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POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED IN DIRECTIVE SPEECH ACTS IN CLASSROOM INTERACTION
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
KHAIRINA DEWI
Registration Number: 809125011
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
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CLASSROOM INTERACTION
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
KHAIRINA DEWI
Registration Number: 809125011
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
iii ABSTRACT
Khairina Dewi: Politeness Strategies Used in Directive Speech acts in Classroom Interaction. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School. State University of Medan. 2014.
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Khairina Dewi: Politeness Strategies Used in Directive Speech acts in Classroom Interaction. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School. State University of Medan. 2014.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, the writer would like to thank Allah SWT, the most gracious and the most merciful for blessing him to write this thesis. This study is concerned with politeness strategies used in directive speech acts in classroom interaction . It is submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program of the Postgraduate School, the State University of Medan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Magister Humaniora.
In particular, the writer would like to address her deep thankfulness to the Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., her first Adviser for her time spent in guiding, correcting, and supporting her to complete this thesis, Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., her second Adviser for her super attention in giving the support, suggestions, comments and ideas from the beginning of writing of this thesis until the present.
The writer also expresses her great gratitude to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd. and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., Head and Secretary of the English Applied Linguistics Study Program for their assistance in completing the administrative procedures. She is deeply grateful to lecturers who have given the valuable knowledge and experiences during her study in this university.
Special thanks are expressed to her examiners: Prof. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd., Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., and Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd. for their criticisms and suggestions in improving this thesis.
A very special gratitude is given for her beloved husband and child: Ali Yusafri Saman, S.ST and Nasywan Abdillah, her beloved parents: Ramli and Lismah, her beloved sisters: Irmayani Ramlis, S.Pd and Rahmi Pratiwi for their sincere prayers, love and support during her academic years in completing her study. May Allah SWT always bless them.
Then, thanks to the principal of SMA Negeri 1 Talawi, located in Desa Pahang, Kecamatan Talawi, Kabupaten Batu Bara and all participants for giving her permission and time to observe the classroom interaction as source of data in this thesis. Finally, she would like to thank to her classmates and those whose name can not be mentioned here for giving the valuable support in finishing this thesis.
Batu Bara, December 2014 The writer,
Khairina Dewi
Registration Number: 809125011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... i
ABSTRACT ... iii
ABSTRAK ... iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... v
LIST OF TABLES ... ix
LIST OF APPENDICES ... x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 The Background of the Study ... 1
1.2 The Problem of the Study ... 4
1.3 The Objectives of the Study ... 5
1.4 The Scope of the Study ... 5
1.5 The Significance of the study ... 6
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 7
2.1 Speech Acts ... 7
2.2 The Element of Speech Acts ... 8
2.3 Types of Illocutionary Acts ... 10
2.2.1.1 Representative ... 10
2.2.1.3 Expresive ... 14
2.2.1.4 Declarative ... 14
2.2.1.5 Directive ... 15
2.3 Politeness ... 15
2.3.1 Types of Politeness Strategies ... 19
2.3.1.1 Bald on Record ... 20
2.3.1.2 Positive Politeness ... 21
2.3.1.3 Negative Politeness ... 22
2.3.1.4Off Record ... 23
2.3.2 The Realizations of Politeness Strategies ... 23
2.3.2.1 Realization of Bald on Recod Strategy ... 23
2.3.2.2 Realization of Positive Politeness Strategy ... 25
2.3.2.3 Realization of Negative Politeness Strategy ... 31
2.3.2.4 Realization of Off Record Strategy ... 34
2.3.3 The Reasons Of Politeness Strategies Usage ... 39
2.3.3.1 The Reasons of Bald on Record Usage ... 39
2.3.3.2 The Reasons of Positive Politeness Usage 40 2.3.3.3 The Reasons of Negative Politeness Usage... 40
2.3.3.4 The Reasons of Off Record Usage ... 40
2.4 Classroom Interaction ... 41
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2.4.1 Types of Classroom Interaction ... 42
2.4.1.1 Teacher to Student ... 42
2.4.1.2.tudent to Teacher ... 43
2.4.1.3 Student to Student ... 44
2.5 Politeness Strategies in Directive Speech Acts ... 44
2.6 The Relevant Studies ... 48
2.7 Conceptual Framework ... 51
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 53
3.1 The Research Design ... 53
3.2 The Source of the Data ... 54
3.3 The Technique of Data Collection ... 54
3.4 The Technique of Data Analysis ... 55
3.5 The Thrustworthiness of the Study ... 56
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 58
4.1 Data Analysis ... 58
4.1.1 Politeness Strategies Used by in Classroom Interaction ... 58
4.1.2 The Realization of Politeness Strategies in Classroom Interaction ... 69
4.1.3 The Reasons of Politeness Strategies Usage in
Classroom Interaction ... 94
4.2 Findings ... 105
4.3 Discussion ... 107
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 110
5.1 Conclusions ... 110
5.2 Suggestions ... 111
REFERENCES ... 112
APPENDICES ... 115-196
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
4.1 The Occurrence of Politeness Strategies Used by Teacher to student ... 61
4.2 The Occurrence of Politeness Strategies Used by Student to Teacher ... 64
4.3 The Occurrence of Politeness Strategies Used by Student to Student ... 67
4.4 The Comparison of Politeness Strategies Used by All Participants ... 68
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Appendix Page
1. Observation Sheet ... 115
2. Transcript of Teacher to Student Interaction ... 116
3. Transcript of Student to Teacher Interaction ... 156
4. Transcript of Student to Student Interaction ... 165
5. Interview transcripts ... 173
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of the Study
Interaction is commonly defined as a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. It is used to share information from one to others and to make social relationship among them. According to Rivers (1987: 6), it is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings or ideas, between two or more people affecting each of them. Therefore, interactions do not occur only from one side. There must be mutual influence between the participants through giving and receiving messages in order to achieve communication.
