AN ANALYSIS ON THE STUDENTS’ COMPETENCE IN PRAGMATICS
Urai Annisa Tyfani, Luwandi Suhartono, Wardah English Education Study Program FKIP UNTAN Pontianak
Email : nisyatyfani23@gmail.com
Abstract
The research aimed to know the students’ competence to understand indirect speech act in pragmatics by the sixth semester students of English Education study program in academic year 2016/2017. This study used descriptive method as form of research. The research used test and questionnaire as tools of data collecting. The participant of this research is the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program Class B regular B at FKIP Tanjungpura University in academic year 2016/2017, which consists of 20 students. The result of the research showed that the average score of 20 students is 67.6% while the minimum score of the subject is 70.0. It is indicated that the score of sixth semester students of English Education Study Program of Teacher Training and Education Faculty Tanjungpura University Pontianak in academic year 2016/2017 are not as expected. The conclude of this research is the sixth semester students of English Education Study program has not very well understood indirect speech acts.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Students’ Pragmatic Competence, Indirect Speech Act.
INTRODUCTION
The first thing which is necessary to consider before coming into the discussion of pragmatics is the definition of pragmatics in general. Yule (1996) states that Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader. Simply, pragmatics studies language that is not directly spoken. Instead, the speaker hints at or suggests a meaning, and the listener assumes the correct intention. In a sense, pragmatics is seen as an understanding between people to obey certain rules of interaction. In everyday language, the meanings of words and phrases are constantly implied and not explicitly stated. In certain situations, words can have a certain meaning. In this way, the role of understanding Pragmatics is needed. An important feature of language is that the meaning of a sentence is more than a combination of the meaning of the words it
contains to understand fully. We also use information from the situation where the sentence is used.
can cause misunderstanding. Worse than that, between the listener and the speaker cannot understand the purpose of the talks, resulting in communication that do not have a goal in another sense this communication will be in vain.
In everyday life, communication also occurs in the collage environment, most communication happens in the classroom between lecturers and students. When teaching and learning activities take place, a lot of communication happens when the lecture explains, discuss, and question answer activities. The communication will not run properly if the speaker and the listener does not comply with the rules of the principle of cooperation. Learning result will not be satisfactory if the communication between lectures and students are not operating effectively and efficiently.
From the statement above, the writer is interested in researching on pragmatics competence. She is interested in conductive a research on students’ competence in pragmatics, especially in indirect speech act on the sixth semester of FKIP Tanjungpura University in academic year 2016/2017. This research may
This research is pragmatic analysis represented in qualitative descriptive way. Qualitative is research that intended to understand the phenomenon of what is experienced by subject such as behavior, perception, motivation, action, etc. Best and Kahn, (2006:23) argue that descriptive research, unlike assessment and evaluation, is concerned with all of the following: hypothesis formulation and testing, the analysis of the relationships between non manipulated variables, and the development of generalization. The result of
data analysis are reported in the form of a phenomenological description, which means that the analysis presented in accordance with the finding in the field without any associated with certain variables.
Cresswell (2013:204) argues that the size of this population, if size can be determined, and the means of identifying individuals in the population. The population of this research is the sixth semester students of FKIP Tanjungpura University in Academic Year 2016/2017. And the sample is a small proportion of the entire population of the research is less than 20. This research applied chooses cluster random sampling and chooses class B with 20 students as sample of the research.
This research uses test and questionnaire as a tool of data collecting. According to Rogers (1929) cited in Spolsky (2000), in an early reference to authenticity, concluded that “The test can be criticized on the score that it departs from the real situation, but nevertheless it is useful in enabling the teacher to discover stumbling blocks in the way of achievement”.
This research used the activities scale of instrument including two scales that measure the quality of students’ competence in using institutional resources that are provided for their learning outcomes. The college activities test has 30 items and 10 items for questionnaire. The test is a multiple choice with 4 (four) options and consists of 30 items. In addition, the questionnaire consists of 10 items.
