DIRECTIVE SPEECH ACTS REALIZATION OF 


ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554
Vol. 3, Issue 2, June 2015 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE

DIRECTIVE SPEECH ACTS REALIZATION OF
INDONESIAN EFL TEACHER

Yulianti Wulansari
Department of English Education, University of Kuningan, Indonesia

Email: yulianti.wulansari30@gmail.com

Cucu Suhartini
Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri Sindangsari, Kuningan, Indonesia

Email: syifaunnida.annaqita@yahoo.co.id

APA Citation: Wulansari, Y. & Suhartini, C. (2015). Directive speech acts realization of Indonesian
EFL teacher. English Review: Journal of English Education, 3(2),223-229

Received: 10-04-2015 Accepted: 27-04-2015 Published: 01-06-2015

Abstract: This research examines the types and functions of directive speech act performed
by an Indonesian EFL teacher in one senior high school in Kuningan, Indonesia. This study
uses qualitative method. The data of this research were taken from the video transcription
which contains directives spoken by the EFL teacher and analyzed based on Kreidler’s
(1998) theory. The findings show that there are three types of directives used by the teacher.
They are commands, requests, and suggestions. The most frequent type of directives
performed is commands with 233 occurrences (94.8%). It was also found that there are five
functions seized by the directives, they are elicitation, instruction, advice, threat, and
attention-getter. The most frequent function of directives used is elicitation with 108
occurrences (44%). From the findings, it is concluded that the using of commands shows
teacher’s dominance. Yet, this type of directives is not easily understood by the students.
Therefore, it is suggested that the teacher should use other types of directives more, such as
requests and suggestions, to encourage students’ participation.
Keywords: pragmatics, speech act, directive speech act.

INTRODUCTION
Communication is an essential part

of humans’ life. By communication,
people can send their messages, such as
ideas, feelings, or thoughts to others. In
delivering their messages, people can
also request others to do things which
they want through particular utterances.
By doing so, the utterances that the
speaker produces are not for describing
the request, but to carry out the act of
‘requesting’. Furthermore, Austin (1962:
6) states “to utter the sentence in
appropriate circumstances is to do it, not
to describe the act nor state that the
speaker is doing it”. It means that people
can perform some kind of actions, such

as ordering, promising, refusing,
thanking, etc, by uttering certain
sentences in appropriate circumstances.
Austin (1962: 6) proposes these kinds of
utterances as “performative”. This idea is
supported by Searle (1969: 22) who
mentions that ”talking is performing acts
according to rules”. Those uses of
language are commonly classified as
“speech acts”.

Concerning speech acts in
particular context, such as classroom,
Searle (1969, in Merdana, Seken, & Putra,
2013) states that directives is a speech act
that is frequently used in a classroom
interaction. The teachers use it to make
the students do something. The types of



CUCU SUHARTINI & YULIANTI WULANSARI
Directive Speech Acts Realization of Indonesian EFL Teacher

speech act used are command, request
and suggestion (Kreidler, 1998: p. 190-
191). The use of the speech acts is related
with a teacher’s role, because when the
teacher commands the student, he/she is
carrying out his/her role as a leader in
the class. Besides being a leader, a
teacher has other roles to fulfill in their
class, such as being “authority figure,
knower, director, manager, counselor,
guide, and even such roles as friend,
confidante, and parent” (Brown, 2001:
200). To perform those roles, the teacher
surely will use the speech act that
functions to get the hearer to do (or not
to do) something, namely directives.
According to Austin (1962), directives
are used by the speaker to get the
hearer(s) to do or not to do something
and it can be in the form of ordering,
warning, urging, directing, and advising.
In this context, the speaker is the teacher,
and the hearer is the students.

Kreidler (1998: p. 190-191) classifies
directives into three kinds, namely
commands, requests, and suggestions.
Each type of directive has different
purpose and function. Furthermore,
directives performed by a teacher have
some functions, such as elicitation,
instruction, attention-getter, suggestion,
tactfulness, advice, conditional and
threat (Amalsaleh et al., 2004).
Amalsaleh et al. (2004) states that the
same form of directives may imply
different functions or conversely, the
same function may be expressed via a
variety of forms. For example,
imperative form has functions as
attention-getter and instruction.
Meanwhile, the directive’s function as
instruction can be done not only by
imperative, but also by interrogative,
declarative, modals, and passive. Based
on the explanations, the researcher is
interested to find out what kinds of

directive speech act commonly
performed by an EFL teacher in one
senior high school in Kuningan and what
functions are held by those directives.

