Question Speech Act Produced by the Junior High School Students

A question speech act is a communicative act that shows the intended language function, including questions, requests, apologies, suggestions, commands, and offers. This study aimed analyze the questions speech act types, question speech act social function, question speech act linguistics structure and questions speech act language elements produced by students in junior high school level. The study used descriptive qualitative. The subject of this study was seventh-grade students in junior high school. The data were collected through the elicitation technique. The analysis of this study included data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The analysis result showed that from 960 questions, the students more frequently write two types of questions: yes/no questions and wh questions, rather than rhetorical questions and tag questions. The social functions used were directive functions speech act includes asking and requesting. The structure of yes/no questions was used verb in the beginning sentence then followed by the subject. Meanwhile, the structure of wh question was used wh then followed by an auxiliary verb, subject, and main verb. The result showed that non-effective questions were higher than effective questions, there were grammatical errors found that make the questions not effective. The language element of the questions speech acts based on the semantics situation types. The result showed that states is higher than activity, accomplishment, semelfactive and achievement.


INTRODUCTION
The 2013 Curriculum has been implemented since 2013. The objective of Curriculum 2013 is to create productive, creative, innovative students through strengthening affective attitudes, skills, and integrated knowledge for Indonesian (Mitra & Purnawarman, 2019;Setyaningrum & Purwati, 2020). One way for creating productivity and creativity in EFL is through the improvement of confidence and skill in asking a question during EFL (Huda & Ma'mun, 2020;Nassar, 2021). Question speech act has an important function in English as a foreign language learning. It is a communicative act that shows the intended language function, including questions, requests, apologies, suggestions, commands, and offers (Abudayeh & Dubbati, 2020;Andewi & Waziana, 2019;Aryani, 2017). Despite the students' active learning approach applied in the 2013 curriculum, students are reluctant to ask questions during EFL. Similar phenomena were reported in the literature. According to previous study EFL students were lacking confidence and skill in asking questions (Feng, 2014;López-Hernández, 2021). Some students were afraid of asking questions due to limited vocabulary and grammar. Some of them simply kept silent during learning though they did not understand the lesson. Some others were not very actively involved in learning. Students' reluctance in asking questions might be related to culture or sub-culture within a speech community. In a direct culture, asking questions is indicative of the absence of knowledge or information (Nurrokhmanti et al., 2016;Rahdiyanta et al., 2019). Through questions, speakers' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors could be bridged to create and enforce personal, interpersonal, and transactional relationships. In maintaining communication or avoiding communication gaps, the question speech act is an essential verbal act (Andre Suhardiana, 2019;Fagard et al., 2016;Georgieva, 2019). Question speech acts are, therefore primary language unit used for effective communicationn.
Previous studies claimed that the EFL students did not have a formal learning background in using questions during learning (Khairuddiniyah, 2018;Taufiqulloh et al., 2018). The EFL students' reluctance to ask questions was due to the absence of communicative competence (Fitriah & Muna, 2019;Nassar, 2021;Setyowati & Hastuti, 2021). Previous study explained that communicative competence is the knowledge of cultural rules for the appropriate use of language in social interaction, for example, during EFL (Suganda et al., 2018). Other study added that communicative competence is to understand communication ethics and develop cultural awareness (Waluyo, 2019). Other previous studies were concerned with question speech acts. For example, previous study that studied questions-and-answers in an EFL classroom of Junior High School level (Singh et al., 2021;Uddiniyah & Silfia, 2019). The objectives were to know the types of questions used in EFL. It used a qualitative research design. The result showed that students' questions and answers in EFL were imperfect by purpose and grammar. Other study state speech act in answering the question in classroom discussion (Al-Bantany, 2013;Andewi & Waziana, 2019). The aim was to describe the form and strategy in answering questions. The result showed that the form of questions answered according to 5W+1H using directive functions speech act in a quiet speech situation and sensitive topic.