Interaction takes an important role in teaching learning process. It functions to build a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom with friendly relationship among the participants and encourages students become effective communicators especially in second language learning (Dagarin, 2004: 128). It enhances the development of the two important language skills which are speaking and listening among the learners. Rivers (1987: 9) states that through interaction, students can increase their language store as they listen to ‘authentic
linguistic material’, or even the output of their fellow students in discussions, joint
Classroom interaction refers to the verbal exchanges between teacher and students in reciprocal process. Allwright and Bailey (1991: 25) assert that through classroom interaction, the teacher’s plan produces outcomes (input, practice
opportunities, and receptivity). The effectiveness of classroom interaction between the teacher and students will influence the students’ achievement in communicative competence as stated by Long (1996: 413) that interaction facilitates mastery because of the conversational and linguistic modifications that occur in such discourse and it provides students with the input they need. Through the interaction, students have opportunities to understand and use the language that was incomprehensible. Therefore, teacher and students should arrange well classroom interaction in order to achieve educational objectives. It can be done through various ways; by implementing different students’ and teacher’s roles, by
involving students to varied classroom discussions, and by employing a variety of activities.
One of speech acts which is mostly used by teacher and students in classroom interaction is directive speech act. It is a speech act which makes the listener does something. It includes requesting, commanding, admonishing, permitting, questioning, dismissing, excusing, forbidding, suggesting, begging, challenging, and warning (Finch, 2000: 96). It causes the listener to take a particular action.
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face. ‘Face’ means the public self-image that everyone wants to claim for himself. That is why directive speech act should be conveyed as polite as possible to avoid conflict among the participants involved in the conversation. Thus, politeness is needed to create a good environment for teacher and students including harmony between teacher and students, solidarity among students, and comfortable atmosphere in the classroom.
Politeness becomes one of important issues in Indonesian education recently. Nuh (2012), the education minister of Indonesia, asserts that politeness of Indonesian students is in a state of decline. Most students speak impolitely and they prefer to use slang or informal language at school. Therefore, a teacher has a responsibility to teach their students how to speak politely and admonish them if they speak impolitely at school especially during classroom interaction. Moreover, a teacher also needs to speak politely in front of the students in order to influence them to speak politely too. In addition, the implementation of politeness strategy is relevant which curriculum 2013 which emphasize on good character because politeness strategy deals with someone’s ability to show his good character. Therefore, the teacher is obliged to implement it in the language learning activities along with language usage.
interacting with their teachers and they avoid to apply positive politeness in their classroom because they worry the solidarity resulted from the positive politeness will indicate that they are less polite to their teacher. Positive politeness strategies are mostly used by the teachers to make students relaxed and comfortable to the lesson. Moreover, Xiaoning (2004) found that students in university preferred to use negative politeness strategies in requests. It means that there is possibility that not all of four types of politeness strategies stated by Brown and Levinson occur in directive classroom interaction.
The facts above motivated the researcher to conduct a study dealing with politeness strategies used in directive speech acts in classroom interaction to know whether teachers and students of senior high school especially in SMA Negeri 1 Talawi use the four types of politeness strategies stated by Brown and Levinson in their directive speech acts.
1.2 The Problems of the Study
In relation to the background of the study, the problems are formulated as the following.
1) What types of politeness strategies are used by teachers and students in directive speech acts in classroom interaction?
2) How are those types of politeness strategies realized by the teachers and students in directive speech acts in classroom interaction?
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1.3 The Objectives of the Study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are:
1) to investigate the types of politeness strategies used by teachers and students in directive speech acts in classroom interaction
2) to explain how those types of politeness strategies are realized by teachers and students in directive speech acts in classroom interaction
3)to find out the reasons why the types of politeness strategies are realized the way they are?
1.4 The Scope of the Study
1.5 The Significance of the Study
The findings are expected to be significant theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the research findings are useful for:
1) Linguists to enrich their knowledge about the theory of linguistic politeness, especially the realization of politeness strategies in directive speech acts in classroom interaction.
2) Other researchers to get information of what politeness strategies used in classroom interaction, so that it can be a reference in conducting relevant studies.
Practically, this research is useful for:
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
After analyzing the data in the classroom interaction of SMAN 1 Talawi, some conclusions are drawn as the following.
(1) All types of politeness were applied in classroom interaction, but the proportion of their occurance was not in the same number. Bald on record was the type of politeness strategies used frequently in the classroom interaction, while off record was not used in student to student interaction. (2) Bald on record was used in two ways namely in cases of
non-minimalization of the face threat and cases of FTA-oriented bald on record usage. The both ways were used in teacher to student interaction, while in student to teacher, and in student to teacher interaction, they just bald on record in cases of non-minimalization of the face threat.
(3) Bald on record was used because of the limited vocabulary of the students when they speak in English, because of efficiency, to avoid the misinterpretation on the participants, and to show the teacher’s power to the students so that they could command the students to do something they wanted regardless of the students’ face, and to show their firmness when
they forbad or admonished the students not to do something.
5.2 Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, suggestions are offered. They are:
(1) It is suggested to the lecturers of sociolinguistics to introduce the theory of politeness strategies in the classroom interaction to their students so that it can be trigger for the students to conduct a research related to the field. (2) The teachers of secondary level are suggested to use appropriate
politeness strategies related to their intentions especially in directive speech acts in classroom interaction due to its befefits, such as to make teaching learning process more effective, to create a good environment for teacher and students, and to soften students’ character.
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