An analysis of recreational email messages

• Main Authors: Chen, Ai Nyet, Sargunan, Rajeswary A.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: P Philology. Linguistics
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/8513/1/All.pdf; http://eprints.um.edu.my/8513/; http://paaljapan.org/conference2007/PAAL2007_ProcWeb.pdf
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

This study focuses on one form of Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) that is, email. As email is a silent mode of communication, a wide range of communicative strategies (CSs) is employed by email users. Therefore, this study explores the various types of CSs employed by male and female teenagers when communicating with their friends in the website – www.friendster.com. The reasons for employing the various CSs and influence of gender on the use of CSs will also be discussed. A total of 123 email messages form the corpus for this study were contributed by 12 teenage students. Two instruments (interview questions and questionnaire) were developed for the collection of information and data. A modified taxonomy of CSs was drawn based on Segerstad’s study on CMC language. A mixed methodology design that combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches is used in study. Simple frequency counton the occurrence of CSs employed by both male and female samples was used to analyse the data. A pilot test was conducted on 2 samples (1 male and 1female) to test the feasibility of the research questions, research methods and the taxonomy. Then, a detailed discussion on the salient CSs, reasons for employing the various CSs and influence of gender on the used of CSs is presented.