Prior observation of the students' active participation in EFL during the pandemic showed that students were not interested in asking questions. Theoretically, asking questions is an awareness of the absence of knowledge or information (Awada & Plana, 2018;Widiyati, 2020). However, students seemed to ignore the importance of understanding the lesson by asking relevant questions during EFL. Empirically, only very few students asked questions during EFL in SMPN 3 Sawan. Due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the off-learning model was unable to be observed holistically, and therefore, the present research was conducted to explore the students' ability in producing question speech act in SMPN 3 Sawan. This research was focused solely on the students' production of question speech acts, especially types, social functions, linguistic structures, functions, and language elements. The three aspects of question speech acts were studied because they are emphasized in Curriculum 2013 to develop communicative competence in personal, interpersonal, and transactional interactions. These research foci were different from previous research conducted thus far. This study aimed to analyze the questions speech act types, the social functions of question speech acts, the linguistics structure of questions speech act, and the language elements of question speech act. Theoretically, from the types of questions speech act produced by EFL junior high school students, in which found that in SMP N 3 Sawan types of questions require more emphasis on the students to know the form of how students ask questions out of yes/no questions and wh questions. Second, based on this study, students still lack the structure of questions speech acts produced by students. It can be seen there were many questions produced by the students were categorized as not effective. Third, based on the research, the language element used in the questions speech act produced by the students also lacks. The use of the word could and would as a polite utterance less than the use of wh questions in the questions speech act produced by the EFL students in junior high school.

METHOD
The method of this study used the elicitation technique. According to previous study an elicitation technique is designed to get students to actively produce speech or writing, for example, asking someone to describe a picture, tell a story, or finish an incomplete sentence (Schmidt, R., & Richard, 2010). In linguistics, these techniques are used to quick native speakers to produce linguistic data for analysis. In this research, the researcher will ask the students to produce five questions on the paper-based on reading comprehension indicators that include title, main idea, specific idea, textual reference, and word meaning. The data will be collected in one class only, and data will be written objectively by the students. Obtained data will be identified in terms of the function of questions speech act, type of questions speech act, and the questions linguistics structure and language elements used by seventhgrade students in Junior High School. The different observers will triangulate data to secure reliability and validity. This study's analysis technique as follows data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing (Miles et al., 2018).

Types of Questions Speech Act
There were 4 (four) types of questions speech acts made by the junior high school students based on the indicator of reading comprehension, which was collected through the elicitation technique in SMP N 3 Sawan. Those question types were yes/no questions, Wh Questions, Rhetorical Questions, tag questions. Based on the data collected, two types of questions were found out of four types of questions, namely yes/no questions and whquestions. Based on the data collected, this study found 960 questions that are produced by the students based on text descriptive, narrative, and recount text that is provided and produced the questions based on an indicator of reading comprehension that includes title, main idea, specific idea, textual reference, and word meaning.
The number of yes/no questions was 156 (one hundred and fifty-six) out of 960 (nine hundred and sixty) questions. The words used to begin the questions were four types, such as the auxiliary do, does, and the modal could, would, can, and helping verb is. Meanwhile, the number of wh questions was 804 (eight hundred and four) out of 960 (nine hundred and sixty) questions. The words used to begin the questions were of six types, such as what, who, whom, where, why, when, and how.Yes/No questions are those types of questions that require a yes/no answer. Based on the result, there were 156 the number of yes/no questions out of 960 data. The questions are usually started with an auxiliary verb such as do, does, did. Modal auxiliary can, could and would, and helping verb is followed by subject and verb. The followings are the questions. 1.) Could you give a suitable title? 2.) Do you know the synonym of "popular"? The question number (1) can be answered with "Yes, I could" or "No, I could not." It also happens in question number (2) in the beginning, the questions used auxiliary do, in which the answer can be "yes, I do" if the answer is positive, and "no, I don't" if the answer is negative. It can be an answer related to the kind of verb used. If the questions above have a positive answer, then the answer can be as follows "Yes, it does", "yes, he did", "yes, it is", "yes, I would", "yes, I can". But, if the answer negative, the answer can be as follows: "no, it does not", "no, he did not", "no, I wouldn't", no, I can't". Based on the indicator of reading comprehension, the auxiliary do, does, and the modal could, would, can, and helping verb is in yes/no questions were often used in three indicators include title, main idea, and specific idea.
