EMOJI USE IN A POLITENESS STRATEGY

IN WHATSAPP CHATROOMS FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Amelia Felisha
Universitas Jambi
*
iameliafelisha@gmail.com

Abstract
This research explores emojis exchanged between university students and lecturers on WhatsApp
chatrooms run for academic purposes. The focus is to reveal the meanings of the use of emojis and the
politeness strategies they serve.
The research was done qualitatively by analyzing data from WhatsApp chats archives and interviewing the
students involved in the chats. The WhatsApp chats archives were analyzed by using theories of Politeness
Strategy by Brown & Levinson (1988) and Speech Acts by Austin (1962) and Searle (1979).
The analysis of WhatsApp conversations showed that emojis serve all politeness strategies and four speech
acts, i.e., representatives, directives, commissives, and expressives. Furthermore, interviews with the
students revealed that integrating emojis does not make them appear uneducated or rude. However, not all
emojis can be used for academic purposes, mainly if directed to lecturers. From that perspective, it can be
concluded that there are three things to consider using emojis in WhatsApp chatrooms for academic
purposes. The considerations are 1) the social-power relation gap, 2) the context of the conversation, and
3) the receiver’s background knowledge of the intended emoji.
To sum up, this research showed that emojis enhance the politeness strategy's function. Emojis also enhance
the intention of the intended speech act. Nevertheless, it does not change the fact that it is not fully
acceptable to be integrated entirely into the formal context. Using emojis for academic purposes is not a
discourteous thing to do. However, it is best to proceed considerately.
Keywords: Emoji, Politeness strategy, Speech acts, WhatsApp, Academic purposes

INTRODUCTION
Emoji, colorful modern-day hieroglyphs (Whitman & Whitman, 2019), changes how people
communicate (Adobe, 2019). While the meaning is continuously evolving, emoji fills the missing
context in the virtual network usually captured by face-to-face interaction: it adds back emotion
like speaking face-to-face and reading the body language and clarity to the conversation (Wright,
2019). Contrastingly, emoji is perceived as a downfall of communication (Jones, 2015) and is not
appropriate to be used in a formal context (Danesi, 2017; McKay et al., 2018)—it is ruining
communication (McIntyre, 2016).
On the other hand, virtual communication has seen a fluctuating rate due to the social distancing
people have to experience during the outbreak of COVID-19. For instance, WhatsApp alone has
seen 40% increase in user engagement as it is utilized to connect with families, friends, and
colleagues (Iqbal, 2021; Perez, 2020). Moreover, with all its familiarity and benefits, it also
changes how people study and learn. It is one of the most popular platforms chosen to facilitate
online learning during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Indonesia (Nihayati & Indriani, 2021;
Susilawati & Supriyatno, 2020; Untung, 2020).
 Now, given that an informal medium like WhatsApp is transforming into an alternative learning
tool, some inevitable significant changes must have taken place—specifically in how the users
communicate. For example, in December 2020, Rio Chandra released an app named Etika Chat
Dosen to Google Play Store which allows students to auto-generate messages to send to their
teacher or lecturer. This invention showed that there is indeed a transformation in online-mediated
communication, especially in WhatsApp. Incompleteness and/or impoliteness found in messages
sent by students are one of the biggest reasons why they do not receive any responses from their
lecturer (Hakim, 2021) and it is also difficult to pin down the sender’s intention (Crystal, 2011).
As a result, the application was then developed to meet such demand. It also confirms that
impoliteness in formal messaging is a significant issue as it disrupts the social interaction between
students and lecturers.
However, it did not seem to be the case at Jambi University. During the academic year of 2019-
2020, the author conducted a preliminary study in WhatsApp group (WAG) chatrooms of classes
in the English Education study program during the first semester of virtual learning. The result
contradicted the previous statements of emoji’s stance in an academic setting. The author
discovered that emojis were well-received. It appears that they were mainly used to substitute the
missing emotions in seeing ones’ expression. The result showed that among 3,136 current emojis
available at that time, the 🙏 (Folded Hands emoji) was the most used one.
Nevertheless, communicating virtually does not function similarly to oral or written, or even
face-to-face interaction. Users need to be more mindful, and in order to do so, they need to be
aware of the digital discourse, the strengths of the platforms they use, and the netiquette itself
(Crystal, 2011; McKay et al., 2018). It is still an unanswered question whether emoji is one of the
determinators or not so far. This is one of the inevitable significant changes of an informal medium
like WhatsApp transforming into a formal learning platform. As such, this research aims to explore
more of this phenomenon. This study focuses on finding out what emojis are used along with the
politeness strategy and the speech acts they represent in WhatsApp chatrooms for academic
purposes.

