Types of Illocutionary Acts Shown by the Students

44 Based on the data gathered by the researcher, the results were various. Moreover, some acts which were not expected by the researcher had been shown by the participants. Table 4.2 shows the illocutionary acts shown by the participants based on the four scenarios. Table 4.2: The Illocutionary Acts Shown by the Participants Scenario Frequency Assertive Directive Commissive Expressive Declaration None S1 - Requesting: 20 Commanding: 1 - - - 3 S2 Reporting: 22 Requesting: 8 Advising: 1 - - - 1 S3 Reporting: 20 Requesting: 8 Promising: 1 Apologizing: 9 - - S4 Reporting: 5 Requesting: 14 Offering: 1 Apologizing: 20 - - Table 4.2 shows the summary of the result, the complete result can be seen in Appendix C. Reading table 4.2, we can see that the results were various. There were some acts which were not expected by the researcher but they appeared in participants‟ responses. Even, there were some participants who did not give any act when they responded to the cases. They only gave information which was needed related to the topic of the case. In the first scenario, each of the participants only gave one act when responding to the case. Most of them showed the act of requesting 20 messages, which belonged to directive category. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 45 The message written by Student 6 above shows the act of requesting because the student told hisher intention that heshe needed consultation and asked about the time to have consultation. In the message, the student used, “I need to …” as the expression of saying a request. The act of commanding is shown in the message written by Student 10 above. The student asked the lecturer to give himher the time for consultation with imperative sentence which showed the command by saying, “Give …” In the message written by Student 7 above, the student did not show any illocutionary act. Heshe only asked whether the lecturer had any spare time or not without telling hisher intention. There were two more messages which did not show any illocutionary act and the type of the messages was quite the same. In the second scenario, the results were more varied than the previous scenario. One participant could show more than one illocutionary act. Most of the participants 22 messages showed the act of reporting in their messages. The other act which could also be seen was the act of requesting 8 messages. There was a message which did not show any of the acts. Student 6 Good afternoon, Ms. I need to have consultation with you. Do you have time to see me? When could I meet you? Thank you. Student 10 Good Give the time for meeting Student 7 Excuse me Sir. My name … from D class. Do you have a spare time? 46 The message written by Student 7 above shows the act of reporting only. The student only gave a report to the lecturer that heshe had already sent the file via email. There are two acts which are shown in the message written by Student 4 above, namely the act of reporting assertive category and the act of requesting directive category. The student gave a report to the lecturer that heshe had already sent hisher draft. Moreover, heshe also asked the lecturer to check hisher work. In the message, the student wrote, “Please kindly …” to express hisher request. Student 10 did not show any illocutionary act in hisher message above. Heshe only gave information or note in hisher email to label the attachment. There were more illocutionary acts which could be seen in the third scenario. The act of reporting was the most frequent act which was shown in this scenario. There were 20 messages which showed this type of act. Moreover, the act of requesting 8 messages and apologizing 9 messages could also be seen from participants‟ responses. In addition, there was a message which showed the Student 7 Good morning Miss. I have send my email. Student 4 Mr.Ms. This is the draft of my final project. Please kindly check my draft. I’m looking forward for your replay. Thank you. Student 10 Propsem final task, name, student number 47 act of promising which belonged to commissive category. In this scenario, the participants showed more than one act in their messages. The message written by Student 11 above shows the act of reporting assertive category and the act of apologizing expressive category. The student gave a report to the lecturer that heshe had sent hisher revised power point slides because heshe made some mistakes before. Then, heshe apologized for making mistakes in delivering the files by saying, “I am sorry because …” The acts of reporting and requesting directive category are shown in the message written by Student 2 above. First, the student informed the lecturer that heshe had some mistakes in the files. Then, heshe asked whether heshe could send the revised file or not. The participant showed the act of requesting by saying, “Would you mind …” to the lecturer. The message written by Student 14 above shows the act of apologizing and promising commissive category. After apologizing for the mistakes in hisher Student 11 Miss this is my fix final project. I am sorry because I have sent the file which is not fix before. But this is the fix one. Thank you Miss. Student 2 Good morning miss. I am X I would like to inform you that I have some mistakes in my work that I have sent. Would you mind if I send the revised work? Thank you. Student 14 Good afternoon, Sir. I want to say sorry to you if I cancel my work and tomorrow I will resend in your email. Thank you sir. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 48 work and canceling it, the student promised that heshe would send the work on the following day. Heshe made the promise by saying, “I will …” to the lecturer. In the fourth scenario, most of the participants showed the act of apologizing expressive category. There were 20 messages which showed this kind of act. Besides, there were 14 messages which showed the act of requesting directive category, 5 messages showed the act of reporting assertive category and a message showed the act of offering commissive category. In the message written by Student 6 above, it was clear that the student showed the act of apologizing by saying, “I am so sorry …” Then, heshe also asked whether heshe could meet the lecturer in other day. The student used, “Could we …” when expressing hisher request. Student 3 showed the act of apologizing in hisher message above. Heshe said, “I am sorry …” to show hisher apology. Besides, heshe also gave a report on what happened to himher. Student 6 Good afternoon Ms. I am so sorry Ms that I have to cancel our meeting. Im getting sick. Could we see in other days? Thank you. Student 3 Good afternoon MrMs, I am sorry, today I cannot to come meet you because when I drive my motorcycle I got an accident. So sorry because I cannot meet you.Thank you MsMr. Student 18 Good morning, Sir. I am very sorry because I could not come for today’s consultation because I got an accident in … I hope we can reschedule the consultation when you are available. Thank you, Sir. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 49 The message written by Student 18 above shows the act of apologizing, reporting and offering commissive category. It was clear that the student showed hisher apology by saying, “I am very sorry …” and it was followed by the information why heshe could not come reporting. In the end, heshe offered to reschedule the consultation by saying “I hope …” to the lecturer. The results show that people‟s responses might be different from one another even when they were facing the same case. The real responses might be different with the responses that were expected when knowing what the case was about. However, most of the participants gave the similar acts when they were facing a certain situation. The responses showed the illocutionary acts which were proposed by Searle 1969. In showing the acts, the participants showed politeness because they communicated with people who had higher social status than they did.