Technique of Data Collection
After giving the test, the researcher gives the questionnaire as an additional tool of data collecting. The researcher was collected the results of the students, the answer sheet, and the test items; (4) The researcher was scored the test by giving 1 (one) for true answer and 0 (zero) for the wrong answer; (5) The researcher analyzed whether the sixth semester students have the competence to what extent they understand the pragmatics; (6) The table of students’ scores made by the researcher and the researcher put the data into table. On the other hand, the research also wants to know how far the students’ competence in pragmatics; (7) Conclusion and suggestion made by researcher. The conclusion is drawn from the analysis of students’ competence score and the addition information was taken from the questionnaire.
Data Analysis
Technique of data analysis is a way to identify the data as processing analysis. Hence, the data will be presented by describing context or situation, and turn of the utterance that appears in the conversation. Then, the data of this research will be analyzed by using the following steps: (1) The first step is scoring the students’ competence. In this case, the students given a test to find out how well could the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program of Regular B class B understand indirect speech act. The test is a multiple choice with 4 (four) options and consists of 30 items. The researcher will score the test by giving 1 (one) for true answer and 0 (zero) for the wrong answer; (2) The second step is calculating the average of student test scores. To clarify the data, the writer provided following measurement score:
Table 1
Table of Specification Total Score and Category of Analysis in Test Items
Total
Score Category Qualification
80-100 A Good-Excellent
70-79 B Average-Good
50-69 C Bad-Average
0-49 D Poor-Bad
Modified from Heaton (1975, p.98)
(3) Scoring the students’ response. Scoring the students’ response on the college activities and aspect of indirect speech act questionnaire was based on the Likert Scale. The researcher wants to know how often they use indirect speech acts in their daily life, after which they given a test to determine how much they understand the indirect speech. Scoring the students response on the college activities and understanding of indirect speech act. The students responded the point items within each range a quality of effort, where students indicate the frequency that they had engaged in various college activities and students learning development.
The response option represents the degree of agreement as shown in table below:
Table 2
Table of Students’ Response of College Activities and Aspect of Indirect Speech Act
Questionnaire
Score (n) Scale
1 Never
2 Occasionally
3 Often
Modified from Riduwan (2010, p.13)
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Research Findings
The findings of this research are the result of the data that has been collected and analyzed: (1) The first finding in this research is about the result of the test. The finding was collected from the test which consists of 30 questions distributed to students from 20 students. Only 8 students whose value meets the standard, the remaining 12 people do not reach the standard. The lowest score is 53. And the highest score is 83. The data has been calculated with percentage of each item. The formula has been stated in Chapter III on page 24. Furthermore, the result of the test showed that from 20 students scored an average of 67.6%. From 20 students get the average 67.6%, the writer considered that the students’ competence in pragmatics especially for indirect speech act is not passed; (2) The second finding in this research is about the result of the dominant aspects of indirect speech act questionnaire by the sixth semester students. There are 10 statements in the aspect of indirect speech act questionnaire. Each item has a different question and different goals as well. From 10 statements 20 students many answered occasionally. Based on the result of questionnaire response statements numbers 10 attract the writer's attention because from 20 students answered often on item 10 as their choice, which amounted to 11 people. We can see that it contains 10 items on appendix 2 (on page 52). For more information the writer can explains more in discussion (on page 32) From the sentence above, the writer can be concluded that the sixth semester students use statement in everyday speech, so students prefer to talk directly rather than using terms or indirect speech act. If associated with modesty it can be said that the student likes to speak impolitely in everyday life, into the category of less understanding of the condition of others.
Discussion
This research was conducted on May25th
2017. The subject of this research is the sixth semester of English education study program in academic year 2016/2017 of Tanjungpura University. The study conducted only one meeting with time allocation 2x45 minutes. The writer will describe one by one about the result of the test. The first rank was categorized as the incorrect answered by the students. There were 30 numbers of the test. For number one 18 students who answered incorrectly. The question is “Can I get you aspirin?”. According to pragmatics view the question about interrogative to make an offer. After the writer analyze, it turns out they do not know the meaning of aspirin and they think it is a request not an offer. Furthermore, many students mistakenly answer at number six. The question is about
The second rank was categorized as the correct answered by the students. There were 30 number of the test. For number two all of the students who answered correctly. The question is “Come to our dinner”. The question is about “an imperative to make invite”. The writer thought all of student understood about invite. Because, from junior high school to senior high school has been taught. For number eight the writer took in the book. The question is “Can you pass the salt?”. The question is about “interrogative to make a request”. At several times the writer has entered the class and attended the lesson. The writer considers that they know the answer because their lecturers often used this as examples and this example that they can reads in the book.
