An Analysis of Students’ Politeness Strategies in Whatsapp Group Interaction

TOEFL and Abstract is the title of whatsapp group made by UPT Bahasa Inggris Unived to communicate between admin and students who wants to graduate. This is also as the alternative way during the pandemic of Covid-19. This study aimed to analyze students’ politeness strategies from all faculties are in UNIVED and admin of UPT Bahasa Inggris in whatsapp group. Type of this research is descriptive qualitative research. The data were collected through the the transcript during the conversation between admin and undergraduate students. The results of this research showed that there were 144 conversations used by students in whatsapp grup. The researchers found 34 were used bald on record, 48 used positive politeness, 53 used negative politeness, and 9 used off-record. Negative politeness was dominant types of politeness among the other types of politeness, that oriented by the speaker as undergraduate students with admin of UPT Bahasa Inggris UNIVED Bengkulu. Question Hedge with 100% were as a form of negative politeness used by undergaduate students. From the results aboves, it shows that the dominant type of Politeness Strategies used by teacher and students in Whatsapp Group are Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness.


INTRODUCTION
During the pandemic of Covid-19, the government has announced to reduce mobility to protect ourselves from the virus so that people have to keep social distancing and work from home to minimize interaction.Many places that people should avoid in a while such as: Office, Market and School.Besides, in school, students and teachers should make physical distancing especially in oral communication.Therefore, to support the students in necessary the things of academic, such as: TOEFL and Abstract as the one of prerequirement to get graduation ceremony.UPT Bahasa Inggris made an alternative way to used Whatsapp Group with the title TOEFL DAN ABSTRAK WISUDAWAN.This group consists of 2 admin as the coordinator to held TOEFL and Abstract while they are also as the teacher in the University and 232 undergarduate students from all study programs and faculties at UNIVED Bengkulu.
This group created by the admin with the purpose to share more information to Undergaduate students about the regulation to held TOEFL and translate Abstrak of Thesis such as the prosedure to register, the schedule of TOEFL, and link to download abstract that has been translated by UPT Bahasa Inggris.Besides that, students can asked to admins all about TOEFL and Abstract without any obstacle by making some messages in that group.
Meanwhile, students should keep their languages when asked something to admins when they make conversation in that whatsapp group.According to Hornby (2000) language is a tool for human as a way to communicate in direct way both of speaking or writing.People used language in daily life to show their feeling, thought, even though to share information like academic things.Besides, in academic situation students have to consider the language used in interaction because it can give some impact to the listener/ hearer related to politeness.Moreover, TOEFL DAN ABSTRAK WISUDAWAN whatsapp group used written communication so students have to consider politeness to communicate in that group.On the other hand, Chaer and Agustina (2010) stated that to make an interaction between one to each other people need an instrument, that is a language.Based on language people can identify the emotional feeling and character of the speaker and also the hearer during the conversation.In this research whatsapp group used as instrument for undergraduate student and admin UPT Bahasa Inggris UNIVED to share the informations.
In academic situation or can be called as formal situation people usually used polite language when they speak up, Whatsapp group made by UPT Bahasa Inggris UNIVED Bengkulu can call as media to interact in formal conditions.That is why the researchers want to investigate politeness strategies used by undergraduate students in TOEFL DAN ABSTRAK WISUDAWAN WhatsApp group.There were some research has reviewed some journals and thesis discussed about same topic which is Politeness Strategies, namely: First, The Students Strategies in Online Learning Interaction: Exploring Politeness in Google Classroom During Covid-19 Pandemic by Modesta (2021); Sianturi (2021); Faido Marudut (2021).Based on this journal, students dominantly used the words "Thank you, Mam" as a way to avoid more threats when they give their comments.Also, they make limits for themselves by used short greetings, such as "Hi, Mam or Yes, Mam".
Second, An Analysis of the Politeness Strategy in Teacher-Students EFL Classroom Interaction by Unaina;Suparno;& Sarosa (2021).This journal tells us that dominantly the type of politeness strategies used in this research is Bald on-record strategy with 14 utterances, Offrecord in 9, Positive Politeness with 5 utterances and the last is Negative Politeness in number 2 utterances.
Third, An Analysis of Politeness Strategies at SMA Beringin Ratu Pakuan Ratu by Ristiani (2020).This thesis is descriptive qualitative research and discussed politeness strategies used by teacher and students in English class.The result is Bald on record strategy the high used by teacher during the process of learning English in classroom based on 104 utterances by the teacher itself.Besides of that, from the 23 students' utterances in that classroom, they used positive politeness more dominantly than other strategies.
Fourth, An Analysis of Politeness Strategies Used by Claire Peterson in The Boy Next Door Movie by (Ghozali and Supriyanta, 2017).From this journal, the strategies used by Claire Peterson in that movie dominant with positive politeness strategy in 20 times or 54 %.Claire Peterson used that positive strategy in her daily life to create a good relationship between her and other person.The strategy consists of offer and promise.
From those previous studies used descriptive qualitative methods and discussed Politeness Strategies but in different object such as in online learning, classroom, school, and movie.Furthermore, the main topic of those research is about politeness strategies but there is no investigate of interaction between undergraduate students in whatsapp groups.Therefore, the researcher interests to explore the politeness strategies used by undergraduate students in the conversation.