On the other hand, wh-questions are those types of questions that require a complete answer. The questions are usually started with wh that include what, when, where, who, why, whom, and how that is followed by an auxiliary verb, subject, and main verb. The followings are the questions: 1.) What is the synonym of the word "popular"? 2.) When is rendang usually served? The question number (3) can be answered with the complete answer is like "The synonym of word popular is famous". It is also used in the questions' example number (4). All of these questions require a complete answer related to wh functions itself. The answer as follows: "rendang is usually served when,", Wh-questions cannot answer by yes/no answer. It needs more information as the answer. Based on the indicator of reading comprehension, the word what, where, when, why, who, whom, and how in wh-questions were often used in all of the reading comprehension indicators include title, main idea, specific idea, textual reference, and word meaning. Based on the result's finding, there were two types of questions used by the students such as yes/no questions and wh-questions. See the graph in Figure 1 for further visualization.  Figure 1, the percentage of yes/no questions was lower than wh-questions. Specifically, the percentage of yes/no questions was 16,25 %; whereas the percentage of whquestions was 83,75 %.

Social Function of Questions Speech Act
There were four speech act functions, including assertive functions speech act, directive functions speech act, expressive function speech act, and commisive function speech act produced by the junior high school in SMP N 3 Sawan based on the theory of the function of speech act. However, based on the data collected, only one function was found, namely Directive Functions speech act specifically in asking (asking for information) and requesting (request for specific iformation). Its function can see the differences between asking and requesting. Asking is used to ask for a response or response to a question. In contrast, a request is used to request something more than just an answer. The functions of the questions speech act are determined from each type of question. Of the 156 questions, there are 47 forms of directive functions of speech act that lead to Asking. The words used to begin the questions were do, does, did, and is. There were 109 directive functions of the speech act that lead to requesting forms. The word used to begin the questions were could, would, and can. While in wh questions, of the 804 questions, all of them are the forms of directive functions of speech act that lead to the form of Asking. The words used to begin the questions were what, when, why, who, where, and how. All of those questions refer to directive functions of the speech act that lead to requesting forms. Meanwhile, in wh-questions, there were 804 questions lead to asking. For a visual diagram, it can be seen in Figure 2.  Figure 2, in this sense, the percentage of questions speech acts which was in the category of asking was 88,6 %; and 11,4 % in the category of requesting. This percentage showed that asking is higher than requesting. The modal auxiliary could, would, and can, can be categorized as a requesting because, based on the function, the request is used to request something more than just an answer. But for the four functions above only one found namely directive functions speech act that including asking for information and requesting for specific information. It was found in directive function speech act due to the students were elicitated to make questions related to the text provided include descriptive text, narrative text and recount text, based on the reading comprehension indicators which include title, main idea, specific idea, textual reference and word meaning in which emphasize in the 2013 curriculum to develop communicative competence in personal, interpersonal, and transactional interaction, so that the function of the questions found is limited.
Based on the data collected, there were two types of questions found such as yes/no questions and wh questions. Every type has a different structure. The first is yes/ no questions. The structure of yes / no questions uses a verb in the beginning sentence that is followed by the subject. Based on the result, the auxiliary verbs used were do, does, and the modal could would, can and helping verb is. Yes/ no questions have a different structure with wh questions. In which the structure of yes/no questions is using a verb in a beginning sentence that is followed by the subject. The following are the structure of yes/no questions. This is the formula structure of yes/no questions using the auxiliary verb "do and does". The examples of the questions: 1.) Do you see her picture? 2.) Does she go to yogyakarta? The questions number 1 was the questions sentence that is used auxiliary verb do in the beginning sentence then followed by subject "you" and followed by the verb "see" and "her picture" as the object It the same with the questions number 2. The questions number 2 has the same structure with the questions number 1 it only used auxiliary does in the beginning sentence because the sentence use third personal pronoun. In which in this sentence the word does as the auxiliary, she as the subject, go as the verb and Yogyakarta as the object. So that, the questions number 1 and 2 refers to effective questions because related to the formula/structure of the questions. The formula structure of yes/no questions using the helping verb is. The example: Is the title suitable for the story above? While for the question has the same formula, it is a form of yes/no questions that used helping verb is in the beginning, the title as the subject, but in this questions there is no verb found. It used the word "suitable" as adjective. Thus, this questions categorize as non-effective because not related to the formula of yes/no questions.
