CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is designed in order to present some points as the introductory of

this research. And those points can be noticed as: Research Background, Research

Question, Research Objectives, and Research Significance

1.1 Research Background

One of the curriculum design according to Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan

in 2006 is KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan). This KTSP is designed and

developed based on seven principles, they are; potentiality (considering students’

progress and development in learning), variety (considering students’ varieties social

background and characteristics), up to date (considering any development of

information, technology and science), life relevance (presenting actual and

appropriate concept to be applied in real life), continuity (continuing applied in every

grade of education), long life study (supporting students to always study until the

highest grade), contextual based (considering points of learning which is based on

students’ life in daily). Further, KTSP also considers that schools are given chance to

develop the curriculum but still based on competency standard and content standard.

In term of competency, it is defined in KTSP that competency includes a combination

of knowledge, skill, and basic values which are reflected in both thinking and

behavior of students. Moreover, this KTSP must be designed based on the four skills

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in teaching and learning, particularly in EFL (English as Foreign Language), those

four skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The speaking skill is considered as kind of skills which need to be mastered by

students in order to survive in life, because speaking is used in every activity of

learning and also social context. Moreover, based on KTSP 2006, speaking skill is

used in order to have correlation between students’ knowledge, concepts and

perceptions to the real life of contextual situation through producing correct and

appropriate utterance. Basically, speaking is about connecting one person to other by

doing interaction and communication in which people, especially students are having

chance to evaluate their speaking skill progress, and also to gain important

information from other students.

It is claimed that speaking in EFL ( English as Foreign Language) class becomes

something that is hard for the students since there are many aspects which students

need to focus on, such as vocabulary, tense, pronunciation, situational context and

meaning (Holmes, 2004). Those aspects are mainly focused on the way of how

students recognize and master words, know the rules of applying the words, students

are able to say the words in correct pronunciation and also how the words can be

arranged and have correct meaning in the real situation.

Theoretically, speaking class has some problems which need to be deal with. As

it is stated by Richards in 2013 through his research on speaking theories and

methodologies, there are some problems which students face during their learning at

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speaking class, those problems are: problem in starting conversation, problem in

understanding words and phrases, problem in vocabulary, and problem in

communication strategies. Actually, those problems are claimed as the effect of

ignoring the essential function of communication in speaking class. The essential

function of communication means that students are expected to focus on some aspects

which have been stated above in order to minimize the tendency of having the

problem in speaking and also to develop and improve their speaking skill which is

good and appropriate. Furthermore, regarding to the speaking problems which were

found by Richard in 2013, it is then stated that those problems found as they appear

when there is no understanding to the key of communication in speaking, particularly

in EFL (English as Foreign Language) students must have a problem in speaking in

which that is a part of their learning process.

From explanation above, it can be emphasized that problems and aspects in

speaking class are important part of speaking competency, how speaking is noticed in

some point of view in order to understand the whole aspects of speaking, therefore as

a part of speaking essential, there is one essential term which has paramount function

in speaking since it can deliver meaningful word, instruction, and word’s function at

the same time, that essential term of speaking is called speech act.

The existence of speech act in curriculum, particularly in KTSP can be noticed

on one of the basic competency of the syllabus of English for senior high school.

“Mengungkapkan makna dalam percakapan transaksional (to get things done)

dan interpersonal (bersosialisasi) resmi dan berlanjut (sustained) dengan
menggunakan ragam bahasa lisan secara akurat, lancer dan berterima dalam

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konteks kehidupan sehari-hari dan melibatkan tindak tutur: menyatakan sikap
terhadap sesuatu, menyatakan perasaan cinta, dan menyatakan perasaan sedih.”

From that statement of basic competency it can be noticed that speech act is part

of students’ speaking activity in EFL class in which the speech act is used in order to

express any specific language function.

In the first speech acts’ theory which was stated by Searle in 1985, the key of

speech acts is the illocutionary, which means the intention of speaker strongly exists

in the illocutionary act rather than in locutionary (utterances stated) and

perlocutionary (response in acts). Illocutionary is about the meaning of the utterances

from the speaker, and the meaning here is the real meaning or intention of the

speaker, not the structural meaning of the words in the utterances. Moreover, Searle

also emphasizes that speakers’ intention is not always about words and worlds or to

the facts, but basically it depends on the intention of the speaker.

