1 EEJ 5 (1) (2015) English Education Journal http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej MOOD REALIZATION OF THE LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN THE GRADE VII ENGLISH TEXTBOOK PUBLISHED BY THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE Bambang Ruby Sugiarto Ahmad Sofwan, Djoko Sutopo Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ Sejarah Artikel: Diterima Juni 2015 Disetujui Juli 2015 Dipublikasikan Agustus 2015 ________________ Keywords: Discourse Analysis; Systemic Functional Linguistics; Mood; English Textbook; Learning Activity ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ This present study is aimed at explaining the mood realization of the learning activities in the grade VII English textbook published by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It is designed within the framework of qualitative research and the method is discourse analysis. The result shows that the learning activities give more imperative mood than the others. Afterwards, speaking skill is included more than the other skills.To achieve communicative activity, the good balance between indicative and imperative mood should be realized in the process of teaching and learning English. Although teacher has a powerful authority and that is natural since teacher is the leader in the classroom, the process of giving and demanding information between teacher and students could be realised to achieve communicative activity. Subsequently, despite the percentage of speaking is the highest, listening has the least percentage in this textbook. Listening is importance in our class since English is the students‟ foreign language. Therefore, it is essential that listening activities should be included in a balanced portion with speaking activities in order to understand spoken discourse. © 2015 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Alamat korespondensi: Kampus Unnes Bendan Ngisor, Semarang, 50233 E-mail: pps@unnes.ac.id ISSN 2087-0108 Bambang Ruby Sugiarto / English Education Journal 5 (1) (2015) 2 INTRODUCTION Language is supposed to be an important instrument for continuing life of human beings in the world. With language they can understand each other of what they want or they do. Naturally, the language always exists together with human beings. Murcia and Olshtain (2000:3) state that through language people communicate information, ideas, beliefs, emotion, and attitudes to one another. In other words, where human beings are, there must be a language. That is why language is the only instrument for them for communication. It means that they will know each other by means of language. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) views language as a resource for making meaning. It describes language in actual use and focus on texts and their contexts (Gerrot and Wignell, 1995:6). It means that people accomplish their purposes by expressing meaning in context. To express meaning people create text.Text has similar meaning to discourse. Linguists prefer text than discourse because people in common are familiar with the word text than discourse. Widdowson(2007:4) defines a text as “an actual use of language”. Thetext is produced as for a communicative purpose. Thus, discourse or text can be natural spoken or written language with meaning being transferred in a particular context. Based onthe perspective of systemic functional linguistics, it is known when someonec ommunicates, he or she creates text. Thetextwhichiscreated occurs inacertaincontext. Christie (2005:9) states that the term „context‟ refers to that which surrounds, or is with, the text. A context is known because the text gives it life and a text is known only because the context makes it relevant. Thus, it can be concluded that context refers to the elements which accompany text and between text and context are tightly related. In other words, between text and context cannot be separated each other. There are two contexts which effect to the use of language; those are context of culture and context of situation. Gerot&Wignell (1995:10) states that context of culture determines what we can mean through „who we are‟, „what we do‟, and „what we say‟. Meanwhile, context of situation can be specified through field, tenor, and mode. Field refers to what is going on, Tenor refers to the social relationship between those taking part, and Mode refers to how language is being used whether spoken or written. In other words, the two contexts help us to understand how texts make meaning. The texts which are produced will occur in a certain context. However, human beings use languages are classified in SFL into Metafunctions. Bloor & Bloor (2004:10) define three categories of metafunctions. Language is used to organise, and to express our perceptions and consciousness realized by Ideational Metafunction. Language is used to take on roles and to express feelings, attitude, and judgement in communication event realised by Interpersonal Metafunction. Language is used to relate what is said or written to the text realised by Textual Metafunction. Accordingly, metafunctionsrefer to the function of language used to construct meaning. Language is simultaneously