This research aims at identifying children?s directives and their politeness
strategies of delivering the directives. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. It uses pragmatic approach especially discourse acts theory in investigating the data. The data are taken from the dialogues containing directive expressions collected from the movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The research finds all types of directive are employed by children in 74 data collected from the movie. They are 69 mandatives consisting of 57 instructions and 12 threats, and five advisives consisting of one advice and four warnings. Besides, the directives are delivered using three politeness strategies: bald on record, positive politeness, and negative politeness. Forty one Instructions are issued by performing bald on record, twelve instructions are performed by positive politeness and the other four are delivered by negative politeness. Eleven threats are delivered by performing bald on record and the other three are delivered by performing positive politeness. The advice is delivered by performing bald on record. Two warnings are delivered by performing bald on record and the other two are delivered by performing positive politeness. The
choices of strategies are related to the types of directive and mainly based on power difference between interlocutors
