SIMULATING INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT IN BALAKA RAKSA EDUCATIONAL BOARD GAME:

A NARRATIVE AND TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study investigates how the challenge card narratives in Balaka Raksa simulate interpersonal conflict by examining (1) the narrative organization of conflict situations and (2) the experiential construction of those situations through transitivity patterns. The data consist of narratives from 45 challenge cards from the Balaka Raksa board game. This study employed a qualitative approach, with data analysis conducted through data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing following Miles et al. (2014). The narratives were analyzed using Labov’s (1972) narrative framework to identify the organization of conflict events and Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) transitivity system to examine how experiences are constructed through linguistic choices. The findings show that conflict situations in the challenge cards are organized through four recurring narrative stages: orientation, complicating action, evaluation, and prompts for action. At the experiential level, conflict situations are mainly constructed through material and mental processes, supported by variations in participant roles and circumstances that represent interpersonal conflicts across three social settings: family, peer, and community. These findings demonstrate that narrative structure and experiential meaning work together in simulating interpersonal conflict within an educational board game.