PATTERNS OF CODING IN CONVERSATION TEXTS OF THE ENGLISH ZONE TEXTBOOK.

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PATTERNS OF CODING IN CONVERSATION

TEXTS OF THE ENGLISH ZONE TEXTBOOK

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistic Study Program in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora

By:

ERWIN ASHARI

Registration Number: 08106111011

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2013

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PATTERNS OF CODING IN CONVERSATION

TEXTS OF THE ENGLISH ZONE TEXTBOOK

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Applied Linguistic Study Program in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora

By:

ERWIN ASHARI

Registration Number: 08106111011

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2013

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ABSTRACT

Erwin Ashari, Registration Number: 8106111011, Patterns of Coding in Conversation Texts of the English Zone Textbook: A Thesis of English Applied Linguistics Study Program, State University of Medan 2013.

The objectives of this study are; (1) to formulate patterns of coding used in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook, 2) to investigate how coding are structured in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook, and 3) to reason why the coding techniques are used in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook. The data were taken from conversation texts of students’ English textbook: English Zone for senior high school students year grade XI (SMA). Descriptive qualitative method was used in this study. There were six conversation texts as the data source was taken from students’ English textbook: English Zone. The findings of this study shown that there are two types of patterns of coding in conversation texts, namely congruent and metaphorical coding. Congruent coding patterns are built in complete mood and residue (at least using mood) and metaphorical coding patterns are built in elliptical mood pattern. Mood and residue pattern is caused by the system of the conversation is using Proposition system. It means the conversation texts involve the statement and question, in another word, the content of the conversation dominantly are about giving and demanding information. It was found that conversation texts convey the simple structure of conversation which means to attract the readers or students to understand easier by using complete mood and residue and elliptical mood pattern of conversation text is in less number. Thus, those conversation text in English Zone textbook written in simple structures in case of language usage to make the message or information easier to understand.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, the writer would like to express his greatest gratitude to Allah SWT, the Almighty that has given his the ability, health, and safety to finish this thesis completely.

In completing this thesis, the writer would like to express his biggest debt is therefore to some persons. They are:

First, the writer would like to record his gratefully acknowledge to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd as the Head of English Applied Linguistics and as the second advisor of the writer who has kindly assisted him in guiding, directing, revising and correcting the systematic or the concept of this thesis and also Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S as the Secretary of English Applied Linguistics in UNIMED and also the writer would like to record his gratefully acknowledge to Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D , as the first advisor and of the writer who has also kindly assisted his in guiding, direction, revising and correcting the systematic or the concept of this thesis May Allah SWT bless them.

Second, the writer also would like to express his gratitude expression to the reviewers and examiners in examinations; Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed, TESP, Dr. Didik Santoso, M.Pd, Dr. Siti Aisyah Ginting, M.Pd right from Proposal Seminar up to Green Table Examination. God Allah SWT bless them.

Third, the writer also would like to thank to all lecturers and tutors, classmates belonging to Regular class A.1 INTAKE XVIII for giving his the valuable knowledge during the study in English Applied Linguistics of Postgraduate School in the State University of Medan (UNIMED).

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Fourth, the writer also would like to express his thanks to the head master of SMA Negeri 2 Padangsidimpuan; Drs. Zulbakti and the dean and the head of foundation of Al-Iman, STKIP “Tapanuli Selatan” Padangsidimpuan”, to Drs. Mahyuddin Hs, M.Hum and to all lectures and the English lecturers and staffs for their helps , support during conducting this study.

Fifth, to his beloved parents; Mara Soli and Eltina Rosmala Harahap and his eldest sister and brother in law ; Netti Rominda, S.Pd, and Agusrin Sikumbang, S.Pd, and his niece and nephew: Gustimar Indra Yanti (Gusti), Ahmad Riyadi Saputra (Rady), and Rizky fadly (Ai). His eldest brother and his sister in law; Ali Hasbin, S.Pd, and Sauli Riati Siregar, and his lovely niece and nephew; Syukron Anjas Mara, Siti aisyah, Fadil, and Rayhan Anugrah and also to his elder brother and his sister in law; Ali Hasnan and Riyadul Jannah,and his nephew; Muhammad Rafa Al Hasri. To His elder brother and his sister in law; Edi Supandri, M.Pd, and Himmanora and his nephew; Rafael, Rafaiz and Razry. His elder brother and his sister in law; Rudi Anjas Khoir and Hasnah Sitompul and his nephew and niece; Aimar Lavezzy and Refsyah. And also to his elder sister and brother in law; Anni Elisa,S.Pd.and Gory and his nephew; Jalil for their supports and advices to him until he finished this thesis.

