Communicative Competence in Mlayokaken Tradition of Banyuwangi “Using” Community

Abstract

'Melayokaken' which means abducting a woman who has been loved by a man but they are not approved by the woman's parents. The tradition takes place among Banyuwangi Using community (BUC) that has been going on for long time from generation to generation. This event can certainly make a conflict among families and in the community. In general, this study aims at exploring and describing the communicative competence in melayokaken tradition. In particular, it will explore the linguistic knowledge that is used by melayokaken actors; the application of interaction skill used by the actors involved in the melayokaken tradition; the cultural knowledge applied in melayokaken tradition.The method used to achieve the research objectives is qualitative method, with the focus on ethnographic study of communication. The data collected through participant observation, interview, and recording are transcribed into written data and then analyzed by using speech component analysis with communication ethnography method. The study result finds that the communicative competence possessed by the people involved in melayokaken tradition (the young man abducting, the abducted woman, the woman's parents, the man’s parents, and the mediator called colok) can be well categorized from the linguistic knowledge, interaction skills, and cultural knowledge in the process of melayokaken tradition. From this finding, it is very important for the people involved in melayokaken tradition, especially for the colok, to have these communicative competence features because communicative competence can determine a person's pattern and strategy of communication, so that the conflict among Using community will not happen.