LANGUAGE RESEARCH To Print

Patria Sable Corpus College
College of Education and Humanities
STUDENTS’ SPEECH ACTS IN FACEBOOK STATUS
A Research Paper
Presented to
the Faculty of the College of Education and Humanities
Santiago City, Philippines
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Secondary in Education
Major in English
By:
Abelardo, Hannah Mae R.
Dela Cruz, Angelica Joy L.
Esteban, Madonna D.
Fajardo, Levi Rose B.
Navarro, Clair
Natividad, Princess Dianne
December 2018
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
RATIONALE
The researchers were driven to make this research out of curiosity. It believes
that every great and ingenious idea starts with curiosity and it will have its breakthrough
in the boundary of creativity. In principle, it is the key to discovering a breakthrough of
ideas (Boss, 2015). It is with this purpose that the researchers preferred to focus in this
subject that it may bring enlightenment not only to the respondents but to the whole
society.
Communicative competence among the senior high school students has been a
growing public concern among educational institutions, and there is a need to address
the concern at hand. Communicative competence has become a major component in
the philosophy of language as it is with the day-to-day exchange of ideas thru
conversation may it be delivered written or orally. In this matter, researchers wanted to
study communication outside the four corners of the classroom in the form of written
text.
In today’s 21st century, young learners engaged themselves to social media
apps specifically Facebook. It has become more and more a subject of interest of many.
Nowadays, when thinking about a social network, it seems almost impossible not to
think about online social networks, which are websites that foster interactions between
users online. Individuals can communicate and share information instantly and
independently from their geographical location. Moreover, Kobler et al. (2010),
condemns that Facebook includes features which allow text-based messaging, both in
private and public, chatting, posting photographs, blog, and posting status updates.
Technology, information and communication are becoming inextricably interwoven in
such a way that “communication from one side of the world to the other has become
virtually instantaneous, crossing national boundaries and connecting the world on an
unprecedented scale and with a previously unimaginable speed (Kayaoğlu & Akbaş,
2011, p.282).
Crystal (2001) contends that as the focus shifts from technology to people and
purpose, the role of language becomes central. ‘If the internet is a revolution then there
is likely to be a linguistic revolution’. Therefore, it is relevant to study communication,
particularly messages that people produce in social networking sites (SNS).
Yule (1996, p. 114), condemns that in semantic analysis, there is always an
attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean. Thus, Semantics studies the
conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words, phrases and sentences of a
language. Pragmatics, on the other hand, is often described as the study of language in
use. Yule (2006:112) also argues that pragmatics is the study of “invisible” meaning, or
how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written. He explains
that pragmatics is highly concerned with the analysis of meaning of an utterance than
with the individual meaning represented by words or phrases in the expressed
utterance. Another philosopher explains that pragmatics deals with the study of
meaning beyond that which is encoded in the linguistic structures themselves (Watts in
Sell 1991: 26). The primary focused of pragmatics is the connotative meaning rather
than denotative ones. Hence, there are certain factors to consider in the production of
meaning such as utterance (words and phrases), users and context (where and when)
used. However, the difference between the two is that “while in semantic analysis, there
is an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, pragmatic analysis
focuses on what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular occasion.”
(Grundy, 2000, p.33).
Communication takes place when locution occurs between interlocutors. Many
times receiver misinterprets the meaning of the sources’ message and so, the purpose
of communication becomes irrelevant. In this matter, the function of pragmatics takes
place.
Central to Pragmatics is Speech Acts Theory which is a tool to interpret the
meaning and function of words in different speech situations. It deals with the
symbolism of words and the difference between a meaningful string of words and
meaningless ones, the truth value or falsity of utterances, and the function to which
language can be put (Hashim, 2015, p.701).
Therefore, it is the goal of this study to show that the speech act theory can be
justified and is reasonable in its very premise. The speech act theory is unarguably a
plausible means to analyze the students’ communicative competence in a written-based
text. Speech act theory has become a rather complex subject in the philosophy of
language. It has been proposed by a man name J.L Austin in the year 1962 and was
succeeded and reinforced by John Searle’s Speech Acts. In this study we are interested
in the role that messages play in building understanding and knowledge between and
among young learners patterning the Searle’s Speech Acts.
According to Searle (1969:16), speech act is the basic unit of linguistic
communication. This theory is a part of how speakers use language to communicate;
likewise knowledge of how to identify if that act is critical or another to reader
understanding Deborah (2002:57). On the other hand, Yule (1994: 100) argued that this
theory appeared from the basic insight that language does not totally explain the word,
but also to perform an action. It implies that in understanding speaking, interpreting
meanings of certain words or phrases semantically is not enough because identifying an
act must also be done to have an effective communication. Intentionally, researchers
found out what these acts are, how they do, how they can be used, and how we used
them in the context of Facebook particularly the Facebook statuses of our respondents.
Speech Acts according to Austin (1962) fall into three classes, which are:
locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. A locutionary act is an act of saying
something; that is, the act of producing an utterance while on the other hand,
perlocutionary act is the effect or influence on the feelings, thoughts or actions of the
listener/receiver of the message. Another act is the illocutionary act which is the core of
any theory of speech acts. Illocutionary act is identified by the explicit performative
(Hashim, 2015). That is, the conventional force achieved in the saying of that utterance.
This is realized, according to Austin (1962) as the successful realization of the speaker’s
intention, which for Searle (1969) is a product of the listener’s interpretation.

