CHILDREN’S PERFORMANCE ON DIRECTIVE SPEECH ACTS (A Study of Preschool Students in TK Islam Masjid Al Falaq Semarang)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Directive Speech Act (DSA) is a subject in Pragmatics which can be used to see children’s competence on language in use. Children’s competence in ‘using’ language is needed to be observed because people usually only focus on children’s ability in producing new words whereas children soon will interact with other people from various backgrounds. Children’s performance on using language to interact with others means the manifestation of their competence on pragmatics. This research aims to give perspective on preschool children’s pragmatic performance, particularly on DSA. Using direct observation towards preschool students, the result of this qualitative research is that children age 4-6 years old are able to response and produce DSA. Children’s responses occur in the form of preferred and dispreferred verbal responses and non verbal response. The structure of conversation with children is different from that of adult where the dispreffered act arises directly without delay. In producing DSA, the children can perform both direct speech acts and indirect speech acts. Key words: language competence, children’s pragmatic performance, directive speech acts, direct-indirect speech acts, preferred-dispreferred acts.