





































172 

 

 
ELT FORUM 10 (2) (2021) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 
 

Gendered perspective on online communication strategies: A case on English 

department students  

 

Maulida Nur Aziza 
 
English Department, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia 

 

Article Info 
________________  
Article History: 

Received in 3 July 

2020  
Approved in 27 July 

2021 

Published in 28 July 

2021 

________________  
Keywords: Gender; 
communication strategies; 
online face-to-face 
conversation   
____________________ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract 

___________________________________________________________________ 
This study aims to investigate whether gender influence on online communication 

strategies performed by the English Department. This study provides types of 
communication strategies, the frequency of communication strategies used, and the 

factors that influence students in differentiating communication strategies used by 
both male and female students. The researcher used qualitative approach. Online face-

to-face conversation and interview were chosen as the data collection technique. For 
the research instruments that the researcher used were communication strategies 

sheet, interview, and audio and video recording. The participants of this study were 

the eight semester students of English Department. The data collected were analyzed 
used communication strategies taxonomies proposed by Celce-Murcia et al. (1995). 

The results of this study show that used variety of communication strategies. The most 
frequent communication strategy used both male and female students is fillers, 

hesitation devices, and gambits. It was proven by the percentage that was 50%. The 
least used communication strategy by the students is circumlocution (0,07%). Related 

to gender, female students almost show higher number of occurrences for all of the 

communication strategies than male students. This phenomenon happened due to 
some factors such as the female characteristics that is socially oriented, expressive and 

avoid making mistakes. Meanwhile, male students showed characteristics such as talk 
simpler, have a great willingness to manage anxiety and they seem to conceal their 

inability to others.  
    

  

Correspondence Address: p-ISSN 2252-6706 | e-ISSN 2721-4532 
B3 Building FBS Unnes  

Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229  

E-mail: maulidanuraziza1998@gmail.com  

http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1333515478&1&&
http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1576658845&1&&
mailto:maulidanuraziza1998@gmail.com


Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

173 

INTRODUCTION 

Having effective communication skill in this industrial modern era is important. Research by Faradilla 

and Rukmini (2019) stated that to reach the goal of communication, English learner needs to have 

communication skill. She added that this is the tool in communication process which are used to 

remove barriers to reach effective communication. The fact that English is still considered as a foreign 

language in Indonesia makes the students have limited chance to apply and use it outside of school in 

their daily life. As a result, they rarely speak English as their language for communication. Hence, 

speaking skill is regarded as one of the most difficult aspects of language-learning (Leong & Ahmadi., 

2017). In line with this, many learners state that they have spent so many years studying English 

language, but they cannot speak it appropriately and understandably (Bueono et al., 2006). It seems 

that many Indonesian students may find it difficult when they have to speak in English. They put 

more effort or use some strategies to overcome their communication problem while speaking English. 

Those strategies called as communication strategies. Dornyei (1995) views communication strategies 

as the ways a person employs to cope with problems and difficulties in oral communication. 

Communication strategies can assist the students to solve their speaking problem and enhance their 

communicative competence. Hence, it is important for students to know about it.  
A great number of studies concerning communication strategies have been carried out. Some 

researchers who had the same interest to this topic are Lai (2010), Kaivanpanah et al. (2012), 

Nasrullah (2017), Mahardika et al. (2014), Amin (2017), and Yusparizal et al. (2018). Those previous 

studies are similar to each other, but they had different categories to be observed. Most of them were 

focusing on investigating communication strategies used by male or female students, the percentage 

of it, and the reasons using communication strategies. They had the same interest, but they employed 

different research designs, research instruments, and numbers of participants, so they produced a 

different result. Concerning gender influence, there are still rooms for more investigation due to some 

inconsistencies in the findings of different studies. 

Gender influence may give effect on communication strategies used by people. In line 
with that statement, Mahardika et al. (2014) mentioned that gender is believed as the factor 
affecting the process of communication. This statement is strengthened by the fact from the 

development of neuroscience reveals that men and women have differences in the structures 
and function in the brain (Rabinowicz  et al., 2002). Achiron et al. (2001) stated that the 
different structures in male and female begin since in the womb. Furthermore, Frederikse et 
al. (1999) mentioned that brains are more asymmetric in men not in women. Regardless to 
those facts, it can be said that the different structure of their brain leads to the different ability 
to think, to communicate, or to solve problem between male and female. In this case, 
communication strategies used also influenced by gender. 

Some experts had done doing a study related to gender and communication strategies. 