Next, to his buddies; Ridho Shiroth Alfarist, S.Pd, Ahmad Rusli, S.Pd Ahmad Rifai, M.Hum, Hamka M.Hum, Habib Rahmansyah, M.Hum, Abdul Rahman Siagian, M.Hum. who provided the writer some advices on how to approach his work and gave his the confidence boost and most of all thank you for their encouragement and support.

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Finally, the writer has lost his wise words to pray to Allah SWT, to give them proper reward. Amin.

Medan, march 16th 2013 The Writer,

Erwin Ashari

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of the Study

In students‟ English textbook, conversation text takes a part. Conversation

text patterns are not always written in natural patterns or congruent coding but in various patterns; some of which can be in metaphor coding. The diversity of the conversation text patterns make students misinterpret the meaning or information. In listening section, the students are asked answer the questions about the conversation that they heard or read. In reading section, the students will answer some questions from the conversation texts. It means that if they do not understand the conversation, they will not be able to answer those questions. One of the important things in understanding conversation texts is through understanding the structure of the conversation. If they cannot understand the structure of conversation or exchange they will not be able to get the meaning of the conversation texts. These weaknesses make students fail to learn English effectively.

The writer conducted a conversation with the students, firstly the writer conducted a daily conversation, but several of their answers were far from the

writer‟s meant. The the writer continued the conversation where the conversation

taken from their textbook. Students have difficulties in comprehending and interpreting the meaning of the conversation texts found in the English textbooks. The difficulties can be seen from their ways in answering questions based a

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conversation. Their answers are far from the aims or theme of the conversation, because in the conversation text, the direct answers are not presented. It means that to answer the questions they need to understand coding patterns of the conversation. They need to know move, speech function and its realization in mood of conversation. Here is a piece of example which is taken from the

students‟ English textbook “English Zone” on page 134.

A : Do you know the greatest adventure story ever? B : Is it Indiana Jones story?

A : No. It‟s Gulliver and the little people. Have you ever heard before

something about it?

B : Oh, I see. It is someone whose ship was broken in a storm and accidently landed on an island resided by small people, right?

The conversations show marked or unusual conversation, because the question is answered by the question. If it is analyzed through move and speech function and its realization in mood, it is found that almost all of the clauses are in metaphorical coding. For example, the first B‟s utterance in answering the first

A‟s question “Is it Indiana Jones story?”, B is expected to answer the question in

unmarked or usual answer, that is statement by using the declarative mood. But

here B answers A‟s question by giving statement through interrogative mood. In

addition, if it is analyzed through move, it can be found the A‟s question is answered by B by making a confirmation, while B is expected to answer by giving statement.

A study conducted by Dalimunthe (2010) indicated that the function of grammatical metaphor used in English textbook of Senior High School actually is aimed at help of students understand the information shared through

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the text, but in reality it makes students confused in understanding information. Their failures in comprehending and interpreting the massages or information provided in the conversation can be predicted because there are various type of the exchange structures of information and goods and services in the conversation text.

After observing some conversations in the students‟ textbook: English Zone by Astuti (2010), it is found that the book consists of some metaphor coding. The metaphorical coding in conversation can lead the students to be misunderstanding or interpreting the aims of the conversation. The students‟ absence in mastering coding pattern of conversation will result their misunderstanding.

There are two factors that influence students‟ achievement in studying

English, they are; internal and external factors. Internal factor means the factors that come from the students themselves, such as; motivation, interest, curiosities, etc. While external factor is the factors that come from outside of the students themselves, such as; the use of the textbook, teachers‟ strategies or methods, facilities, etc.

One of the external factors which makes the class has weakness is the use of the textbook. The book predicted is not so relevant or it is so complicated, especially in conversation section where it has some differences in exchange structures of information and goods and services from the usual one. It makes the students face some difficulties in understanding the conversation texts in the textbook.

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Wooffitt (2005; 13) states that conversation examines language as social action. It means that everybody cannot avoid it in daily life. To share experience or knowledge we can conduct a conversation as the purpose of conversation is to exchange information, establish and maintain the relationship between people (Zhang, 2008: 60). The addresser and addressee in a conversation always follow certain principles to understand each other. Conversation analysis has provided an invaluable tool to dissect the most mundane, everyday social action, talk, and explicate its orderliness and meaningfulness. A conversation will run well when the addressee comprehends addresser‟s expression.