Hence, Searle (1969) categorizes the illocutionary acts into five classes:
Assertives which pertains to speakers commit to the truth of the expressed proposition,
for instance, stating, claiming, reporting, announcing, etc. b) Directives which are
statements used to give order thereby causing the hearer to take a particular action,
request, command or advice, (c) Commissives pertains to some future actions, for
instance, promising, offering, swearing, etc. to do something, (d) Expressives, as the
expression of some psychological state, for instance, thinking, apologizing,
congratulating, etc. (e) Declaratives are statements used to say something and make it
so, such as pronouncing someone guilty, resigning, dismissing, accepting, declaring a
war, etc.
The researchers adopted Searle’s five classifications of illocutionary acts for the
purpose of analysis of this study.
As the number of millennials using the internet has increased and their ability to
access the internet becomes easier, faster and more direct, the researchers aim at
studying the speech acts that emerge from analysis of the status updates of millennials.
The researchers wanted to discover the specific purpose to why millennials tend to
share their thoughts, feelings and emotions through a Facebook status instead of a
face-to-face conversation. The interest of millennials now have develop through a
written communication and not oral.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study attempted to present the analyses of the respondents’ Facebook
Statuses thru John Searle’s Speech Act Theory. Specifically, it aims to answer the
following questions:
1. What are the common speech acts?
2. What are the common topics in the Facebook status?
3. What are the reasons in the use of speech act in Facebook status?
4. Is there a significant difference between the strands and the type of
speech acts used by respondents?
5. What teaching modules can be proposed to enhance students’
communication skills in relation to posting status updates on
Facebook?
HYPOTHESIS
There is no significant difference among the speech acts – assertives, directives,
expressive, and declaratives in terms of the following predictors:
1.1 Socio-economic status; and
1.2 Strand
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study brings significant factors and contributions and is considered
beneficial to the following:
Community. This study aims to help the Filipino community in general. The
ultimate goal of this study is to come up with a detailed explanation on the different
classifications and usage of speech acts to have a better understanding of how
communication in the twenty-first century among millennial.
Educational Institutions. This study can help schools design better program for
communicative competence among the senior high school students of Patria Sable
Corpus College, it can be beneficial for educational institutions to have a better grasp of
how language evolve over time in order to understand its implications particularly in our
ever-changing society.
School Administrators. This study can help the school administrators come up
with programs that are well coordinated with the PNP to come up with more desirable
outcomes based on the sole objective of the anti-illegal drug campaign.
Teachers. This research can provide the teachers an insight on how speech act
works not only in the classroom setting but also outside the four corners of the
classroom. It can give them a platform to better understand students and use it as a
learning curve to engage students in communicative competence.
Students. Since the students are the focal respondents of this study, this study
can help the students to be aware on the different classifications of speech acts and
how they can utilize in the context of school, unconventional & conventional
conversations and or daily conversation.
Future Researchers. This study can serve as a reference point for further
studies, thus, it can help future researchers come up with better studies the researcher
did not anticipate during the course of production. Hence, the topic can be undermined
with the inevitable detailed flaws; furthermore, this can serve future researchers to
conduct a more in-depth study to qualify its truth claims. The findings of this study can
serve as a good source of accurate and useful information for future researchers.
SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
This study aimed to identify and classify speech acts used by the Grade 11
students of Patria Sable Corpus College through Facebook status updates. Therefore,
the study is exclusively for students with Facebook accounts and are active users of
Facebook. Researchers created a new account used in the gathering of data. They
gathered a total of 10 posts each from 70 students of different strands from the month of
May until September 2018.
The researchers of this study used profile questionnaires and interview as their
data gathering instruments. With regards to the interview, researchers have a random
selection of respondents using Facebook and Messenger to verify the results of the
analysis. In the study, other features of Facebook like comments and likes were
excluded. Similarly, hashtags, pictures, and emoticons were not included in the
analysis. The study primarily aimed to describe the speech acts prevalent in the
Facebook status updates of the students, thus, descriptive and correlational analysis
were utilized.
Although the researchers desire for a broader scope of the said study, they were
limited with only four (4) months in accomplishing this study as their requirement for the
subject Language Research. Furthermore, the researchers will qualify and validate
every data gathered without partiality. This study seeks to provide detailed information.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
J.L. Austin classified broad linguistic acts into three general types namely:
locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.
Locutionary act is primarily the act of saying something. On one hand,
illocutionary act which is the core of any theory of speech acts largely deals with what
the interlocutor wants to convey in his/her production of an utterance (e.g. promising,
naming, requesting, etc). Perlocutionary act, on the other hand, is the response or the
understanding of the audience to the produced utterance. Thus, perlocution brings
about an effect upon the beliefs, attitudes or behaviors of the addressee.
In his study, Searle (1969; 1976) explains that illocutionary acts can further be
classified into assertives, directives, expressives, commissives, and declaratives.
Assertives engage speakers to the truth of some proposition such as stating,
claiming, reporting, announcing, among others. Directives, on the other hand, make the
speaker attempts to bring effect through the action of hearer like requesting, ordering,
demanding, and begging. Expressives are expressions of psychological state that are
expected of the speaker. This includes thanking, apologizing, and congratulating.
Moreover, commissives denote that future actions are to be expected of the speaker.
This may involve promising, offering, swearing, and others. Lastly, declaratives are acts
which bring about the correspondence between the propositional content and reality.
Naming a baby, resigning, dismissing, and accepting are some instances.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The illustration below is the theoretical framework proposed by Searle wherein
speech acts in the Facebook status of Senior High School Students of Patria Sable
Corpus College will be analyzed. The study also differentiated and correlated the types
of speech acts using the profile of the respondents.
Figure 1 The Conceptual Framework of the Study

The independent variables can be seen on the left side of the figure including
age, year level, gender, strand, socio-economic status and time of post. While on the
right side are the dependent variables including the types of speech acts namely
assertives, directives, expressives, declaratives and commissives.
With the elements presented, the study arrived at the concept of investigating
the types of speech acts and the common topics in the status updates of senior high
school students.
“The speech acts or acts performed in the utterance of a sentence are in
general a function of the meaning of the sentence. The meaning of a sentence
does not in all cases uniquely determine what speech act is performed in a given
utterance of that sentence, for a speaker may mean more than what he actually
says, but it is always in principle possible for him to say exactly what he means.”
Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language”, pg. 18 (Searle, 1965)
This statement supports the conceptual framework shown above; it implies that
not all speech act can be determined in a given utterance, for the author’s intention may
always differ from the literal sense of the utterance.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
In order to facilitate understanding and appreciation of the study, the following
terms were both conceptually and operationally defined:

Emoticons. It is a pictorial representation of a facial expression as a portrayal of
writer’s mood or feeling.
Facebook. It refers to the social media application that is widely used today by
many people especially millennials.
Facebook status. It refers to an update feature of Facebook which allows the
users to discuss their thoughts and feeling and share it with their friends. Simply, status
updates pertains to ‘what’s on the mind’ of the user.
Hashtags. It is a # (the number sign) along with a topic or phrase.
Millenial. This pertains to someone who was born in 2000, young adults or
teenagers.
Speech acts. It refers to actions performed via utterance (Yule, 1996). Assertive.
It refers to speech acts that commit speakers to the truth of some proposition like
stating, claiming, reporting, announcing, etc. An utterance exemplifying assertives is
“There will be no classes on Monday.” Commissives. It refers to speech acts that
commit speakers to some future action such as promising, offering, swearing, etc. The
statement I will visit you on Sunday is an example of commissive. Directives. It pertain
to the speech acts that can be considered as an attempt to bring about some effects
through the action of hearer like requesting, ordering, demanding, begging, etc. An
example of this is Can you pass the salt? Declaratives. It denote speech acts whose
successful performance brings about the correspondence between the propositional

