1

CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction
There is no doubt that Communication has gone through a lot of changes
in the past few years. We started off with telephones and beepers and later on it
developed further in computers and smart phones. With the development of
technology came a continuous innovation for the medium of communication.
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Internet Forums became very
influential nowadays because people have easy access to it. These dramatic
changes have of course sparked much discussion of the shifting (and sometimes
even "collapsing") of cultural discourse practices and identities (e.g. AL-SAGGAF
& WILLIAMSON, 2004), very often framed in terms of debates about
globalization (see BACHMANN's, 2007 review of BLOMMAERT's, 2005,and
FAIRCLOUGH's, 2006, approaches to the study of discourse and globalization).
Discourse analysis offers a broad range of options designed to investigate a
language and the context by which it is used. This study will apply the
Conversational Analysis Approach to try and identify the common styles being
used by forums members in a familiar, yet complicated context which is the
internet. One of the central concerns in CA is with the operations of culture in
action; that is, the accomplishment of culture through "talk in social interaction"
(HESTER & EGLIN, 1997; SCHEGLOFF, 1997). CA shares with its "sister
discipline" ethnomethodology (EM), an interest in the ways in which societal

members display and make "accountable" their actions in relation to the culturein-action. Accountable, means something like "intelligible" or "understandable"
(TEN HAVE, 2002), so EM and CA are directed towards the investigation of how
members create "understandability" in social action. CA is particularly concerned
with the ways that conversational machinery is used to this end. An Online Forum
or a Newsgroup is just like a giant electronic bullet where messages are posted
for everybody to read and respond to. There are different news groups on
different topics of interest where questions and opinions can be raised and
responded to via email. The main agenda of this research is to give readers a
glimpse of online forums discussions in the Philippines. This will serve as a way
to make more people appreciate a particular aspect of our present culture and
our growing interest in advanced form of entertainment. In turn this will also make
individuals realize that Filipinos can be at par with other countries when it comes
to the use of technological innovations.

Statement of the Problem

The research sought to find out the ways on how people make
discussions in an online forum. Specifically, the following attempts are made to
discover:
1. What is the nature of conversations in the forums?
2. What is the structure of conversations in an online forum?
3. What conversational strategies do the participants utilize in making
discussions?
Significance of the Study

This research that studied the discourse of an online forum discussion is

fueled by two main agenda. The first is to give readers a perspective view of an
online forum discussion in the Philippines. This will serve as a way to make more
people recognize a particular aspect of our culture and our increasing interest in
advanced forms of technology. In turn, this will make individuals realize that
Filipinos are at par with other countries when it comes to use of technological
innovations. The second goal is to develop other peoples interest in what this
research considers as the new form of communication in our country today. This
is significant because people could have a better understanding of how this kind
of conversational discourse comes to affect our communication.
The researchers believed that this study would be helpful to the following
sectors:
For Teachers, getting students to participate in classroom discourse can
be a painful process the blank stares or worse students absorbed with their
laptops or Smart Phones, which is disconcerting to say the least. Yet online
discussion forums present further challenges due to its virtual space.
From a Student's perspective, poorly designed forums can feel like busy
work, a pointless exercise. Is it really worth the effort to develop effective
discussions? Yes online class dialogue is essential to developing engagement
and most importantly cognitive presence, which builds critical thinking skills
Online community feedback options increase Citizen's participation rates
by providing flexible access to participate whenever and wherever convenient.
Online forums are accessible 247, anywhere as long as you have an internet

connection. Public gatherings are not. The competition for time is tough.
Everybody has lots to do. Its hard enough getting someones attention, let alone
convincing them to prioritize your issue above all of the other things they have to
get done in a day. Convenience is a crucial strategy. Online participation, like
online learning, is the most convenient form of citizen participation.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This research was limited to the discussion regarding conversations taking
place in the Pinoy Exchange website under the academe sub-topic education
forum which is The English Grammar and Usage Tutorial Thread. The study
also demonstrated the adequacy of Conversational Analysis as a method for
analyzing the language used in communication. However, certain features of
conversation are to be modified since online interaction is not as immediate talkin-interaction. Communication sequences are not as clear cut as those in oral
discourse and overlapping statements can happen. Still, the language of online
discussion employs generic organizational structures in maintaining conversation
within the forum.

Definition of Terms

For further understanding of the study, the researchers defined the

following terms operationally.
Computer Mediated Communications (CMC) the use of computers and
computer networks for communications purposes (Cyber Business Center 2003)
Conversation Analysis (CA) is an approach to the study of social interaction,
embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life.
Discourse Analysis is a general term for a number of approaches to analyze
written, vocal, or sign language use or any significant event.
Forum is a public meeting or lecture involving audience discussion.
Internet is an electronic communications network that connects computer
networks and organizational computer facilities around the world.
Netizen is a user of the Internet, especially a habitual or avid one.
Online Forum Discussion/ Newsgroup is an online discussion site where
people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.

Theoretical Framework
Discourse analysis offers a broad range of methodological devices
designed to investigate language and the context by which it is used. Over the
years, there has been an increased focus on diversities than commonalities in
discourse. Thus there are those who set forth discussions on how differences
and problems in understanding could be addressed before they become fullblown communication breakdowns. Discourse analyst Emmanual A. Schegloff for
his part considers that formal accounts in conversation analysis are some sort of

inventory of methods form which transpires in interaction (Schegloff 1999:415).

George Psathas, on the other hand, believed that Conversation Analysis
represents a methodological approach to the study of mundane social action
(Psathas 1995:01). In any case, both posited that this particular method could
provide an analysis of social interaction with reproducible results. The presence
of generic organizations in conversation is necessary because they serve as
guides to communication. He considers 1) turn-taking mechanisms as the first
type of generic organization or phenomenon operating within talk-in-interaction,
an issue concerning how participants allocate signals to address turns. The
second one is 2) sequence organization or adjacency pair, a system which
regards actions as doing topic talk, that a series of utterance is related to a
specific topic where further utterances are shaped by the previous one. 3) Repair
Mechanisms is the third type of organizational system which is used in case of
errors and violation, Schegloff mentions that they are some sort of intervention
procedures designed to address understanding problems (Schegloff 1999:411).
4) The Overall structural organization on the other hand, is the last type of
generic system used to maintain an effective conversation. Single episodes of
interaction can be distinctive to particular speech-exchange systems or classes,
such that there is a significant difference between oral discourse and online
discussion conversations.

INPUT

PROCESS

OUTPUT

Conversations
extracted from
the English
Grammar and
Usage Tutorial
Thread under
the Academe
sub topic of the
Education
Forum from the
Pinoy
Exchange
website.

Selecting
sample
conversations
that would
demonstrate
the concepts to
be revealed in
the study and
conducting a
discourse
analysis with
the collected
data

Understanding
how
communication
works in an
Online
Discussion
Forum and get
insights with
the way
participants
engage in this
type of
interaction

FIGURE 1: Research Paradigm

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter contains conceptual literature and related studies which
serves as enlightening background and framework of reference for this study. A
review of literature and studies are to further enrich the study.

Pinoy Exchange
A website for Forum Discussion offers a wide range of information which is
segmented based on your interests: whether academic or non academic. The
PinoyExchange (PEX) website alone offers a wide range of interests to its
subscribers. On the website there are main topics listed according to the nature
of interest. Under each main topic, there are subtopics which are segmented
based on a specific subject. There are many different threads here that could
interest anyone.
In this website you can do things like sharing your thoughts about a
wonderful book that you have just read, getting suggestions on what movies to
see the next weekend or you could even seek some love advice from people who
might know better than yourself.

