ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Parents in Indonesia believe that English is sonimportant that children should speak the language as early as possible. As a result, there has been a growing number of Indonesian-English bilingual children, which are seen as a threat for eliminating their identity as Indonesian because of their frequent use of English. Thus, this study aimed to find out how bilingual teenagers saw themselves. One male and one female student from a private national school in Grade 11 were the participants. Semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire were administered in this study. The results showed both participants preferred to use English more because they felt proud and more comfortable using it to other English speakers they knew. Nevertheless, they did not dismiss their Indonesian identity since they still actively used Indonesian for communicating with people around them. In conclusion, being bilingual did not automatically hamper participants’ identity as Indonesian.