content and reality such as naming a baby/ship, resigning, dismissing, accepting, etc. I
now pronounce you husband and wife exemplifies declaratives. Expressives. These are
speech acts that express psychological state such as thanking, apologizing,
congratulating, etc. The utterance I am sorry. I was not able to attend your party is an
example of expressives.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
The researchers made an intensive study on different topics closely related to
their research by reading various documented literature from foreign and local sources.
This has the purpose of locating any documents that can support and help this study.
RELATED LITERATURE
The institution’s philosophy believed that its vital role is the development of
persons: equip them with knowledge and skills imbued with Christian values in a
democratic atmosphere; and to prepare them to be productive and active in the
economic, socio-cultural and technological growth of the country and the world (PSCC,
1947).
The research study is aligned with this philosophy as it aims to provide quality
education so that its clientele could break economic barriers, develop its socio-cultural
aspect and to attain maximum growth. It is without a doubt that the institution’s mission
is to educate and train its students and provide them platform and avenues to develop
their God-given potentials. It believes that by catering the needs of the learners it
provides opportunities to attain maximum growth. Furthermore, the mission statement of
our institution paved way to the creation of this study which aims to provide the highest
quality education and skills training to its clientele.
Language is a primary and an inseparable part of one’s daily life. It is the main
tool used to exchange messages, share ideas, aspirations and opinions both in oral
and written context. It is a societal concern which creates and influences the stand of a
person in any kind of social networks and institutions (Justova, 2006). It situates us in
the society we live in; it is a social affair which creates and further determines our
position in all kinds of various social networks and institutions.
In certain circumstances we are literally dependent on its appropriate usage and
there are moments when we need to be understood quite correctly. Language is
involved in nearly all fields of human activity and maybe that is why language and
linguistic communication have become a widely discussed topic among linguists,
lawyers, psychologists and philosophers.
Language as a medium of communication allows the speaker and the listener to
exchange knowledge, beliefs, opinions, wishes, threats, commands, thanks, promises,
declarations, feelings – only our imagination and thought sets limits. It is a system of
communication based upon words and the combination of words into sentences.
Communication by means of language may be referred to as linguistic communication –
the most effective way of human communication.
Linguistic communication takes place in the following way. Speaker A, in his/her
mind selects words from the language and combines them according to the rules of the
language, i.e. encodes the message. Then his/her articulatory organs – or, in the case
of writing, his/her hands – realize the signs: transmit the string of words into a physical
signal, a stretch of sound or writing. This signal is perceived by the ears – or, in the
case of writing, by the eyes – of Speaker B, who then decodes the message, i.e.
reconstructs the message in his/her mind. (Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, 2010)
Hence, linguistic communication essentially involves acts.
Searle (1976) stated that all linguistic communication involves linguistic (speech)
acts. In other words, speech acts are the basic or minimal units of linguistic
communication. This theory is a part of how speakers use language to communicate;
likewise knowledge of how to identify that act is critical or another to listener
understanding Deborah (2002: 57). In accordance Yule (1994: 100) argued that this
theory appeared from the basic insight that language is not merely used to explain the
word, but also to perform an action. It means that in understanding speaking one should
competently interpret meanings of certain sentences and identify the act to avoid
misinterpretation and misconception.
These uses of language form the basis of the theory of speech acts as proposed
by Searle (1969), and further elaborated by him in 1971 and 1979. In order for a verbal
utterance to be considered linguistic communication, it must be looked upon as the
production of a speech act to accomplish one or more of the previously mentioned
general purposes of language use.
Speech act is the central theory of linguistic communication. This theory is a part
of how speakers use language to communicate; likewise, knowledge of how to identify
that act is critical or another to listener understanding Deborah (2002: 57). In
accordance, Yule (1994: 100) argued that this theory appeared from the basic insight
that language is not merely used to explain the word, but also to perform an action. It
means that in understanding speaking one should completely interpret meanings of
certain sentences and identify the act to avoid misinterpretation and misconception.
In general, speech acts are acts of communication. To communicate is to
express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds to
the type of attitude being expressed.
In the introduction of the book, “Nick Fotion”, pg. 4 (Searle 1965), stated that
speech acts occurs because we have the intentions to perform such and these
utterances are called speech acts. Moreover intentions and other mental concepts are
involved in speech acts in other ways. Speech act theory is infused with mental
concepts. Just as we cannot fully understand what a speech act is without taking the
social and physical context into account, so we cannot understand this theory without
taking a variety of mental concepts into account.

In Fotion’s tenure, Searle (1965) explicitly explains that talking is performing acts
according to rules and the speaker may characteristically perform at least three distinct
kinds of acts. First is the uttering of words (morphemes, sentences) meaning performing
utterance acts. Second is the referring and predicating it denotes to performing
prepositional acts. And the third is stating, questioning, commanding, promising, etc.
We tell people how things are (Assertives); we try to get them to do things
(Directives); we commit ourselves to doing things (Commisives), we express our
feelings and attitudes (Expressives); we bring about changes in our world through our
utterances (Declaratives).
In accordance, Searle (1979) feels that we used language for five general
purposes which are under illocutionary act cited above.
RELATED STUDIES
From the point of view of discourse organization, online written interaction
differs from face-to-face communication in several main respects. One is related to the
asynchronous nature of computer-mediated communication (Herring et al., 2013).
Secondly, online interaction cannot rely on many of the multimodal resources used in
face-to-face settings, such as eye-to-eye contact, prosodic features, gestures, or body
language (Herring et al., 2013), and this endows the ongoing written production with a
strong dependence on linguistic organization, particularly when the conveyance of
emotion is concerned (Carretero et al., 2013). Facebook in particular is a computer

application that implies the permanent recording of the interaction in the form of a
history log which allows privileged access by analysts to the complete transcription of
the linguistic production of the participants.
Jabber & Jinquan (2013) postulated that language is a means of communication,
it is a social phenomenon by which we can interchange in different ways, feeling,
persuading, advising, warning, teaching and so on. When we intend to speak or write
we formulate what we say to be fit the context or situation, this means that what we say
is not exactly what we intend to convey, the meaning beyond the words or sentences is
sometime different from the form of words.
According to Kent Bach, speech acts are acts of communication. To
communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being
performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed. For example, a
statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses
regret. As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies, in
accordance with the speaker's intention, the attitude being expressed. Therefore, theory
of speech acts aims to do justice to the fact that even though words (phrases,
sentences) encode information, people do more things with words than convey
information and that when people do convey information, they often convey more than
their words encode. Although the focus of speech act theory has been on utterances,
especially those made in conversational and other face-to-face situations, the phrase
'speech act' should be taken as a generic term for any sort of language use, oral or
otherwise.
Austin (1962) defined speech acts as the phonological utterances of speakers
which express meaning at the same time making the listeners perform specific actions.
These actions signify different functions which can be carried out through the
meaningful spoken utterance. While Yule (1996) explained that speech acts achieve
multiple meaning depending on the context and/or circumstances influencing the
produced utterance. In addition, Justova (2006) indicated that speech acts are natural
linguistic constructs which involve significant consideration of the context of the
produced utterance.
Speech act theory presented by John Searle has been going about since the late
90’s. There’s vast majority of philosophers & linguist that agree with what Searle
proposes to be true. By definition, a speech act is an utterance that serves a function in
communication (University of Minnesota, 2015)
In the book “Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language”, pg. 16
(Searle, 1965), stated that the reason for concentrating on the study of speech acts is
simply this: all linguistic communication involves linguistic acts.
This principle applies in this research study. Here, Searle further stated that the
unit of linguistic communication is not, as has generally been supposed, the symbol,
word or sentence, or even the token of the symbol, word or sentence, but rather the
production or issuance of the symbol or word or sentence in the performance of the
speech acts. To take the token as a message is to take it as a produced or issued
token.
It is clear that there are many factors that must be taken into consideration when
analyzing a particular statement of linguistic communication. It is open to disagreement
that these factors may vary on a case case-to-case basis. In his book, he also stated
that:
The speech acts or acts performed in the utterance of a sentence are in general
a function of the meaning of the sentence. The meaning of a sentence does not in all
cases uniquely determine what speech act is performed in a given utterance of that
sentence, for a speaker may mean more than what he actually says, but it is always in
principle possible for him to say exactly what he means.
In layman’s term, Searle simply implied that it is difficult to determine what
speech act is performed in a given utterance of a particular sentence for it involves the
author’s intention, meaning implied, and context. There are variable such as idiomatic
expression and other figures that may affect such.
Particularly, the literature reviews that has been cited is related to speech act
theory; locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act. When people speak,
they use language to achieve variety of functions like expressing different emotions and
they would interpret the message and perform actions. Moreover, this study cites the
research finding that the speech acts had divided into individual parts considering their
communicative function and then categorized into the taxonomy.
Leech (1983: 199) briefly defined the three basic components of speech acts.
Locutionary act as performing an act of saying something, illocutionary act as