Online Discussions
An online discussion in the online community is a conversation in a virtual
community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet.
Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a

member via a specific site and necessarily need an internet connection. An

online community can also act as an information system where members can
post, comment on discussions, give advice or collaborate. Online communities
have become a very popular way for people to interact, who have either known
each other in real life or met online. The most common forms people
communicate through are chat rooms, forums, e-mail lists or discussion boards.
Most people rely on social networking sites to communicate with one another but
there are many other examples of online communities. People also join online
communities through video games, blogs and virtual worlds.
The idea of a community is not a new concept. On the telephone and in
the online world, social interactions no longer have to be based on proximity;
instead they can literally be with anyone anywhere. The study of communities
has had to adapt along with the new technologies. Many researchers have
used ethnography to attempt to understand what people do in online spaces,
how they express themselves, what motivates them, how they govern
themselves, what attracts them, and why some people prefer to observe rather
than participate. Online communities can congregate around a shared interest
and can be spread across multiple websites.
There is a set of values known as netiquette (the online version for
etiquette) to consider when developing an online community. Some of these
values include: opportunity, education, culture, democracy, human services, and
equality within the economy, information, sustainability, and communication. A

10

developer's main focus is to create a technology that adheres to the interests, as

well as the social and basic needs, of the community. An online community's
main goal is to serve as a common ground for people who share the same
interests and goals.
People may use online communities as a calendar to keep up with events,
such as upcoming gatherings or sporting events, which is going on in or out of
their local communities. Online communities also form around activities and
hobbies. They have become an important part of education; students can take
classes online or produce hard copies, and they may communicate with their
professors and peers online. Businesses have also started using online
communities to communicate with their customers about their product's and
service's and ways on which improvements can be made as well as to share new
information about the business. Many online communities relating to health care
help inform, offer advice and support patients and their families. Other online
communities allow a wide variety of professionals on individual topics to come
together to share their thoughts, ideas and theories on certain areas of the
chosen subject or issues.
For people with very specific hobbies or passions, the fandom has been
an example of what online communities can grow and evolve into. Modern
fandoms, which have strong online community bases, thoroughly portray these
displays of development, communication, and connection within their realms of
influence (e.g. social media sites like twitter or Tumblr, or television shows). A
study in 2013 by Alexis Lothian in the International Journal of Cultural Studies,

11

Lothian describes fandoms are amorphous, as can be seen from the diverse
communities (from music to sports to soaps), and fandoms, to the established
groupings of media fans whose norms and expectations around production and
discussion of fan fiction, art, and remix video which OTW (Organization for
Transformative Works) has sought to represent. There are a vast number of
sites which allow for users to share and read articles and reviews of the hobbies
or chosen subject. International Communication, is a simple way of describing
the types of interaction that fandoms/communities do. They create ideas, share
opinions, report up-to-the-minute events, and create original content for viewers
to see.
Online communities have grown in influence in shaping the phenomena
around which they organize according to Nancy K. Baym's work. She says that:
More than any other commercial sector, the popular culture industry relies on
online communities to publicize and provide testimonials for their products. The
strength of the online communitys power is notably displayed through the
season 3 premiere of BBCs Sherlock. Online activity by fans seemed to have
had a noticeable influence on the plot and direction of the season opening
episode. Mark Lawson of The Guardian recounts how fans have, in a way,
directed the outcome of the events of the episode. Compared to most shows,
Lawson states that Sherlock has always been one of the most web-aware
shows, among the first to find a satisfying way of representing electronic chatter
on-screen. Though ideal for the fan base, Lawson worries of the narrowing of

12

approach when creating the show, and how this approach may affect other
shows in the future.
Whether it is for a grassroots campaign or a creative direction for a
television series, online communities have become a significant force for change
in todays culture. Many major events in current news can be pinpointed to
origins within online communities.
When developing an online community, it is important to have the
technologies necessary to keep members interested, manage assets, and uphold
community relations. Developers take into consideration whether all the online
community members are good at using technology. If an online community is not
workable for some users, they may be discouraged. Surveys and discussions
where members may post their feedback are essential in developing an online
community.
Online communities are developed to encourage individuals to come
together to teach and learn from one another. They encourage self learners to
discuss and learn about real-world problems or situations as well as focus on
things such as teamwork, collaborative thinking, personal experiences, et cetera.
Online communities are dynamic by nature and researchers and
organizations work to classify them. For example it is important to know the
security, access, and technology requirements of a given type of community as it
may evolve from an open forum to a private and regulated forum.
A number of authors have looked at classifying online communities and
those within them to better understand how they are structured. It has been

13

argued that the technical aspects of online communities, such as whether pages
can be created and edited by many, as is the case with wikis including Wikipedia,
or whether only certain users can post entries and edit them, as is the case with
most blogs, can place specific online communities into types of genre. Another
approach argues that 'online community' is a metaphor and that contributors
actively negotiate the meaning of the term, including values and social norms.
Some research has looked at the users of online communities. Amy Jo
Kim has classified the rituals and stages of online community interaction and
called it the 'Membership life cycle'. Clay Shirky talks about community of
practice whose members collaborates and helps each other in order to make
something better or improve a certain skill. What makes these communities bond
is love of something as demonstrated by members who go out of their way to
help without any financial interest. Others have suggested character theories to
break particular patterns of behavior of particular users into certain categories.
A 2001 McKinsey & Company study showed that only 2% of transaction
site customers returned after their first purchase, while 60% of new online
communities users began using and visiting the sites regularly after their first
experiences. Online communities have changed the game for retail firms, forcing
them to change their business strategies. Companies have to network more,
adjust computations, and alter their organizational structures. This leads to
changes in a companys communications with their manufacturers including the
information shared and made accessible for further productivity and profits.
Because consumers and customers in all fields are becoming accustomed to

14

more interaction and engagement online, adjustments must be considered made

in order to keep audiences intrigued.
It may be beneficial to introduce a term described by Ray Oldenberg in the
great good place called a third place to help classify online communities. A third
place is a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the
regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals
beyond the realm of home and work (Oldenburg, p. 16). An online community
can take on the role of a third place. Third places have characteristics that many
online communities exhibit, for example: they provide neutral ground for all
parties; they are levelers, easily accessible and highly accommodating;
conversation is the main activity; allow people to keep a low profile, and a few
others. While these may be characteristics to help classify online communities,
they may not all apply to an online community nor does an online community
need to embody each of these characteristics.
The four requirements of virtual settlement include: interactivity, a variety
of communicators, and a common public place where members can meet and
interact, and sustained membership over time. Based on these considerations, it
can be said that micro-blogs, such as Twitter, can be classified as an online
community.
Not everyone is drawn to participate and engage in online communities,
and age and lifestyle often discourage people from getting involved. According to
Dorine C. Andrews, author of Audience-Specific Online Community Design there
are three parts to building an online community: starting the online community,

15

encouraging early online interaction, and moving to a self-sustaining interactive

environment. When starting an online community, it may be effective to create
web pages that appeal to specific interests. Online communities with clear topics
and easy access tend to be most effective. In order to gain early interaction by
members, privacy guarantees and interwoven content discussion are very
important. Successful online communities tend to be able to function selfsufficiently.
There are two major types of participation in online communities: public
participation and non-public participation, also called lurking. Lurkers are
participants who join a virtual community but do not contribute. In contrast, public
participants, or posters, are those who join virtual communities and openly
express their beliefs and opinions. Both lurkers and posters frequently enter
communities to find answers and to gather general information. For example,
there are several online communities dedicated to technology. In these
communities, posters are generally experts in the field who can offer
technological insight and answer questions, while lurkers tend to be technological
novices who use the community to ask questions as opposed to offering advice.
In general, virtual community participation is influenced by how
participants' view themselves in society as well as norms, both of society and the
online community. Participants also join online communities for friendship and
support. In a sense, virtual communities fill the social voids in participants' offline
lives.

16

Approaches to Discourse
Deborah Schifrrins Approaches to Discourse (1994) discusses the scope
and the application of discourse analysis. According to her, discourse is defined
in three ways: 1) language above the sentence which is about functional
relations with the context of which discourse is a part 2) language in use-thus, it
cannot be restricted to the description of linguistic forms independent of the
purposes or functions which these forms are designed to serve in human affairs
and as 3) utterances this definition suggests that discourse arises not as a
collection of decontextualized units of language structure , but as collection of
inherently contextualized units of language use (Schiffrin 1994:20). In Chapter III
of her book, Schiffrin outlines several methods in discourse analysis. One of the
methods is Conversation Analysis (CA), an approach concerned with the
problem of order and how language both creates and is created by social
context (Schiffrin 1994:232). Simply put, CA rejects the idea that the meaning of
every utterance is the same for every context. It regards meaning as dependent
on specific context and purpose.