encoded by three metafunctions; Ideational, Interpersonal, and Textual. Gerrot&Wignell (1995:22) states that „Interpersonal meanings are realised in the lexicogrammar through selections from the system of mood‟. In addition, Martin et.al (1997: 57) states that the system of mood belongs to the interpersonal metafunction and it is the grammatical resource for realising an interactive move in dialogue. Moreover, Eggins suggests that analyzing the interpersonal meaning means establishing a relationship between the semantic organization of interaction and grammatical differences in the Mood configurations (Eggins, 2004:141).In other words, whenever we use language to interact, one of the things we are doing with it is establishing a relationship between us. Dealing with the SFL perspective, it can be applied in studying discourse analysis concerned with the English textbook. This is somethingthatisnecessarytobe done because of the importance of textbook in the process of Bambang Ruby Sugiarto / English Education Journal 5 (1) (2015) 3 teaching and learning English. Richards (2015) explains that in most language program, textbooks are a key component to serve as the basis for much language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. They also serve mainly to supplement the teacher‟s instruction. On the positive side, Grant (1989:37) states that textbooks should include communicative activity. However, has the communicative activity been implemented in the learning activity in the English textbook? This is something that is necessarytobeconsideredbecause the essential constituents in the process of teaching and learning English are the textbooks and instruction materials that are often used by English teachers. The books published by the publisher should reflect the communicative activity. Grant (1989:14) states that communicative activities usually have a good balance among the four language skills, but may emphasise more listening and speaking. In addition, Harmer (2008:146) explains that the topics and treatment of the different language skills will be attractive within a good textbook. Therefore, the textbooks should include attractive activities which consist of the four language skills especially more in listening and speaking. With regard to the present study, it is aimed at explaining how mood of the discourse of the learning activities in English textbook realized. Through analysing the discourse, the readers can understand not only the information but also the meaning beyond the clauses (Halliday&Matthiessen, 2004:176). METHODOLOGY The concern of the present study isto explain how the mood realized on the models of activity found in grade VII English textbook. Creswell (1994:145) defines that a qualitative research is interpretative research that the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through words or picture. With regard to discourse research, Jorgensen and Phillips (2002:21) state that the purpose of the discourse research is to find out what people really mean when they say this or that, or to discover the reality behind the discourse. Thus, the method used in this research is discourse analysis, while the approach is qualitative. However, to support the findings, a simple quantification of the result is used to provide evidence. The source of data in the present study is the learning activities in the grade VII English textbook entitled “When English Rings a Bell” published by the Ministry of Education and Culture which consist of 166 learning activities from all chapters (Chapter 1– 11).In analysing the texts on the learning activities, the unit of analysis is „clauses‟ as suggested by Halliday&Mathhiessen (2004), But, et al. (2000), Eggins (2004), Gerot&Wignell (1995), and Martin etal. (1997). The results wereanalyzed through the use of interpersonal meaning which focused on mood analysis. The instrument of data collection was Systemic Functional Linguistics on discourse analysis of mood of the learning activities in the grade VII English textbook published by the Ministry of Education and Culture. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The findings and discussion cover three points which involve the realization of mood, the finding of language skills, and the contribution of the study for English teachers. The Realization of Mood This is addressed to answer the first research question of this thesis that is “How is the mood of the learning activities realised?” The answer of this question is connected to the realisation of mood of the learning activities from chapter 1 up to 11. To comprehend the realisation, the data of the mood realisation from each chapter is summarized and interpreted in the following diagram. Bambang Ruby Sugiarto / English Education Journal 5 (1) (2015) 4 Chart 1.The Data of the Mood Realisation from Each Chapter Based on the diagram above, the learning activities in the English textbook give more imperative than the others. Polar interrogative (yes/no) is only 1%, Declarative is realised by 12%, and Interrogative (Wh-content) is realised by 9%. Furthermore, by comparing to the number of Polar interrogative (yes/no), declarative, and Interrogative (Wh-content) it could be inferred that the