performing an act in saying something perlocutionary act performing an act by saying
something. Notice that the definitions vary according to the preposition used.
The locutionary act can be viewed as a mere uttering of some words in certain
language, while the illocutionary and perlocutionary acts convey a more complicated
message for the hearer. An illocutionary act communicates the speaker’s intentions
behind the locution and a perlocutionary act reveals the effect the speaker wants to
exercise over the hearer (Justova, 2006).
Locutionary act is the act of uttering specific words having meaning, sense and
reference with them (Austin, 1962). It is the basic act of an utterance which puts
emphasis on the role of phonology and grammar. Simply, it is the uttering of some
words in a particular language. Illocutionary act, on the other hand, is the act
performed through the communicative force of an utterance (Yule, 1996). Austin
(1965) states that illocutionary acts presuppose an intention, thus putting emphasis
on the motive of the speaker while producing a meaningful utterance. This could be a
statement, offer, explanation, and the like. Considering the utterance mentioned
above, its illocutionary force is that of offering. Although it appears in a question form,
the real intention is offering a cup of coffee.
However, illocutionary acts are sometimes difficult to determine. Yule (1996)
pointed that an utterance can imply various illocutionary acts. This implies that a
single utterance can have more than one meaning depending on the manner of
delivery and intention of the interlocutor. On the other hand, this difficulty in
communication can be aided through the use of hints which influence the intended
meaning of an utterance. These hints are called Illocutionary Force Indicating
Devices (IFIDs). IFIDs involve the use of performative verbs and various
paralinguistic elements like word order and prosodic features (stress and
intonation). Performative verbs take the form of a verb which explicitly state the
illocutionary act being perform by the speaker through an utterance.
The context of communication and culture are also primary factors in the
transmission of meaning. Justova (2006) emphasizes that the communicative context
largely influences the decoding of illocutionary acts produced through an utterance. In
addition, culture explains the reason why some speech acts are only applicable in some
context.
A Social Networking Site, particularly Facebook, is the largest social network,
with over 1.11 billion users. It was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerburg,
it provides place for connections through sharing photos, videos, text updates and
etcetera. Users create an account to communicate and having a connection to other
places and people.
Media sharing and self-disclosure through Facebook posts and pictures are two
of the predominant online activities of social networking sites. Facebook users are able
to post information about themselves through pictures and status updates, and they can
create their own profiles that reveal personal information, such as school and work
affiliations as well as favorite books, movies, and quotes (Tazghini & Siedlecki, 2013).
Any technology that is able to captivate so many students for so much time not
only carries implications for how those students view the world but also offers an
opportunity for educators to understand the elements of social networking that students
find so compelling and to incorporate those elements into teaching and learning”
(Educause Learning Initiative, 2006, p. 2).
In the last half a decade, social network sites (SNSs) have wrought a
tremendous impact on interpersonal communication across the world to the extent that
it can be postulated, arguably, that such sites/platforms represent the commonest new
media in Ghana (Coker, 2012). However, the communicative significance of this new
media as a means of articulating varying views and communicating differing intentions
is relatively unknown in Patria Sable Corpus College.
SYNTHESIS
Related literature and studies above are relevant information that conceptualizes
the Speech Act theory by John Searle and other proficient proponents and linguists.
The significance of Social Networking Sites, particularly Facebook in linguistic
development of the respondents in day to day communication is the communicative
competence.
The present study provides how language production is through educative
analysis of Speech Acts in the Facebook Status of senior high school students. Similar
to the Journal of SAVAP International (2012). The main purpose of the study is to
explore the communicative function of status updates on Facebook. The framework of
the analysis of speech act was also based on the Speech Act Theory proposed by John
Searle.
Another philosopher is Wulandari (2014), who conducted a study that aims at
identifying the types of speech act and describing the functions of each type of the
speech act on Facebook statuses used by students of Muhammadiyah University of
Surakarta. The study is relatively similar to the present study including the data sources
which are from Facebook, having the shape of Facebook statuses. Furthermore, the
five classifications of Illocutionary acts are also evident on both studies.
In addition, the study presented by Carr (2012), aims to describe the speech acts
in Facebook status updates. Also similar to the above studies excluding the utilized
quotations as another category in addition to the classification adapted from Searle.
Finally, the study aimed to put emphasis on the abovementioned variables to
further supply pertinent information on the field of research on speech acts.

CHAPTER III
METHODS AND PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY
Research Design
The researchers used descriptive-correlational research design as it is intended
to classify the different speech acts as well as the common topics observe in the
Facebook statuses of the respondents. Moreover, it determines the relationship
between the identified speech acts and the profile variables of the respondents. The
researchers used a mixed of quantitative and qualitative type of questionnaire adopted
from the study of Suguitan and Valmonte (2017) to elicit ideas, opinions and
perceptions of the respondents. Further, quantitative research design was used to
analyze and interpret the gathered data employing appropriate statistical tools, while
qualitative research design through structured interview was utilized to elicit ideas,
experiences, encounters, and reasons of the student-respondents with due respect to
their expressive speech acts.

Research Respondents
The respondents of the study included Grade 11 students of Patria Sable Corpus
College – Senior High School Department, AY 2018-2019. It is composed of two tracks:
Academic and Technology Livelihood with seven (7) strands. There will be a total
number of seventy (70) respondents in this study – ten (10) students per strand.
Grade 11 senior high school students were the desired respondents due to their
population. In addition, the researchers observed that they have the most numbered
active Facebook users.
Table 1.
Profile of Respondents
Variables CLUSTER Frequency Percentage
Age 15 7 10
16 45 64.3
17 14 20
18 3 4.3
19 1 1.4
Gender MALE 29 41.4

FEMALE 41 58.6
Strand ABM 10 14.3

HUMS 10 14.3
STEM 10 14.3
GAS 10 14.3
IA-AS 10 14.3
ICT 10 14.3
HE 10 14.2
Parent’s Added No answer
Income
P6,000 to P10,000 15 21.4
P10,000 to 20,000 22 31.4
P25,000 to P50,000 20 28.6
P50,000 and Above 13 18.7
The table above shows the profile of the respondents. As can be seen, most of
the respondents were 16 years old (f=45 %=64.3). In terms of gender, most of the
respondents were female (f=41, %=58.6) compared to males (f=29, %=41.4). In terms
of income, most of the respondents’ parents had income ranging from P10, 000.00 to
P20, 000.00 (f=22, %=31.4%) and P25,000.00 to P50,000.00 (f=20, %=28.6).
Research Environment
The data in this study was held at Patria Sable Corpus College, Santiago City,
Philippines, A.Y 2018-2019. The targeted student-respondents came from this private
institution with the use of internet specifically www.facebook.com.
Research Instruments
The study adopted the research instruments used by Suguitan and Valmonte
(2017).
Questionnaire. The study conducted the check list type of profile questionnaire. The
questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part includes information about the profile
of the respondents such as name, strand, address, age, gender, and year level. The
second part consists of eight questions. However, for the students who do not have
Facebook accounts, they may disregard the succeeding questions. Question four asks
the frequency of posting of the statuses of the respondents. These questions
determined the respondents that were included in the study from which the statuses
were gathered.
Interview. An interview was administered, using an interview guide, through Facebook
Messenger to 10 respondents from the seven different strands. The interview guide
contains questions which ask for the common topics of the statuses that the
respondents usually post, and their reasons of posting their status. A follow up question
was asked when a post of a respondent needs clarification. The interview was done to
verify the categories of the common topics and the classification of speech acts in the
study.
Data Gathering Procedure

