The Pragmatics of Power: Investigating Illocutionary Acts in Wonder Woman Subtitles and Their Role in EFL Speaking Development

Abstract

The objectives of the study were: 1) to identify and interpret types of illocutionary acts in Wonder Woman movie subtitles used by the main character in Wonder Woman movie subtitle. 2) to explores EFL students’perceive the relevance of these identified illocutionary acts in developing their speaking skills. This research belongs to qualitative research method for analyzing the data that was needed focuses on discourse-pragmatics approach. The data were taken by Wonder Woman movie subtitle through the main character who is Diana`s utterances and used questionnaire to answer students’perception. In addition, to analyze the utterances, the study uses Searle’s theory. The findings indicate that they are four kinds of the illocutionary act which are assertive (154 utterances), directive (87 utterances), commissive (11 utterances), and expressive (15 utterances), and interpreted the meaning of illocutionary acts based on their function. Second, EFL learners’ perception demonstrated that illocutionary acts, such as suggestions and apologies, relevant for developing their speaking skills, especially when observed through movie subtitles in Wonder Woman. Watching the film helped them connect language with real-life use, improve pronunciation and vocabulary, and they recommended the activity as both effective and enjoyable. In short, types of illocutionary acts in Wonder Woman movie subtitles can be applied as an English learning media for developing EFL learners speaking skills. Therefore, future researchers should provide a different approach, theory, and object to find out the types of illocutionary act and students’ perception using movie subtitles from different views.