The main issues addressed in this
study are the kinds and functions of
directive speech acts performed by an
EFL teacher in one senior high school in
Kuningan. The enquiry towards these
issues is formulated in the following
research questions:
1. What types of directives are

commonly performed by an EFL
teacher in one senior high school in
Kuningan?

2. What are the functions of the
directives performed by the EFL
teacher?

METHOD
The study is conducted in

Kuningan, West Java, in August 2014. In
this study, an EFL teacher of one high
school there is involved. She is chosen
because she already has more than five
years experience of teaching English in
the senior high school. She also has
multi-lingual competence in Sundanese,
Indonesian, and English so that she can
communicate with her students not only
in the national and target-language, but
also in their mother’s tongue. It emerges
more interaction between the teacher
and the students, so hopefully the
teacher can provide the data for this
study.

The data of this research consists of
the EFL teacher’s directive utterances
that are collected by using video
recording and observation. The
recording is done to help the researcher
to find out the directive speech act
thoroughly, while the observation is
done to see the whole situation of
research site and to take notes on
important things occurred there.



ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554
Vol. 3, Issue 2, June 2015 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE

According to Creswell (2009: 181),
“Qualitative observations are those in
which the researcher takes field notes on
the behavior and activities of individuals
at the research site”. In the observation,
the researcher is the complete observer.
It means that she presence at the scene of
action but does not interact or participate
in the activity of the class. This is done so
that the teacher as the main participant
can focus on her teaching activity. The
researcher also uses Wray et al. (1998)
method of transcribing speech
orthographically. The transcribing
process is done to gain the written
document of what the participants in the
research site said. The phonetic details of
the speaker’s accent will be omitted,
because it is not relevant with the study.
Therefore, the transcription only consists
of the utterances uttered by the
participants.

After collecting the data through
observation and data recording, the data
will be transcribed and read closely to
find the utterances included to directive
speech act which are used by the EFL
teacher. The procedure of the study are
conducted as follows: (1) identifying and
classifying the utterances which contain
directives, such as commands, requests,
and suggestions (Kreidler: 1998); (2)
analyzing the functions of the directives
based on the researcher’s own
interpretation and ground theory found
by Amalsaleh et al. (2004); and (3)
quantifying the occurrences of the types
and functions of directives to see the
trend in their use.

In the identifying stage, the data are
identified and classified based on the
kinds of directives found by Kreidler
(1998), while to identify the functions of
the directives, it will be based on the
researcher’s interpretation and eight
functions of directives proposed by
Amalsaleh et al. (2004), namely elicitation,
instruction, attention-getter, suggestion,
tactfulness, advice, conditional, and threat.

In the stage of analyzing the data,
the researcher counts the frequency and
percentage of each kind of directives
performed by the EFL teacher, so it will
be known what type of directives mostly
used by the participant. Then, the
researcher also will count the frequency
and percentage of each function of the
directives. Finally, the distribution of
directive forms and functions will be
tabulated and discussed thoroughly.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
According to Kreidler (1998), there

are three types of directives, namely
commands, requests, and suggestion.
Commands are the utterances that
express the speaker’s wish that the
hearer should act as the speaker wants
him to act. Requests are the utterances
that express the speaker’s want that the
addressee doing or not doing something.
Furthermore, suggestions are the
utterances used by the speaker to give
his opinion to the addressee as to what
the addressee should or should not do.
The general finding of types of directives
is summarized in table 1.

Table 1. The types of directives performed by the EFL teacher
Types Frequency Percentage (%)

Command 233 94.8
Suggestion 10 4
Request 3 1.2
Total 246 100



CUCU SUHARTINI & YULIANTI WULANSARI
Directive Speech Acts Realization of Indonesian EFL Teacher

The data that are collected in this
study include 246 utterances.
Commands are the most frequent type
which occur 233 times (94.8%), followed
by suggestion with 10 occurrences (4%)
and request with 3 occurrences (1.2%).
The definition of each type and some
examples are given below for further
clarification:
1. Command

In issuing a command, “Speaker, in
authority, expresses a wish that
Addressee should <not> act as
Speaker wants Addressee <not> to
act” (Kreidler, 1998: 190). In making
command, the speaker has some
degree of power over the actions of
the addressee. It is the most
compulsive kind of the directives.
a. Okay . . . I will ask you ((pause)) I

will push you to speak English.
b. Write down what I say.