On the other side, this is the result of the questionnaire responses from 10 statements. Out of 20 students many of them answered “occasionally”. Here, how many people answered “occasionally” on each items. The writer will describe one by one in order the reader to understand. In the item one asked about “How often do you use indirect speech in daily activities?". From 20 students who are answered “occasionally” used there were 16 students, half of them often answer. From those statements have been confirmed they occasionally use indirect speech in everyday activities, this is related to the results of those tests that did not reach the target. Because they often using direct speech acts, they do not understand indirect speech acts.
Questionnaire item two is almost similar to item one. There are 16 students who are answered “occasionally”. But the question is different. The questions is "Have you ever used an imperative to make a request?”. Different from the other, item three asking about "Have you ever used an imperative to make a command?". Almost all students ever make a command that is equal to 17 students. Item four the question is "Have you ever used an
imperative to make an offer?". Here, 12 students answered “occasionally”.
The question of item 5 “Have you ever used an imperative to give a direction?” From 20 students about 13 students who are answered “occasionally” on this item. Item 6, “Have you ever used an imperative to make a promise?". There are 15 students answered “occasionally”. Item 7, “Have you ever used an imperative to make a compliment?" Students make compliment using indirect speech as many as 12 students.
Item 8, "Have you ever used an imperative to give advice?” As many as 13 students answered “occasionally“, they use imperative to give advice. Item 9, "Have you ever used an imperative to make an invitation?" On this item students occasionally used an imperative to make an invitation indirectly. As many as 16 students answered it. Item 10 the question is “Have you ever used a declarative to make a statement?" In contrast to other numbers only a few that “occasionally” answered as many as 7 people. Half of them are answered often. On the other hand, students often used a declarative to make a statement of indirect speech act in everyday life.
Based on the result, the test showed that 20 students scored an average of 67.6%. It had not reached a predetermined score. In addition to use the test writer also use the questionnaire to determine whether there is a relationship between the test results with the results of the questionnaire.
utterance. This is the same as the result of answers from students who often use direct speech. Most of the students mistakenly answer at number six. The question is about direction. According to writer, they are still lack understanding in pragmatics especially for indirect speech act.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion
Regarding the research findings it can be concluded that the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program of Teacher Training and Education Faculty Tanjungpura University Pontianak in academic year 2016/2017 have not well understood pragmatics especially indirect speech act. The students prefer do the activities in daily life used direct speech act. The writer was assumed there are two causes they use direct speech acts: (1) They do not really understand about indirect speech act; (2) They are lazy to use indirect speech acts because students always communicate to their friends rather than older people or lecturers. From the causes above, it can be conclude that. If the students want to communicate with lecture, the students should use indirect speech act. The item 10 showed clearly from the data percentage there was 65% students answered “often”. The question is "Have you ever used a declarative to make a statement?". This proves that students prefer to communicate directly at the core of the conversation without invisible meaning. The students’ average competence on pragmatics in 67.6% is low. The result has answered all the research questions. It is indicated that the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program of Teacher
Training and Education Faculty Tanjungpura University Pontianak in academic year 2016/2017 have not well understood pragmatics especially for indirect speech act.
Suggestion
The writer gives some suggestions for those who are interested in analysis this research. The findings of this research revealed that there is result of the students’ competence to understand indirect speech act in pragmatics on the sixth semester of English Education Study Program class B regular B at Tanjungpura University in academic year 2016/2017. The conclusion brought some suggestions. They are:(1) The students who have less competence in understanding indirect speech act in pragmatics should motivate themselves to learn more; (2) The students have to persist toward their effort in achieving goals; (3) For the other researchers who are interested in analyzing of speech act, they could use this research as a reference to conduct relevance research; (4)
Spolsky, B. (2000). Language Testing in The Modern Language Journal .
