e. Back-Channel Response
In having verbal communication, there must be various responses from listeners, such as yeah, right, mhm, and others. These kinds of response are called
as back-channel responses Aries, 1996:122. The responses are as signals during a speech event Fellegy, 1995:186. Back-channel responses are also called as
minimal responses. Back-channel responses involve several behaviors, such as “sentence completions, requests for clarifications, brief restatements, head nods
and shakes, and minimal responses ” Duncan, 1974:16. Those responses are used
in cooperative talk in interaction. First, sentence completions, show that listeners continue what speakers are
saying, then speakers try to continue the turn. The examples of conversation are eventually, it will come down to more concrete issues
– As she gets more comfortable
– And I felt that. Second, request for clarifications, describe that listeners expressed the requests in a few words or phrases, for example, Somehow
they are better able to cope with it. – You mean these anxieties, concern with it?.
Third, brief restatement, means restating few words expressed by speakers. The examples are having to pick up the pieces.
– the broken dishes, yeah. – but. Fourth, head nods and shakes, show that the gestures might be used alone or
together with the verbalized back-channel responses. Last, minimal responses, represent the verbalized responses, such as yeah, right, and other responses.
Moreover, Holmes 1995:56 states that the use of minimal responses shows the typical of good listeners in conversation. He emphasizes that the listeners are
paying attention and become interested in what the speakers are saying. It can be PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
stated that producing minimal responses shows the encouragement of the speakers to continue talking.
Indeed, the responses serve different meanings depending on time and place Aries, 1996:125. Based on Maltz and Borker 1982:202, the minimal responses
produced by women show that they are listening to what the speakers are saying. On the other hand, men’s minimal responses are as the signal of agreement. It is
also said that women use minimal responses more than men do Coates, 2004:87. Therefore, Holmes 1995:55 notes that minimal responses are a female specialty.
B. Review of Related Studies
This part discusses several studies related to the topic of the present study. Those studies discuss phatic communion or phatic communication, gender
differences, and conversational styles. Actually, those related studies have the same concept as this present study, but they have different purposes, different
subjects, and different ways to get the data. The first study has been done by Coupland, Coupland, and Robinson 1992
in “How are you?”: Negotiating Phatic Communion . It discusses elderly people’s
response to the expression “how are you?” HAY? during the interviews. HAY? is as diagnostic elicitation aiming to assess their medical experiences. Their
responses to HAY? are to negotiate phaticity degree in order to defuse anxiety and establish rapport.
The finding shows that the elderly patients produce various responses to the interviewer’s questions. Their responses are thanking, unqualified negative
response, hedging, filled pauses, qualified initial negative global appraisals, explicitly relativized appraisals, and laughter. Those kinds of expressions are
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