THEOTERICAL REVIEW
It is impossible to separate communication and language. With language, people manage to say
and mean many things—with or without the help of words. Nevertheless, a linguistic interaction
is necessarily a social interaction. In order to understand what is said in an interaction, social
distance and closeness need to be considered. In addition, they are usually influenced by age and
power held in the participants (external factor) and friendliness (internal factor). These two factors
influence how people speak and how people interpret and are interpreted in an interaction (Saeed,
2009)
Continuing in that perspective, politeness strategy is a culturally sentimental context of plans
used to get one’s intentions across. According to Yule (1996), a politeness strategy is a plan or
tendency to act due to awareness of another’s face. Face is an emotional and social sense that
everyone has and expects to be recognized (Goffman, 1959). There are two types of faces: negative
and positive face. Negative face means Speaker (S) has the freedom of action and does not want
to be imposed by others, while positive face means S desires to be accepted and liked. By
acknowledging one’s face wants (how people want to be seen in public), people will either attempt
to respect other’s face wants (face-saving act/FSA) or threaten them (face-threatening act/FTA).
Meanwhile, Brown and Levinson (1988) defined politeness strategy as “patterns or message
constructions’ or ‘ways of putting things, or simply language usage,” which are part of the exact
thing that social relationships constructed of (p. 55). Brown and Levinson (1988) further added
that while politeness is a universal language, what comes as polite or not varies among cultures
paired with many determinators (social gap, age difference, etc.). In this context, they defined
strategy as something that can convey the rational elements of (potentially unconscious)
“innovative plans of actions” and “routines” (p. 85). Regardless, they managed to develop some
socially universal principles to provide the general idea of the functional pressures.
Table 1
Types of Politeness Strategy by Brown and Levinson (1988)

Types of Politeness Example in context of

Characteristic
Strategy borrowing money
imperative, direct,
Bald on-record "Lend me some money." does not violate any
maxims
jokes, a form of
"Hey, man, I'd be really intimacy/closeness
Positive politeness grateful if you'd lend me between the hearer and
some money." the speaker
(familiarity)
"I am sorry for disturbing
you, but is it possible for apologizing, focusing
Negative politeness you to lend me some money on showing respect
or something?”

"Oh, I think I don't have giving 'hints,' play with

Off-record
any money with me." language

From the four super strategies, several sub-strategies were decided.

Table 2
Sub-strategies of Politeness Strategy by Brown and Levinson (1988)

Sub-strategies of Politeness Strategies

Bald on-record Positive Negative Off-record
Notice, attend to H's
Be conventionally
Urgency/desperation interest, wants, needs, Give hints
indirect
good
Exaggerate (interest, Give
Channel noise approval, and sympathy Question, hedge association
with H) clues
Task-oriented Intensify interest to H Be pessimistic Presuppose
S's wants to satisfy Use in-group identity Minimize
Understate
H's face is small marker imposition
S wants to be rude Seek agreement Give deference Overstate
Sympathetic Use
Avoid disagreement Apologize
advice/warning tautologies
 Granting permission
Presuppose/raise/assert Impersonalize S and Use
for something that H
common ground H contradictions
has requested
State the FTA as a
Welcoming Joke Be ironic
general rule
Assert/presuppose S’s
Use
Farewell knowledge of and concern Nominalize
metaphors
for H's wants
Go on record as
Use rhetorical
Offers Offer, promise incurring a debt, or
questions
as indebting to H
Be
Be optimistic
ambiguous
Include both S and H in
Be vague
the activity
Over-
Give/ask for reason
generalize

Assume/assert reciprocity Displace H

Give gifts to H (goods, Be
sympathy, understanding, incomplete,
cooperation) use ellipsis

On the other hand, The theory of speech act itself was first introduced by J. L. Austin in

1962. According to Austin (1962), the speech act is a linguistic situation where language is

considered a sort of action rather than a means to express and convey oneself. Searle (1979) then

suggested that the basic unit of language is the speech act. By using Austin’s theory, he constructed

the types of indirect speech acts. In theory, he categorized them as provided below.

