NON-NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHER REQUESTING IDENTITY TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN EFL CLASSROOM

Abstract

Non-native English teacher in the context of teaching is in two languages and two cultures. This condition is the basis for further study which is very useful for research on developing students' pragmatic competence (Achiba, 2018), because there are indications that teachers in the two-cultural context use request with excessive supportive moves utterances and lack of knowledge in using internal modifications (Ahangari & Shoghli, 2011). Data source used to obtain data on requests used by the teacher when teaching in class. Observations were made for all grade levels of senior high school by recording while the teacher was in the teaching process. Participant teacher with non-native English background was involved in the research. The transcriptions obtained from the recording in the teaching learning process were analyzed based on requesting speech theory (Blum Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper in Olshtain, 1989). Interview was also done to explore why the teacher uses request modifications in giving instructions to her students. The results show that there is a modification of requests with the use of English and Indonesian in the delivery of requests used by the teacher when giving instructions. This modification was also strengthened by the repetition of the words please and ok which were indicated because of the influence of the teacher's first language culture. This culture correlates with the politeness foundation of the teacher's first language culture. These modified models are further strengthened by the teacher's belief that this is to show identity as an English teacher which can motivate students to always participate in teaching in class. In other words, the teacher wants to show himself to be a teacher figure who is not being feared by students. Furthermore, this research can be deepened by conducting an analysis on the types of request strategies or how the process of developing students' pragmatic competence can develop with interactions using these utterances based on the perspectives of teachers and students.