Ideology of Burmese in High School Students’ Essays A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

         This research aims to study the presentation of ideology towards Burmese people through various language strategies used in high school student’s essays in the area of Thai-Myanmar border, Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai province by employing Critical Discourse Analysis. The data were derived from 100 high school students’ essays. All students who wrote essays were born in this area and experienced the interactions with Burmese people. Research results reveal four language strategies in presenting the ideology of Burmese people which are lexical, selection, presupposition denial, using speech acts implied presupposition, and using metaphor. These language strategies presented two ideologies towards Burmese people 1) the representation of Burmese and things related to Burmese people, there were positive images which were good people, friendliness, and living with Thai people harmoniously and happily. For the negative presentations, the Burmese portrayals were poor people, homeless and dangerous to Thai people. 2) The ideology related to the comparison between similarities and differences in term of “Burmese people” and “Myanmar country” and “Thai people” and “Thailand”. The most presented ideology was the positive image of Burmese people. The research results present the local people’s ideologies towards Burmese people which are opposite to Thai people’s mainstream ideologies which reflect only nagative image of Burmese people.