Table 3
Categories of Illocutionary Acts by Searle (1979)
Categories of Illocutionary Acts
Representatives Directives Commisives Expressives Declarations
asserting asking promising thanking resigning
firing from
boasting ordering pledging congratulating
employment
christening/
complaining commanding threatening apologizing
baptizing
concluding requesting vowing condoling hiring
deducing begging offering deploring declaring
pleading
 praying
entreating
inviting

permitting

advising

daring

defying

challenging

On the other hand, the researcher questioned the possibility of emoji portraying and becoming
the paralinguistic features in digital era of communication. Paralinguistic itself is the study of
aspects in spoken communication that do not involve words. Schuller & Batliner (2013) simplified
paralinguistic as something that is concerned of how something is being said rather than the words
used to say it. Hayes et al., (2016) conducted research of how paralinguistic digital affordances
(PDAs) such as Like, Favorite, +1, or Upvote works and how to interpret the cues when you are
the recipients. These acts of PDAs use emoji or symbols which users can click and utilize them to
interact and engage in social media without using words. For instance, the Like and Favorite
button in Instagram and Twitter are both represented with ❤️ while the Like button in Facebook
is represented with 👍.
Language is both social (Eckert, 2008; Litosseliti, 2014) and local (Pennycook, 2010), and
the meanings are figured out by noticing the ideas, activities, and beliefs in which the language is
being used, such as the place, time, and setting of the interaction (Paltridge, 2012). As people try
to stay in contact, particularly those introduced into a new environment and group of people,
utilizing emoji in text messages is unavoidable to make them less awkward and appear more
approachable and friendly. Focusing on WhatsApp as the platform of the discourse in this research,
Whitman & Whitman (2019), in their book titled WhatsApp Expert, defined emojis as “ideograms,
modern-day hieroglyphics that convey emotions, characters, features, and various meanings all
wrapped up in single image” which hold the capability to perplex Jean-François Champollio—a
distinguished Egyptian hieroglyphs decipherer (p. 70).
Technology development brings changes into the communication of the 21st Century. One
of the technological ‘undoings’ in linguistics is the creation of emoticon and emoji. Emoticon is
an expression created by symbols. It could be a compound word made by combining the word
emotion and icon. For example, :-) symbolizes a smiling face by using a colon, dash, and a bracket.
On the other hand, emoji is an expression represented in a picture or image visualization. For
instance, 😊 (Smiling Face) symbolizes a smiling face without the need to arrange symbols
together like emoticon.
In connection with emoji utilization, in the absence of seeing someone’s expression or
hearing their tone of voice, a recent study found that emoji can help compensate for the non-verbal
cues lacking in written communication (Kaye et al., 2017). The more we use (Face with Tears
of Joy), the less we use LOL and OMG, and such making emoji appears less language-like
(Thompson, 2016). In fact, friends use that malleability to invest specific emoji with their own
meanings. Kelly & Watts (2015) found that when texters end a conversation, they often trade a
few emojis as non-verbal denouement. It could be anything, something random or witty.
 For example, a conversation between peers can end in 🗿 (Easter Island) or 🤡 (Clown) to
reply to something foolish or absurd. Another example is a text reading ‘ok’ can come off as cold
and distant, but a 👍 (Thumbs Up) emoji will convey the same thing while adding a bit of
positivity and enthusiasm, which is another emoji aspect: many are open-ended (McCulloch &
Gawne, 2018).
On the other hand, different cell phone manufacturers facilitate their users with their emoji
keyboard, causing the other appearances between the intended emoji and how they will appear in
the recipients’ phone. “Even when both phones have the intended emoji, they will appear as
different images” (McIntyre, 2016 p.12). For instance, look at the Folded Hands emoji—the most
used emoji based on the pre-liminary research—recent design by different developers.
Figure 1
Folded Hands emoji across major platforms (Emojipedia)

As for emojis’ credibility to be used in academic purposes, it is undecided, yet emojis are
not welcomed. Danesi (2017) found that when holding the interviews about whether emoji can be
used in formal writing or not, most of the informants (ninety-two of them) agreed that such a case
would be impossible because “writings such as essays are too serious for emojis to be used” (p.
25). One informant emphasized to the research team that s/he will never use emoji in essay writing
because if s/he does, s/he will fail (p. 52). Danesi elaborated further that the statement is
empirically true since “a perusal of formal texts online, from educational blogs to digital platform
sites for scholarly and scientific papers, showed no evidence whatsoever of emoji use” (p. 25).