Meanwhile, According to Becker and Meier (1999: 19) in Lepschy (2008: 315), conversation means verbal and non-verbal human acts aimed at mutual understanding. Understanding here must be understood in the broad sense of establishing common meanings for practical goals. It means that the most important is about the comprehending meaning.

The recent language education is focused on communicative competence. It means in education, the students are expected to be able to understand and comprehend conversation in the textbook. A conversation involves at least two persons. They conduct conversation to share the knowledge, opinion, feel, experience, suggestion etc, through the speech function. Furthermore, Harmer (1991: 83) states that Communication between humans is an extremely complex and ever-changing phenomenon.

Talking about the conversation, it relates to the speech function and mood. Where the speech function is released or coded by the mood. Speech functions

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are; statement, question, command and offer while moods are declarative, imperative and interrogative. When students are reading a conversation in a textbook, sometimes they misinterpret the meaning or the theme of the conversation. It is caused of the coding of the mood in the text is not congruent or it is called metaphor (Saragih: 2006: 201)

Conversation has certain structure. So do the conversation texts in the

students‟ textbook: English Zone. The conversation structures in the textbook

are not always in usual or congruent patterns. The pattern in the textbook is very various. The diversity of the coding patterns make the students become fail in understanding the purposes or the aims of the conversation texts, because most of the students focus on the lexical meaning of th e word rather than the coding patterns, meanwhile the coding pattern plays important role in transferring the message in the text. So that the students only know the lexical meaning of the text without looking the meaning based the context of the coding patterns.

Therefore, the understanding of conversation coding plays important role in understanding conversation texts to comprehend the conversation itself. In other words, reading conversation texts are shaped by the understanding the coding, whether the coding in the level of move, speech function and mood. It illuminates the exchange structure of conversation text of the students‟ textbook.

The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate coding patterns of conversation texts of students‟ English textbook that will lead students to get

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understanding meaning, information, message which is conveyed in conversation texts.

In this study, the researcher analyses the conversation texts in order to see whether conversation texts of students‟ English textbook serves the best coding patterns development systematically by analyzing move, speech function and mood. In conclusion, the researcher wants to see the process of the analysis of Coding patterns in Conversation texts in Students’ English Textbook: English Zone

1.2 The Problems of the Study

Based on the explanation in the background, the problems are formulated as the following.

(1)What patterns of coding are used in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook?

(2)How are the patterns of coding structured in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook?

(3)Why are the coding patterns used in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook?

1.3 The Objectives of the Study

In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are

(1)to investigate how coding are structured in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook,

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(2)to formulate patterns of coding used in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook, and

(3)to reason why the coding techniques are used in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook.

1.4 The Scopes of the Study

This study deals with conversation texts in students‟ English textbook: English Zone, where in those conversation texts, the author uses congruent and metaphorical coding of move, speech function and its realization in mood. This study is also restricted to cover three points, they are (1) coding as the analysis of exchange structure in conversation texts in the students‟ English textbook, (2) various patterns by considering coding in conversation texts in the

students‟ English textbook, and (3) reasons why the patterns are used with

reference to social contexts in conversation texts of the English Zone textbook.

1.5 The Significances of the Study

Findings of the study are expected to be relevant and useful theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the findings of this study are expected to justify the use of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theories. Negotiation is applicable to the conversation in textbook which are used in to other disciplines such as Teaching English as a Foreig n Language (TEFL). Practically, the findings are expected to be useful for

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(1)the students themselves as the users of the book to improve their ability to understand and to comprehend a conversation text effectively,

(2)the teachers who also apply the textbook to guide the students to learn English and to analyze the contents of a conversation text,

(3)the Head Master, who frequently selects the text books which will be the handbook for use, should be more considerable to the content analysis of the English textbook, so it is a relevant textbook,

(4)the book publishers, in order to publish the textbooks, which are really suitable and good to meet the students‟ needs and linguistic perspective, and

(5)other researchers who want to use the findings of this research as the references.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions

After analyzing the data, conclusions are drawn as the following.

(1) Conversation texts of students’ English textbook: English zone consist of

two coding patterns, they are congruent and metaphorical coding. The two coding occur in move and speech function and its moods and dominated by the congruent coding rather than metaphorical coding, and complete mood and residue (at least using mood) dominates elliptical mood pattern. (2) The two coding occur in move and speech function and its moods refer to

the mood system in conversation texts of students’ English textbook:

English zone. They are proposal and proposition. Proposition mood system is more dominant, where proposition system means the conversation texts involve the statement and question.