learning activities mostly concern in imperative which is realised by 78%. In other words, the activities are given more in the form of command than in the form of question and statement. The Finding of Language Skills This is addressed to answer the second research question of this thesis that is “To what extent do the learning activitiesinclude the language skills?” The answer of this question is connected to the finding of language skills in the learning activities from chapter 1 up to 11. To comprehend the finding, data from each chapter is summarized and interpreted in the following diagram. Chart 2. Learning Activities Related to Language Skills According to the diagram above, the learning activities in the English textbook include all four language skills. However, speaking is included more than the other skills. 12% 1% 9% 78% Declarative Interrogative (Yes/no polar) Interrogative (WH- content) Imperative 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Mood Analysis 11% 40% 17% 32% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Listening Speaking Reading Writing Finding of Language Skills Bambang Ruby Sugiarto / English Education Journal 5 (1) (2015) 5 Furthermore, by comparing to the number of listening which is realised by 11%, the number of reading realised by 17%, and the number of writing which is realised by 32%, it could be inferred that the learning activities mostly concern in speaking which is realized by 40% in the English textbook. The Contribution of the Study This is addressed to answer the final research question of this thesis that is “What is the contribution of this study for English teachers?” The answer of this question is connected to the realisation of mood and the finding of four language skills presented in the previous diagrams in order to give contribution to the teachers to apply communicative activities in the process of teaching and learning English. Dealing with the realisation of mood, the learning activities in the textbook use indicative and imperative mood. As has been mentioned in the diagram of summary of mood analysis, the type of mood mostly employed in the learning activities is imperative. The imperative consists of a mood element of finite only (no subject) and only a residue (Halliday&Mathhiessen, 2004; Eggins, 2004; Martin et.al., 1997; Gerrot and Wignell, 1995). In this case, the learning activities contribute the model of activities for teachers to use imperative mood. It provides evidence that teacher has a powerful authority and that is natural since the teacher is the leader in the classroom. In other words, teacher and students have different status when they are in the situation. However, to achieve communicative activities, indicative mood could be implemented by the teacher. Indicative mood consists of declarative and interrogative. By implementing both indicative and imperative mood, the communicative activities will be achieved through giving and demanding information as suggested by (Richards, 2006; Willson, 2008; Thornbury, 2008; andHarmer, 2004). Dealing with the finding of four language skills, the learning activities in the textbook include the four language skills. As has been mentioned in the diagram of summary of finding of four language skills, speaking is included more than the other skills that is realised by 40%. In other words, the learning activities tend to do communicative activity as suggested by (Grant, 1989; Harmer, 2007; and Richards, 2006). Although the percentage of speaking is the highest, listening has the least percentage in this textbook. It is contrary to the Grant‟s theory (1989:14) that communicative activities usually have a good balance among the four language skills, but may emphasise more listening and speaking. In this case, it indicates what has been stated by Nunan (2002:238) that Listening is such The Cinderella who has been overlooked by its elder sister – Speaking. It is based on his argument that the native speakers‟ need of how to read and write since this skill was automatically bequeathed to them. CONCLUSION To achieve communicative activity, the good balance between indicative and imperative mood should be realized in the process of teaching and learning English. Although teacher has a powerful authority and that is natural since teacher is the leader in the classroom, the process of giving and demanding information between teacher and students could be realized to achieve communicative activity. Subsequently, despite the percentage of speaking is the highest, listening has the least percentage in this textbook. Listening is importance in our class since English is the students‟ foreign language. Therefore, it is essential that listening activities should be included in a balanced portion with speaking activities in order to understand spoken discourse. REFERENCES Bloor, Thomas and Bloor, Meriel. 2004. The Functional Analysis of English a Hallidayan Approach 2 nd Edition. London: Arnold. Christie, Frances. 2005. Language Education in the Primary Years. New South Wales: University of New South Wales Press. Bambang Ruby Sugiarto / English Education Journal 5 (1) (2015) 6 Creswell, Jhon.W. 1994. 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