METHODOLOGY
In this research, there were two kinds of data analyzed. First, the text messages containing the
emoji exchanged between the lecturers and the students for academic purposes in the WAGs. The
raw data of text messages was first exported into a .txt file (automatic file type when one exports
chat directly) by using the export chat feature in WA. The author highlighted and sorted eligible
data first before organizing them to a .word file. The messages should be in English; however, the
ones in Indonesian were also acceptable if they fell under code-switching and/or code-mixing
between the two languages. Text messages without emoji and only with emoji would also be
collected if they were useful in understanding the context of the conversation. In analyzing the text
messages, a coding process was done. The data would be analyzed based on the theory of
Politeness Strategy by Brown & Levinson (1988) and the theory of Speech Acts by Austin (1962)
and Searle (1979). Thus, the coding of this research was pre-determined. For example, the first
data (1) serving bald-on record strategy (1) triggered urgency (1) and communicated
representatives speech act (1) which was asserting (1) would be coded as 1.1.1-1.1.
 Second, transcripts from interviews with the students. An interview was also conducted to find
out more detailed information or help the author confirm the data analysis's validity. Participants
were selected by a judging sampling method. Here, two qualifications were determined: 1) the
participants consented to be interviewed and 2) the participants were the ones out of many students
who frequently used emojis. As a result, six participants were eligible to be interviewed. The
interview was held online using the WA voice note feature. The interview was done this way so
the author could keep track and revisit the audio recordings for transcribing.
To explore the phenomenon, the author integrated qualitative research method. In integrating
the research method, the author first decided where to obtain the data. The data were obtained from
eight WAGs during the virtual learning in 2020-2021. After the data source was decided, related
participants were asked to fill out a consent form. Once the consent was given, the author started
to collect, observe, analyze, and study the findings before concluding this research. The data would
be analyzed based on the theory of Politeness Strategy by Brown & Levinson (1988) and the theory
of Speech Acts by Austin (1962) and Searle (1979). Thus, the general description of this research
was pre-determined. The themes were bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness
strategy, and off-record while the sub-themes were representatives, directives, commissives,
expressives, and declaratives. Finally, having sorted out the collected data that fall within
distinguishing descriptions and themes, the author discussed and reported the findings. The
discussion was written in a descriptive narrative qualitative approach.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Based on the data collection from the WhatsApp archived messages, the researcher found
several emojis that were used in the data source. A total of thirty-seven emojis were discovered
out of 4.804 emojis available in iOS 15.6. This collection of discovered emojis was ascertained by
abiding the limitation. The limitations of this research are emojis found in messages exchanged in
English in WhatsApp academic chatrooms and containing code-switching and/or code-mixing.
The findings are presented using legends. The legends of these findings are L (Lecturer), S
(Student), Sm (Student, moderator), Stm (Student, team member), and Sa (Student, asker). If there
is a number followed by the legend, it is to represent the nth of the speaker who engaged during
the pre-determined session. For example, S1 refers to the first student that engaged in the
chatrooms in one context of the conversation. Below are the general findings on the number of
politeness strategies triggered.
Bald on-Record
According to the theory, there are ten sub-strategies in Bald-on Record. Of those ten sub-
strategies, only one was found in the data. It was task-oriented. Task-oriented is highly correlated
to a directive function or imperative classification according to the theory. As for the emojis, five
were associated with the sub-strategy.
For instance, in data no. 64.1.3-2.2, there were only emojis sent by L to contextualize the
attachment.
64.1.3-2.2
L: [sent the QR code for attendance]

