their ability in producing utterances, this research concerns with request as evaluation material. Therefore, this research is conducted because it explores
whether there are any differences of request strategies produced by different gender based on relative power and social distance. Hopefully this research can give
enlightment to the students of English Department as the language learners so that as the EFL learners, they know how to use English expressions appropriately,
especially in term of request.
1.2. Scope of Research
This research is focused on gender-based request strategies in pragmatics without considering cultural background. Request strategies are employed by male
and female students of English Department academic year 20122013.
1.3. Research Problem
Based on the pre-research, this research is conducted because female and male English Department students, Jember University academic year 20122013
have not been able to employ direct and indirect polite request strategies properly based on relative power and social distance.
1.4. Research Questions
There are four research questions that will help to analyse the request strategies based on gender employed by students of English Department, Jember
University academic year 20122013.
1. What kinds of request strategies produced by female and male students of
English Department academic year 20122013? 2.
Why cannot they use direct and indirect request strategies properly?
3. How do relative power and social distance influence the students in producing
request? 4.
Are female students’ utterances of English Department academic year 20122013 more polite than male students?
1.5. Purposes
The goals of this research are: 1.
to find out the request strategies employed by female and male students of English Department academic year 20122013,
2. to describe why female and male students of English Department academic year
20122013 cannot use direct and indirect request strategies properly, 3.
to find out whether relative power and social distancecan influence students of English Department academic year 20122013 in producing request strategies,
4. to find out whether female students of English Department are more polite than
male students.
1.6. The Significance of Study
This research is expected to give an understanding for English Department students as EFL learners about the importance of having a good comprehension
toward English language especially in producing utterances. These students are expected to be ready when they have to communicate with foreign people, i.e.
English native speakers. If these students cannot produce proper utterances, they may create problems in communication, for example there will be
miscommunication between the EFL learners and the English native speakers that will lead to misunderstanding. Therefore, there are several considerations that
should be noticed to build a good communication. One of the considerations is politeness that is applied in the research.
1.7. The Organization of the Thesis
