The conversation describes that Hayu shared her feeling to Star. Hayu thought that she did not have feeling about the teaching passions anymore. Star
tried to give response by saying Oh. This expression is useful to keep talking in conversation. Giving response is better used to express that one is listening to
others in conversation. Another way of keeping talking is also found in the couple of a male and a
female student’s conversation. They used avoiding silence when talking in conversation. The excerpt of the conversation can be seen as follows.
Excerpt 37 Context
: Rose asked Socrates’ favorite game. Rose
: What kind of game do you like, then?
Socrates : COC, of course.
Rose : What is COC?
Socrates : CLASH OF CLANS. YOU DON’T KNOW? Ap523-26
It can be explained that Rose asked the game that Socrates liked to play. After getting the answer, Rose asked more detail about the game. Socrates only
answered the abbreviation of the game’s name. Then, Socrates tried to emphasis whether she knew about the game since most people played the game. In this case,
the question produced by Rose shows that Rose wanted to keep talking by avoiding the silence when talking.
2. Making Chit-Chat or a Relatively Unfocused Conversation
This function aims to create free and unfocused conversation. Verschueren 1998:23 argues that phatic communion is precisely to sustain a relatively
unfocused conversation. In addition, Coupland 2000:2 states that it is a kind of space-filling talk as a basic communication requirement.
Making chit-chat consists of three stages Schneider and Barron, 2008:102. Those stages are opening, content, and closing. The frequency of making chit-chat
is 99 utterances showing 9.2. The analysis and description of each stage can be described as follows.
a. Opening
The opening has the same idea as the second function of phatic communication, starting a conversation. The opening of chit-chat is surely to start
the talk. The present researcher found that the graduate students used opening variously.
The couple of male students, Aan and Mello, directly opened chit-chat in the beginning of conversation. In this case, Aan was the person who used question to
open chit-chat. The excerpt of the conversation can be illustrated as follows. Excerpt 38
Context : Aan and Mello were in the classroom talking about the
sports center in Yogyakarta. Aan
: When – where…I don’t know where…where actually can we find a way to play basketball here? Because… =
Mello : = Oh, Gee I don’t know. Ap21-2
The context shows that Aan was curious about the place for doing certain sport. Then, Aan opened the conversation by asking the question to Mello. All in
all, the present researcher can say that the typical conversation produced by the male students is using question to open the talk.
On the other hand, Sri and Maria, did not open chit-chat by asking question. They greeted each other first in the beginning of the conversation. The
conversation is explored as follows. Excerpt 39
