Conclusions CONCLUSIONS, SUGGESTIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, SUGGESTIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In this chapter, the researcher will summarize the points that have been discussed in the previous chapters, and also will give some suggestions and recommendations to several parties.

A. Conclusions

This study aims to describe the pragmatic information which is contained in the English textbooks for Senior High School and discovering how such features in the textbooks contribute to the learners‘ pragmatic competence. The pragmatic features investigated in this study were speech act information, usage, politeness, register, style, and cultural information. The books were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively using tables as instruments for the data collection. The investigation was conducted on the basis of unit-by-unit inspection of the two selected books and any new point of information related to speech act information, usage, politeness, register, style, and cultural information even if it appeared only one phrase in every unit of analysis. To answer the first research question, the researcher used tables to classify the data according their respective feature. Then each classification was calculated. It was found that among 6 features of pragmatic information of English textbook which are proposed by Wichien and Aksornjarung 2011, only 5 features are found in this study, namely speech act information, registers, styles, politeness, and usage. However, among these five features, only four features of 105 106 pragmatic information are presented in each book. In other words, each English textbook shares three features in common, and one feature is different in respective books. Pathway to English which is written by Sudarwati and Grace only covers four features of pragmatic information. The percentage of the respective features is 100 for speech act information, 18 for politeness, 54.5 for usage, and 100 for register, whereas style and cultural information are absent in the textbook. Talk Active which is written by Mulyono and Kurniawan also covers four features only. The percentage of the respective features in the whole units of the textbook is 100 for speech act information, 37.5 for styles, 12.5 for usage, and 100 for register, whereas politeness and cultural information are absent in the textbook. Thus, it can be inferred that no one of English textbooks being investigated cover six features of pragmatic information. The English textbooks only presented four features. In addition, in terms of frequency, the features included in each textbooks are not sufficient. It can be seen in that only two features are well explored in both English textbooks. The features are speech act information and registers. Both features are presented in every unit of both English textbooks as shown in the number of percentage with 100. Meanwhile, the rests are not well distributed in the whole units of respective textbooks. Usage is only 54.5 in Pathway to English and 12.5 in Talk Active. Politeness is 18 in Pathway to English and 0 in Talk Active. Lastly, style is 37.5 in Talk Active and 0 in Pathway to 45 107 English. It is obvious that the last three features of pragmatic information are not sufficient. Ideally, they should be equally distributed in the whole units of every textbook, so learners can make use of these features to achieve their pragmatic competence when they are learning certain speech acts provided in every unit of the textbooks. In terms of quality of the features, both textbooks also provide poor pragmatic features. It can be seen how the authors provide those features in both English textbooks. Most of the activities included in both textbooks are more emphasized on pragmalinguistic focus and socio pragmatic focus is left aside. In addition, the number of metapragmatic explanation as shown in usage is really poor. Most of the usage contain in the textbooks is not sufficient for learners to master what they need to perform certain speech act pragmatically. The results of this study are similar to other research studies like research done by Vellenga 2004; Wichien and Aksornjarung 2011; Shankulie 2012. All of those studies found that not all of pragmatic features are totally presented in English course books being investigated and the amount of metapragmatic information is not sufficient. Due to the lack of the features, the textbooks can not give learners more chances to develop their pragmatic competence which deal with limited or absent features such as cross cultural awareness and the ability to use stylistic appropriateness strategy. Although the features are not totally presented in both English textbooks, the existence of these features can still help learners to improve their pragmatic 108 competence in learning English speech acts. The way these features presented in the textbooks are helpful for learners because they are presented explicitly. To answer research question two, at first the researcher analyzed how those features support the development of learners‘ pragmatic competence by describing the appearance of the features in the textbooks, and then cross reference the findings with the theory of second language acquisition especially explicit learning theory and noticing hypothesis. It was found that all of the features are presented explicitly in the textbooks. Speech act appears in the textbooks in the forms of listing the speech acts as well as their expressions. Politeness feature appears in the textbook in the form of explanation and distinguishing between polite and impolite forms. Style appears in the textbooks by listing formal and informal expressions separately. Usage also appears in the textbooks in the form of explanation. Register appears in the textbooks in the forms of question and scenario or situation. Those forms of activities are categorized into formal instruction on pragmatic focused activities. Following pragmatic focused activities, leaners may have noticed particular pragmatic features. In other words, those activities make learners aware on the existence of pragmatic features. The presence of learners awareness of these features helps the process of learning.

B. Suggestions