ENGL 4740:
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE STUDIES-
THE ARTICLE SUMMARY & DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
NAME: SITI YUMNI YUSOFF
MATRIC. NO: 0526500
SECTION: 1
SEM II 2008/2009
summary: First thing first: internet relay chat openings
THE INTRODUCTION
The article that I have selected is entitled First Thing First: Internet Relay Chat Openings, written by E. Sean Rintel, Joan Mulholland and Jeffery Pittam. This article is retrieved on 5 March 2009 and cited from Journal on Computer Mediated Communication online (JCMC), the sixth edition, the third issue, April 2001, on this URL address, http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol6/issue3/rintel.html. The objective of the study is to find out the ways users open dyadic interpersonal interaction on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and the openings’ effects on development of interpersonal relationship on IRC. This study is significant because it is the first study that gives very much attention to the openings of IRC in investigating the development of interpersonal relationship and interaction structure of the users, but the past studies did not focus much on the openings.
THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The first research question asked in this study is, when the users are on IRC, how they open dyadic interpersonal interactions. Secondly, how the users progress their relationships from nothing to something through mediated typography. Thirdly, how interaction on IRC functions to instantiate and develop interpersonal relationships. Fourthly, how the users begin to develop interpersonal relationships. This study is done on the newly-joined users who enter a public IRC interaction territory, termed as the Channel Entry Phase (CEP) and first able to engage initiatory behaviour. The users are ‘anonymized’ and they do not have any particular agenda when they log on to the public interaction channels. It is done in one and a half hour period in five out of seven days per week for two weeks. So, the study is done in ten days. The research is qualitative in nature.
THE DATA ANALYSIS
The raw data consists of ten logs is collected from two public channels, Australia and Penpals, using only a single computer or ‘single point’ logs. The researchers examine the logs of IRC interactions using a more advance qualitative method, the Conversation Analysis-informed Discourse Analysis. They analyze and divide three potential stages of CEP; an Automated Joining Event (AJE), Joining Initial Behaviour (JIB) and JIB-Response. Moreover, they also compare Schegloff’s telephone openings with the IRC openings. The researchers have based this study on the tradition analysis of IRC interactions by using the qualitative and ethno-methodological ways such as the variations of Conversation Analysis that focus on in-depth explication of textual structures and strategies. They have chosen the qualitative approach to describe the links between language and social interactions. The study focuses on describing the social actions by investigating the interrelation of interaction and technology. They have two focuses in analyzing data. Firstly, they give more explicit explanation on the social part than structure. Secondly, they emphasize the interrelationship between technology and interaction in order to describe the ways that social actions can be instantiated on IRC.
THE FINDINGS
It is found out that in AJE, the newly-joined users and existing channel members can connect and produce initiating actions termed as JIB and Joining Initial Reactions (JIRs). Their interaction structure on IRC is like interaction on telephone. The AJE is very important in IRC openings because it is the first indicator of presence and connection between both parties. However, unlike telephone connections, the chance is very small for them to decide who could initiate and what they could produce through AJE. They can freely initiate others, but difficult to see the coordination cues on AJE. So, it makes them work hard to ratify openings on public IRC channels.
Furthermore, the researchers found out that the public IRC channels are more beneficial to collectivity than dyadicy in joinability and homogenous typography. Relationship development is harder in the public channels because if the users know each other, they will move to private chat-room rather than staying on the public channel. Only those who do not know each others stay. So, it is difficult to create social bonding and relationship development on public channels. The finding also shows that there are many ‘unsuccessful’ or failed one-way initiation attempts and greeting exchanges which are not followed up by the users. However, the existing channel members still continuously greet the newly-joined users without further progress unless they are interested.
The face-to-face (FTF) interaction such as greetings and salutations are common on IRC. It follows the ABAB sequencing. Moreover, the users can always be creative to open and develop the discussion on public channels so that they can be accepted or perhaps rejected. It is stated that it is difficult for them to interact although they achieve the dyadic interaction on the IRC public channels. So, the researchers suggest that in order to achieve an effective interaction, the three-step process of presence recognition, initiation and opening ratification that the researchers have studied can help the users to develop the social relationship on IRC public channels.
