Hence, this research is included in the third genre, language and communication, specifically discourse analysis.
Potter 1997 defines discourse analysis as a method which focuses on “studying discourse as texts and talk in social practices” as cited in Wood
Kroger, 2000, p. 3. This research employed discourse analysis by analyzing spoken discourse which is in form of utterances. To analyze the utterances, speech act
theory was used since it is the part of discourse analysis Litosseliti, 2010, p. 119. The focus of speech act theory is to analyze the meaning of someone
’s verbal expressions based on contexts in
someone’s social life. In this research, speech act theory is used to describe speech act types of fictional character’s utterances.
Moreover, in social life, humans do not acts randomly but they tend to have behavioral preferences which can be concluded into patterns. A term for behavioral
patterns is called social style. From speech act types in utterances, social styles can be observed based on clues or characteristics which are usually expressed by each
social style.
B. Research Setting
This research used cutscenes from a video game titled Bully: Scholarship Edition BSE. The cutscenes are specifically from Chapter V in BSE. To gather
research data, dialogue in the cutscenes was transcribed on May 2016 until June 2016. Before transcribing the dialogue, the cutscenes were downloaded on October
2015 from an account named UPlayNetwork from www.youtube.com. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
C. Research Subject
This research used utterances of Jimmy Hopkins, the main character in BSE video game, as the subject of the study. However, not all of Jimmy
Hopkins’ utterances in the cutscenes were chosen as the research subject. The researcher
limited the research subject by choosing only Jimmy Hopkins’ utterances in
Chapter V of BSE. BSE is a game created by Rockstar Vancouver and it was released in 2006. The game can be played
in many consoles such as PS2, Wii™, XBOX360
®
, and PC Rockstar Games, n.d.. The story of BSE is mainly about Jimmy Hopkins, a student which is
expelled from his previous school because he is naughty. His mother registers him into Bullworth Academy and makes him stay in the Bullworth dorm. His mother
does not want Jimmy to be her burden since she has just married an old guy that Jimmy hates. In his new school, he meets an old strict principle, a drunk teacher
and other bad examples of teachers. Moreover, ha has to deal with gangs of students who like to bully him and weak students. Then, he meets two students who become
his best friends, Gary and Pete. However, Gary gradually becomes his enemy because he spreads bad rumors about Jimmy which makes Jimmy expelled. In the
end of the story, Jimmy can beat down all gangs in his school and town. He proves his innocence by telling tied-up principal, Dr. Crabblesnitch, that Gary was behind
all riots that happen in Bullworth Academy. There are three reasons why BSE was chosen. The first reason is that BSE
contains conversation which contexts are similar to daily life especially school life. Therefore, BSE can be used as preferences in English conversation. Conversation
in BSE can be a source to learn speech acts in characters’ utterances especially
characters’ speech act types. The second reason is related to education. BSE video game is set in school
and town. Even though the story of the video game is fiction, there are many conditions and issues in the video game which are similar to education issues in the
world particularly in Indonesia. As the matter of fact, problems in schools are not only about bullying. As presented in the video game, the problems or themes which
are used in BSE are violence, violation, harassment, bad school system and management, and other serious problems in education. BSE also has moral values
which can be used as reflection on education problems by students, teachers or teacher candidates, and lecturers. For students, the moral values which can be
derived from BSE are friendship among students and courage to speak out and act for the right things. For teachers and teacher candidates, BSE depicts bad
relationships such as bullying and discrimination among students and teachers which sometimes can happen in any schools.
The third reason is because BSE contains various characters with different social styles. These characters show their social styles through speech acts from
their utterances . Language learners can learn to identify characters’ social styles
from their speech acts and learn how to deal with people if they meet some people who indicate the same social styles as the characters in BSE.
Furthermore, there are also two reasons why Jimmy Hopkins’ utterances
were chosen. The first reason is because Jimmy Hopkins is the main character in the video game. It is easier to analyze meanings of his utterances since his
appearance dominates the cutscenes and he takes major role to roll the story plot in BSE. The second reason is because Jimmy
Hopkins’ utterances are quite simple compared to other characters. Other characters in the video game have longer
utterances which make the utterances difficult to analyze.
D. Research Instrument and Data Gathering Technique
The instrument in this research is observation table. The table was created in accordance with synthesized theories in this research. The theories which were
featured in observation table are mood types, speech act types, and social styles. Categories from the theories were abbreviated to make labels for the table. In
addition, the table is featured with the transcription of Jimmy Hopkins’ utterances.
To categorize data into labels, sets of criteria were used as instruments to help the process of consideration. The sets of criteria can be seen in Appendix 1 and
2. The criteria are taken from descriptions and clues of theories in Chapter 2 mood types, speech act types, and social styles. Table 3.1 is the observation table which
is to classify Jimmy Hopkins’ utterances.
Table 3.1 Observation Table for Classifying Jimmy Hopkins’ Utterances
Abbreviations: dec: declarative
int: interrogative imp: imperative
rep: representatives dir: directives
com: commissives exps: expressives
decs: declaratives ami: amiable
ana: analytical dri: driving
exp: expressive
S ce
n e
Code Utter-
ances
Mood Types Speech Act Types
Social Styles dec
int imp
rep dir
com exps
decs ami
ana dri
exp
