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Library's collection Library's IT development CancelThis study was done in order to know the influence of level of difficulty
toward request made by students of PCU. The writer observed the students of
PCU from every department in making request in situation of low and high level
of difficulty. The scope of the study is Sociolinguistic study, because it concerns
with the use of language based on the level of difficulty in relation with social
factor such as gender. The writer used the theory from Blum-Kulka, House and
Kasper (1989) which classified request based on the scale of indirectness; for
direct strategies there are mood derivable, performatives, hedged performatives,
obligation statements, and want statements; for indirect strategies there were
suggestory formulae, query preparatory, strong hints, and mild hints. He also used
the theories about gender and level of difficulty. In order to get the data, the writer
used Discourse-Completion Test (DCT) that was originally developed by Blum-
Kulka (1982). This method used to investigate the sociolinguistic problem and the
writer could control for the specific variable of the situation. The findings show
that in the situation of low level of difficulty the students of PCU tend to use
direct strategies than indirect strategies. There were mood derivable and want
statements. It might be because they wanted to signal that the utterances were an
order and the hearers carried out the act as soon as possible. They also used want
statements, it might be because they wanted to show their need to the hearers
directly, this type was combined with an other type of request. It happened in
order to support the request uttered before. Next, in the situation of high level of
difficulty the students of PCU tend to use indirect strategies. Those were query
preparatory and strong hints. They used query preparatory, because they wanted
to ask the hearers? ability and willingness to do that. They also wanted to ask the
possibility that it can be done. The speakers also used strong hints, because they
did not want to utter what they want directly since it thought as a difficult thing to
do. The direct strategies which were not used were performatives, hedged
performatives, and obligation statements and the indirect strategies which were
not used were suggestory formulae and mild hints. It might be because they were
not accustomed to use that type of request in uttering request. The writer also
found that between male and female there were not much difference. It might
mean that the level of difficulty gave influence more to the type of request than
the gender itself.