Approval of the
questionnaire
Revision of
Questionnaire
Pilot Testing
Actual Data Gathering
Administering Profile
Questionnaires
Analysis of Facebook
post of the status
Group account (all updates
respondents)
Gathering Data (two (2)

weeks)
Figure 1. Flow Chart of Data Gathering Procedure
Approval of the questionnaire was secured before the selection of the
environments was made. The study involved pilot testing to verify the suitability of the
questionnaire in extracting the needed data and to anticipate the responses of the
respondents. Thus, an initial approval from the principal of Senior High School
Department was made. The profile questionnaires was then administered to the
respondents. The questionnaire became the primary tool in identifying the Facebook
accounts and profile variables in the study. To exclusively access the respondents’
accounts, a group account was made in which each respondent will be added.
However, if there are supposed respondents who did not respond to the friend request,
thus they were eliminated. Two weeks was allotted for the gathering of data. At the end
of pilot testing, the questionnaire has undergone some necessary revisions.
The actual data gathering followed the process similar to the pilot testing. However,
when the result of the pilot testing indicated that there will be a need to extend the
duration of gathering the data, thus the researchers extended the process of gathering
data into two months.
In the identification of speech acts in the Facebook status, Searle’s Speech Acts
Theory was used. Furthermore, each Facebook post of the status update was analyzed
per interjection and at a clausal unit. Each clause or interjection was classified
according to declarative, assertive, expressive, commissive and directive. Comparison
of analyses was also made between the researchers.
A follow-up online interview, through Facebook Messenger, was conducted to
validate further and support the findings and interpretations of data. The respondents
who were interviewed were randomly selected.
Assertives are speech acts which may state, assert, conclude, inform, predict,
report or etc. They commit the speaker to tell the truth of the expressed proposition. The
first extract below stated that God is amazing and the second extract asserts about his
experience.
Extract 1:
Extract 2:
Expressives are speech acts which may express a feeling or emotion and the
attitude of sincerity for a certain expressed fact. They may apologize, condole,
congratulate, greet, thank and etc.
Extract 3:
Extract 4:
Extract 5:
Commisives are utterances which commit the hearers to a future course of the
action. They may promise, offer, volunteer, guarantee, invite, propose or bid.
Extract 6 :
(Just a suggestion to those who suffer from sore throat, drink

Tracen. Promise, it’s effective.)
With the above extract, the respondent is suggesting a medicine to cure sore
throat and promising that it’s effective.
Directive utterances attempt the speaker to cause the hearer to undertake a
particular action. It may command, order, request, suggest, question, require, prohibit,
permit, advise and other.
Extract 7:
The extract above directly implies his friend to put a mighty bond on his feet.
Declarative utterance brings about naming, resigning, or dismissing.
Extract 8:
(My dog Trisha, had finished the labor. Welcome,
TRIXIE! My new born dog!)
Statistical Treatment of Data
To treat the data gathered, the following statistical tools are used: a) Frequency
count and percentages to further determine the topics present in the Facebook status;
b) Measures of central tendency such as mean, median and standard deviation; c) Test
of Significant Differences to compare the speech acts in terms of the profile variables.
To identify possible relation, test of correlation using Pearson r was used.

After the researchers’ identification of the topics and classification of speech acts
used in the Facebook statuses, verifications were done by an inter-rater.
CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION, AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter presents the gathered, analyzed and interpreted data of the study. It
contains discussions on the results of the study on the speech acts in the Facebook
statuses of Grade 11 students which were supported by different related studies.
Common Topics in the Facebook Statuses of Grade 11 Students

Table 2
Topic Frequency Percentage
Experience 20 2.86
Love and relationship 56 8
Dare 13 1.86
Attitude 17 2.43
48 6.86
Entertainment (movie,
sports, commercials, food,
games, weather, trend,
clothes, tv shows, music)
16 2.29
Special dates
31 4.43
Quote
14 2
Social media
56 8
Greetings and Pleasantries
17 2.43
Joke
23 3.29
Advice
241 34.43
Sentiments
13 1.86
Academics
15 2.14
Hugot
5 0.71
TV personalities and
characters
60 8.57
Expression
17 2.43
Appearance
5 0.71
Market
23 3.29
Announcement/ Warning
700 100
TOTAL
This table shows the topics commonly seen in the status updates of the
respondents. It can be seen that most of the status updates reflect sentiments (34.43%)
about feelings of love, sympathy, kindness and etc. For example:
Extract 9:
(Everything will be okay.)
Extract 10:
Common Speech Acts Used
Table 3. Common Speech Acts in the Status Updates
Std.
Sum Median
Deviation
COMMISSIVE 31 .00 .673
ASSERTIVE 435 6.00 1.727
DECLARATIVE 5 .00 .259
DIRECTIVE 72 1.00 .978
EXPRESSIVE 158 2.00 1.401
Table 3 shows the common speech acts identified in the status updates of the
respondents. The identified speech acts include commissives, assertives, declaratives,
directives, and expressive. Results showed that assertive speech act had the highest
median of 6 (SD=1.727) followed by expressive (Median=2; SD=1.401), directive
(Median=1.00; SD=.978) and both commissive and declarative had a median of 0. This
suggests that the status updates are composed primarily with assertives while
declaratives and commissives happen to be the least prevalent. These results support
the studies of Nastri, & Hancock (2006), Chiluwa (2012) and Sotillo (2012, as cited in
Nartey, 2012) which discovered that assertives are the most frequent speech act in the
language used in social networking sites.
Although the results differ from the findings of other studies such as Carr,
Dauterman & Schrock (2009) and Ilyas and Khushi (2012) because none of these
studies had assertives as the most frequently used speech act, instead, assertives took
second place in terms of frequency. This inconsistency in finding is probably due to the
insufficiency of felicity conditions available for assertives to be realized in the
respondents of the previous study. Nevertheless, the Grade 11 students used

assertives extensively because of the status updates of the respondents which give
assertions, conclusions, information, report, and predictions.
The extract below is an example of giving an information or warning about a
certain subject in the school. The post functions as giver of information. Thus, Facebook
can be an avenue for information.
Extract 11:
(Warning: GENERAL BIOLOGY is confusing. R.I.P. to that subject!)
Expressives are the second most frequently used type of speech act similar to
the findings of Suguitan and Valmonte (2017). However, the finding slightly differs from
other studies like Nartey (2013) and Wulandari (2014) which indicated that expressives
occupied either first or third preferred speech acts. The use of expressives as the
second most prevalent speech act in the current study suggests that Grade 11 students
usually construct status updates as an expression of current psychological state.
One of the posts below was extracted in the gathered data as proof. This post
shows apology.
Extract 12:
(Sorry for being useless.)
Furthermore, when respondents were asked about the reasons they posted in
their Facebook status, they said that Facebook becomes a tool in expressing their
emotions and feelings. The following extracts prove this:
Response 1:
Response 2:
Response 3:
The result in the table was revealed to be the same in the study of Kobler,
Krcmar, Leimeister, Riedly &Vetter (2010). According to the authors, the reason behind
this claim is the functionality of Facebook. This implies the idea that Facebook serves
as a representation of spontaneous and non-intrusive usage of communication to retain
interaction with friends, to be up-to-date and to share routine things. This opportunity
gives an individual personal interaction with other people. Moreover, on the study of
Schwartz (2012), it was revealed that the respondents established a closer connection
with their friends on Facebook. They believed that they had opportunity to get in with
touch with one another. Thus, in their study, it was found that social connectedness was
very important in the well-being of an adolescent.
With the findings, it can be said that Facebook can be a tool in education. Teachers can
monitor their students through Facebook. In addition, it can help teachers know more
about their students. Teachers and students can have the chance to have interaction;
thus, such an interaction can establish suitable good rapport.
Extract 13: (Directive)

