Year: 2025 | Month: December | Volume: 12 | Issue: 12 | Pages: 298-315
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20251235
Pragmatics Challenges Faced by Senior High School Students in Speaking at SMA Negeri 4 Semarang
Sawitri Erlianingtyas1, Hendi Pratama2, Henrikus Joko Yulianto3
1,2,3English Language Education, Master Program of Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
Corresponding Author: Sawitri Erlianingtyas
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the practical challenges that senior high school students encounter in speaking comprehension. Understanding inferred meanings, conversational implicatures, and cultural allusions—collectively referred to as pragmatic competence—is critical for effective communication. However, many students struggle with indirect communication, sarcasm, idioms, and contextual meanings, which can contribute to comprehension problems. Using a qualitative approach, this study examines the factors that contribute to these issues, including cognitive load, schema activation, and instructional techniques. The findings revealed that, first, students encountered challenges in generating suitable conversational implicatures owing to limited pragmatic awareness, inadequate vocabulary, and difficulties in identifying indirect speech acts. Many students responded literally to inquiries or statements, leading to communication failures and misinterpretations of intent.
Regarding communication strategies, students employed explanation requests, repetition, and contextual inference when facing pragmatic difficulties in speaking. Although these strategies facilitated interaction, they were often constrained by low confidence and limited pragmatic ability. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for English Language Teaching (ELT), particularly in the areas of speaking instruction. By identifying specific pragmatic difficulties faced by learners, the research emphasizes the need to integrate pragmatic awareness training into classroom practices. Teachers can incorporate authentic materials, context-based dialogues, and cross-cultural communication tasks to help students interpret implied meanings more effectively. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of developing instructional strategies that strike a balance between linguistic accuracy and pragmatic competence, enabling students to communicate more effectively and confidently in a variety of communicative situations.
Keywords: Pragmatic Competence, Speaking Comprehension, Conversational Implicature
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