The Use of Assertive and Directive Speech Acts among Preschool Students in Samarahan, Sarawak

This study was conducted to identify the types of speech acts used by school students when they interact with teachers and peers at Sekolah Kebangsaan Saint Michael Entingan Kota Samarahan Sarawak.Language acquisition and language development of children still occurs at their age between 5 and 6 years (Piaget, 1964; Saxton, 2017).The data collected involves video recordings, observations and interviews while students are learning and carrying out activities, playing and interacting with teachers and peers.This study was also conducted to identify speech acts which are the concept of interaction to form effective communication among school students.Of the total number of speech acts, the directive speech act that is assertive is the most dominant and most frequently used act, which is 69.9% while the combination of the frequency patterns of preschool children have used Assertive + Directive speech act 79% while communicating.Pragmatic studies with the use of speech acts in preschool level need to be carried out to strengthen and complement existing studies, because it brings benefits to educators to help them plan teaching methods and activities according to the level of children's language development more effectively.