Conversation Analysis
A number of studies have used CA's concern with the examination of the
operations of common sense understanding within conversational practice to
look at the intersections of different cultures in a common language. Schegloff's,

17

Jefferson's and Sacks' (1977) early work in CA, and their observations about the
organizational structures of American English conversations led to a number of
studies looking at the variation of these practices across different language
contexts, (e.g. Bowles & Palloti, 2004; Sifianou, 1989, Hosoda, 2006) as well as
in contexts of intercultural common language communication. Halmari (1993)
analyzed the differences between Finnish and English speakers in the context of
business meetings conducted in English in the U.S. and showed that there were
marked differences in the organization of the speech encounters. English
speakers used a "how are you" sequence as part of the formal opening of the
talk, and as a brief sequence used to get to the "business at hand" (see BUTTON
& CASEY, 1984, on the organization of topics in conversation). In contrast,
Finnish speakers treated such "introductory issues" as more lengthy topical
sequence in their own right, requiring quite detailed exploration. It is easy to
imagine comedy sketches playing on this subtle difference and the difficulties it
may create for the hapless participants. This is not by any means intended to
trivialize the matter: the apparently "minor" problem of "doing introductions" has
serious consequences for basic communicative exchanges. Indeed, YOUNG
(1994) has looked at the ways in which Chinese communication strategies and
their "translation" into English as a second or other language have impacted on
the perceptions of the Chinese by U.S. Americans. YOUNG shows that these
simple cultural "ways of doing" create very tangible problems for communication
that result in very real cross-cultural misunderstanding. There is also a growing
body of work that looks at the interaction between second language and native

18

language speakers, often in educational contexts. MORI (2003) examined the

achievement of intercultural discourse and the ways in which it is worked through
in the moment-by-moment shifts of discourse. MORI explored co-presence
question-answer sequences between first and second language Japanese
speakers in multi-party conversations and analyzed the ways that cultural
differences were organizationally dealt with. MORI showed that the strategies
used by first language speakers when asking questions served to categorize the
intended answerers (the second language speakers) as linguistic novices. More
generally, MORI's work illustrates that cultural differences as represented in
linguistic ability are visible aspects of talk, that are used by participant's to
structure their conversations in orientation to their understandings of the "others"
they are orientating to. A similar point is made by PARK (2007), who looks at the
ways that the categories Native Speaker (NS) and Non-Native Speaker (NNS)
are made "procedurally relevant" to and in conversational interaction. Park shows
that NS and NNS are related to identities (categories) of "expert" and "novice"
that are treated as emergent sequentially realized and negotiated feature of the
talk. CHOO, AUSTIN and RENSHAW (2007) looked at the ways in which
Chinese and Vietnamese teachers and parents used cultural categories as a
means of accounting for everyday educational decisions about children. The aim
of the analysis was to see the types of categories that were relevant to the
participants, and how they put them to use. The authors showed the nuanced
ways in which different categories were used as tools for reasoning. For
example, the authors illustrate how the association of students with particular

19

nationalities was used as a means of giving explanations for perceived

differences between students, e.g.

how students' behavior as "fitting in,"

"answering back" and "speaking English" were related to the category of

"Australian." In these sorts of ways, the category(s) of "nationality" were put to
work as mechanisms for explanation of differences between students. Studies
such as these, with their focus on the mechanisms of conversational structure as
manifestations of a "stock" of knowledge, help to reveal some of the issues that
can emerge through intercultural negotiations. In this way the problematic of
cultures coming together in intercultural exchanges gains definition as the
investigation of contexts for conversational praxis reveal distinctive issues that
are a property of distinctive "speech communities" (FISH, 1978) working through
discourse together.

Etiquette in Technology
This governs what conduct is socially acceptable in an online or digital
situation. While etiquette is ingrained into culture, etiquette in technology is a
fairly recent concept. The rules of etiquette that apply when communicating over
the Internet or social networks or devices are different from those applying when
communicating in person or by audio (such as telephone) or videophone (such
as Skype video). It is a social code of network communication.
Communicating with others via the Internet without misunderstandings in
the heat

of

the

moment can

be

challenging,

mainly

because facial

expressions and body language cannot be interpreted on cyberspace. Therefore,

20

several

recommendations

to

attempt

to

safeguard

against

these

misunderstandings have been proposed.

Netiquette,colloquial portmanteau of network etiquette or Internet etiquette
is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging
from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums.
Like the network itself, these developing norms remain in a state of flux
and vary from community to community. The points most strongly emphasized
about Usenet netiquette often include using simple electronic signatures, and
avoiding multi-posting, cross-posting, off-topic posting, hijacking a discussion
thread, and other techniques used to minimize the effort required to read a post
or a thread. Similarly, some Usenet guidelines call for use of unabbreviated
English while users of instant messaging protocols like SMS occasionally
encourage just the opposite, bolstering use of SMS language. However, many
online communities frown upon this practice.
Common

rules

for

e-mail

and

Usenet

such

as

avoiding flame

wars and spam are constant across most mediums and communities. Another
rule is to avoid typing in all caps or grossly enlarging script for emphasis, which is
considered to be the equivalent of shouting or yelling. Other commonly shared
points, such as remembering that one's posts can easily be made public, are
generally intuitively understood by publishers of Web pages and posters to use
net, although this rule is somewhat flexible depending on the environment. On
more private protocols, however, such as e-mail and SMS, some users take the
privacy of their posts for granted. One-on-one communications, such as private

21

messages on chat forums and direct SMSs, may be considered more private
than other such protocols, but infamous breaches surround even these relatively
private media. For example, Paris Hilton's Sidekick PDA was cracked in 2005,
resulting in the publication of her private photos, SMS history, address book, etc.
More substantially, a group e-mail sent by Cerner CEO Neal Patterson to
managers of a facility in Kansas City concerning "Cerner's declining work ethic"
read, in part, "The parking lot is sparsely used at 8 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As
managersyou either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing; or YOU
do not CARE... In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will
replace you." After the e-mail was forwarded to hundreds of other employees, it
quickly leaked to the public. On the day that the e-mail was posted to Yahoo!,
Cerner's stock price fell by over 22% from a high market capitalization of US$1.5
billion.
Beyond matters of basic courtesy and privacy, e-mail syntax (defined
by RFC 2822) allows for different types of recipients. The primary recipient,
defined by the To: line, can reasonably be expected to respond, but recipients
of carbon copies cannot be, although they still might. Likewise, misuse of the CC:
functions in lieu of traditional mailing lists can result in serious technical issues. In
late

2007,

employees

of

the

United

States Department

of

Homeland

Security used large CC: lists in place of a mailing list to broadcast messages to
several hundred users. Misuse of the "reply to all" caused the number of
responses to that message to quickly expand to some two million messages,
bringing down their mail server. In cases like this, rules of netiquette have more

22

to do with efficient sharing of resourcesensuring that the associated technology

continues to functionrather than more basic etiquette. On Usenet, crossposting in which a single copy of a message is posted to multiple groups is
intended to prevent this from happening, but many newsgroups frown on the
practice, as it means users must sometimes read many copies of a message in
multiple groups.
When someone makes a mistake whether it's a spelling error or a
spelling flame, a foolish question or an unnecessarily long answer be kind
about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel
strongly about it, think twice before reacting. Having good manners yourself
doesn't give you license to correct everyone else. If you do decide to inform
someone of a mistake, point it out politely and preferably by private email rather
than in public. Give people the benefit of the doubt; assume they just don't know
any better. And never be arrogant or self-righteous about it. Just as it's a law of
nature that spelling flames always contain spelling errors, notes pointing out
Netiquette violations are often examples of poor Netiquette.
Digital citizenship is a term that describes how a person should act while
using digital technology online and has also been defined as "the ability to
participate in society online." The term is often mentioned in relation to Internet
safety and netiquette.
The term has been used as early as 1998 and has gone through several
changes in description as newer technological advances have changed the
method and frequency of how people interact with one another online. Classes

23

on digital citizenship have been taught in some public education systems and
some argue that the term can be "measured in terms of economic and political
activities online."

Standard English
In the entry for Standard English" in The Oxford Companion to the
English Language (1992), Tom McArthur observes that this "widely used term . . .
resists easy definition but is used as if most educated people nonetheless know
precisely what it refers to." For some of those people, Standard English (SE) is a
synonym for good or correct English usage. Others use the term to refer to a
specific geographical dialect of English or a dialect favored by the most powerful
and prestigious social group. Some linguists argue that there really is no single
standard of English.
What counts as Standard English will depend on both the locality and the
particular varieties that Standard English is being contrasted with. A form that is
considered standard in one region may be non-standard in another, and a form
that is standard by contrast with one variety. For example the language of innercity African Americans may be considered nonstandard by contrast with the
usage of middle-class professionals. No matter how it is interpreted, however,
Standard English in this sense should not be regarded as being necessarily
correct or unexceptionable, since it will include many kinds of language that
could be faulted on various grounds, like the language of corporate memos and
television advertisements or the conversations of middle-class high-school