The extract above shows how the respondent requested her audience to do
something. Thus, the post made her audience react or perform the action of hitting the
heart button on the post.
Extract 14: (Commissive)
Table 4. Speech Acts According to Strand
Std.
STRANDS N Mean df F Sig.
Deviation
ABM 10 .20 .422 6 2.902* .015
HUMSS 10 .80 .919 63
STEM 10 .20 .422
GAS 10 .80 .789
commissive
IA-AS 10 .80 .789
ICT 10 .10 .316
HE 10 .20 .422
Total 70 .44 .673
assertive ABM 10 6.40 1.838 6 1.511ns .1.89
HUMSS 10 5.50 2.173 63
STEM 10 7.10 1.663
GAS 10 5.60 1.350
IA-AS 10 5.60 1.350
ICT 10 6.90 1.524
HE 10 6.40 1.776
Total 70 6.21 1.727
ABM 10 .00 .000 6 .837 ns .546
HUMSS 10 .20 .422 63
STEM 10 .00 .000
GAS 10 .10 .316
declarative
IA-AS 10 .10 .316
ICT 10 .10 .316
HE 10 .00 .000
Total 70 .07 .259
ABM 10 1.00 1.054 6 .185 ns .980
HUMSS 10 1.10 .568 63
STEM 10 1.20 1.687
GAS 10 .90 .876
Directive
IA-AS 10 .90 .876
ICT 10 1.20 .919
HE 10 .90 .738
Total 70 1.03 .978
ABM 10 2.40 1.578 6 1.094 ns .376
HUMSS 10 2.40 1.647 63
STEM 10 1.50 1.434
GAS 10 2.60 1.265
Expressive
IA-AS 10 2.60 1.265
ICT 10 1.70 1.160
HE 10 2.60 1.350
Total 70 2.26 1.401
*significant *ns-not significant
Table 4 shows the difference of the speech acts when grouped according to
strands. The results indicate that ABM (Mean=6.40; SD=1.838), HUMSS (Mean=5.50;
SD=2.173), STEM (Mean=7.10; SD=1.663), GAS (Mean=5.60; SD=1.350), IA-AS
(Mean=5.60; SD=1.350), ICT (Mean=6.90; SD=1.524) and HE students (Mean=6.40;
SD=1.776) highly used assertive speech acts in their facebook posts

However, despite the great variation in the speech acts of the different strands, the
finding reveals that only on commissive speech acts have significant difference and the
rest have no significant difference among the speech acts in terms of strands.
Table 5. Speech Acts According to Parents Added Income
PARENT’S
Std.
ADDED N Mean df F Sig.
Deviation
INCOME
6,000-10,000 13 .69 1.032 3 1.078ns .365
10,000-20,000 22 .32 .477 66
commissive 25,000-50,000 22 .50 .673
50,000-above 13 .31 .480
Total 70 .44 .673
6,000-10,000 13 5.62 2.063 3 1.318ns .276
10,000-20,000 22 6.59 1.709 66
assertive 25,000-50,000 22 6.45 1.595
50,000-above 13 5.77 1.536
Total 70 6.21 1.727
6,000-10,000 13 .15 .376 3 1.039ns .381
10,000-20,000 22 .00 .000 66
Declarative 25,000-50,000 22 .09 .294
50,000-above 13 .08 .277
Total 70 .07 .259
6,000-10,000 13 1.31 1.377 3 .504ns .681
10,000-20,000 22 .91 .684 66
Directive 25,000-50,000 22 .95 1.046
50,000-above 13 1.08 .862
Total 70 1.03 .978
6,000-10,000 13 2.31 1.377 3 .848ns .473
10,000-20,000 22 2.18 1.468 66
expressive 25,000-50,000 22 2.00 1.155
50,000-above 13 2.77 1.691
Total 70 2.26 1.401
Table 5 shows the difference of the speech acts when categorized according to
parents’ added income of the respondents. It was found that the most of the
respondents whose parents’ added income ranged from 6,000- 10,000 (mean= 5.62,
SD=2.063), 10,00-20,000 (mean=6.59, SD=1.709), 25,000- 50,000 (mean=6.45,
SD=1.595) and 50,000 and above (mean=5.77, DS=1.691) mostly used also assertive
in their status updates.
Nevertheless, the outcome of the study has no significant difference between and
among the speech acts when it is grouped according to their parent’s added income.
It entails that the added income of the respondents’ parents did not influence their
use of the speech acts in their status updates.
Correlations of Speech Acts Used and Profile Variables
The study also intended to discover on the possible relationships that exist
between the speech acts used in the respondents’ status updates on Facebook with the
profile variables. Table 6 shows the results of the correlation.
Table 6. Correlations Between Speech Acts Used and Respondents’ Profile
Commissive Assertive Declarative Directive Expressive
Strand Pearson
-.085ns .054ns -.028ns -.029ns .015ns
Correlation
Sig.(2-tailed) .482 .656 .820 .809 .899
N 70 70 70 70 70
Income Pearson
-.118ns .013 -.028ns -.059ns .072ns
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .331 .918 .819 .627 .553
N 70 70 70 70 70
Tables 6 shows the relationship of the speech acts with the profile variables of
the respondents which are the strand and income. The results indicate that commissive
(r=-.085), declarative (r=-.028), directive (r=-.029) had negative correlation with strand.
On the other hand, assertive (r=.054) and expressives (r=.015) had positive correlations
with the same variable. Furthermore, commissive (r=-.118), declaratives (r=-.028) and
directive (r=-.059) had negative correlation with the parents’ added income of the
respondents while assertives (r=.013) and expressive (r=.072) were positively
correlated with the mentioned variable.
However, the finding indicates that there was no significant relationship between
the speech acts and the profile variables of the respondents (p-values>.05). In the study
of Grant (as cited in Guzin, 2011), social networking sites such as Facebook are mainly
used by teenagers as well as young adults as an avenue for demonstrating their
personality to showcase their personal attributes such as who they are and what they
care about. At the same time, SNS also provide their users the capability to connect to
other people, thus creating opportunities for communication, emotional and social
support, and exchange of information. In addition, social online networks may also
provide users with online capital (Joinson, 2008).

