Power manifestation in ELT Classroom

b. Power manifestation in ELT Classroom

Humans learn other languages for their existance. However, learning a second language i.e. English is definitely more difficult than acquiring the mother tongue. The setting of learning between first and second language learning is also different. In acquiring first language, learners usually acquire their language spontaneously and naturally. It is different from the learning of second language where the setting is in the classroom with formal situation. The learner does not get individual attention. The atmosphere is not child friendly like their home. The exposure to the language is for a limited period of time 30 to 45 minutes or an hour a day in comparison to 24 hours of language filled atmosphere at home. The learner does not have any opportunity to use the language outside the class. Even in the class there is a very little opportunity to use the language. It is more of a passive reception of the language in the classroom than the actual production of it. Another factor that can influence the success of learning of second language is the teacher. Sometimes the teacher is not proficient in language and the learner has a poor role model to imitate. In addition, learning is very much seen as under the control of the teacher. Teacher still dominates the classroom. In other words, teacher has shown his or her power to the classroom. Meanwhile, Harmer 1990: 52 says that a teacher is a major factor in the continuance of a student’s motivation. Teacher has the important role in the success of teaching learning process. The duty of teacher is not only to share the knowledge, but also how to motivate students to learn. Harmer 1991: 53 proposes three areas where teacher’s commit to user behaviour can directly influence students’ continuing participation in the classroom. 1. Goals and goal setting. Motivation is closely bound up with a person’s desire to achieve a goal. Crookes and Lehner 1998 specify that should be carefully considered as goals in the teaching of ESL and EFL. As such, three goals must be considered: a Simultaneous development of English communicative abilities b Application of knowledge to develop a critical awareness of the world c Ability to act on knowledge and awareness to improve matters. 2. Learning environtment. Although teacher may not be able to choose the actual classroom, a teacher still can do a lot about the classroom physical appearance and the emotional atmosphere of lesson. Both of these can have a powerful effect on the initial and continuing motivation of students. 3. Interesting classes. Teacher needs to provide students with a variety of subjects and exercise to keep them engaged. However, in the reality the participation of students in teaching learning process is still low. One factor makes students’ participation in the classroom low is the teacher’s dominance in the classroom. Teacher’s dominance means the teacher has performanced the power manifestation in the classroom. The forms of teacher’s power manifestation can be seen from teacher’s speech acts. As has mentioned earlier that there are five speech acts that can represent teacher’s power in language in the classroom. Here are speech acts forms which can represent teacher’s power in the classroom context. commit to user 1. The representation of power in directive speech act. Directive act potentially represent the power in language use. Power illocutionary speech act requires that someone is doing something in accordance with the intent of speaker’s utterances. In realization, the use of speech acts presentes the speaker’s power. a. Representation of power in command form As one type of directive speech acts, command has certain characteristics. In expressing a particular speech, speaker wants the listener do what the speaker expresses. In the context of classroom, the form of command can occur when teachers provide guidance on learning programs, such as the direction of the learning materials that students will learn in a semester, the evaluation system will be implemented, as well as textbooks and worksheets to prepare students. In other words, when giving directions concerning matters that are considered urgent, teachers tend to use direct commands that present the dominant power. However, viewed from the context of the classroom discourse, this phenomenon associated with the dominating culture that is still widely used in the learning system in Indonesian school. In a culture of learning that is dominating, school rules, learning materials, evaluation systems, and textbooks tend to be determined by the school or the teacher. b. Representation of power in request form Besides the command, the teachers and students are also using the directive with a request form. Compared with command, requests have commit to user lower levels of restriction so that power also tends to be more humanistic represented. In classroom discourse, besides using order acts, a teacher also used request acts to his students. Fairclough 1998: 55 says that there is a close relationship between request and power. In addition Fairclough 1998:55 devides request acts into two; direct request and indirect request. Direct requests mark the power relationship explicitly and usually in imperative form. For example a boss request to his secretary: “Type this letter for me by 5 o’clock”. On the other hands, indirect requests mark the power relationship more or less implicit. In addition indirect requests can be more or less indirect, and they typically expressed grammatically in questions of various