THE REACTION
The opening is very significant in language teaching processes in Malaysian class culture. Some people believe that first impression is very important so that the later progress of social relationship can be positive. The teachers can always open the class discussion with students by practising several approaches in the induction times at the beginning of class. Firstly, the teachers must do “ice-breaking” by greeting the students and later asking simple questions such as “how are you today?”, “how was your holiday?” and “are you ready for the class to start?”. These simple questions might open them up to further discussions.
Secondly, the teachers must initiate students to talk. It needs a two-ways initiation interaction between teachers and students. Further discussions will be failed if the teachers fail to response to the students’ feedback. It is because sometimes the students cannot be initiative in interaction since the teachers ignore them. In Malaysian primary and secondary classroom context, the culture promotes that only teachers can talk and provide information in class. The students only obey what are instructed to them. They cannot give their own opinion or reflection. It is very bad because the interaction will fail if there is no progress in two-ways conversation and interpersonal relations.
The openings also happen when the Malaysian Muslims users join the Malay or English IRC public channels, they tend to give Islamic greetings such as “assalamualiakum” or short form “salam”, different from non-Muslims users who use greetings such as “hello”, “hi” or “hey”. However, such Islamic greetings are used when they are sure there are Muslims on that IRC. If not, they will also give the general greetings like non-Muslims. So, it is a matter of presence recognition that they consider when they want to join a certain channel. They consider the other users as well as the nature of channel whether they use English or Malay language only or both.
THE DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: LANGUAGE POLITENESS
The words, sentence structures and font size that we have used whether in writing or speaking tend to express if we have been polite or impolite to our readers or audience. In speaking, the intonation can further act as the politeness marker to the audience. The focus that I want to analyze from my data is the politeness markers in speech-like writing. The synchronous data is taken from the dailybuzznow.com IRC public channel. I will analyze the politeness markers in the lexical used, sentence structures and font size. However, before further discussion, I need to take note that politeness in speaking and writing is different according to the culture and the context that we are in. It might be certain topics are taboo to certain people and it is impolite to talk about those topics, some might find they are not taboo. For example, the Muslims might find that the topic about sexual intercourse is taboo to be discussed in public channels, whereas the non-Muslims especially the westerners might find it is permissible. Since I have collected the data from a foreign public channels, I will discuss politeness in their context.
The first thing that I have noted from my data is that the users barely use the offensive words directly in their discussion. If they still want to swear, they will only use “******” instead of directly saying (in written form) the foul words. For example;
“[19:07] turtllove: o wait shes a **** star
[21:33] mr.perfect: wi***** pete
[21:33] mr.perfect: make me ****** pete”
Although I am not sure what are the filthy words there since I am not a native speaker, the output still shows that the users have been polite for not using offensive words directly when they are communicating on the public channel.
Secondly, the users are also polite because they use the forms such as “thank you” to show appreciation and “ok” to respond. Those are positive feedbacks that I find important in a public chat-room so that out of this politeness, people are encouraged to develop the interpersonal relationship and open to share their views. For illustration of good responds are, “[19:13] smilessusan: wow”, “[21:09] sissie111: thank you”, “[21:26] paul-lakelandfl: very sorry” and “[21:20] paul-lakelandfl: got my own cooler--thank you very much”.
Thirdly, the sentence structure is also very important in expressing politeness. Most users in my data write in complete sentences. The messages are clearer to understand since they are written in complete sentences although they might have short form words. Sometimes, most people get irritated with others who do not use complete sentences or words to discuss something because they cannot understand what they are talking about. This may cause them to leave the channel. So, the users in my data are polite in terms of sentence structures since they use complete sentences to make others understand what they are discussing about. For instance; “[19:08] BriannasMom33: my favorite cable channel is the Lifetime channel.. i swear im happy i dont have cable any more because i swear i never got anything done allllll day when i turned on lifetime..lol”.