2. Request
“A request is an expression of what
the speaker wants the addressee to
do or refrain from doing” (Kreidler,
1998: 190). The speaker who utters a
request does not have a control or
authority towards the addressee.
a. Other question maybe?
b. Other question please?

3. Suggestion
“Suggestions are the utterances we
make to other persons to give our

opinion as to what they should or
should not do” (Kreidler, 1998: 191).
In making suggestions, the suggestee
or the person whom we give
suggestion has the choice of
performances whether to do or not to
do the act.
a. Nah (.) yang di sini pun (.) ketika

punya hobi dikit(.) terus digeluti di
situ.
Nah(.) the people here as well,
when you have a hobby, keep
doing it.

b. Kita tetap harus mencoba menggeluti
sesuatu ya.
We still must try to keep doing
something consistently okay.

The main function of directives is to
get the hearer to do something. However,
the directives which are performed by
the EFL teacher have more specific
functions. The functions mentioned here
are based on the researcher’s own
interpretation and supported by
Amalsaleh et al. (2004) study. In
Amalsaleh et al. (2004), directives have 8
functions, namely elicitation, instruction,
attention-getter, suggestion, tactfulness,
advice, condition, and threat. However,
there are only 5 functions found in this
study. They are elicitation, instruction,
advice, threat, and attention-getter. The
general finding of the functions of the
directives is summarized in table 2.

Table 2. The function of directives performed by the EFL teacher
Function Frequency Percentage (%)
Elicitation 108 44
Instruction 106 43
Advice 22 9
Threat 8 3.2

Attention-getter 2 0.8
Total 246 100



ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554
Vol. 3, Issue 2, June 2015 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE

The data collected in this study
include 246 utterances. Elicitation is the
most frequent function which occur with
108 occurrences (44%), followed by
instruction with 106 occurrences (43%),
advice with 22 occurrences (9%), threat
with 8 occurrences (3.2%), and lastly,
attention-getter with 2 occurrences
(0.8%). The definition of each function
and some examples of directive
functions are given in the following for
further clarification:

1. Elicitation
Elicitation is the function of directives
which makes the hearer provides the
required information for the speaker
(Amalsaleh, 2004: 34). The main
objective of this function is to get the
required information and sometimes
to test the students’ knowledge about
the subject
a. Yes? That’s enough?
b. Why we have to learn English?

2. Instruction
Instruction is the functions of
directives which “refer to utterances
which are issued to get the addressee
to perform an action” (Amalsaleh et
al., 2004: 34). The main difference
between instruction and elicitation is
the thing that the speaker wants from
the hearer. In elicitation, the speaker
requires information, while in
instruction, the speaker wants action.
a. Be brave to ask question if you

want to know more about me.
b. Find out from internet(.) from book(.)

from your brother from your sister
fromanywhere(.) from anyone.

3. Advice
Advice is “an opinion or a suggestion
about what somebody should do in a

particular situation” (Hornby, 2003:
20).
a. Nah (.) yangdi sini pun (.) ketika punya

hobi dikit(.) terus digeluti di situ.
Nah(.) the people here as well,
when you have a hobby, keep
doing it.

b. English is not difficult but English is
very easy(.) asalkan tadi you have to
study hard.English is not difficult
but English is very easy, as long as
you study hard.

4. Threat
Threat is “a statement in which you
tell somebody that you will punish or
harm them, especially if they do not
do what you want” (Hornby, 2003:
1408).
a. Jadi kalau kamunya tidak siap untuk

active (.) untuk belajar cepet (.) . . .
pasti minimal poinnya akan dapetnya C
terus.
So if you are not ready to be active,
to learn quickly . . . you will
certainly keep getting C.

b. Saya paling tidak suka (.) I don’t like
someone who like cheating.
I don’t like the most, I don’t like
someone who like cheating.

5. Attention-getter
Attention-getter refers to utterances
which are used “to attract students’
attention” (Amalsaleh et al., 2004: 34).
a. And then ((pause)) hello(.) I’m here!

