CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Language is often seen as one thing and knowledge as another, with the
relationship at best seen as a transparent one. According to (Knapp and Watkins,
2005:89), What we often see in text books and other curriculum materials, for
instance, is that language is treated as an almost transparent medium in the overall
learning process, and consequently there is a careless use of genres and grammar.
Communicating in English is one skill that the students have to master. They must
know the rules of English grammar in order to avoid making errors or mistakes. They
have to master the structure of English, so that they will be able to put their ideas,
feeling, or desires into the grammar of English to make them meaningful.
Halliday (985: xiv) views a language is interpreted a s a system of meaning,
accompanied by forms through which the meanings can be realized. Language consist
of three levels, they are : Phonology (talking about the sound of language),
Lexicogrammatical (talking about the construction of making sentences) and
Discourse (talking about the unity of clause to imagine the meaning).
Language of text has three functions or it is called as metafunction of
language (Gerot & Wignell, 1994: 12), they are: Ideational Function, Interpersonal
Function, and Textual Function.
From the view of Interpersonal function, a text serves as a media for
individuals. The language is used to interact with people, to build and maintain
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