degrees of elaborateness and corresponding indirectness. For example: 1 Can you type this letter for me by 5 o’clock?, 2 Could I possibly ask you to type this letter for me by 5 o’clock?. There are also other ways of indirectly requesting, for instance in this sentence: I would like to have the letter in the 5 o’clock post. However, compared with order acts, request acts have lower levels of restriction so that power also tends to be more humanistic represented. c. Representation of power in prohibition form The form of prohibitation equals to command but in form of negative command. For example, a teacher prohibits students to not come late. If there is a students breaks the teacher’s rule, there will be a punishment from a teacher. Al-Saaidi, Al-Shaibani Al-Husseini 2013 classify the prohibition acts into three levels: Prohibition in syntatic level, Prohibition commit to user in semantic level, and Prohibition in pragmatic level. According to the syntactic point of view, there are various ways in which prohibition can be achieved. These ways are as follows: 1. Imperative sentence The imperative can be used to forbid an action. According to Jawad quoted by Al-Saaidi, Al-Shaibani Al-Husseini 2013, the basic difference between a ‘command’ and a ‘prohibition’ is that the former indicates instructing the addressee to do something whereas the latter indicates instructing the addressee NOT [author’s emphasis] to do a given thing. Thus, it could be claimed that a ‘prohibition’ is a kind of a negative ‘command’. For examples: keep clean, Don’t open your book 2. Declarative sentence Allan 1986 confirmed that a declarative sentence can be used in performing any subcategory of speech act including prohibition to denote an actualization of the illocutionary act. This is done either through clauses containing a performative verb, or through the meaning of the predicates in such sentences as the followings: Example 1: I forbid you to speak to him. [Clause containing a performative verb] Example 2: Adam must not be allowed out on the balcony. [Predicate] commit to user 3. Negative verb be with to + infinitive Thomson and Martinet 1980 states that prohibition can be carried out through another common construction which is the negative verb be with to infinitive. Example: You are not to come into my room without knocking. 4. Block Language Prohibition can be expressed by another construction that is of a block language. Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik, 1985 discusses that block language appears in functions as labels, titles, some newspaper headlines, headings, notices, and advertisements. For examples: No entry, No smoking area, and No camera the context in the fashion boutique. According to semantic level, the prohibition can be in form of modality sentences. There are negative modal auxiliaries which can be used with prohibitive sentences such as must not, may not, cannot, shall not, and have not got to. For example: 1 Students must not use dictionaries in the examination. 2 You cannot go abroad without a passport. According to pragmatic level, prohibition act can be classified as Prohibitive Performative Verbs and Hedges. Allan 1986 argues that the verb spells out the illocutionary force of the performative clause effectively because the meaning of the performative verb presents the essence of the illocution, e.g. I promise, I forbid, and I prohibit. While for commit to user hedge, Fraser 1980 says that some illocutionary acts can be effectively performed by a type ofcsentence which is called “hedged performative”. For example, to utter: “I must forbid you from saying anything” may count as an act of forbidding, though the literal interpretation of this is only a report of obligation. d. Representation of power in permission form The form of permission usually happen in the classroom, when a teacher gives permission to students to do or not do something. For example, a teacher gives permission to a sick students go home earlier. e. Representation of power in advice form In the context in the classroom, as one who has more experience, a teacher usually gives advices to students to do positive thing or not to do negative thing. For example, when a teacher advices students to not stay up. Teacher explains the bad effect to stay up to students. f. Representation of power in asking form Asking is one form of directive form of power in the classroom. A teacher can give questions to his or her students, and students have to answer it. It means that by giving questions, a teacher expects students give information related to the questions. Questions can be related to the subject or not. For example, a teacher asks students the definition of simple sentence. Another example is teacher asks students why they did not come yesterday. commit to user 2. The representation of power in assertive speech acts Assertive is one of speech acts that can represent the form of power, whether by teacher or students. According to Searle 1976, speech acts has function to inform others about something. This function is very important in the classroom context, because the process in transfering knowledge, skills, and attitude in the learning process can not be separated from the process of giving information. 3. The representation of power in expressive speech acts The expressive speech acts is also the representation of power of teacher and students. The expressive act is the expression about psychological conditionss such as the feeling of happiness, unhappiness, like, dislike, sorrow, and etc.

6. The Nature of Attitude a. Definition of Attitude