((flicks her fingers to warn the
students who are chatting in the
back))

b. Okay next (.) number ten!

This study finds that the functions
of directives used by the EFL teacher are
elicitation, instruction, advice, threat,
and attention-getter. In addition, it is
noted that one function of directives can



CUCU SUHARTINI & YULIANTI WULANSARI
Directive Speech Acts Realization of Indonesian EFL Teacher

be realized through various types. For
example, elicitation can be realized
through commands and request. The

distribution of directives’ types and
functions is summarized in table 3.

Table 3. Distribution of directives’ types and functions
Elicitation Instruction Advice Threat Attentiongetter

Command 107 104 12 8 2
Suggestion - - 10 - -
Request 1 2 - - -
TOTAL 108 106 22 8 2

As shown in table 3, elicitation and
instruction are realized by command and
request, whereas advice is realized by
command and suggestion. Meanwhile,
the two last functions, threat and
attention-getter, are only realized
through command. The findings of the
functions of directives and its
distribution may be different for each
research, depending on the data that are
collected.

CONCLUSION
It is found that there are three types

of directives performed by the EFL
teacher. Three types of directives
performed by the EFL teacher are
commands, requests, and suggestions.
The most frequent type is commands
with 233 occurrences (94.8%), followed
by suggestion with 10 occurrences (4%),
and lastly requests with 3 occurrences
(1.2%).

From the first findings, it is
concluded that the teacher is very
dominant in teaching the students. It is
noticed from the way the teacher mostly
uses command in directing the students.
Yet, the teacher uses command for the
benefit of the students themselves, which
is so that the students can do their task
as a learner well. It is proven from the
findings that the commands used by the
teacher have the purpose to give
instruction for the students’ learning
activity. The teacher also does not

hesitate to give the students suggestions
which often function as advice. It can be
understood because the teacher is
usually perceived as someone who is
wiser and have more knowledge than
the students. The lack of using requests
in the class is probably caused by the
context of culture in Indonesia, in which
a teacher is seen as the leader in the class,
so that almost every utterance that is
said by the teacher is considered a
command.

Meanwhile, for the second findings,
this study finds that there are five
functions of the directives that are
performed by the EFL teacher. The most
frequent function is elicitation with 108
occurrences (44%), followed by
instruction with 106 occurrences (43%),
advice with 22 occurrences (9%), threat
with 8 occurrences (3.2%), and lastly
attention-getter with 2 occurrences
(0.8%).

From the second findings, it can be
concluded that the teacher tries to make
the students speak out by producing
utterances which act as elicitation. The
teacher also uses instruction to make the
students perform an action, such as to
speak in English, to change their mindset
about English, and sometimes to forbid
them from doing something bad, like
cheating. Advice is produced mainly to
make the students not only focus on
their academic point, but also on their
attitude and behavior, while threat is



ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554
Vol. 3, Issue 2, June 2015 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE

used as a reinforcement to motivate the
students to be more active and to behave.
Lastly, attention-getter is only used
when the students start getting loud
while the teacher is explaining
something.

REFERENCES
Amalsaleh, E., Yamini, H. & Yarmohammadi,

Y. (2004). Directives used in university
classrooms. Journal of Literature and
Language 5 (1) p. 1-27. Retrieved
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www.ensani.ir/storage/Files/20120506
112631-5138-96.pdf

Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles:
An interactive approach to language
pedagogy (2nd ed.).White Plains, NY:
Longman.

Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research design:
Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed

methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand
Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.

Hornby, A. S. (2003). Oxford advanced learner’s
dictionary of current English. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Kreidler, C. W. (1998). Introducing English
semantics. London: Routledge.

Merdana, Seken, K., Putra, N.A.J. (2013). An
analysis of speech acts produced by
elementary school teachers and
students to facilitate teaching and
learning at SDN 10 Pringgasela East
Lombok. e-Journal Program Pascasarjana
Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha Program
Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris 1.
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pasca.undiksha.ac.id/e-
journal/index.php/jpbi/article/downl
oad/.../508

Searle, J. (1969). Speech act: An essay in the
philosophy of language. Cambridge:
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Wray, A., Trott, K., Bloomer, A. (1998).
Projects in linguistics. New York: Oxford
University Press.


	INTRODUCTION
	METHOD
	RESULTSANDDISCUSSION
	CONCLUSION
	REFERENCES