On the development of speech act, it is considered as essential function in

communicating which involves intention of speaker (Clark, 2004). In generally

speech acts is used in order to say something which involve intention of the speakers.

Furthermore, in specific way, this speech act is a speech which covers the intention of

the speaker which sometimes it is different from the utterances meaning, therefore the

hearer needs to understand the words from speaker by considering the context. It is

emphasized by Clark that speech acts essentially have significant function for EFL

communication, because through speech act, speakers are more polite to express the

intention indirect way, rather than direct way (utterance meaning).

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 It is believed by Clark that the essence of speech acts is information for all

hearers. Shortly, when a speaker states a statement which includes intention as speech

acts to first hearer, second hearer and other hearer who are involved in

communication need to get the intention of the speaker. It can be stated that this

theory by Clark has developed a new concept of speech acts which is claimed to be

able to complete the missing point from the old concept in speech acts. As the first

concept of speech acts only concerns speech act as command from speaker to hearer,

it is claimed that the communication and interaction do not happen in a group of

people or community, it is better to be called as conversation because this first

concept gives no concern how other hearers are included. Therefore, Clark is carrying

out a mission of involving every person who exists during the communication, it is

because Clark commits that a communication can happen in a group of people who

give, accept and respond any utterances occur. Moreover, Clark mentions that there

are five main categories of speech acts, they are; assertive (saying facts), directive

(giving orders), commissive (commit to do something), expressive (showing feeling),

and declarative (change something or someone).

There is also theory which states that speech act also includes politeness to ask

someone or hearer to do something (Larsson, 2013). This concept by Larsson is

claimed as the supporting concept to Clark’s which reveal another aspect of the use of

speech acts in communication. As it is considered as new concept from Larsson who

believes that mostly people choose speech acts to be used in order to make their

utterance more polite and does not offend the hearer. Further, what has developed in

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people mind today is that more indirect, it is more polite, therefore in EFL teaching

and learning, it is believed by Larsson that both teacher and students, particularly

students use speech acts to state their opinion or statement, not only to enrich their

words, but also to make their utterance more polite as they speak to teacher as their

parents at EFL classroom. Meanwhile, for the teacher, speech acts is also used to

make any utterances more polite, and also to practice students’ awareness of any

words which might not be really intended as their meaning. In short, Larsson states

that in EFL teaching and learning speech acts have been used as functions of

language and means of practice for both students and teacher.

In terms of communication and interaction in EFL teaching and learning, when it

is concerned that a teacher is giving an instruction to a student, the other students are

hearing too which means that the students are involving in a situation which is called

community communication. It is claimed by Larsson that in community interaction

and communication the use of politeness at the time of using speech acts aims as

transferring a positive issues to the other students who are listening. This positive

issue by Larsson is claimed as one factor that influences how good and polite

communication can happen in EFL classroom.

Regarding to the relationship between speech act and politeness above, then it is

considered that speech acts which exist in speaking class where students are

identified as EFL students, there must be errors committed by the students since they

are non native speaker students (Finney, 2005). The EFL students do not have

original linguistic background (oral and written) about English therefore EFL

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students are claimed to commit errors in speaking during EFL class. Based on Finney

there are some types of speaking errors which are committed by EFL students when

they speak (use speech acts) namely : grammatical error, pronunciation error and

content error.

The errors in speaking which are committed by the EFL students have some

sources. According to Touchie (1986) students make error because some reasons;

simplification, overgeneralization, hypercorrection, faulty teaching, fossilization,

absence of knowledge, inadequate learning, and false concepts of hypothesized.

There is a research of speech acts done by Ariff and Mugableh in 2013. The

research entitled “Speech Act of Promising among Jordanians”, this research

intended to analyzed the used of speech acts, particularly speech acts of promising

which is used by Jordanians. It is stated in this research that Jordanians use speech

acts in order to make their utterances become more polite to the hearer, moreover in

term of speech acts of promising, it is found in this research that Jordanians tend to

promise to do something in future instead of feeling doubt if they can do it now. It

means that Jordanians do not use any direct words to say that they cannot do

something or attend something now, but they promise that they will do it in next time.