24

students. Thus while the term can serve a useful descriptive purpose providing
the context makes its meaning clear, it should not be construed as conferring any
absolute positive evaluation (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language, 4th edition, 2000).
There are many grammar books, dictionaries and guides to English usage
which describe and give advice on the Standard English that appears in writing.
These books are widely used for guidance on what constitutes Standard English.
However, there is often also a tendency to apply these judgments which are
about written English to spoken English but the norms of spoken and written
language are not the same; people do not talk like books even in the most formal
of situations or contexts. If you cannot refer to a written norm to describe spoken
language, then as we have seen, you base your judgments on the speech of the
best people - the educated or higher social classes but basing your judgments on
the usage of the educated is not without its difficulties. Speakers, even educated
ones, use a variety of different forms
(Linda Thomas, Ishtla Singh, Jean Stilwell Peccei, and Jason Jones, Language,
Society and Power: An Introduction. Routledge, 2004).
If Standard English is not therefore a language, an accent, a style or a
register, then of course we are obliged to say what it actually is. The answer is,
as at least most British sociolinguists are agreed, that Standard English is
a dialect. Standard English is simply one variety of English among many. It is a
sub-variety of English.
Historically, we can say that Standard English was selected though of

25

course, unlike many other languages, not by any overt or conscious decision as
the variety to become the standard variety precisely because it was the variety
associated with the social group with the highest degree of power, wealth and
prestige. Subsequent developments have reinforced its social character: the fact
that it has been employed as the dialect of an education to which pupils,
especially in earlier centuries, have had differential access depending on their
social class background (Peter Trudgill, "Standard English: What It Isnt,"
in Standard English: The Widening Debate, edited by Tony Bex and Richard J.
Watts. Routledge, 1999).
In countries where the majority speak English as their first language one
dialect is used nationally for official purposes. It is called Standard English. It is
the national dialect that generally appears in print. It is taught in schools, and
students are expected to use it in their essays. It is the norm for dictionaries and
grammars. We expect to find it in official typed communications, such as letters
from government officials, solicitors, and accountants. We expect to hear it in
national news broadcasts and documentary programs on radio or television.
Within each national variety the standard dialect is relatively homogeneous
in grammar, vocabulary, spelling,

and punctuation

(Sidney

Greenbaum, An

Introduction to English Grammar. Longman,1991).

The grammar of Standard English is much more stable and uniform than
its pronunciation or word stock: there is remarkably little dispute about what is
grammatical in compliance with the rules of grammar and what is not.
Of course, the small number of controversial points that there are - trouble spots

26

like who versus whom - get all the public discussion in language columns and
letters to the editor, so it may seem as if there is much turmoil; but the passions
evinced over such problematic points should not obscure the fact that for the vast
majority of questions about what is allowed in Standard English, the answers are
clear (Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to
English Grammar. Cambridge University Press, 2006).
The so-called native speakers of Standard Englishs are those people who
have somehow espoused a particular set of conventions that loosely have to do
with the way English has been codified and prescribed in dictionaries, grammar
books and guides to good speaking and writing. This group of people includes a
large number of those who, having espoused the conventions, nevertheless do
not consider themselves to be excellent users of those conventions.
For many of these so-called native speakers, the English language is a
unique entity that exists outside or beyond its users. Rather than considering
themselves owners of English, users often think of themselves as guardians of
something precious: they wince when they hear or read uses of English that they
consider being sub-standard and they worry, in their letters to newspapers, that
the language is becoming degraded.
Those who do feel they have rights and privileges, who have a sense of
ownership of the English language and who can make pronouncements about
what is or is not acceptable, as well as those to whom these attributes are
accorded by others, do not necessarily belong to a speech community whose
members learned English in infancy. Native speakers of non-standard varieties of

27

English, in other words, the majority of native speakers of English, have never
had any real authority over Standard English and have never owned it. The
actual proprietors may, after all, simply be those who have learned thoroughly
how to use a Standard English to enjoy the sense of empowerment that comes
with it.
So those who make authoritative pronouncements about a Standard
English are simply those who, irrespective of accidents of birth, have elevated
themselves, or been elevated, to positions of authority in academe or publishing
or in other public areas. Whether or not their pronouncements will continue to be
accepted is another matter (Paul Roberts, "Set Us Free from Standard
English." The Guardian, January 24, 2002).
It is in fact a great pity that the Standard English debate is marred by the
sort of conceptual confusions and political posturing no matter how poorly
expressed. For I think there are genuine questions to be asked about what we
might mean by standards in relation to speech and writing. There is a great deal
to be done in this respect and proper arguments to be made, but one thing is
clear for sure. The answer does not lie in some simple-minded recourse to the
practice of the best authors or the admired literature of the past, valuable though
that writing is. Nor does the answer reside in rules for speech laid down by either
the educated of any official body held to be able to guarantee spoken
correctness. The answers to the real questions will be found to be much more
complex, difficult and challenging than those currently on offer. For these reasons
they might be more successful (Tony Crowley, "Curiouser and Curiouser: Falling

28

Standards in the Standard English Debate," in Standard English: The Widening

Debate, edited by Tony Bex and Richard J. Watts. Routledge, 1999).

Elements of Good Communication

People who feel good about themselves produce good results.
Kenneth Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager.
Good communicators have three critical elements which are ethos, pathos
and logos. Ethos is essentially your credibility that is, the reason people
should believe what youre saying. In some cases, ethos comes merely from your
rank within an organization. More commonly, though, todays leaders build ethos
most effectively by demonstrating technical expertise in a specific area (which
helps convince people that you know what youre talking about), and by
displaying strong levels of integrity and character (which convinces them that
youre not going to lie to them even though, since you know more than they do,
you might get away with it). Pathos is making an emotional connection
essentially, the reason people believe that what youre saying will matter to
them. Giving people your undivided attention, taking an active interest in your
team members career development, and being enthusiastic about both the
organizations progress and the individuals who enable it are ways that leaders

29

do this well. At the end of the day, pathos has the greatest influence on followers
perception of their leaders effectiveness as a communicator.
But all the authority and empathy in the world wont really help you if
people dont understand what youre talking about or how you came to your
conclusions. Logos is your mode for appealing to others sense of reason, ergo
the term logic. Employing strengths in strategic thinking, problem solving, and
analytical skills are how today leaders expresses logical ideas in clear and
compelling enough terms to influence outcomes. While some people can get by
on gut feel, as Steve Jobs famously tried to convince us he did, most leaders are
required to provide some kind of analysis to make clear their decisions. This is
where many leaders feel on the firmest ground when assembling and
analyzing data to address organizational problems. Effective leaders know the
effort and time spent making explicit the connections theyre drawing from the
data to the analysis to their conclusion are well worth it. These three elements of
communication reinforce one another. You may rely heavily on data and analysis
(logos) to make a point and in so doing create a perception of expertise and
authority on a topic (ethos). And while all three are necessary to excellent
communication, improving your ability to do any one of them will help you
become a better communicator and so a better leader. Combining them is the
path to achieving the greatest success.
Effective communication plays a vital role in the success of every
professional and personal relationship. Becoming a skilled communicator

30

requires you to learn the roles of every element of communication. You can use
these elements in many ways, including public speaking, interpersonal
relationships,

media

development

and

business

relations.

The

basic

communication model consists of five elements of communication: the sender,

the receiver, the message, the channel and feedback. Effective listening is a
key to communication.
The sender plays the specific role of initiating communication. To
communicate effectively, the sender must use effective verbal as well as
nonverbal techniques. Speaking or writing clearly, organizing your points to make
them easy to follow and understand, maintaining eye contact, using proper
grammar and giving accurate information are all essential in the effectiveness of
your message. You will lose your audience if it becomes aware of obvious
oversights on your part. The sender should have some understanding of who the
receiver is in order to modify the message to make it more relevant.
The receiver means the party to whom the sender transmits the message.
A receiver can be one person or an entire audience of people. The receiver can
also communicate verbally and nonverbally. The best way to receive a message
is to listen carefully, sitting up straight and making eye contact. Dont get
distracted or try to do something else while youre listening. Nodding and smiling
as you listen to the sender speak demonstrate that you understand the message.

31

The

message

may

be

the

most

crucial

element

of

effective

communication. A message can come in many different forms, such as an oral

presentation, a written document, an advertisement or just a comment. The
message isnt necessarily what the sender intends it to be. Rather, the message
is what the receiver perceives the message to be. As a result, the sender must
not only compose the message carefully, but also evaluate the ways in which the
message can be interpreted.
The message travels from one point to another via a channel of
communication. Many channels, or types, of communication exist, from the
spoken word to radio, television, an Internet site or something written, like a
book, letter or magazine. Every channel of communication has its advantages
and disadvantages. For example, one disadvantage of the written word, on a
computer screen or in a book, is that the receiver cannot evaluate the tone of the
message. For this reason, effective communicators word written communications
clearly so they dont rely on a specific tone of voice to convey the message
accurately. The advantages of television as a channel for communication include
its expansive reach to a wide audience and the senders ability to further
manipulate the message using editing and special effects.
The last element of effective communication, feedback, describes the
receivers response or reaction to the senders message. The receiver can
transmit feedback through asking questions, making comments or just supporting
the message that was delivered. Feedback helps the sender to determine how

32

the receiver interpreted the message and how it can be improved. As a result the
model has a cyclical appearance, as the original receiver becomes the sender
and vice versa.
Communication may be defined as a process concerning exchange of
facts or ideas between persons holding different positions in an organization to
achieve mutual harmony. The communication process is dynamic in nature rather
than a static phenomenon.
Communication process as such must be considered a continuous and
dynamic inter-action, both affecting and being affected by many variables.

