An Analysis of Illocutionary Acts Found in Joe Biden’s Victory Speech and Its Contribution for Teaching English

Abstract

This research is about an analysis illocutionary acts found in Joe Biden’s victory speech and its contribution for teaching English. The aim of this research was to analyze the types of illocutionary act found in Joe Biden’s victory speech. It used a descriptive qualitative method to analyze the data. To identify types of illocutionary acts, the researcher used Yule’s theory. The results show that there were five types of illocutionary act found in Joe Biden’s victory speech. Those are representative, expressive, declaration, commissive, and directive. From the 96 illocutionary acts, there were 62 representatives (64,58%), 11 expressives (11,46%), 2 declarations (2,08%), 9 commissives (9,38%), and 12 directives (12,5%). The most dominant illocutionary acts used in Joe Biden’s victory speech was representative. It shows that Joe Biden as the speaker giving more statements and information about his victory and the real problem condition of America which refers to asserting, informing, stating, retelling. The result of this study can be used as enrichment material for learning English, especially for introducing speech acts to students through spoken text. Joe Biden speech can help students connect with the relevant events in real life and get direct example on how the speaker uses any kinds of speech acts.