The speech act is a study of pragmatics whereby utterances serve an essential function beyond verbal communication. It is an act of performing some activity through spoken words. In leadership, speech acts play a crucial role in the interaction between leaders and their followers. It not only conveys information but also initiates a desirable action or behaviour among the followers. Thus, leaders must be capable of utilizing different speech acts effectively to influence their followers to act or behave in a specific way and accomplish their leadership goals. This study has been undertaken in response to previous researchers who have found significant differences in speech acts of male and female leaders, with an objective to analyze the speech acts of female student leaders in a Malaysian secondary school according to Theory of Speech Acts by Bach &amp; Harnish (1979). We collected data through in-depth interviews with three research participants who had been selected via purposive sampling. These participants were female students aged 17 years old with at least four years of leadership experience. After an in-depth qualitative analysis of interview data, we have demonstrated that speech acts of the research participants varied among constative, directive, commissive. Constatives, informative, assertive, and predictive acts. Among them, informative, assertive, and predictive speech acts dominated their utterances. In conclusion, the participants' speech acts indicated that, in general, they wished to be persuasive in their leadership roles and responsibilities.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0945/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Speech act is a branch of pragmatics in which spoken words or utterances play an important role beyond the function of language in communication. In leadership, speech acts enable leaders to initiate a desirable action or behaviour among their followers, and at the same time, convey information more effectively. As such, constative speech acts are commonly used by leaders to describe or depict facts or states of affairs which are either true or false. As to investigate how the different constative speech acts could be used in this context, a qualitative study was conducted with an objective to analyze the constative speech acts of female student leaders in a Malaysian secondary school based on Theory of Speech Acts by Bach & Harnish (1979). Purposive sampling was used to select the research participants and data was gathered from them through a focus group discussion with the researcher. Findings showed that the research participants used various constative speech acts including predictive, assertive, ascriptive, responsive and suggestive in describing the behaviour and characteristics of a good leader. As a conclusion, constative speech acts of the research participants suggest that they could be analytical, firm and sensitive school leaders.

Language plays an essential role in everyday experiences, given that it can facilitate and maintain congenial relationships if it is used properly. Not much is known about how young student leaders make sense of their communicative acts with their peers, especially in the Malaysian context. The study investigated student leaders' sensemaking of leadership and language use in a public secondary school in Northern Malaysia. Their narratives were obtained through a qualitative study using focus groups and face-to-face in-depth interviews. The findings revealed several themes that explain the preferred spoken language styles among the student leaders in performing their responsibilities at school. The study demonstrated that appropriate language use should be part of the training of student leaders at school or leadership training curriculum for secondary school leaders nationwide. In that way, the student leaders will not only be exposed to proper language use in communicating leadership, but they will also be motivated to polish up and reflect on their language use for continuous self-development.