Politeness
According to Brown and Levinson (1987) state that politeness is an action to take care of feelings of another person as cited in (Modesta and Sianturi et.al, 2021).Politeness should be an attitude that used by people in daily life in society, like when they speak to other people they could watch the words, expression and their action to avoid someone's anger and disappoint by the action.Politeness is important for people in society life to teach them how to keep their behaviour, Echoed by Kadar & Haught (2013) as cited in (Modesta and Sianturi et.al. 2021).That is why politeness is a crucial things for people as the norm in their life.Leech (1983) cited in Anni Nazila Muhasibi (2020) state that the way to build a comfortable situation and make it balance and friendly between the speaker and the hearer is a concept of politeness.And then, according to Mills (2003) as cited in Firinta Togatorop (2019) state that politeness has a power to describe the feeling of the speaker the way they decrease the threats between one to another.That is why politeness is important skill when people try to connect with other people during the conversation.And then, we can identify the using of politeness in our regular conversation, Brown and Levinson (1987) cited from Bublitz (2011) in (Niadaniati Silitonga, 2021, Arsen Nahum Pasaribu, 2021).It means politeness usually seen in daily activity, such as: when speaker try to say something to hearer.

Politeness Strategies
Communication is a way to show the feelings of the speaker to hearer by used language.The language should be showed good utterances and expression to make the hearer feels happy and free or we can say to make it as polite as possible to respect the face of the hearer.Brown and Levinson (1987) as cited in (Unaina, Suparno, 2021, et al.) state that during the communication it is important to show the right behaviour as the key to keep politeness by speaker to the hearer.Then we called as politeness strategy.Politeness strategy also used to make the interaction during communication smooth and pleasant for everyone, Watts (2003, p.53) as cited in (Unaina, Suparno, 2021, et al.).Brown and Levinson (1987) cited in (Modesta and Sianturi et.al. 2021) proposed that politeness strategy is usually used by speaker to tell the hearer how they feel and how they speak.
They also stated that politeness strategies is a concept for speaker in order to make the heare's face happy and feels respect.Furthermore, Brown and Levinson (1987) argues that there are four kinds of politeness strategies such as: Bald on record, Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, and Off record.Then, according to Watts (2003) in Magfirotul Dewi Amaliyah (2021) propose that people commonly used politeness strategy in certain category like friends or when speaker and hearer knows well between one each other.

Bald on Record
Bald on record is a strategy to say things directly without any pressure to clear, direct, unambigous and short as can as possible.It is consist of: urgent situation, great attention to speak if necessary, order oriented, a little bit or no interest to save the face by the hearer, awareness, welcomes, deals, and request.

Positive Politeness
This type of politeness dominantly in groups of people who knows each other very well, like friend.Brown and Levinson (1987) cited in (Imam Ghozali, 2017;Supriyanta, 2017) said that the way to catch the interest, wants, and goods of the hearer named positive politeness.Furthermore, According to Yule (2006) as cited in (Rika Amalia Hafid, 2022, Serliana, 2022, Gusmawaty, 2022 et. al) argues that this type of strategy concern with procedure of a discussion, familiarity, intimate relations also friendly relationship of the speaker and the hearer.
Positive politeness is a concept for people to save the face during interaction by building a positive expression in communication, Brown and Levinson (1987) as cited in Leni Ristiani (2020/2021).Besides, this strategy consist of warning, overreact, achieve agreement, avoid argument, fun, provide, commitment, to give what the hearer's wants, trust, and give or ask the reason also to assert the reciprocity and the last is focussed on interest of the hearer.Also, another theory from Brown and Levinson (1978) as cited in Wuri Pangestuti (2015) state that positive politeness used by people to concern about the positive face of the hearer.

Negative Politeness
Negative Politeness is a strategy to remain the negative face of people.According to Brown and Levinson (1987) in (Imam Ghozali, 2017;Supriyanta, 2017) stated that this strategy focussed on respect of human behaviour or manner in particular way.In addition, Brown and Levinson in Mills (2003) cited in Rahmat, N.R. (2020) stated that this strategy is relevant with space and formal requirement.It consist of apologies, being indirect, question hedge, being pessimistic, minimizing the imposition, giving deference, unpersonalization, stating the face threatening act as a general rule, nominalization and incurring a debt.