For Ariff and Mugableh, this way of communication is belonging to the use of speech

acts to make utterance more polite and avoid any offends from hearer.

Combining all ideas presented above, it can be stated that the speech acts as

part of students’ speaking competency relates to the locutionary acts in terms of

politeness, and also speaking errors committed and the sources of errors committed.

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This thesis was designed in order to survey the students’ speaking competency in

perspective of speech acts and also locutionary acts in terms of politeness which are

involved in speech acts, speaking errors in students, and the source of speaking errors

at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal, the district of Badung. Further, it

can be stated that in terms of politeness, the aspect surveyed in this research was the

locutionary act (words in utterances), and this research was not concerning on others

aspects of speech acts (illocutionary act and perlocutinary act) because those aspects

need further investigation.

Academically, Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal was chosen as

the place of conducting this research because; (1) this school is one of the schools

which still uses KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) as the standard

curriculum for the school and when the school still uses KTSP this research could

gather data which integrated to speaking and speech acts and could reach the

objectives of the research. (2) Based on the information from the EFL teachers at

eleventh grade, it was informed that the students’ speaking skill involved speech acts

and politeness, and also there were errors committed by the students in speaking

class. (3) From the authentic school data about average score from students in last

three years particularly in English subject, it was noticed that the students’ score

increased significantly from 2011 until 2013 from 7.50 in 2011 became 8.80 in 2013.

This average score actually included both test and practical score (speaking) in

English Class.

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 1.2 Research Problem Identification

In applying teaching activity at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal,

particularly at language class, it is indicated that there must be some specific skills to

be taught to the students in order to be competent and skilful in using any specific

terms in language especially in EFL. It is indicated that there are some problems that

influence EFL teaching and learning process at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1

Abiansemal as they can be identified as follows.

1) The competency of the teachers is indicated to be improved more as it

is noticed that the teaching and learning activities is not totally based

on the contextual practice in which students are expected to be

contextual and social competence to use language to communicate and

interact. Further, the teaching and learning material needs to be

developed further in order to create innovative and impressive learning

to students and students are able to be critical in terms of giving their

ideas and opinion toward any issues happening in the world

particularly language development.

2) The specification of language learning material is only based on the

task book. The impact of this issue is that the development of students’

competency cannot be maximized since the students focus on

answering the task which is generally in writing and just lay on the

knowledge and memorization of the students. It is indicated that the

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 learning becomes passive and students tend to get bored and less-

attractive to the learning.

3) The teaching and learning activity needs to be focused on the design of

lesson plan which has been prepared by the teacher before conducting

the teaching and learning activity. Every step on lesson plan must be

applied systematically as the lesson plan is coming from the syllabus

which is fundamental aspect of teaching and learning activity at

school.

4) The assessment system needs to be clarified and set as appropriate as

possible depending on the skill which is taught to the students. It is

expected that the assessment must carry out the content of the real

worlds into the assessing process in order to correlate the students’

knowledge and concept into the contextual situation which they will

face a lot in real world. Moreover, the assessment must be designed

based on the topic which is taught to the students and the assessment

must include rubric in order to make the evaluating process can be

applied as clear as possible and can be noticed the indicator which is

scored in students performance or work.

It can be stated that from those four problems which are identified as big

issues at teaching and learning process, this research focused on students’ speaking

competencies; the speech acts used, locutinary acts in terms of politeness, errors, and

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sources of error during the use of speech acts as it is focused on pronunciation,

grammar, and content.

1.3 Research Question

Regarding to research background, the identified problems were formulated as

the research questions and they could be mentioned as follows:

1. What types of speech act are used by the eleventh grade students at

Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal ?

2. What are locutionary act used in terms of politeness by the eleventh

grade students at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal ?

3. What are the speaking errors committed in terms of grammar and

content by the students of the eleventh grade at Sekolah Menengah

Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal ?

4. What are the sources of speaking errors committed by students of the

eleventh grade at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansemal?

