An Analysis of the Speech Act of Request by University Students from Jakarta, Bangka-Belitung, and Pontianak

Abstract

The aim of this research is to find the request strategies and modifiers used by the students from Jakarta, Bangka-Belitung, and Pontianak while they are making requests. Those three places – Jakarta, Pontianak, and Bangka - Belitung – are chosen since the majority of the students come from those three places. It is expected that by understanding students from different origins in making requests, misunderstanding can be avoided. The respondents are 45 students studying in an English Department in a university in Jakarta. 15 of them are from Jakarta, other 15 students are from Pontianak, and the other 15 students are from Bangka-Belitung. The data is collected by delivering a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) to the respondents. The DCT contains 6 scenarios which cover the different powers and social distances. The respondents have to produce a speech act of request of each scenario. The results of this research show that the students from Jakarta, Pontianak, and Bangka - Belitung are applying the similar request strategies. Regarding the modifiers used, the students from Bangka - Belitung are using the most external downgraders, followed by the students from Pontianak. When the power is high, none of the students from Jakarta are using the external downgraders while the students from Pontianak and Bangka Belitung use them a lot. Keywords: speech act of request, modifie

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