(3) The usage of mood and residue pattern is caused by the system of the conversation is dominated by Proposition system. It means the conversation texts involve the statement and question, or it can be said that the conversation texts dominantly content asking and answering the questions, in another word, the content of the conversation dominantly is about giving and asking information

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5.2 The Implication for Teaching

Congruent coding in the pattern of coding in conversation text can help the teacher of English and students to understand the purpose or meaning of the conversation texts easily. They understand well as what the writer of the textbook; English Zone does. It also gives some implications for teaching to make teaching and learning process be better. It is caused by; first, the teachers of English and students familiarize with the coding pattern of move and the realization of speech function to its mood in clauses in the conversation texts and also the elliptical linguistic element of clauses which deal with social context in order to apply the better teaching and learning process. Second, coding patterns are very useful to comprehend in order to understand the context of the conversation texts. So, it is very important for teachers of English and students to comprehend coding pattern in move and speech function and its mood of conversation texts. Third, English teachers can apply the metaphorical coding in conversations in daily life that it is possible to face by the students in their lives, it makes the teaching and learning process runs well, but it is needed to understand that in daily life, the coding pattern is not always in congruent pattern but more in metaphorical coding either in move or speech function and its moods.

5.3 Suggestions

In relation to the conclusions, suggestions are staged as the following. (1) It is suggested that the students should be aware of the coding patterns of

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The coding patterns may be congruent or metaphorical coding, In daily life metaphorical coding is more often as it caused of the cultural context, and culture cannot be separated from the language.

(2) It is suggested that teachers should play their have important roles in teaching learning process to introduce and to give attention to the Indonesian and foreign conversation cultures especially the coding pattern of conversation texts. It is caused in daily conversation, addresser and addressee use cultural context in conversation where it will involve more metaphorical coding and elliptical mood, it is caused of the their understanding of discourse, pragmatic and context of the language being used.

(3) The writer of English textbook, especially in the part of the conversation texts, should be consistent and intense to the theory of discourse and pragmatics and social context of language itself. Because conversation text coding should be exposed from the congruent coding pattern then it is developed to the metaphorical one. It is caused it in daily life, metaphorical coding more often found rather than congruent coding. (4) Further it is suggested that other researchers should do more detailed

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REFERENCES

Astuti, Eka Mulya. 2010. English Zone for senior high school students year XI , Jakarta : Erlangga.

Bogdan, R.C. & Biklen, S.K. 1982. Qualitative Research in Education: An Introduction to Theory and Method, Boston: Allyn & Bacon

Dalimunthe, Ahmad Amin. 2010. Grammatical Metaphor in Senior High School English Textbook; English 3 (Unpublished Thesis). Pascasarjana Unimed.

Gay, L.R. 1987. Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application. London: Merril.

Given , Lisa M. 2008. The SAGE Encyclopedia of University Qualitative Research Methods; volumes 1 &2, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Gurning, Busmin, 2007. Jurnal Linguistik Terapan Pascasarjana UNIMED, vol 4: Discourse Comprehension; Pascasarjana; UNIMED.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Second Edition. London: Edward Arnold

Harmer, Jeremy,1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London :Longman

Krippendorff, K. 2004. Content Analysis: an introduction to its methodology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

Lepschy, Annette, 2008. Handbook of Communication Competence; Communication training. Berlin :y Walter de Gruyter GmbH

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Mazeland, H, 2009. Concise encyclopedia of pragmatics : Conversation Analysis. University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

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Zhang, Zheng, 2008. International Education Studies Journal vol.1 : Discourse Analysis and Cultivation of Conversational Competence in English Class. http://www.ccsenet.org/journal.html. accessed on December 26th, 2011.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions

After analyzing the data, conclusions are drawn as the following.

(1) Conversation texts of students’ English textbook: English zone consist of two coding patterns, they are congruent and metaphorical coding. The two coding occur in move and speech function and its moods and dominated by the congruent coding rather than metaphorical coding, and complete mood and residue (at least using mood) dominates elliptical mood pattern. (2) The two coding occur in move and speech function and its moods refer to

the mood system in conversation texts of students’ English textbook: English zone. They are proposal and proposition. Proposition mood system is more dominant, where proposition system means the conversation texts involve the statement and question.