding the text.
Blanch, et. al., (2012) suggest some strategies such
as scaffolding, modeling, thinking aloud, direct
instruction or guided participation to encourage
pupils to achieve better reading comprehension and
the processes of self-regulation. Furthermore,
Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) also suggested several
strategies to improve reading comprehension, such
as activating and using background knowledge,
generating and questioning, inferencing, predicting,
summarizing, visualizing, and comprehension
monitoring.
There are many other strategies that can be used.
However, the allocation of Javanese lesson time
which is only two hours per week will be an obstacle
for teachers because of the amount of material they
have to convey besides teaching the reading skill.
Based on his research, Fauzi (2012) stated that the
goverment have to provide the javanese language
subject not only two hours in one week but more
than it.
Student’s difficulties of reading in their own
mother tongue become a concern. Indonesian is a
nationalist symbol while local languages are cultural
symbols (Alwasilah, 2017). So, it's important to
keep students understand their own language and
culture. One important factor for the revitalization of
regional languages is either local pride or ethnic
identity (Purwoko, 2011). Parents should instil pride
in the identity of the child as the son of the region
and the son of the nation. While in school, language
education should provide students with ability to
write in ethnic, national and foreign language
(Alwasilah, 2017).
5 CONCLUSIONS
A specific strategy is needed to improve students'
ability to understand Javanese language text. Parents
at home have to introduce Javanese culture and grow
their children’s pride to local culture so that when
they read the textbook they already have prior
knowledge which is very important to understand
the text. Teachers should be very keen in choosing a
reading strategy because of the limited time they
have. The government needs to review time
allocation for Javanese language lesson. Finally,
further study of appropriate strategies in improving
students’ understanding of Javanese texts is
required.
Fourth Grade Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Javanese Language Text
491

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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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