By using , L indirectly instructed the students to scan the QR code to record their
attendance.As L mainly focused on satisfying L’s wants, L tried to maximize the efficiency of the
orders given. As can be inferred from the example, the pattern realized in this sub-strategy is the
use of emojis with direct meaning. Emojis with direct meaning are emojis with easily recognized
or understood appearances.
Positive
In this strategy, there are a total of fifteen sub-strategies. Out of the fifteen sub-strategies, only
two were not found in the data. Those two were 1) use in-group identity markers and 2) seek
agreement. As almost all the sub-strategies were communicated, this strategy utilized nearly all
emojis found in this study.
83.2.1-1.2
L: Hello all of you, my beloved students:
Happy ied & good luck with your preparation to the final exam in this semester
84.2.9-4.4
I wanna share one of my favorite songs with you, maybe it will be able to lift up your
mood & feel a little bit better while looking at all those endless assignments

The conversation started from data no. 83.2.1-1.2 which laid out the context of more findings
later. L wished the class good luck for the final examination and a happy Eid for those who
celebrated. L ended the text with to show interest and kindly attend to the class’s mental state
by cheering them. After that in data no. 84.2.9-4.4, L presupposed H’s needs based on the
assumption that they were under pressure due to the examination. By adding , L enhanced the
expression of concern to the text. L sympathized with the class and shared a song in hopes it could
lift the class’s spirit.
85.2.3-4.4
(Don't worry, i was a student too, i know exactly how it feels )
86.2.3-1-1
Just Be strong!
87.2.11-1.1
Hope you enjoy it
[youtube link]

Continuing in that context, L added in data no. 85.2.3-4.4 that could relate to L’s
presupposition of H’s needs. L ended that text with , expressing what could be considered a
reassuring smile. The next message shown in data no. 86.2.3-1.1 indicates that L really wanted to
satisfy the presupposed H’s wants/needs. L tried to enhance the mood by indirectly performing a
bicep flex ( ) and a fist bump ( ) with the emojis. By doing those, L had intensified the
interest to the class and tried to be closer emotionally.
88.2.11-1.1
My favorite lines? All of them
But the most favorite ones (& my motto as well):
I decided long ago
Never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me...

Then, in data no. 88.2.11-1.1, L finally shared the song in a form of a YouTube link. Indicating
to provide more background (why it is one of L’s favorite songs and how it might cheer them
during the finals), L shared some lines from the song. Here, the represented where the lyrics
started and ended. It could also imply that L was singing to the songs.
 89.2.9-1.1
Good luck

To conclude the heartfelt message, L wished them good luck once more in data no. 89.2.9-1.1
with the help of and . The Fingers Crossed emoji is “a gesture indicating luck, or to show
desire of a favorable outcome”. Moreover, the Smiling Face with Smiling eyes added more
reassuring touch to the (Good luck) itself. The replies from the students were enthusiastic. Many
of them assert reciprocity and thanked L for the thoughtful messages. All of those replies
consistently assume reciprocity and express thankfulness.
91.2.14-4.4
S1: It helps a lot. We have so many assignments though. Btw, we miss you, bu

Additionally, in data no. 91.2.14-4.4, S1 expressed the reciprocity (It helps a lot…) that
confirmed the presupposition made by L. S1 expressed the feeling of “adoration or feeling touched
by a loving gesture”. In the end, this sample of conversation successfully exchanged the four points
mentioned in the theoretical review and led to more emotional closeness between L and the
students of that class.
Negative
In this research, six of them were found. Corresponding to the types of emoji used, there were
only four emojis associated here. the type of emojis used is dominated by in this politeness
strategy. As there were a lot of occurrences of this emoji, the way it served as a sub-strategy in a
negative politeness strategy is also various. For example, it was used to hedge a mistake L (I think
I made a mistake) made in dividing the materials and members for presentation as shown in data
no. 125.3.2-4.3.
125.3.2-4.3
[09:30 - 09.34 AM]
S: Excuse me, Bu
For the 13 topics, does it start from the topic number 2, Bu?
L: From topic 3, @ (S’s name)
[09.36 AM]
L: I think I made a mistake, guys. Let me get it right first
S: Alright, Bu

