Research Projects
Indonesian's Politeness and
English Request Email
Writing
Research Projects | An Investigation of Politeness in Indonesian International Students’ English Email Requests to Taiwanese Faculty
(Master's Thesis)
​​
Jul 2022
Abstract
Previous studies in politeness have long been interested in EFL/ESL student’s request email research; however, very little has been conducted investigating international students’ request strategies in the context of Taiwan higher education using English as a Lingua Franca. This study looks into how Indonesian graduate students’ politeness and relationship establishment were realized through their request strategies employed in English request emails to Taiwanese faculty members.
​
To understand how Indonesian international students made requests to their faculty members through email communication in an intercultural communication context, this study examined authentic English-written request emails collected from 11 Indonesian graduate students at a university in central Taiwan.
The findings showed that it was quite consistent in the tone of deference in Indonesian students’ request emails. Their submissiveness was also reflected in their external-modifying moves, e.g., repeated terms of address, double salutations, giving thanks, and apologies, to establish the student-faculty relationship. Finally, three characteristics and suggestions for intercultural communication with Indonesian international students are provided in this study.
Research Project | Investigating the Collocational and Grammatical Behavior of MAN and WOMAN in Gender-Related TED Talks from 2006 to 2018
​​
Jul 2018
Abstract
This study aims to look into how MAN and WOMAN are presented in TED Talks related to the topic of gender. By using Sketch Engine, this study examines 10459 gender-related TED Talks (from 2006 to 2018) to find out the collocational and grammatical behavior of the noun lemmas MAN and WOMAN. The researcher intends to compare the results with existing studies; however, due to the reason that the size of this corpus in this study is too small and the type of data source is limited to speeches, the results can only be representative of collocational behavior of MAN and WOMAN in TED Talks.
Corpus
​study
English
for
Specific
Purpose
Research Project | Needs Analysis of Workplace English for Staff in Bespoke Tailoring Suits Industry: A Pilot Study
​​
Jan 2018
Abstract
This study aims to find out the workplace English needs of staff in bespoke suits industry in Taiwan. Four one-on-one phone interviews with staff members of one of the bespoke suit stores in Taiwan were used as data source to investigate the staff’s English needs in workplace. The findings of the needs analysis facilitated a course syllabus design for staff in bespoke tailoring industry in Taiwan.
Research Project | Film, Audience, and Media Literacy in Forrest Gump: A Non-typical American Movie Hero
​​
Jan 2016
Abstract
This study aimed to understand how three Americans, aged 21 to 51, perceived the title character Forrest Gump as a non-typical American movie hero presented in the film Forrest Gump (1994), directed by Robert Zemeckis, as well as how the three participants were influenced by the media. To collect the data, one-on-one interviews were conducted. Each interview session was audio-recorded. The recorded data were
later transcribed and categorized. The focus of data analysis was on the participants’ individual perceptions of the issue studied.
Based on the three research participants’ responses, the results of the study showed, firstly, their different ways of understanding the film and the main character presented, and secondly, the relationship working between the media and the three
American participants. For instance, one of them stated that he established his perceptions of Forrest by observing his habitual way of dealing with various situations in which he was caught. In addition, the way how Forrest was described was different.
One research participant considered Forrest as a high functioning mentally challenged person who always saw the good in people. Another simply called Forrest an optimistic guy. The other described Forrest as a retarded, happy, successful guy whose amazing life story was to satirize people who thought they were smarter than Forrest. On the whole, the three research participants’ awareness of the explicit and implicit messages conveyed by the film varied.