NARRATIVE TEXTS IN INDONESIAN ELT TEXTBOOKS: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

Abstract

This paper aims at examining social functions, schematic structure, transitivity, and modality in narrative texts in an English textbook published by the Indonesian government and used at the tenth grade English classes. Three narrative texts were found in the textbook and selected as samples. Hallidayan concepts of social functions, schematic structure, transitivity and modality were used as theoretical epistemological concepts and his lexico-grammatical analytical framework was used as a methodological procedure of data analysis. Clauses in the three texts (i.e., Issumboshi, The Legend of Malin Kundang, and Strong Wind) were coded by numbering them and analyzed in a series of systemic functional linguistic analyses: Theme-Rheme, process-type analysis, mood-residue analysis, and functional analysis. The texts display this schematic pattern: orientation^evaluation^compilcation^resolution. The absence of reorientation within the generic structure implies the written nature of the texts. The study also presents linguistic patterns in transitivity where particular process types were used in each schematic structure. The study also proves that, although narrated in written modes and declarative clauses were dominantly exploited, the time of event and the judgment of the narrating writers were static where temporal settings of the events were always in the past and the narrators’ judgment of them remained high. These types of time and judgment enabled the narrators to convey socialization, education and entertainment functions of narrative texts and narration practices. Additionally, these analyses could exemplify an education model of systemic functional linguistic analysis and reduce currently common misconceptions in Indonesian ELT textbooks.