CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. SETTING OF THE STUDY
All communication event in this world go by intercession of language. Communication is a process of speaker transferring messsage to hearer, one participant to the other participant (Panggabean, 1981 : 23), performatively goes on by written and oral media. Even some communication events go by using special signs or gestures in some certain conditions.
A communication act involves many elements, like factors of situation, speaker, hearer, place, time, action, topic, events, message, code and line (Moelino and Dardjowidjojo, 1988: 144). From those, we understand the meaning implied in that communication act, so that here is formed a discourse context.
Discourse is one of widely-spoken topic nowadays, it is know as the most complete and the most highest unit of language, far more than a clause or a sentence in which it has a continual coherent and cohesion, actual beginning and end; and is addressed through written or spoken discourse (Tarigan: 1987). Discourse, so called as communicative competence, is the basic competence in atext comprehension needed by a language communicaty to communicate with complete information. Then, further a mutual-understood conversation is built.
Language users create discourse by using language to express, interpret, or negotiate intended meanings (Bachman and Palmer: 1996). Here, they attend more to the spoken English. In a communication act of spoken English, a misperception towards meaning often occurs for it is caused by both communicator, in this case the speaker and the hearer, having different discourse competence. They are sometime mistaken to build the conversation context suitable with the situation they are encountering.
In the last few year, attention has increasingly turned to the observable characteristics of spoken English. There have been two main reasons for this:
1. The need to know more about spoken English, because of the increasing focus on oral communication in language use, learning and education
2. The opportunity of satisfying that needs that has recently arisen,through the availability of the electronic corpora of spoken discourse (Leech from sarangi ang coulthard, 2004: 48)
This study, therefore, will highlight some problems dealt with students’ discourse competence in a communication act and how far it contributes good influences to students’ speaking skill. It will be very essential nowadays, since when the age shows a speedy development, man’s way of thinking is also claimed to be step forward. Later, it brings impact to the students, where they are encouraged to be capable of hoding communication with a qualified discourse competence. They must attend the flow of every development of all fields. So, at future, English Department students will contribute much to this education world with maximum skill to support the world development.

B. REASON FOR CHOOSING TOPIC
One’s capability to speak fluently and produce strong-built concepts is very much affected by his discourse competence. The researcher chooses this topic based on some following reasons :
1. Spoken discourse is an essential component in building a communicative situation of a conversation. Since here, the accordance between thinking pattern of each participant (communicators) is required.
2. We often fall to a miss-perception or fail to be wholly-involved in a communication act or being out of the conversational context as each communicator has different discourse competence.
3. English Department students who later will enter a heterogeneous society life to transfer knowledge, are required to have broad discourse competence to enable themselves entering all the society levels.
4. Discourse competence is rarely taken as the object of the study, especially here, in purworejo Muhammadiyah Univesity. Hence, I want to make this as the point of discussion.

C. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
By conducting this research, it is hoped that the result will be beneficial to :
1. The lecturer, that knowing each students’ discourse competence helps them finding the correctmethod for increasing students’ speaking skill achievement
2. The student, that they will be encouraged to improve the will to create a fluent communication
3. The readers iin general. That hopefully this research can broaden the knowledge about discourse, communication, speaking skill and so forth

D. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study tries to find an illustration what students’ discourse competence is like. Discourse competence in this study is limited to the studens socio-cultural competence, linguistic competence and actional competence. And the second variable used here will be just the students’ speaking skill achievement. Students who become the object of this study are UMP’s sixth semester English Department students in the academic year of 2004/2005.