CHAPTER V
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the salient features on the findings of this study in
response to the problems presented as well as the conclusions and recommendations
that were logically drawn out from its findings.
Summary of Findings
Based on the findings of this study from its 70 Grade 11 senior high school
respondents with varied strands, it is very evident that Facebook statuses differ in terms
of the topics they posted in the Facebook. Facebook statuses about sentiments,
expression, and etc.
In the analysis of different speech acts, Facebook statuses were used and
evaluated. In their status updates, majority of the respondents used assertives
(median=6; SD=1.727), followed by expressives (median=2; 1.401). Some of them
used directives (median=1; SD=.978), followed by commissives (median=.00;
SD=.673). And least of them used declaratives.
From the study, it was found that there was a significant difference in commissive
speech acts and the rest have no significant difference among the speech acts in terms
of strands.
Furthermore, it was also found that there was no significant relationship among
the speech acts in terms of the profile variables of the respondents.

Conclusions
Based on the substantial findings aforementioned above, the following conclusions
were drawn:
1. The speech acts that are commonly used in the status updates of the grade 11
students are assertives, expressives and directives. Assertives were found to be
the most common speech acts used in the Facebook status while commissives
and declaratives were found to be the least. Thus, Facebook contribute in the
development of communication.
2. The topics that are commonly used in the status updates of the grade 11 sudents
are Sentiments such as opinions, entertainment such as TV shows and
personalities, music, etc. Expression, love and relationship and greetings and
pleasantries are the common topics that followed. While market and TV
personalities and characters were found to be the least.
3. Grade 11 senior high school students’ Facebook statuses serve as expression of
one’s self, source of information and entertainment.
4. There is no significant difference between the strands and type of speech acts
used by the respondents used and the respondents’ age, strand and economic
status. Therefore, the profile variables do not affect the speech acts used in the
respondents’ status updates on Facebook.
Recommendations
Based on the findings, the following are recommended:

Educational Institutions. They could develop teaching methods and strategies
with the integration of technology in lined with the subject matter since 21 st century
learners are profoundly engaged in technologies.
Teachers. Since Facebook statuses can serve as a tool for communication,
teachers could implement good rapport through Facebook statuses while directing
communicative competence with students in the teaching and learning process.
Students. The findings imply that Facebook statuses are students’ tool of
communication outside the four corners of the classroom. Therefore, they should
consider the content of their posts and their audience as well to avoid misconception.
Future researchers. The researchers propose the following recommendations:
(1) various groups of respondents and equal population of respondents to establish
better comparison of the speech acts and their profile variables; (2) undergo explicit
observation of respondents’ posts; (3) consider other social networking sites such as
Instagram in gathering data for exploration and discovery.
Module 1 - SPEECH ACTS

John L. Austin (1962) espoused the speech act theory, and this was developed by
Searle (1969). Austin divided the speech act into the three types, which are Locution,
Illocution and Perlocution. A Locutionary Speech Act occurs when the speaker
perform an utterance (locution), which has a meaning in the traditional sense. An
Illocutionary Speech Act is the perfomance of the act of saying something with a
specific intention. A Perlocutionary Speech Act happens when what the speaker has
an effect on the listener. The theory therefore, tells us that words by themselves may
not have simple fixed meanings, but are influenced by the situation, speaker and
listener.
Activity 1: (ConFaceSsion)
Choose your partner, and make a simple conversation containing the three types of
speech acts. Perform it in front.
Rubric for Activity

Creativity 50%
Confidence 25%
Audience Impact 15%
Overall Impact 10%
Total 100%
Module 2 – TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS
A. LOCUTIONARY
This act happens with the utterance of a sound, a word, or even a phrase as a
natural unit of speech.
It has sense, and most importantly, for communication to take place, has the same
meaning to both the speaker and the listener.
The act of performing words into utterances that make sense in a language with
correct grammar and pronunciation.
Locution- a form of expression; a phrase, an expression, excerpted from Oxford

Talking Dictionary 1998.
Examples of Locutionary Acts:
“Doh!” (favorite expression of TV cartoon character Homer Simpson)
“What?”( When someone is surprise)
“It’s a bird!” (When people see Superman in the sky)
Activity 1:
Based on the definition and examples, come up with other examples of locutionary
acts.
Rubric for Activity

Creativity 50%
Grammar 25%
Audience Impact 15%
Overall Impact 10%
Total 100%
B. ILLOCUTIONARY
 It is an intended communicative action with the speaker, bound to certain

convention (the illocutionary act can only be achieved if there is a convention
in society that makes it possible).
 It is not just saying something itself by the act of saying something with the
intention of:
a) stating an opinion, confirming, or denying something;
b) making a prediction, promise, a request;
c) issuing an order or decision; or
d) giving advice or permission.
The speech act uses the illocutionary forces of a statement, a confirmation, a

denia, a prediction, a promise, a request, etc.
Illocution- it is an action performed by saying or writing something. e.g.

ordering, warning, promising.
Examples of Illocutionary Acts:
There’s too much homework in this subject. (opinion)
I’ll do my homework later. (promise)
Go do your homework! (order)
Illocutionary Classification
1. Declarative- Speech acts that change the world via their utterance/word.
Example:
A. Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.

B. Referee: You’re out!
C. Judge: I sentence you to six months in prison!
2. Expressive- speech acts that state what speaker feels.
- the speaker makes words fit the world (of feelings).
Example:
A. I’m really sorry!

B. Congratulation!
C. Oh, yes, great, mmm, ssahh!
3. Directive- speech acts that speaker use to get someone else to do something.
- Command, orders, request, suggestion => can be positive or negative.
-The speaker attempts to make the world fit the word (via hearer).
Example:
A. Gimme a cup of coffee. Make it black.

B. Could you lend me a pen, please?
C. Don’t touch that.
4. Commissive- speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some
future action.
- Promises, threats, refusals, pledge => can be performed alone or
by group.
- The speaker undertakes to make the world fit the words (via
speaker).
Example:
A. I’ll be back.
B. I’m going to get it right next time.
C. We will not do that.
5. Assertive- speech acts that state what speaker believes to be the case or not.
- fact, assertions, conclusions, descriptions => representing the world as
he believes it is.
- the speaker makes the word fit world (of belief).
Example:
A. The earth is flat.

B. Chomsky didn’t write about peanuts.
C. It was warm sunny day.
TABLE OF SPEECH ACTS CLASSIFICATION

SPEECH ACTS DIRECTION OF FIT S=Speaker,
TYPE X= Situation
Declarative Words change the world S causes X
Assertive Make word fit the world S believe X
Expressive Make word fit the world S feels X
Directives Make the word fit the world S wants X
Commissives Make the word fit the world S intends X
Activity 1: (ADEXCODE) Based on Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1969) theory, Cohen
(1996) suggested five categories of speech acts.
 Give students the table below which includes a definition and a description of
speech acts and the typical verbs used to perform them.
Assertives Directives Expressives Commissives Declaratives

The speaker The speaker The speaker The speaker is The speaker
is committed attempts to expresses an committed to a alters outward
to the truth of get the attitude about (future) course status or
the hearrer to do a state of of action condition of
proposition something affairs an object or
situation,
solely by
making the
utterance
Assertions suggestions, Apologies promises decrees
claims requests, complaint threats declarations
propositions commands thanks offers
Examples of Examples of Examples of Examples of

verbs: Examples of verbs: verbs: verbs:
verbs:
affirm, deny, command, apologize, swear, vow, baptize,
believe, dare, deplore, guarantee, sentence,
conclude, challenge, thank, pledge, resign
report ask, insist, congratulate, promise
request regret,
welcome
 Ask the students, in pairs, to discuss situations where they would use the different
types of speech acts, or actual ones they can remember. They should write down
examples and share with the whole group. (Alternatively, it could be an experiment
with different contexts/situations for one speech act. Eg. Promises in marriage
service, to teachers about homework or parents about tidiness, politicians and
elections promises etc.)
Rubric for Activity