It was also used to minimize imposition and give deference by the students as they have lower
social-relation power to the lecturers.
3.3.4-1.5 (Code mixing and code switching had been translated)
L: Ok. No problem. What about 1 PM? Or 4 PM is also okay. But you need to scan the QR Code
for attendance at 11 PM as usual.
S: Sorry to ask, pak. How long will the meeting be? 1 PM is possible. But at 2:40 PM, we are
scheduled for TESOL with [other lecturer’s name], pak. And at 4 PM, we still have class
with [other lecturer’s name], pak
We fear there will be overlap, pak

As seen in data no. 3.3.4-1.5, S tried to reschedule. As S tried to elaborate on why one timetable
might or not work, S had to impose L if the proposed timetable did not match S’s needs/wants. S
frequently included the emoji in the message in hope that it could minimize the imposition of
declining the unmatched timetable (=with all due respect, but…).
Off-record
 There are fifteen sub-strategies here similar to the Positive politeness strategy. However, the
findings found are different. On the contrary—throughout the data analysis and coding process—
the researcher only managed to find one data where the use of emoji entailed this strategy.
112.4.13-1.1
S6: Mam I need a few minutes to finished read your material
L: Yes of course @ (S6’s name), you all have few days to read and understand the chapters. What
I need is only a little sign from you all that you are monitoring the class
S6: Thank you Mam
S7: (referring to Data no. 109.2.9-1.1) I think we expect to be able to understand the material
related to YLL that we have read and then we can discuss about that, and asking question
too
L: Exactly. So, I want you to try to measure your own learning by answering whether or not you
have met the goals or objectives of this meeting
L: Each of us is responsible for our own learning

In the example above, S7 shared some impressions or thoughts regarding the materials on that
day. In which S7 assumed L‘s expectation of the class. S7 argued that L required them to learn
before the class in hopes that the class could grasp the background information related to Young
Language Learners and as such, a nice discussion could be held in that meeting. Undeniably, as
shown in the data, L strongly agreed. L further explained why and how it could correlate to the
meeting’s learning objectives that day. To emphasize (I want you to try to measure your own
learning), L cited a well-known and general statement (Each of us is responsible for our own
learning).
As L chose to over-generalize the statement, it was ambiguous to confirm to who it was
directed. Moreover, L also ended the text with to denote ‘positive’ feelings (=no hard feelings).
As such, it can be inferred that L indirectly condemned S6’s tardiness and hoped that S6 would be
more responsible for S6’s own learning. However, S6 had the right to decide to agree to the
statement or not. After all, that is how this politeness strategy works where S will give off space
for many interpretations as S wants to avoid being held accountable for being committed with just
one interpretation. In the end, L managed to redress the FTA and was unbound by it.
Now, the researcher would further discuss the findings in a more detailed manner. There are
several points that would be elaborated on. First, the researcher would present the five most
frequently used emojis from this study and what might influence their usage. After that, the
researcher would relate the findings (WAG archived messages and interview transcript) to some
of the theoretical review. Last, the researcher would discuss the patterns of how emojis
successfully worked as the elaborated politeness strategy and the performed speech acts. These
points may overlap throughout the writing process as they correlate each other. Thus, the
researcher would write the following analysis below descriptively.
Retrospectively, the researcher found that thirty-six emojis were used in the data source. The
amount was sorted out of 4.084 emojis after applying the limitation of the research. From there,
five of the most frequently used emojis were also compiled. The researcher decided to compile
only the top five most-used emoji because the researcher intended to show what emojis were
regularly exchanged. The researcher believed that if these emojis were frequently exchanged that
implied that the emojis were acceptable to be used in WA for academic purposes. Here, the
researcher has visualized the compilation into a pie chart as followed.

