An Analysis of Mood and Modality

Abstract

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus in 2020, teaching and studying activities commonly conducted in the classrooms were shifted to online, which caused students to adapt and accept without compromising. This study analyzed the dialogue texts expressing students' hopes and views about the future of learning amidst the Covid-19 pandemic written by the Senior High School students of Nanyang Zhi Hui school in Medan, Sumatera Utara. The objectives are to analyze the mood, modality, and modality orientation types; and figure out the dominantly-applied mood, modality, and orientation types in the dialogue texts. This descriptive qualitative research applied the Mood and Modality theory by Halliday and other linguists. The study revealed that 1) three mood types: declarative, interrogative, and imperative, four types of modality: probability, usuality, obligation, and inclination range from low, median, and high degrees; four orientations: subjective-explicit, subjective-implicit, objective-explicit, and objective-implicit occurred in the texts; and 2) the clauses are represented through the extensive use of declarative mood (80,74%), median probability (47%), and implicitly objective modality orientation (45,15%). The study concludes that the students tend to give their insights using statements with median probability and orientation of objective-implicit in the dialogue, which shows a lack of confidence in the utterances.

Students’ Motivation in English Learning amid Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective

“…This conclusion also corroborates Sugiarto's (2021) research, which indicates that student's motivation for learning during a pandemic via digital learning technologies is quite high. The similar conclusion was reached by Siregar et al (2021), who discovered that students' enthusiasm and drive for learning during a pandemic were reasonably strong, as determined by the findings of a modality theory-based examination of students' conversation texts.…”

“…All of the previous study uncovered the students' motivation amid corona virus pandemic using quantitative method, like experiment and questionnaires. However, little study has been conducted on the use of discourse analysis to ascertain students' motivation to learn in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, especially through the application of modality theory (Siregar et al, 2021). This strategy is likely to provide novel insights into students' motivation for learning in the face of the covid-19 pandemic by analyzing the semantic meanings of their written expressions.…”

“…Modalization and modulation are classified into three grades: high, medium, and low. The modality and polarity of an essay can be utilized to ascertain the students' perspectives and motivations (Siregar et al, 2021;Supadmi & Laksana, 2021). Thus, this study will examine students' motivation to learn in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic through their written expressions utilizing the modality theory.…”

Seeing Beyond Words: Metafunctions Analysis of Efl Textbooks

“…Wang, 2010). Modality analysis examines the degree of necessity, probability, or desirability conveyed in language, offering a deeper understanding of the attitude and certainty (Siregar et al, 2021;Yang, 2021). Pronoun analysis reveals patterns that reflect the subtleties of reference and identification (Darong, 2022b).…”