SPEECH FUNCTION IN FACEBOOK BY EFL LEARNERS HKBP NOMMENSEN

Abstract

This research deals with the speech function in facebook users which offers a social networking micro blog that allows users to send and read messages, called chirp (tweets). Facebook is a kind of social networking website that has been used widely by people around the world to interact with others. The purpose of the research is to find out what types of speech function are dominantly used in facebook users’ status by EFL learners HKBP Nommensen University? To answer the problem of speech function in facebook users’ status, the writer use the theory Sapir (1939), Elgin (1973), Halliday (1980), Sinar (2002), Wilkins (1975), Jeffries (2006), Martin (1997), Gee (1999), Jack (2002). This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative design. The status are taken in August 6th 2012 until August 9th, 2012 from 10 the writer friends in FKIP Nommensen Pematangsiantar. They are 5 twitter users’ and 5 facebook users’, used as the sample to be analyzed. The data were collect by taking group of status.The result of this research showed that there were three types of speech function; statement, command, and question functions. Whereas offer functions, was not found. It was found out that 30 clauses (73.17%), used statement function, 7 clauses (17.07%) used question functions, and 4 clauses (9.75%) used command functions. This research deals with speech function in facebook users’. The writer concludes that there are only 3 types of speech function found in this research. Statement is the type of speech function which is dominanlty used in twitter and facebook users’. Finally the writer suggest to the students of English Department and to other researchers to learn more about speech function in other they can develop their understanding on how speech function works in texts or online texts.