Figure 2
Top Five Most Used Emojis in WA Academic Chatrooms
 As shown above, the most used emojis found in this study are 1) Hands Pressed Together
emoji, 2) Thumbs Up emoji, 3) Smiling Faces with Smiling Eyes emoji, 4) Raised Hand emoji,
and 5) Raised Hand with Fingers Splayed emoji. In connection with the preliminary study, this
data stayed consistent. Moreover, 3 out of 6 participants stated that the Pressed Hand emoji was
their most-used emoji in academic settings.
From the data analysis, the researcher found that are fluid in the meaning they
convey. For example, the Hands Pressed Together emoji is usually associated with conveying
thankfulness, saying please, apologizing, and showing respect. Being capable of conveying
various intentions made this emoji’s stance fluid as it could serve various speech acts and
communicate more than one politeness strategy.
On the other hand, the Thumbs Up emoji directly represented “Okay” or showing approval.
While this emoji was not as flexible as the Hands Pressed Together, there could be a variation of
showing the approval itself. As it was found associated a lot to show reciprocation or
understanding, this emoji could also mean “Ok. Thanks.” or “Ok. Done.” or even simply as “Ok.
Understood.” Likewise, the Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes emoji directly appears as a smile.
However, the context of the conversation is crucial in understanding what is the emoji intended.
The emoji could convey a grateful smile, a reassuring smile, or even a sarcastic smile.
Meanwhile, the other two emojis ( ) appeared a lot as they were used by lecturers and
students to act as a raising hand. The act of raising a hand itself could mean more than one, but it
is mainly representative and emphasizes one’s existence. The lecturer urged and invited students
to use them to show that they were monitoring the forum as the class was held online. As such, the
emojis helped fulfilled the non-verbal cues which were lacking.
It can be concluded that emoji has the potential to be a paralinguistic feature. Moreover, it
supported that the more emojis are used, the fewer words are used. Instead, the emoji were repeated
to emphasize the message or the intention without using more words. To elaborate on why those
five emojis had such high usage, the researcher concluded that it was caused by 1) the meaning
and the appearance conveyed by emoji itself, 2) the context of the conversation, and 3) the social
standing of who paved the way for the emojis to be used in the conversation.

CONCLUSIONS
Emoji is on the rise and does change the way communication works. To substitute the absence
of directly seeing one’s expression or hearing the paralinguistic features of an utterance, emoji
managed to convey them just in a simple pictogram. In online-mediated communication such as
WhatsApp, some emojis are found and served their purpose more than simply substituting the
sender’s emotion. They also supported the delivery of a politeness strategy and even performed a
speech act. The types of emojis used are various. Varying from a smiley face to symbols, they
were all utilized depending on the context and the receiver. To sum up, 36 out of 4.804 emojis
addressed four of Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies and four of five of Searle’s speech
acts.
While this research managed to show that emojis can work in a politeness strategy, it does not
change the fact that it is not fully acceptable to be integrated entirely into the formal context. Using
emojis for academic purposes (either by a student or a lecturer) is not an insolent thing to do.
However, it is best to proceed with caution. Considerations such as the social-power relation gap,
the context of the conversation, and the receiver’s background knowledge determine the emoji
delivery.
Following this research's conclusion, some implications can be integrated for emoji to work in
a politeness strategy for academic purposes. First, the sender must prioritize and consider the
context of the conversation, the background information of the emoji, and how the corresponding
receiver may interpret it. It is recommended that the sender cross-check how a particular emoji is
usually used in a conversation (especially in an academic context), how it shall be arranged to
perform its intended purpose efficiently, and how the differences in its appearance can result in
varying interpretation to the receiver. Second, the conversation context must enunciate the
possibility for an emoji to be used. If the situation is unclear, it is better to avoid using emoji
entirely. Ultimately, words—by themselves—can show politeness and deliver the sender’s
intention if chosen carefully. Last, emojis should be closest to the message the sender intended to
get across to avoid ambiguity. Itc is recommended that the sender cross-check how a particular
emoji is usually used in a conversation (especially in an academic context), how it shall be arranged
to perform its intended purpose efficiently, and how the differences in its appearance can result in
varying interpretation to the receiver.
Based on the conclusions and discussion, some suggestions could be considered. First, the
author suggests lecturers use emojis occasionally to avoid unnecessary tension in the online
classroom due to the power-relation gap between students and lecturers. Second, it is
recommended that students refrain to use emojis that are not frequently used or found in the
academic context. While it is inexorable to not relate emoji with how it is used on the internet, it
is suggested to use commonly used emoji with general or direct meaning to avoid
misinterpretation. Last, it is highly suggested that the future authors must ensure the devices and
software needed to do the research are up to date. In writing this research, many developments
have happened to emojis (new emojis added; changes in appearance) and WhatsApp (five selected
emojis integrated as a reaction message). The author believed as the variables keep progressing,
further, deeper, and more specific research should be done to keep up with the advancements.

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