1.4 Research Objectives

From the research questions mentioned above, it could be formulated certain

purposes of the research as follows:

1.4.1 General objectives

a) To map out the students’ speaking competency, particularly when

they use types of speech acts which also involve politeness, error

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 and source of errors committed during EFL teaching and learning

process.

1.4.2 Specific objectives

a) To map speech acts categories used by the eleventh grade

students when they are expected to show their knowledge and

understanding in creating oral sentence of any expressions

related to speech acts categories.

b) To map the intention of politeness which is committed to be

used by the students when they state the expression in

sentences of speech acts categories.

c) To map the errors which are committed by the students in

terms of grammatical error and content error in their oral

activity

d) To understand the reasons for committing such errors in terms

of absence of knowledge and also overgeneralization.

1.5 Research Significance

1) Curriculum designer and implementers (KTSP) had significant benefit

in terms of getting new findings about the development of students’

speaking competency. In KTSP, particularly at the syllabus the

speech acts was displayed as a skill to be mastered in speaking class,

but this research then showed that speech act was also used in terms

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 of politeness and also related to the speaking errors as the students

were in speaking class. The findings about error in students’ speaking

would give references to develop any new further items in speaking

skill at syllabus.

2) Teachers had important references about the students’ speaking skill in

order to give consideration to the teacher in designing the speaking

material and also in choosing any relevant and appropriate strategies

to improve the skill of students to speak and minimize the errors

committed. Teacher could get valuable information from this

research related to create speaking activity particularly speech acts

and relates it with politeness.

3) Students earned some references and correction related to the findings

of their speaking ability particularly in terms of speech acts used,

politeness and errors committed, and source of errors, and those

things were believed could be a consideration and reflection to

students to improve and be better in speaking class. The students also

could achieve understanding that speaking must be related to the

reality in order to make speech acts could be successful and fix any

errors in speaking.

1.6 Research Scope

This Research was focused on the following terms:

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 1) The subject of study was those who are at eleventh grade of language

class at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Abiansema, The district of

Badung.

2) The main object of this research was focused on students’ speaking

competency which involved speech acts, politeness, errors and source

of errors which were used and committed in speaking activity.

3) The speech acts types which were included in theory of speech acts by

Searle were claimed to be available all in EFL teaching and learning at

eleventh grade of language class at Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1

Abiansemal. there are: assertive, directives, commisives, expressive

and declaratives.

4) The locutionary acts in terms of politeness which was focused here

was politeness and impoliteness, and for the errors, it included

grammatical error and content error, moreover for the source of errors

was focused on absence of knowledge and overgeneralization.

1.7 Definition of Key Terms

1) Conceptual Definition

a) Searle and Van Der Veken (1985), Speech acts is used with an

intention which involves in speaker’s utterances to communicate with

hearer.

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 b) Clark (2004), speech act is used not only between speaker and hearer,

but also for other hearers who are involved in communication and

interaction (informant participant).

c) Oishi (2006), speech act is a speech with an intention which is used to

invite respond in form of acts from the hearer.

d) Larsson (2013), speech act involves politeness in order to make hearer

felt good and respond with good acts.

e) Murphy (2013), speech act is responded by correlating logical thinking

process and contextual situation.

f) Yules (2006), politeness is about how to be nice to other people.

g) Watts (2003), politeness affect people character and knowledge.

h) Corder (1967), error is a part of EFL learning which happens

automatically

i) Finney (2005), error is result of internal and external aspect of EFL

students.

j) Touchie (1986), error happens because of two aspects, interlingual and

intralingual in EFL students.

k) Yang (2010), the sources of error are basically because of doing

silence and ignorance.

2) Operational Definition

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a) Speech act is kind of language function which is used in

communication and interaction in order to invite acts from speakers to

hearers.

b) Locutionary act is identified as the meaning of students’ utterances

which can be categorized into certain types of speech acts.

c) Politeness is indicated involved in the use of speech acts by students

during their activity at speaking class.

d) Error is defined as committed mistake which are systematic.

e) Sources of error are aspects which made the EFL communication and

interaction become unsuccessful.

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