ABSTRAK
The aims of this research are to describe the context of situation when Barrack Obama delivered his speeches, to find out the request of Barrack Obama, and to find out the types of request on scales of indirectness. This research uses the pragmatics approach. The scope of the analysis is speech act. It is a descriptive qualitative research. The research employs purposive sampling technique. The researcher uses Blum Kulka’s theory. The data are taken from the utterances containing speech act of request in Barrack Obama’s speeches entitled “Oil and Alternative Fuels, Education, and Universal Healthcare Issues.” There are three types of indirectness of requesting employed by Barrack Obama: Obligation Statements, Suggestory Formulae and Mild Hints. The context background depends on the topic of the speech. The main factor influencing the context background was the condition of America when the speaker delivered the speech. The request speech act delivered by Barrack Obama is implicit in each utterance. Since the request is not expressed directly, it is important to know the hidden meaning of the utterance. It is used to find the request of the speaker toward the hearer.