Creativity 40%
Grammar 30%
Unity and Coherence 20%
Relevance to the Topic 10%
Total 100%
Activity 2: What Am I? (Think-Pair-Share)
Choose a partner in this activity. Complete the following table with information
related to Searle’s classification of speech act.
Example:
Classification of Specific situation Example

speech act
Assertive Priest bought a new “I ’m the only one in the
gadget, and he shows it school who has this new
off to his friends. iPhone model”
Your turn!
Classification of Specific situation Example

speech act
Assertive
Directive
Commissive
Expressive
Declarative
Activity 3: Skit Act (Group Activity)
Students will group themselves with five members each. Within 15 minutes, prepare
a three to four minute creative skit which shows at least five examples of speech acts
classification. Integrate politeness.
Rubric for Activity

Ability to convey the central theme 25%
Creativity 25%
Confidence 15%
Props and costumes 15%
Audience Impact 10%
Overall Impact 10%
Total 100%
C. PERLOCUTIONARY
This is seen when particular effects is sought from either the speaker, the listener,
or both. The response may not necessarily be physical or verbal and is elicited by:
inspiring or insulting;
persuading/convincing; or
deterring/scaring.
The effect that an utterance has on the thoughts, feelings, or attitudes of the
listener.
Perlocution- an act of speaking or writing which aims to effect an action but which
in itself thus not effect or constitute the action, as persuading, convincing.
I was born a Filipino, I will live a Filipino, I will die a Filipino. (Inspiring)
It is the bleak job situation that forces Filipinos to find jobs overseas. (Persuading)
Texting while driving kills- you, your loved ones, other people! (Deterring)
Activity 1: (Pick-Think-Scene) The class will be divided into three groups. Pick a
certain scenario, and in five minutes, make a dialogue, then perform it in front of the
class.
Topics:
1. You saw a child who was bullied by his classmates. What will you do to
inspire him?
2. Your group of friends will be having an outing, and one of your friends has a
financial problem. How will you convince him to join?
3. Your brother often smokes cigarette. How will you deter him to stop smoking?
Rubric for Activity

Relevance to the Topic 25%
Creativity 25%
Confidence 15%
Audience Impact 10%
Overall Impact 10%
Total 100%
Module 3 - COMMUNICATION ETHICS WHEN POSTING ON FACEBOOK
COMMUNICATION ETHICS
The US National Communication Association (NCA, 1999) discusses their Credo for
Ethical Communication, stating that, Ethical Communication is fundamental to
responsible thinking, decision-making, and the development of relationships and
communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media.
Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity by fostering
truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others.
They believe that unethical communication threatens the quality of all communication
and consequently the well-being of individuals and the society in which we live.
Four Ethical Principles of Communication (NCA, 1999):

1. It advocates truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the
integrity of communication.
2. It endorses freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of
dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision-making fundamental to
a civil society.
3. It condemns communication that degrades individuals and humanity through
distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of
intolerance and hatred.
4. Communicators should accept responsibility for the short- and long-term
consequences of our own communication and expect the same of others.
Activity 1 (Answer Me!) (Individual Activity)
Answer the following questions comprehensively.
1. Why is it important to be ethical in communicating today?

2. Is honesty still a virtue valued today? Why or why not?
3. When you think of the people today who are posting in facebook, would you say
that they have been communicating in an ethical manner? Expound.
4. Why do people communicate in an unethical manner?
5. What consequences can you think because of communicating in an unethical
manner especially in social media, specifically, facebook?
Activity 2: (Applied Ethics and Speech Acts!) (Group Activity)
Divide the class into four groups. Each group should prepare a skit that will show
one speech act and a principle, and what could happen when it is violated. Groups are
encouraged to get real-world examples using facebook.
1. Group 1 should take up locutionary, and first ethical principle

2. Group 2 should take up illocutionary, and second ethical principle
3. Group 3 should take perlocutionary, and third ethical principle
4. Group 4 should take perlocutionary, and fourth ethical principle
Rubric for Activity

Ability to convey the central theme 25%
Creativity 25%
Confidence 15%
Audience Impact 10%
Overall Impact 10%
Total 100%

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Patria Sable Corpus College

College of Education and Humanities

STUDENTS’ SPEECH ACTS IN FACEBOOK STATUS

Abelardo, Hannah Mae R.

Dela Cruz, Angelica Joy L.

Fajardo, Levi Rose B.

Natividad, Princess Dianne

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

in the boundary of creativity. In principle, it is the key to discovering a breakthrough of

the concern at hand. Communicative competence has become a major component in

the philosophy of language as it is with the day-to-day exchange of ideas thru

conversation may it be delivered written or orally. In this matter, researchers wanted to

In today’s 21st century, young learners engaged themselves to social media

independently from their geographical location. Moreover, Kobler et al. (2010),

Technology, information and communication are becoming inextricably interwoven in

virtually instantaneous, crossing national boundaries and connecting the world on an

is likely to be a linguistic revolution’. Therefore, it is relevant to study communication,

particularly messages that people produce in social networking sites (SNS).

Yule (1996, p. 114), condemns that in semantic analysis, there is always an

conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words, phrases and sentences of a

with the individual meaning represented by words or phrases in the expressed

is an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, pragmatic analysis

(Grundy, 2000, p.33).

Communication takes place when locution occurs between interlocutors. Many

of communication becomes irrelevant. In this matter, the function of pragmatics takes

Central to Pragmatics is Speech Acts Theory which is a tool to interpret the

language can be put (Hashim, 2015, p.701).

plausible means to analyze the students’ communicative competence in a written-based

among young learners patterning the Searle’s Speech Acts.

According to Searle (1969:16), speech act is the basic unit of linguistic

communication. This theory is a part of how speakers use language to communicate;

likewise knowledge of how to identify if that act is critical or another to reader

but also to perform an action. It implies that in understanding speaking, interpreting

meanings of certain words or phrases semantically is not enough because identifying an

act must also be done to have an effective communication. Intentionally, researchers

locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. A locutionary act is an act of saying

intention, which for Searle (1969) is a product of the listener’s interpretation.

instance, promising, offering, swearing, etc. to do something, (d) Expressives, as the

expression of some psychological state, for instance, thinking, apologizing,

so, such as pronouncing someone guilty, resigning, dismissing, accepting, declaring a

purpose of analysis of this study.

face-to-face conversation. The interest of millennials now have develop through a

written communication and not oral.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study attempted to present the analyses of the respondents’ Facebook

1. What are the common speech acts?

2. What are the common topics in the Facebook status?

4. Is there a significant difference between the strands and the type of

speech acts used by respondents?

5. What teaching modules can be proposed to enhance students’

communication skills in relation to posting status updates on

There is no significant difference among the speech acts – assertives, directives,

expressive, and declaratives in terms of the following predictors:

1.1 Socio-economic status; and

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study brings significant factors and contributions and is considered

beneficial to the following:

classifications and usage of speech acts to have a better understanding of how

communication in the twenty-first century among millennial.

outcomes based on the sole objective of the anti-illegal drug campaign.

learning curve to engage students in communicative competence.

conversations and or daily conversation.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

May until September 2018.