Other Studies Related to Conversation Analysis

The study conducted by Fox-Turnbull (2013) titled "The Nature of
Conversation of Primary Students in Technology Education" makes a significant
contribution to understanding how students learn in technology education. It
develops current understanding of the nature of talk and the role it plays in
learning technology.
It also presents new findings on the Funds of Knowledge students bring to
technology and it challenges existing findings on students ability to transfer
knowledge from one domain to other. Finally, it identifies a gap in existing
research into students abilities to investigate and select appropriate materials

33

for intermediate and final outcomes. This also served as a good reference for
some of the findings from this research is true to the current study the
researchers conducted.
On the other hand, the research titled "Intercultural Communication
Online: Conversation Analysis and the Investigation of Asynchronous Written
Discourse" by Gibson (2009) works through the methodological issues involved
in treating "culture" and "interculturality" as interactionally demonstrable and
observable phenomena in written online asynchronous discourse. In particular,
the research also explores the ways that conversation analysis (CA) and its focus
on sequential and membership categorization analysis that aids the analysis of
culture as a textural interactional achievement. The research argued that, while
there are some clear differences between sequential talk and written
asynchronous discourse, there are still interesting ways in which CA's analytic
foci may be worked through in relation to online discourse. Both the concern with
sequentiality and with membership categories helped its researchers to see how
the construction of visible and recognizable intercultural discourse practices are
accomplished through written modes in online forums.
Another helpful reference to this research is Conversation Analysis of
Online Chat by Zaferanieh (2012). This research examined some dominant
discourse features of online chat. Using the methods of Conversation Analysis
(CA), it examined the discourse strategies chatters used to maintain conversation
and manage turn-taking, repair and adjacency pairs. These principles were

34

quietly effective in the situation of online chat while sometimes problematic

especially due to absence of extra linguistic features. So, interactions in this
context needed specific discourse skills different from that of written or spoken
discourse.

Communities of Inquiry
Originating out of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)
research, and in particular analysis of online discussion forums, the community of
inquiry (CoI) model developed by Garrison et al. (2000) has been used
extensively. The model focuses on a community of inquiry consisting of teachers
and students. Learning occurs within the community when three key
prerequisites are sustained: cognitive presence, teaching presence, and social
presence. This framework is often used as a basis to derive coding templates for
analysis of online discussions, used to develop student evaluations of learning
contexts (Arbaugh et al., 2008) and is particularly powerful when triangulated
with methods such as critical recall and social network analysis (De Laat, 2006;
De Laat et al. 2006).

Communities of Practice
Although originating from a different research context (social anthropology
and the analysis of work-based community practices), Wengers communities of
practice (CoP) framework (1998) has also been extensively applied to
understand networked learning and it shares a number of similarities to the CoI

35

model. It is very much an example of a socially situated theory of learning where

learning is seen as social participation and consists of four aspects: learning as
community, learning as identity, learning as meaning, and learning as practice.
Wengers theory is valuable in that it considers the ways in which communities of
practice are formed and developed; notions of trajectories of belonging,
legitimate participation, and boundary objects/crossings have provided useful
lenses to describe many interactions observed in online spaces. However, it does
not lend itself as easily to direct codification or participant assessment as the CoI
framework does; rather, it provides a generic, descriptive approach for
contextualising community formation and identity.

Activity Theory
Firmly derived from socio-cultural perspectives, activity theory (AT)
provides a descriptive framework for considering online interactions (see for
example Daniels, Cole, & Wertsch, 2007; Engestrm, Punamki-Gitai, &
Miettinen, 1999). The central premise is that activities occur in a context and that
this context needs to be taken into account if we are to make meaning of the
situation and appropriately interpret the results. One of the most common ways
of representing activity theory is as a triangle diagram, showing a subject-object
nexus of mediating artefacts (MAs) intended to achieve an outcome; around this
are rules and regulations, divisions of labour, and community. Both the broader
contextualisation that AT enables and the foregrounding of mediating artefacts
are useful in terms of understanding interactions in online environments (see

36

Conole, 2008, for a description of the use of mediating artefacts in learning

design). Enablers and constraints can be identified by focusing on questions
such as what environment is the activity occurring in, how is this influencing it,
who is involved, and what are their roles? In addition, the focus on mediating
artefacts helps to identify and crystallise the role of the tools in the process.

Actor-Network Theory
Latour (1997) argues that instead of thinking in terms of surfaces or
dimensions, actor-network theory (ANT) focuses on nodes and connections. The
central concept is the notion of an evolving, dynamic actor-network. A second key
aspect of ANT is that it combines the basic properties of a network with actors (or
actants) who do some work; these actors include both human and non-human
entities. Actors and networks are mutually constitutive, meaning that there is no
actor without action; that is, relationship with other actors, and the network is built
on the mutual influences and intermediaries that actors exchange between each
other (Esnault, 2007). The inclusion of non-human actants is one of the
attractions of using ANT in a networked learning context as it enables
researchers to foreground technological mediating artefacts and to describe their
interactions with other actants within the networked context. ANT is also useful
because of its focus on networks and connections instead of on physical
distances, which arguably is a more appropriate metaphor to apply to
technological communication and interaction environments.

37

Synthesis
The literature enumerated in this chapter all contributed to particular
aspects of this research. Online articles and books on Discourse Analysis and
Conversation Analysis in particular provide a framework for the analysis of the
language in Online Conversation Forums from the Pinoy Exchange website.
The first two parts talk about the Approaches to Discourse and
Conversation analysis which served as the framework of the whole study. The
next two parts talked about the online discussions and the manner of conversing
in that specific context. The next three sections talk about the Language and its
complexity as participants posts in the Forums. This also included Elements of
Good Communication which is an important aspect of this research. The other
sections namely: The Nature of Conversation of Primary Students in Technology
Education, Intercultural Communication Online: Conversation Analysis and the
Investigation of Asynchronous Written Discourse, Conversation Analysis of
Online Chat are researches which all served as a guide as the whole research is
drafted.
On the other hand, those that discussed the nature of online
conversations and the language of cyberspace would serve to contextualize the
area of the study in a way that it differentiates this particular conversation from
other types of discourse.

38

The examples described Communities of Inquiry down to Actor-Network

Theory gives an indication of some of the different approaches that have been
used to study and understand networking learning contexts. Of course each
emphasizes different aspects of the network: CoI focuses on individuals and
types of presence; CoP focuses on the group or community; AT foregrounds the
context within which the event occurs; and ANT emphasises connectivity and
privileges of both human and non-human actants within the network.

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

39

This chapter discusses the instruments, research method used, and data
gathering procedures.

Research Method Used

Conversations in an Online Discussion Forum is a study which frames its
structure to Conversation Analysis (CA) which is an analytic approach used in
linguistic Discourse Analysis. The online thread studied in this research has more
than a thousand posts. To limit the conversations to be analyzed, the researchers
carefully read back on the thread and carefully picked posts that could be used
as an example to present conversation styles and common issues to
misunderstanding in the discussion.
The research could also be categorized under Descriptive studies in which
the researcher does not interact with the participants. This includes observational
studies of people in an environment and studies involving data collection using
existing records (in this case, the Forums). Descriptive studies are usually the
best methods for collecting information that will demonstrate relationships and
describe the world as it exists. These types of studies are often done before an
experiment to know what specific things to manipulate and include in an
experiment. Bickman and Rog (1998) suggest that descriptive studies can
answer questions such as what is or what was.

Content Analysis, on the other hand, is a research technique for the

objective, systematic, and qualitative description of manifest content of

40

communication Berelson (1990). This helped the researchers in inferring the

conversations in Online Discussion Forums as well as analyzing the way of
communication within the given context.
Overall, this research is heavily qualitative in nature. With qualitative
research, the process is often iterative, containing many disparate paths. As
Creswell (2003) stated, qualitative research is emergent rather than tightly
preconfigured (p.181). As previously mentioned, discourse analysis is an
emergent type of research method that permits researchers to take text and
image from seemingly neutral representations and explore the nature of the
interaction between the two that form Discourse. This is appropriate for
exploratory research, such as the current study, as a means to describe, analyze,
and interpret textual and visual representations at local, institutional, and societal
levels (e.g., Askehave, 2007; Chiper, 2006; Fairclough, 1995, 2001; Kress & van
Leeuwen, 2006; Hall, 1997).

