Contextualizing Speech Acts Performed by Sunday School Children at St. Fransiskus Assisi Church Medan

Despite the fact that research on speech acts has been widely conducted in many communication activities in Indonesia, studies on speech acts in religious communication inside the church, particularly those involving instructors and Sunday school pupils, are still uncommon.di Indonesia The study deals with the analysis of Speech Acts of The Sunday School Children of St. Fransiskus Assisi Church Medan, the data were collected by a documentary technique by using tablet handphone while The Sunday School Children learning process. The purpose of this study is to describe the presentation of Illocutionary acts and their types which are dominantly used by the Sunday School Teachers.  Utilizing Searle's theory, the research was conducted by Qualitative research Method by using a case study research design. A total of 200 utterances were analyzed in the study to find out the pattern of speech acts performed by Sunday school teachers.  The study shows that there are five types of illocutionary acts used by Sunday school teachers; directives, assertive, expressive, commissions, and declarative. The most dominant type of speech acts in communication presentations were directives reaching up to 68,91%, whereas the least to occur was the declarative type (0.51%). The results of this study do not reflect the communication aspects that should be practiced in Sunday schools, which should emphasize persuasive expressions to persuade Sunday school children to be more active in worshiping and listening to God's word