Off Record
This strategy is used when people want to make interaction by doing face threatening act but they choose to leave because they avoid to do the responsibility in do that action, Levinson (1987) in Leni Ristiani (2021).The speaker can avoid the face threatening by doing the strategy.According to Brown and Levinson (1987) as cited in (Imam Ghozali, 2017; Supriyanta, 2017) stated that this strategy usually uses indirect language to avoid the speaker from the feels of inconvenience.It is consist of giving a clue, being unclear, being sarcastic or kidding.In addition, based on Paul Grice (2003) cited in Firinta Togatorop (2019) state that this type of strategy usually used by people who want to speak in concisely without wasting the time or energy.So, the speaker can say the word by point that necessary and then Bousefield (2008) in Hartati (2021) proposed that off record strategy is used by speaker to pressure off at the face threat inherent of utterances.

Whatsapp Group
According to Jubile Enterprise (2012) in Ricu Sidiq (2019) stated that whatsapp is a chat aplication that used by people to send a message, picture, sound, location even video to everyone by using a smartphone.This application does not use credit like common phone, but it uses data plan and of course the main star is internet.Furthermore, in whatsapp there are some support apps such as New Group, New Broadcast, Whatsapp Web, Starred Message, and Settings.And then, based on Kaplan and Helen Lein (2010) cited in (Hafid, Serliana et.al 2022) state that social media used by people as an alternative way to changed and divided the information and it becomes suitable tothe government institution also for the corporation.

METHODOLOGY
This study used descriptive qualitative research as the way to show the politeness strategies of students during the interaction in whatsapp group.Then, this group consist of 2 admins as the coordinator to held TOEFL and Abstract as requirement to graduate from university.The sample in this research is undergraduate students by all departments and faculties with number 232 people at UNIVED.Sugiyono (2010) cited in Rahmat, N.R. ( 2020) the way of making data mostly based on a conversation in WhatsApp group.
From that statement, we know that the descriptive qualitative method is relevant with the process of gathering the data, and it is focused on words than a number.In addition, Sugiyono (2010) Rahmat N.R. ( 2020) also assert that qualitative research used to analyze the situation, occasion, social event, manner, trust, impression, and even about what people think in personal or group.The researcher applied this type of research in this study to explore the type of politeness strategies used by teachers and students in communication by using whatsapp group.According to Mack (2005) in Unaina and Suparno (2021) stated that the qualitative research is the right way for people to collect information about point of view, behavior, norm, and even the social work in a society.
A qualitative research is a research did not focussed to calculation.There are some steps in data collection such as: Making whatssapp group as the media for students who wants to know information about TOEFL and Abstract, Admin share the link of that group to all staff in all departments in UNIVED Bengkulu.The staff of all department in UNIVED order to undergraduate students to join in group students join the group, admin share the information related to TOEFL and ABSTRAK and open qna.The researchers take all chatting in group from answering the question by students during the interaction.After collecting the chatting in whatsapp group, the researcher divided some interaction into the types of politeness strategies used by the teacher and students in that group, The researcher interpreting the results of the politeness strategies, Lastly, the researcher make a conclusion of the topic.The researcher used the theory about politeness strategy by Brown and Levinson which consists of Bald on record, Positive politeness, Negative politeness, and last is Off record strategy.The data are taken by the researcher from conversations between admin and undergraduate students at UNIVED based on all departments and faculties in WhatsApp group.

Findings
This study based on the transcript of the conversation of teacher and students in whatsapp group.The object of this research is the politeness strategies used by the teacher and students from all departments and faculties at UNIVED in that group.In this transcript, the researcher found 33 utterances used by the teacher and 144 utterances by the students based on the type of politeness strategies.It consists of Bald on Record, Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness and Off Record.

