Commentary 2 Findings in Connection with the Reading Text as a Given Genre

4.2.5 Commentary

One of the three commentary texts, reading text number eighty-nine, is found problematic. The RD is acceptable, it has the required obligatory elements, a sequence of comments of which every comment consists of an issue about a fact and its comment. The problem as other problematic texts is on its realization, particularly the last paragraph. The clause analysis below shows which part of the element causing the problem. R Next, the pilots. S 1 Are they as competent MOOD Res F S C Th Rh Att:Rel P Carr Attribute T 2 + and they rigorously assessed as those of premium airlines MOOD Res S Cir:Adj F C Th1 Rh Act Cir:m Mat P Goal U Do they fly more hours than are permitted? MOOD Res F S Pred C Th Rh Mat P Act Mat P Goal V α Do rookie pilots abound, M Res F S Pred Th Rh Ext P Act Ext P Clause R above is a minor clause. A minor clause can only be used in spoken language; it cannot be used as a clause of a formal written text. A written text should consist of major clauses. Moreover, when the text is used for the students to work with, it should have been a model text. However, below the text, there is a note informing that the text is taken from the Strait Times Singapore, so it is an authentic commentary. It is also such an approval that an authentic text can possibly be inappropriate to be a model text. With regard to the quality of a text taken from a newspaper, there should be consideration about the quality of the newspaper. Like the newspapers in Indonesia, not all newspapers use Indonesian language appropriately. Another consideration is that the language used in the newspaper has its own style which is usually influenced by business reasons. It coincides with the theory of language in context that says ‘that language can only be understood in relation to the context in which the language is used’, Hammond 1992: 1. The theory has an implication that different purposes for using a language and different contexts result in different language texts. Therefore, the language used in newspapers is not the same as the language used for learning. However, if that kind of text is unavoidably used, there should be an explanation given to the students that the very text is written that way because of a given reason.

4.2.6 Explanation