Sociological and cultural appropriateness of Indonesian language description, used by foreign experts of Bahasa Indonesia: Case study on the book Bahasa Indonesia, book one, introduction to Indonesian language and culture

Language description as the product of linguists gives contribution to the construction of language teaching materials. Because language grows together with human civilization, there will be changes in language itself through the changes of times. That is why the language description provided in language teaching material needs improvement to fit with the appropriateness of sociological and cultural aspects of the language.

Through this study, the researcher wants to give a critical appreciation to the work of foreign experts of bahasa Indonesia, Yohanni Johns and Robyn Stokes, Bahasa Indonesia Book One, Introduction to Indonesian Language and Culture. Although, this book is categorized as an old book, because of written on 1977, it is still used until now and reprinted in several countries without any revised edition. By placing Yohanny John and Robyn Stokes as two foreign experts of bahasa Indonesia, the researcher formulates his study to answer the problem arose; how is the sociological and cultural appropriateness of language description used by the foreign experts of bahasa Indonesia? Answering the research problem the researcher uses the theory of socio-lexicographical study. Besides, to focus on this study the researcher limits his study by only analyzing the words list and the meanings provided in the book.

So far the researcher does not find the previous study of this research. This fact impacts to the research design used by the researcher. The researcher uses descriptive-exploratory research approach and the two kinds of techniques used in collecting the data are intensive and extensive reading.

As the findings of this study, the researcher concludes that the words list and the meanings provided in the book Bahasa Indonesia, Book One, Introduction to Indonesian Language and Culture, are moderate. The words list and the meaning are, therefore, potential for extension. The needed materials for the extension are already provided by the researcher. It is expected that the extended version of the words list and the meanings are more useful not only for studying the book of Bahasa Indonesia, Book One, Introduction to Indonesian Language and Culture, but also for the real sociological and cultural context in Indonesia.