Research Tool
The researchers are to use Discourse Analysis for this kind of study. This
will help the researchers reveal the way people communicate in Online
Discussions.

Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is a general term for a

number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language use, or any
significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse analysisdiscourse, writing,

41

conversation, and communicative eventare variously defined in terms of

coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech, or turns-at-talk.
Contrary to much of traditional linguistics, discourse analysts not only study
language use 'beyond the sentence boundary', but also prefer to analyze
'naturally occurring' language use, and not invented examples. This researchers
main tool for the study is Emanuel Schegloff's Conversation Analysis which is
one of the specific theoretical perspectives and analytical approaches used in
linguistic discourse analysis.

Sampling
Purposive sampling technique was used to generate the sample for the
study. This form of sampling technique is the intentional selection of a sample
that allows the researcher to focus in great detail on a certain issue, subject, or
phenomenon (Flick, 2009; Patton, 2002; Silverman & Marvasti, 2008). The logic
and power of purposeful sampling lie in selecting information-rich cases for study
in depth (Patton, 2002, p. 230, emphasis existing). Purposeful sampling is
appropriate for researchers who want to investigate online material such as
websites and web pages (Creswell, 2003; Flick, 2009; Gee, 2005).

Source of Data
The source of data would be actual conversations from the Pinoy
Exchange website which were initially extracted into text documents through the

42

notepad program in a personal computer. The timeframe for data gathering

spreads for at least a year, dating back to the first day the research was started
in July 2014. This study covers about 80 months of data from July of 2011 to
March 2015. This data is composed of 40 pages, each page containing at least
10 posts to be reviewed by the researchers. The materials for analysis will
exclusively come from samples of posts within the said forum.

Data Gathering Procedure

After reading through the samples, the researchers extracted all samples
and categorized each conversation in accordance to the finding of the research.
An advantage of analyzing the forums is that every utterance or statement is
properly documented. Every posts show the time and the date of its occurrence.
This could prove to be significant to the study because the researchers can now
access the turn-taking techniques in the conversation by analyzing the time gap
between utterances.
Other modes of communication like files shared, sound effects and use of
emoticons will not be tackled. All of the data used in this study were available on
publicly accessible websites.
The unit of analysis is a website that is available for public consumption on
the Internet. The data were not collected through interventional or interaction
with the individual and did not provide identifiable private information;
therefore, the data did not pose a risk to human participants.

43

Moreover, since there was no personal information or participant

involvement, ethics approval was not necessary for the study (Strong & Gilmour,
2009).

CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

44

This chapter deal with the result of the study, analysis and interpretation of
data which were organized in accordance to the sub problems presented in the
first chapter of this research.

The Nature of Conversations in an Online Discussion Forum

Making interactions online is an example of a written communication in
which involves writing the words which a person wants to communicate. Written
communication is practiced in many different languages. E-mails, reports, articles
and memos are some of the ways of using written communication. The written
communication can be edited and amended many times before it is
communicated to the second party to whom the communication is intended.
Online communication email, instant messaging, chat rooms, etc.
does not replace more traditional offline forms of contact face-to-face and
telephone. Instead, it adds on to them, increasing the overall volume of contact.
(Wellman, 2014) Wellman's research has shown that the use of social media has
augmented,

rather

than

undermined,

our

personal

relationships.

More

specifically, people with a great deal of on-line conversations have just as many
offline conversations as those who decline to participate in the former. The
Internet just increases the overall frequency of communication.
What is more is that the on-line world is not truly distinct from the off-line
one. People use the Internet and social media largely to stay in touch and make
plans with whom they already know from face-to-face relationships. Email and

45

social media communications are not better or worse than in-person ones; they
are just different and they complement each other.

Asynchronous Nature of Conversations

Written communication is often asynchronous (occurring at different
times). That is, the Sender can write a Message that the Receiver can read at
any time, unlike a conversation that is carried on in real time.
In the context of Discussion Forums, at times, the person raising a
question might not get an immediate response. By looking into the example
presented in Figure 2, it could be observed that there are time lapses between
the responses. This reveals that conversations in Online Discussion Forums are
asynchronous in nature.
Compared to phone call or face to face meetings, most people tend to just
write simple facts or conclusions, instead of trying to explore the complete
meaning and context of others. And that's why many of the online "discussion"
fail (Liuxuehui, 2012).

46

47

Figure 2: Screenshot of an Asynchronous Online Discussion

Turn-Taking
An essential observation of the following figure based on Conversation
Analysis is that, when conversing, participants obviously switch their roles of
speaker and hearer, i.e., they take turns in the process named turn-taking. How
the system of turn-taking (TT) operates (Schegloff and Jefferson, 1974) however,
is far from obvious: interlocutors use a variety of turn-taking strategies to indicate
that they are ready for a reply.

48

49

Figure 3: Turn-Taking as a Nature in Online Discussions

The second Figure is a question posted by cretinous00 about run-on
sentences. The conversation flows smoothly as the time lapse between the
replies is short enough to maintain a continuous flow of replies without other
members posting anything in between. The question was again answered by
SUX2BU which is then acknowledged by the former. SUX2BU seemed to keep
track of the forum that is why this person replies to almost every question in the
thread.

Adjacency Pairs
Another phenomenon studied under the rubric of Conversation Analysis is
adjacency pair (AP) a paired sequence of turns in which the second turn is

50

conditionally relevant on the first e.g., question-answer (Q-A), greeting-greeting,

request-accept/turn down, etc. Figure 4 shows a typical example of this
phenomenon which is also much observable as a form of socializing within the
1forums.

Figure 4: Greetings as a sample for Adjacency Pairs

Richness of Information
A distinction between face to face and online interactions is the richness of
information that is communicated and which influences the continuity and
immediacy of interaction. For example, a significant aspect of this is how
emotions are communicated in an online environment. In face to face interaction,
the presence of the body (eye contact, tone of voice, posture, movement,
proximity, etc.) communicates complex information about how one feels and
understands the others emotions. In online interactions, elements of face to face
communications, such as non-verbal cues, are lost.

51

However, as a nature of online conversation, new elements are being

used to replace the absence of non-verbal cues. It was observed that users in
the forums would use emoticons as an alternative. Emoticons are symbols
created by the keyboard characters and used to convey emotions. An example of
an emotion is the smiley face which is formed by combining the symbols :
and ) which is then automatically transcribed by the website to form the smiling
images just like the ones being shown in Figure 5.

52

53

is already posted. One way to address this problem is by reposting, or by asking

follow up questions and just like the way it is shown in the next two figures.

54

Figure 5: Clarification on the Use of an Expression

55

56

Figure 7: Clarification on Sentence Construction

The example in figure 5 with the member named "SUX2BU" answered the
question by quoting the actual question followed by the response. "silvergold"
then acknowledged the response. With the acknowledgement, silvergold posted
another question to clarify the response.
In figure 6 the user named "magnabash" raised the question to check if
the two sentences posted were correct. "alegn" answered the question stating

57

that the only problem on the first one is the punctuation. The second sentence on
the other hand is correct as per alegn. Magnabash then quoted the answer and
wrote the revised sentence to clarify the answer. Alegn came back to check the
revised sentence and gave tips to make the sentence better.

The Structure of Conversations in an Online Discussion Forum

One of the main goals of this research is to identify the structure of
conversations posted in the "English Grammar and Usage Tutorial Thread" of the
PinoyExchange.com discussion forums.

Sender

Message Channel

Receiver

Figure 8: Linear Communication Diagram

The fore coming figure represents linear conversation in a diagram
wherein a conversation starts from a member posting a question using the
forums as a message channel, and then another member receiving the message.
The idea of a linear conversation is that once the topic is set, that is what
people would talk about. Conversations begin, and sometimes the forum
becomes something entirely different from what it is supposed to be. In a linear
thread a reader is forced to read everybody else, which means the community
revolves around its specific members. In a threaded conversation, things are less
focused. A specific topic attracts like-minded audience. Members remember

58

whether or not to respect a name, and often disagree with the same people, but
there's still very little personality in those cases. "SUX2BU" answered a lot of
questions in the thread and is known and respected by other members who read
through the responses of this user. In the forums, discussions revolve mainly
around question and answer and partly because when a member is not linear
there is no reason to get to know other people. A member you can just skip over
their strand of conversation.
In the first few examples that will be shown in Figures 9 to 10, the threads
demonstrated a Linear Structure which starts off from a Question followed by an
Answer from another member. The former then expresses gratitude for getting an
answer to the question. If the first member is lucky, the other member who
answered the question acknowledges the gratitude by saying Youre Welcome.