The structure of yes/no questions and wh questions were different. It can be seen from the structure used has the different variation. There were used auxiliary verb do, does, did, helping verb is and modal auxiliary can, could, would and wh (what, when, where, why, who, whom, and how). Based on the data collected there were many students lack in writing sentence questions. It can be seen from the grammatical structure error found in the questions that is produced by the students. Diagram of linguistic structure of questions speech act is show in Figure 3.  Figure 3, the percentage of questions that related to the linguistics questions structure was 34,6% as the effective questions and 65,4% categorize as non-effective questions. There were grammatical error found that make the questions not effective

Language element of Questions Speech Act
Based on the data collected, there were five situations type found such as states, activity, accomplishment, semelfactive and achievement. Of 960 questions, there were 566 states, 26 activity, 80 accomplishment, 73 semelactive, 211 achievement. The example of questions that categorize as states: 1.) Do you know the synonym of "popular"? 2.) Could you have a good title for the story? The verb in the questions number 1 and 2 categorize as a states because based on the type of verb, the situations types "States" has the type of verb static (+), durative (+) and non-available (n.a). The verb "know and have" were categorize as states because there is no internal change or can be said as no subpart. The example of activity such as 1.) .
Would you try to make the main idea of the text? 2.) Who can't play football? The verb in the questions categorize as activity because based on the type of verb, the situations types "activity" has the type of verb dynamic (-), durative (+) and atelic (-). The verb "try, and play" were categorize as activity because these verbs include of the types of verb above. The example of accomplishment such as 1.) Can you make a suitable title? 2.) Can you tell me about the main idea of the text? The verb of the example of questions categorize as accomplishment because based on the type of verb, the situations types "Accomplishment" has the type of verb dynamic (-), durative (+) and telic (+). The verb "make and tell" were categorize as accomplishment because these verbs include of the types of verb above.
The example of semelfactive such as 1.) Could you give a suitable title? 2.) Who got a nice bunches on the text? The verb of the example of questions categorize as semelfactive because based on the type of verb, the situations types "semelfactive" has the type of verb dynamic (-), punctual (-) and atelic (-). The verb "give and got" were categorize as accomplishment because these verbs include of the types of verb above. The example of achievement such as 1.) Whom "she" in line 5 refers to? 2.) When the grasshopper found itself dying of hunger? The verb of the example of questions categorize as achievement because based on the type of verb, the situations types "achievement" has the type of verb dynamic (-), punctual (-) and telic (+). The verb "refers to and dying" were categorize as accomplishment because these verbs include of the types of verb above. For a visual diagram, can see in Figure 4. Base on Figure 4, the percentage of situation types found that determined the language element of questions speech act which was in the category of states was 59,3%; 2,7 % of activity, 8,4 % of accomplishment, 7,7 % of semelfactive, and 22% of achievement. This percentage showed that states is higher than activity, accomplishment, semelfactive and achievement.

Discussion
A speech act is an action performed using language. A speech act has seventh functions, such as describing something, asking questions, making a request or order, making a promise, conveying information, requesting information, giving orders, making requests, making threats, giving warnings, giving advice (Aryani, 2017;Burns, 2019). According to previous study speech acts are the primary language units used for effective communication (Aryani, 2017;Indrayati & PH, 2019). In other words, a speech act is an utterance used in communication to get some information.