B. Politeness Strategies Used by the Students

In this section, the politeness strategies which were used by seventh semester students in their written messages will be discussed and elaborated. It will answer the second research problem which is presented in the first chapter of this thesis. According to Brown and Levinson 1987, there are four kinds of strategies to show politeness, namely bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off record. People usually use one of those strategies when they are showing their politeness in some acts, including illocutionary acts. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 50 In this study, the main actors were the students who sent their written messages to their lecturers. The students were considered as the speaker S and the lecturers were considered as the hearer H. In this case, we could convey that H had higher social status than S. Hence, S tended to show politeness when heshe communicated with and showed some acts to H by using politeness strategies. Based on Brown and Levinson‟s 1987 theory, people tend to use negative politeness as their strategy to show politeness to other people who have higher social status than they do p. 178. Moreover, the previous study conducted by Elmianvari and Kheirabadi 2013 showed somewhat similar result to Brown and Levinson‟s theory. In that study, Elmianvari and Kheirabadi found that most of the students, as the participants of the study, sent the email to the lecturers in a polite, formal and indirect way through long sentences in attempt to save hearer‟s negative face 2013. It meant that most of the students used negative politeness in their email messages which were sent to their lecturer. By having those two theories and findings, the researcher set a predicted result that most of the students, as the participants of this study, showed negative politeness as their strategies in their written messages sent to the lecturers. Based on the data gathered by the researcher, there were two kinds of politeness strategies that appeared in students‟ written messages. The other two strategies could not be found in their messages. The two strategies which could not be found were positive politeness and off record. The participants did not show any positive politeness because they did not use any element of exaggeration which was one of the characteristics of positive politeness. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 51 Moreover, positive politeness is often used between intimates. In this research, the relationship between the students and the lecturers was considered as neutral, there was still a social distance between both sides. Hence, positive politeness could not be found in students‟ responses. The participants also did not show any off record strategy. The characteristic of off record strategy is the utterances contain the essentially indirect uses of language. Indirect here means the speakers are being vague and ambiguous in saying their intention. Some examples of this strategy are in the form of sarcastic and rhetorical sentence. In this research, there was no participant who was being ambiguous and vague in saying their wants. The participants also did not show any sarcasm or rhetorical sentence when communicating with the lecturers. After analyzing the data, the researcher made the categorization of the use of politeness strategies. The categorization was useful for further analysis because it showed the frequency of each politeness strategy which was used by the students. The results of the use of politeness strategies by the seventh semester students can be seen in table 4.3 as follows. Table 4.3: The Politeness Strategies Shown by the Participants Scenario Frequency of each strategies Bald on Record Negative Politeness Positive Politeness Off Record None S1 2 messages 22 messages S2 7 messages 16 messages 1 message S3 3 messages 21 messages S4 24 messages PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 52 Table 4.3 shows the summary of the result, the complete result can be seen in Appendix D. Based on the result shown in table 4.3, it can be seen that there was no student who showed the strategies of positive politeness and off record. Most of the participants showed negative politeness in their messages based on all of the scenarios. Besides, only a few of them showed bald on record as their politeness strategy. Even, there was a participant who showed none of those strategies when heshe wrote the message based on scenario 2. It meant that this participant did not show any politeness in the message. Heshe only gave information which was needed based on the case in the scenario. In the first scenario, 22 participants showed the strategy of negative politeness when they wrote messages to the lecturers. It can be seen through their messages which used indirect form and written in long sentences. In the message written by Student 1 above, the student wanted to save hearer‟s negative face by conveying hisher meaning through long sentences. Heshe also begged forgiveness by saying, “I want to say my apology …” Begging for forgiveness is one characteristic of negative politeness. Moreover, the student also wrote the message in a conventional indirect fo rm by using, “I would like to …” Conventional indirect form is also one of the characteristics of negative politeness. Student 1 Good morning Sir. Firstly, I want to say my apology because today at 12.00 I have another thing to attend. So, I would like to ask you for the re-schedule for this week. I am free for this week. Thank you, Sir. 53 The message written by Student 23 above is slightly similar to the previous message. The speaker was specific and focused in conveying hisher meaning through a long sentence. Heshe was also being indirect by saying, “I’d like to …” which was the characteristic of negative politeness. Besides the negative politeness which could be seen in the messages, there were two participants who used bald on record in conveying their meaning based on scenario one. In the message written by Student 7 above, the speaker directly said hisher intention to the hearer. The speaker only told hisher name to the lecturer and then went straight to tell hisher intention. The characteristic of bald on record is the speaker may do the act in the most direct, clear and concise way. In that message, the speaker fulfilled those characteristics. Therefore, that message could be categorized as bald on record. In the message written by Student 10 above, the speaker uttered hisher meaning directly without even greeting the hearer. Even, the speaker used an imperative form in telling about hisher intention by saying, “Give …” It could be Student 23 Good morning Mrs. X, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’m name. I’d like to ask for your time to have consultation relate d to my proposal seminar. I’m sorry I can’t see you so that I send this message. So, when can I meet you for consulting my proposal seminar. Student 7 Excuse me Sir. My name … from D class. Do you have a spare time? Student 10 Good Give the time for meeting