59

60

Figure 9: Linear Communication Sample

In the ninth figure, the user named ardieLlauder included multiple
questions in the post. The first question raised is about the proper usage of the
articles A, An, and The. The second question raises a concern about the use of
comma in the sentence "Stop, Look, and Listen". The third question is about the
usage of hyphens in "Editor-in-Chief".

The last question checks for the

Capitalization rules for article titles. The questions were again answered by
SUX2BU via the "Multi Quote" option. This way, SUX2BU would be able to
include the questions individually in the reply as the questions are being
answered one by one. ardieLlauder's acknowledgement in the answer started off
with an "up" ^ sign indicating that the reply was intended for the earlier post. This

61

could be done if a user is able to reply to another member quickly before

someone else posts about a new topic.

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Figure 10: Linear Communication Sample

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Figure 10 shows a user named bebechan confirming if the sentence

"Should you need help, please go the information booth" is correct. SUX2BU
again answered the question by saying what the phenomenon is called and later
mentions that the question was already previously answered. In cases like this,
people could use the search button of the page to check on a specific topic that
they need to read on so they could find it. The thread again ended with an
acknowledgement by bebechan.
The researchers also observed that when a member asks a question,
various other members provide an answer. But there is little back and forth
among the members. Rather, each responder simply makes a declarative
statement that represents his or her own position. Responders may not have
even read others answers before stating their own position. This reveals another
form of structure which is demonstrated on the following figures.

Tree Structured Communication Threaded Discussions

In the early days, researchers have talked about this a lot - making a
distinction between "tree" type discussions and linear ones (Kimball. 2012). A
Linear form of conversation is a structure in which each topic has a simple chain
of consecutive responses attached to it. This form is easily understood by most
people because it closely resembles "real life" conversation.

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Figure 12: Diagram of a Tree Structured Conversation

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Figure 11: Tree Structured ConversationSample

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Figure 11.2: Tree Structured Conversation Sample

Threaded discussions take the form of a tree structure like the image
shown in figure 12. Tree Structure Conversations is a phenomenon in which each
topic is the starting point for a branching tree of responses. Figures 8 10 are
basic examples of a linear discussion which involved only two members while
figures 11.1 and 11.2 show an example of a tree type discussion in which at least
five people participated. But although a hierarchical tree is a good way to
organize static information, it does not work as well for conversation. It is easy to
get lost in the tree, and it's often hard to figure out where to attach a response.
Discussions tend to fragment and dissipate. In the given example however, the

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members managed to converse successfully given the fact that every other
member acknowledges the answer of another.

Overall Organization of Online Conversations

Conversation Analysis also studies the Overall Organization of Speech
Events: the openings, main bodies and closings. In ordinary conversation these
structural features include specific located activities such as openings and
closings and slots for first topics (Schegloff 1968, 1986; Schegloff and Sacks
1973; Button 1987; Button and Casey 1984, 1985) whose absence may be
noticeable and accountable. However within the body of an ordinary
conversation matters are comparatively fluid and free to vary with the inclinations
of the participants. In contrast, some kinds of institutional talk have a quite
specific internal shape or overall structural organization that is constructed from
component phases or activities. The following figure shows a sample of a thread
organized

to

show

how

the

conversation

flows

in

the

forums.

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Figure 12: Overall Organizational Structure of Online Interactions

Phas
e
1
2

Activity
Opening
Request

Indicator
1 good day!
2 I dont know if the grammar usage that I will
be consulting here is already asked previously

Interrogative Series

3 if yes kindly post the page.

4 which is right?
5 I could still find better than she or
6 I could still find better than her
7 it depends on the use of than (member cites

Response

more info)
Closing
8 thank you for the answer its great help
Table 1. Tabular Representation of Figure 4

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Here, after a truncated opening sequence ( cf Schegloff 1986; Heritage

and Clayman 2010; Zimmerman 1992), member "silvergold" launches a
description of trouble ( line 4) which in this context functions as a request for
assistance, and is so treated by "SUX2BU" ( Wilson 1991). After a series of
inserted ( Schegloff 1972, 2007) question-answer sequences the interrogative
series ( Zimmerman 1984; 1992) [lines 2-3] SUX2BU grants the request and is
thanked as a benefactor (Bergmann 1993).Though other questions may be
longer the benefactor may post it as a narrative ( Zimmerman 1992) and the
interrogative series may be more extended and problematic ( Zimmerman
1992 Whalen Zimmerman and Whalen 1988; Tracy 1997; Whalen and
Zimmerman 1998 )this structural pattern is comparatively constant for posts in
this section of the forums.

Conversation Strategies
Asynchronous discussions, just like what was discussed in the first sub
problem, are typically an important part of learning in online or hybrid courses.
Discussions offer a way for students to learn and articulate their understanding of
learning through interactions with each other and the instructor (Parker & Hess,
2001). When native speakers and non-native speakers hold conversations, they
must generally work together to avoid and overcome communication
breakdowns. The strategies and tactics which they use include selecting salient
topics, checking comprehension, requesting clarification, repeating utterances,
stressing key words, and switching topics (Ellis, 1985). In online discussion

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forums, people would utilize different strategies for asking questions and giving
answers or responses. After going through the whole thread, the researchers
were able to pinpoint specific strategies for conversing in this thread.

Questions
A question is any sentence which has an interrogative form or function.
(Cotton, 2001). There are two main ways of seeking information from this forum
or support from its members:
The first is to search the knowledge base represented in the topics already
posted. A member can do this by using the forum's search engine through the
search button at the top right of every forum page, or by selecting the Advance
Search option. Alternatively, one can use one of the Internet search engines such
as Google adding the keyword "pinoyexchange" to the query.
The second method is to post a question on the forum yourself. If a
member wants to post a question then he/she must first register to accept the
forum's Policies and Terms of Use in respect of your submissions, so that others
like him/her can benefit from any dialogue. This simple process only takes a few
minutes. Before posting any question, it is worth doing a search and also
familiarizing oneself with the Survival Guide for the forum. Remember: new
question, new topic; old question post on existing topic.

Preference Questions

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The most common way of questioning in this forum is the way people
would post two different things and ask everyone which among those two is
correct. Online forum participants who ask these kinds of questions are usually
just confused with the similarity of concepts in grammar that people would
commonly interchange which, in turn, ends up with a grammar mistake.

Figure 13: Use to or Used to

Figure 13 shows an image of a post by a user named ffca which inquires
about the usage of the phrase use to vs. used to. To elaborate on the question,
the member showed sample sentences which included the phrases in question.
The member also included some personal information.

Figure 14: Usage of she and her

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This question by silvergold started off with a greeting followed by a

disclaimer. As mentioned, it is the first time that this member asked a question in
this part of the forums. Just like in figure 13, the post included sample sentences
to compare the usage of the words she and her.

Figure 15: Usage of be and become

Like in figures 13 and 14, this question by sakiman inquires of the usage
of the word be and become directly by writing sentences to be compared. At
the end of the sentences stated the question on which sentence is correct and
the difference of their usage.

Short Questions
Some questions may only be composed of one sentence just like the
examples given. These are simple questions that often require a short answer
too. Sometimes these could only be yes or no questions.

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Figure 16: Filipino Word for Quirky

The member fineartsguy had to ask a question about the Filipino
translation of the word quirky. It seemed like the information was not yet
available on Google and so the member decided to ask it in forums.

Figure 17: Usage of yet and already

In figure 17, renwock posted a one sentence question which is a
common way of asking questions in the forums. Things like this are not
accessible on Google but since this was already 4 years ago, it could that the
answer was not there yet.

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Long Questions
This is perhaps the most intelligent way of asking questions in an online
discussion forum. The person who asks the question would sometimes give a
little background of the question so he would b able to get a more specific
answer from other participants.

Figure 18: Usage of have had and has had

In figure 18, the user named Kolmogorov raised this question in a way
that other members would have a background on how he/she was confused of
the usage of the phrases have had and has had.

Feed backing/ Responding

Making feedbacks from questions being posted in the forums could be
done by simply clicking on the reply link under each post. With this regard, the

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researchers were able to identify common strategies in answering questions in

this forum.