The assertive function speech act intends to convey something related to the truth of the proposition or statement revealed. This speech act includes speeches stating, demanding, confessing, showing, reporting, giving testimony, mentioning, and speculating (Abudayeh & Dubbati, 2020). The directive function is a function of illocutionary speech acts aimed at asking the interlocutor to do something to produce an effect on the speaker's actions. A directive speech act is also called an imposition speech act. Included in this speech act includes speech asking, requesting, inviting, compelling, suggesting, urging, ordering, collecting, ordering, advising, pleading, challenging, and giving on cue (Restuaji, N. A. R. & Suryati, 2019). The speech is interpreted as an evaluation of the things mentioned in the speech, including saying thank you, complaining, congratulating, flattering, praising, blaming, and criticizing. Commisive speech acts are speech acts that function to encourage the conversation to do something, such as making promises, vows, swearing, and threats. Speech act is caused by situation type, it is how language permit the speaker to clasify the situations by using semantic distinction. There are four types of questions such as yes/no questions, rhetorical questions, wh questions and tag questions (Ummah et al., 2016;Wilcox et al., 2014). The language element used based on the situations type on verb. The "verb" is selected because the important part of speech act is the verb itself. According to previous study verb types divided into two there are static and dynamic. Situation types divided into five that include states (static, durative, non available), activity (dynamic,durative and atelic), accomplishment (dynamic, durative, telic) semelfactive ( Dynamic, punctual, atelic) and achievement (dynamic, punctual and telic) (Atmaca, 2016;Dewi & Huda, 2020).
Based on the finding there were two types of questions produced by the students, namely yes/no questions and wh questions. The percentage of yes/no questions was 16,25 %, whereas the percentage of wh-questions was 83,75 %. The use of wh and yes/ no questions was obtained based on reading comprehensions such as title, main idea, specific idea, textual reference, and word meaning. The functions of questions speech act found based on the study's result only one function found namely directive function speech act. The data show that the directive function speech act used refers to asking and requesting only. The percentage of questions speech acts in the category of asking was 88,6 %, and 11,4 % in the category of requesting. This percentage showed that asking is higher than requesting.
The linguistics structure of the questions analyzed based on the type of questions found, namely yes/no questions and wh questions. The structure of yes/no questions uses the verb in the beginning sentence then followed by the subject. Meanwhile, the structure of wh question is used wh then followed by an auxiliary verb, subject, and main verb. The percentage of questions that related to the linguistics questions structure was 34,6% as the effective questions and 65,4% categorize as non-effective questions. There were grammatical error found that make the questions not effective The language element of the questions speech acts based on the semantics situation types found namely states, activity, accomplishment, semelfactive and achievement. The percentage of situation types found that determined the language element of questions speech act which was in the category of states was 59,3%; 2,7 % of activity, 8,4 % of accomplishment, 7,7 % of semelfactive, and 22% of achievement. This percentage showed that states is higher than activity, accomplishment, semelfactive and achievement.
Practically the result of this research can give description about the types of questions, the functions of questions speech act, the structure of questions speech act, and the language element produced by the EFL students in junior high school, which may be beneficial for the EFL students since they could improve their linguistic and communicative competence, the EFL teacher could train EFL learners in developing and using correct and appropriate question-speech acts, and the future researcher could also make use of the research findings in designing and implementing question-speech acts for effective and efficient means of EFL classes in the Junior High School.

CONCLUSION
Based on the finding and discussion, the researcher makes some conclusions such there were two types of questions produced by the students, namely yes/no questions and wh questions. The percentage of questions speech acts in the category of asking was 88,6 %, and 11,4 % in the category of requesting. This percentage showed that asking is higher than requesting. The linguistics structure of the questions analyzed based on the type of questions found, namely yes/no questions and wh questions. The structure of yes/no questions uses the verb in the beginning sentence then followed by the subject. The percentage of questions that related to the linguistics questions structure was 34,6% as the effective questions and 65,4% categorize as non-effective questions. The percentage of situation types found that determined the language element of questions speech act which was in the category of states was 59,3%; 2,7 % of activity, 8,4 % of accomplishment, 7,7 % of semelfactive, and 22% of achievement. This percentage showed that a state is higher than activity, accomplishment, semelfactive and achievement.