Bald on Record
In this type of strategies, the researcher found 34 utterances by the students.It consists of request 44%, great attention to speak if necessary 24%, and a little bit or no interest to save the face by the hearer 12%.Here are the example of Bald on Record strategy such as: Data 1, (Order oriented) Teacher: Silahkan ambil syarat wisuda di central copy.From the data aboves, there are some example of politeness strategies that used in whatsapp group.Based on the data 1, the teacher told the students to go to central copy to get the prerequirement of graduation ceremony.It means that students should be done the task beacuse it is important things for them.Then the next is the researcher told the students as the candidate of graduation ceremony to join the whatsapp group in way to discuss about TOEFL and Abstract by click some link below, and it a must for students to do the task by the admin.Beside, in data 2, there is two awareness by the admin and it said all about the important things in TOEFL and Abstract also to alert the students to follow all the regulation that has made by the admin as the condition to take graduation ceremony.
Then, based on the data 3, the students said that he passed the exam and said that he wants to make abstract, but the teacher and the other students included him know that after passed an exam students should do TOEFL and Abstract.And then, in the next data, the student say sorry to the admin and then tell her that is problem with his or her phone during the communication also say thanks to the admin for the information.
Based on the data aboves, in data 1, the students said "yes mam" as the way to deference their teacher during the conversation.And then, in the next data, the student say thank you to the teacher for the information by the teacher.Then, in data 2, there is an offer from the teacher to the students as the way to fix the problem of the student.That is possible, the student feels a little bit afraid that he or she cannot do the registration by using their phone.And Then, as the coordinator, the admin give the solution for the student to register by used a computer.Then, in the next sample is the student asked for another group because there is other student can not join that group.Beacuse, the group was already full and then the teacher said that will be second group for the students.So, the students should have waited.
The last sample is data 2, in this utterance there is a student in that group make some fun with the other students in that group.Based on all the example of data 2, the student have some fun with his or her friend by used local language for number one whereas the second one is used Bahasa Indonesia.All the samples used an laugh emoji at the end of utterances.
The data shows some of example in negative politeness strategy.From the data 1, the utterances used by student to show us it means "I request to you that I would like to register my friend by used the same email".Then, in the next sample, it means "I would like you to check mine in your email".Furthermore, on the data 2, there are 2 parts of negative strategy that used by students, such as apologize and question hedge.From the utterance, the student starts with the word "sorry mam" and then "request to the teacher to show the subject of the email".And then, on the second one, The student say "sorry" to the teacher and continue with utterances which means that she or he "wants to know the schedule of TOEFL test".
The last is data 3, from that statement, the student used part of strategy it named minimize the imposition.In that utterance the word "Abstract" did not used by student in conversation, that is why this utterance is incomplete.Whereas, on the second, the student removes the word "TOEFL" in that utterance to minimize the conversation.

Off Record
In this strategy, there is 9 utterances and it consists of giving a clue 46%, kidding 38%, and being unclear 16%.Here are the example such as:

Discussion
Based on the data aboves, the data 1 shows to us when the student try to invite his or her friend into this group but it does not work because the whatsapp group already full.Then the teacher as the coordinator in that group give the solution for them, that is "the second group will be ready, please keep waiting".Then, the second sample is when student asked the teacher about the deadline to send abstract beacuse he or she wants to make sure about it.Then, the admin give the hint for the student and it say "that the deadline of abstract is june 22 but if there is a problem then the student should contact the admin to make it clear".
From data 2, when student try to make some joke with the teacher to avoid disagreement and to make the situation more pleasant.Whereas, in the second one, the student try to make some fun with the other student with local language and also at the end of utterance he or she used an laugh emoji.And then, the data 3, the student try to tell the teacher something but based on his or her utterance it is incomplete.There is ambiguous statement.He or She should write the full sentences, like "My abstract has not come in yet, mam".Meanwhile, the next sample, the utterance from the student is unclear beacause he or she removes the point of the coversation that is "TOEFL or Abstract" so, the utterance is incomplete and being vague.

CONCLUSION
Based on the research above, the results of this study are 1) Bald on record frequently used by students with 34 utterances.It consist of request 44%, great attention to speak if necessary 24%, and a little bit or no interest to save the face by the hearer 12%.The excessively used by students is "request" in percentage 44%.2) Positive politeness, there are 48 11 utterances by the teacher.Then, it consist of achieve agreement 28%, fun 16%, ask the reason 4%, warning 24%, assert to reciprocity 12%, avoid argument 12% and focussed interest of the hearer 4%.The dominant used this strategy is the students in part "achieve agreement" with 29 utterances with percentage 28%.
Then, 3) Negative politeness, in this strategy used by the students with 53 utterances.This type consist of being indirect 4%, question hedge 56%, minimizing the imposition 12%, giving deference 12%, and apologize 16%.The most dominant part that used by students is "question hedge" with percentage 56%.The last, 4) Off record, this type of strategy used by students with 9 utterances.It consists of giving a clue 46%, kidding 38%, and being unclear 16%.In part "giving a clue" with number 46% frequently used by students.So, from the data aboves, it can be concluded that the type of politeness strategies mostly used is negative politeness.It can be happen because the communication are in whatsapp group and mostly the students unconsiously know that the admin in that group is a staff in UPT Bahasa Inggris and also a lecturer in UNIVED Bengkulu.