Making Preferences
This is in response to the preference questions that are being raised in the
forums. Members would either choose one of the choices and some would prefer
to elaborate on the answer to enlighten the co-member.

Figure 19: Use to or Used to

Figure 19 shows a question raised by a member named ffca from Figure
6 who inquires on the usage of use to and used to. Two other members of the
forums replied to the question. One of them is a member with the username
JoeKano who, instead of choosing one sentence as correct, revised the
sentence to fix its structure. SUX2BU on the other hand elaborated on the
answer to clarify the proper usage of the two phrases.

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Figure 20: The usage of be and become

The preceding examples are ways to answer a question which shares the
same nature as the question raised in figure 15. Sharing someones answer often
requires further elaboration in order to strengthen the point as to why he/she
chose one answer over the other (McCarthy, 2008).

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Quoted Answers

Figure 21: Usage of her and she

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The reply with quote option found at the bottom of each post allows a
participant to choose a part of the post to be included in his/her reply. This way,
the quoted part will be emphasized. Participants usually do this when they want
to make a certain point off of a previous post or if they want to answer a specific
part of that post.

Hyperlinked Answers

Figure 22: Verb Tenses

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Figure 23: Proper Pronunciation of the word hour

Some answers may also be hyperlinked to redirect a participant to another
location in the internet where he/she would be able to find an answer to the
question that they raised. The hyperlink may link to another page within the
website or to any other sites necessary to answer the given question.

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Answering Pronunciation Questions

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Figure 24: Proper Pronunciation of the word Minus

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Figure 25: Proper Pronunciation of the word Simile

People in this part of the forums have their own ways of answering
pronunciation questions. In figure 17, JoeKano answers the question in a way
that the reader would be able to compare the sound of the word in question to
another word that would sound similar in a syllabic level.
In figure 18, SUX2BU on the other hand, goes for a phonetic approach
separating the syllables with dashes for better understanding.
Other Kinds of Posts that can be found in the Forums
Apart from the thread of Questions and Answers that are being posted in
this Grammar Tutorial Thread, there are other kinds of post that is observable in

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this section. The following figures show examples that were found during the
analysis of this thread.

Figure 26: Additional Information/ Grammar Tips

Some posts that may be encountered in the forums are not always part of
a conversation. Being a grammar tutorial thread, members would sometimes
post helpful information without anyone asking. Figure 23 shows an example of
a grammar tip which includes a hyperlink which leads to another website with
more information.

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Figure 27: Off-Topic Posts

Some posts may be deemed irrelevant to the thread. In the context of
Discussion Forums, participants should be aware of the restrictions in the
conversation. People talking over a thread should always stick with the subject.
Otherwise, there are other parts of the forum that they could use for such
conversations.

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Figure 28: Advertisement

These posts are some of the other things that a participant would see
when reading through the Discussion Forums. Some people would usually stick
around the same forum and keeps track of it and so they gain acquaintances
over the air (internet). Advertisements are also posted for those who could be
interested. Ads should only be relevant to the topic of the thread since the
readers are not in the conversation for propagandas.

Category of Thread Posts

Frequency of the Thread Post
Questions
244
Resolutions
232
Acknowledgements
125
Others
117
Table 2: Categorization of Posts in Online Discussion Forums
During the analysis, the researchers categorized a total of 718 individual
posts. Out of the 718 posts, 244(33.98%) were Questions and 232(32.31%) were
categorized under primary answers and resolutions.
125(17.41%) of the posts showed that members acknowledges answers
that are being given to them which in turn reflects as a closing part of the
conversation. 117(16.29%) were categorized under Others in which posts does
not belong to any of the major categories stated. This includes greetings, helpful

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tips, advertisements and off-topic posts which also add up to the content of the
thread.

Figure 29: Answered and Unanswered Questions

Unanswered Questions
Figure 27. Answered and
Unanswered Questions

Answered Questions

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

This data reveals that 95% of questions posted are being answered by
other members of the forum. This means that the members actively participated
in the forums within the timeframe of the data collected. And so if any member
posts a question, it is most likely that the question would be answered at any
time.

CHAPTER V
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

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This

chapter

presents

the

summary,

findings,

conclusions

and

recommendations. After looking through the conversations presented in the

Grammar Tutorial Thread in the PinoyExchange website, the researchers were
able to come up with different findings.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
After the analysis on the contents of the English Grammar and Usage
Tutorial Thread of the PinoyExchage website, the researchers found out that the
nature of online conversations is asynchronous. An asynchronous conversation
is one [that occurs at] any time all parties involved in the conversation have
access to the conversation but are not communicating instantaneously. Its a
conversation that is persistent, but which can happen in the background and
doesnt require right-now attention. The researchers were also able to pinpoint
four other natures being demonstrated in the forums.
A.
B.
C.
D.

Turn-Taking
Sequence of Organization
Repair Mechanisms
Overall Structural Organization
For the structure of conversations, the researchers were able to plot two

common phenomenons observed in the conversation threads.

a. Linear Structure a structure in which each topic has a simple chain of
consecutive responses attached to it.
b. Tree Type Structure are threaded discussions which take the form of a
tree structure, in which each topic is the starting point for a branching tree
of responses.

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The forums also contained conversation strategies that were observed.

The strategies for asking questions include:
a. preference questions
b. short/one sentence questions
c. long questions
In relation to questions, there are also some strategies observed for
answering them:
a.
b.
c.
d.

making preferences
quoted answers
hyperlinked answers
answering pronunciation questions

Under each example there were notes attached to further explain &
interpret the flow of conversation in each given example.

CONCLUSIONS
Computer mediated communication particularly online forum discussions
is almost the same as the conversation that we have on other social networking
sites. What makes this case different is that the message that a certain member
is posting is visible to the public and any other members may respond to it.
People who are new to this kind of communication might find it hard to participate
at first. As a member, you have to make sure that you are on the right section of

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the forums first before you start asking questions. To make it easier, this research
might serve as a guide to communicating effectively not only on this website but
also on other similar websites that we might possibly use in the future. Just like in
regular conversations in the real world, being aware of conversational styles in
the virtual world of chatting is a must for a better flow of communication.

IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY

When it comes to building an integrated social media strategy, most
people are quick to jump on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, theres
another medium that can be just as lucrative, if not more so. Thats online
forums.
In many industries, there are more conversations taking place in forums
than on Facebook and Twitter. In fact according to Jason Falls, 90 percent of the
conversations about banking take place on forums.
Admittedly, forums can be an intimidating environment. You wont get far
just pushing your messages out to the most people on online forums. (In reality,
this rarely works on Facebook and Twitter, but thats for another post). Thats just
a recipe for getting negative feedback and/or being blocked by the forum
moderators for spamming. Instead, the best strategies are to choose a couple of
targeted forums and become engrained in them as the go-to resource.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Finding The Right Forums To Engage In

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Before someone can start listening and posting, they first need to find
some forums to engage in. From online gaming to breast cancer survivor
groups, theres literally an online forum for just about any topic or industry.
Because of the sheer number of online communities and forums, finding the right
forum(s) to engage in can be a bit of a challenge. To make this a little easier, the
researchers recommend using a forum-specific search engine like BoardReader.
2. Active Community Building
Contrary to what many may think, a fairly large number of people are still
uncomfortable sharing a lot of information about themselves on social media
sites. However, they will share a lot more information in private forums, as they
tend to be smaller, more tight-knit and conversational. This provides that sense
of security and community feel that allows people to be more open.
Once an individual gain peoples trust, this can be a great place to engage
in active listening about your target audience as well as find and build
relationships with key influencers.
3. Fantastic Educational Resources
Forums have always been a great way to disseminate information and
resources. This only expands when a member gets forum participants asking
questions, answering other peoples questions, and providing their own tips and
tricks. This can become a fantastic place to create and share how-to tips, guides
as well as answer support questions.

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Whether someone is just starting to research online forums, building

relationships with key influencers or educating your prospects and customers,
the ways you can use online forums are nearly endless.

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Aquino L, Aureus E, Calderon et al. Encounters: Mastering English Through
Content. Quezon City, Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.; 2006 p. 323-339.
Leticia P. Atienza, Ed. D. et al. Communication and Thinking Skills for College
Freshmen.
Gisela May A. Albano et. al Information Technology. Copyright: 2003 by Trinitas
Publishing, Inc,.
Prentice Hall. Writing and Grammar Communication in Action. Copyright: 2004
by Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd.

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Larry Long, Nancy Long. Computers.Copyright: 1998 by Simon and Schuster

(Asia) Pte Ltd.
Thomas R. Oglesby, William H. Leary.Managing Electronic Record. National
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http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195762
http://www.Merriam-Webster.com
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