The fourth politeness marker in the data is the font size. When I logged on and joined this daily buzz chat-room as ‘YONG’, I found out that the fonts used are very small and that irritated me because it is difficult for me to read it. So, I used the capital fonts when writing. However, later ‘Lodin’ asked me to use the small fonts instead because the capitalized fonts connote that you are shouting. I then realized that using the capitalized font size can show your emotional state whether you are shouting out of anger or excitement. The capitalized fonts can be annoying to certain people. In order to keep harmony public channels and be polite to others, we need to use the uncapitalized, but bigger font size when interacting on IRC. For illustration;
"[19:03] YONG: BYE EZ
[19:03] RYNRIRI: good movie actually
[19:03] Holly.Hannula: The musical is very similar to the first Legally Blonde film....it's face faced, & funny...loved it
[19:03] RYNRIRI: i suggest that u all guys should watch it
[19:04] Meebo Message: is now known as ::
[19:04] linddoll: by ez [19:04] YONG: I HAVENT WATCHED IT
[19:04] RYNRIRI: bye ez [19:04] chuck: i think of men confused about their sexuality...wait that's ballet...
[19:04] turtllove: reece witherspoon is hot
[19:04] YONG: YES SHE IS….
[19:04] Lodin: lol. bty YONG, DONT CAPITALIZE DUDE…unless u mean to shout
[19:04] YONG: why dude??…. I cant read… font too small…”
[19:04] chuck: juz make font bigger.....not capital”
In addition, I also want to explain about the opening and closing remarks when we join and leave the chat-room. When the newly-joined users join in, they greet the existing channel users with “hello” and “hi” or vice versa. For example, ‘mr.perfect’ has said “hello cindy” at [21:13] and ‘cindy’ as a new user has responded “hiyas mrperfect” at the same time. This turn-taking between the existing user and the new user shows that they are polite because the former does not ignore the latter that just joins in. Moreover, it is polite to say farewell first before leaving the channel in similar to the users in my data say such as “bye” or “be back all”.
In conclusion, the politeness markers are essential in speaking or writing to others. It is because without the politeness in our sentence structures, lexical chosen and the rule of font size when we are chatting on IRC, we might offend others and cannot deliver our messages clearly to other users. We need to understand that we come from different backgrounds and cultures. An effective interpersonal relationship on IRC can only be achieved if we are well-mannered in our speaking and writing and this reflect back our cultures.
APPENDIX A:
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol6/issue3/rintel.html
JCMC 6 (3) APRIL 2001- Collab-U CMC Play E-Commerce Symposium Net Law InfoSpaces Usenet NetStudy VEs VOs O-Journ HigherEd Conversation Cyberspace Web Commerce VisualCMC Vol. 6 No. 1 Vol. 6 No. 2
First Things First: Internet Relay Chat Openings
E. Sean Rintel- Communication Department, University at Albany, State University of New York ,USA
Joan Mulholland- Department of English, The University of Queensland, Australia
Jeffery Pittam- Department of English, The University of Queensland, Australia
APPENDIX B: daily buzz chat at dailybuzznow.com
REFERENCES:
Daily buzz chat. Retrieved on March 5, 2009 from http://www.meebo.com/ or dailybuzznow.com
Rintel, E. S, Mulholland, J. & Pittam, J. (2001). First Thing First: Internet Relay Chat Openings. Journal on Computer Mediated Communication online (JCMC), no. 6 (issue 3), April 2001. Retrieved on March 5, 2009 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol6/issue3/rintel.html.
PERSONAL REFLECTION ON CMC ASSIGNMENT
First of all, I would like to thank Allah for giving me strength to finish this assignment on time. It is very stressing for me to finish up the assignment because it takes a lot of times to read the article, understand it and then try to summarize it. However, I hope that I have included all the main points in the article. I spent sleepless nights to finish up the assignment. I even dream about it.
It feels like writing an argumentative essay for LE 4000 with a bunch of references to read and it makes me very sick to read a long article since I cannot find the short one. Who wants to write a short research report, right? So, it is a relief that I have finished it.
Above all those things, I find this assignment can shape and improve my reading skill such as scheming and summarizing. Moreover, I enjoy the part where I can reflect and give suggestion on the topic in the article. I also enjoy chatting and analyzing the synchronous text. It has been a long time since I have joined to chat with a group of people during my ‘single’ days. I find I prefer a more practical way in studying such as analyzing things according to our interest.
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