THE STRATEGIES USED TO SUPPORT ARGUMENTS BY COLLEGE STUDENTS IN SPEECH CONTEST

                                                                          ABSTRACT

        The designation of the study is “The Strategies used to Support Arguments by College Students In Speech Contest”. It is a case study of ESA WEEK speech contest of Central Java level in the year of 2005. Two problems solved in the study. They are (1) what kind of strategies used by the speakers of ESA WEEK
speech contest to support the arguments?, and (2) what are the functions of supporting arguments?. The objectives of the study are (1) to describe the strategies used by the speakers of the speech contest in supporting the arguments, and (2) to identify the functions of supporting arguments in the speech.  
          Reference is made to the assumption that to support the arguments, the speakers use certain strategies. The supporting arguments offered are explanation, analogy or comparison, illustration (detailed example), specific instance, statistics, testimony, and restatement. The assumption would be the speakers mostly use explanation to support the arguments.
          I took ESA WEEK speech contest of Central Java level 2005 as the object of the study. There were three speeches of three best speakers, which were transcribed into text. After transcribing the data, I began to classify, interpret, and describe each function of supporting arguments used by the speakers. 
         I conducted a qualitative method to answer the problems. It was found that the speakers frequently used explanation to support the arguments. It had the biggest magnitude (16 times). Next, the other types-specific instances, statistics, and restatement were used in the balanced amount (4 times). In the meantime,
testimony and analogy had the smallest magnitude (2 times).  It showed that the supporting arguments used by the speakers mostly function to give explanation. It means that the speech delivered by the speakers had the main purpose that was to explain the issues discussed in the speech.
         Finally, four suggestions were  recommended. First, a good speaker should convey the ideas systematically. Second, it is a need to do rehearsal in gaining communication competence. Third, a good speaker is expected to be able to select, combine, and develop the supporting arguments in order to accomplish particular purpose in the speech. Fourth, a good speaker should always encourage
him/herself to acknowledge the latest issues to enrich their acquaintance about the world. The next study recommended is the similar study with other data, an impromptu speech, for example.