According to Zhao & Intraprasert’s research (2013), they found out that there is significant differences 

of individual communication strategies employment in relation to the students’ gender. Female 

students used CS frequently than male students. This was consistent with the result study by 

Mahardika et al. (2014) in which stated that male students used 180 strategies while female students 

used 214 strategies. The contradicted result of the study related to this issue showed by Lai (2010). 

The findings from the interview showed that there was no significant differences between males and 

females in the use of CSs which was contributed to the learning environment. Another research 

conducted by Kaivanpanah et al. (2012), in which the results showed that there was no significant 

gender effect in the use of communication strategies except for strategies that were social in nature 

such as circumlocution, asking for clarification, omission, comprehension check, use of fillers, and 

over-explicitness. With respect to gender influence, there are still rooms for more investigation due to 

the differences in the findings of the previous studies. This study is trying to investigate the 

communication strategy used by English Department students based on gender. The different thing of 

this study compared to the others is the researcher is trying to investigate different communication 

strategies used affected by the students’ gender and the communication partner’s gender. In short, the 

researcher curious about whether the students use different communication strategies while 

communicating with the same gender and different gender or not.  

Regarding the current situation in Indonesia and some countries in the world which got infected 

by the COVID-19, some countries implemented nationwide locked down. The government demanded 

all of the citizens to stay at home for several weeks or months for reducing and stopping the increasing 

numbers of infected patients by the coronavirus. Knowing how dangerous this virus is, the Indonesia 



Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

174 

government instructed all the citizens for supporting large scale social restriction. This instruction 

demanded some institutions to be closed and doing their activities through an online platform. Due 

to this situation, some outside activities were prohibited to be conducted, especially activity which 

cause a crowd. The researcher who initially wanted to conduct the real face-to-face conversation for 

collecting the data then changed the plan. An online platform that is WhatsApp video call was chosen 

as the application for collecting the data. This is because of the ease of use and all the students also 

have this application for their daily online chat.  

Moreover, the different thing of this study compared to the previous studies is the researcher is 

trying to figure out different communication strategies performed by the students affected by the 

communication partner’s gender.  In short, the researcher curious about whether the students use 

different communication strategies while communicating with the same gender and different gender 

or not.  Fishman (1983), Mahardika et al. (2014), Hancock and Rubin (2014), Amin (2017), 

Yusparizal et al. (2018), or Kaivanpanah et al. (2012), they focused on investigating gender influence 

on communication strategies. They tried to find out types of communication strategies performed 

based on gender. Meanwhile, for this study, the researcher differentiates it by using two interlocutors 

with different gender to be the communication partner of the students. This idea was inspired by Samar 

and Alibakhsi’s research which seeking of gender influence on linguistic strategies, and they tabulated 

the data based on male and male, male and female, female and female, and female and male. What 

makes it different from that study is the researcher here investigating communication strategies. 

Besides, the research methodology used by the researcher were online face-to-face conversation and 

interview in which this is new for the related topic.  

Building on the case above, the researcher was interested to conduct a research entitled 

Gendered Perspective on Online Communication Strategies: A Case on UNNES English Department 

Students. Then, the researcher formulates the research questions for this study as follows. The first 

research question is focusing on investigating types of communication strategies performed by English 

department students in their daily communication based on their gender and their communication 

partner’s gender. The second research question is trying to figure out factors that influence the students 

in using communication strategies based on their gender and their communication partner’s gender. 

Reviewing the previous studies, there are some available communication strategies taxonomy 

that can be used. The first is taxonomy of communication strategies proposed by Tarone in 1977 (as 

cited in Dornyei & Scott, 1997) which consisted of avoidance, paraphrase, conscious transfer, appeal 

for instance, and mime strategies. Later, Faerch & Kasper (1983) postulated the taxonomy which 

comprised formal reduction, functional reduction, and achievement strategy (as cited in Dornyei & 

Scott, 1997). Furthermore, other experts proposed other categories of communication strategies, they 

are Dornyei and Scott’s taxonomy (1997). They categorized based on these main categories: 

interactional strategies, compensatory strategies, reduction strategies, focus-on form strategies, socio-

cultural strategies, and paralinguistic strategies. Afterward, for this study the researcher used 

communication strategies taxonomy proposed by Celce-Murcia et al. (1995) as the framework for 

analyzing the communication strategies performed by the students. The reason of this choice it is 

because the newest and completeness of the taxonomy. They suggested component of strategic 

communication as follow: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

175 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1. Communication Strategies Taxonomy by Celce-Murcia et al. (1995) 

METHODS 

This study used a qualitative approach. According to Polit et al. (1999, as cited in Purnomo, 2017), 

he stated that “qualitative research involves broadly stated questions about human experiences and 

realities, studied through people in their natural environments, generating rich, descriptive data that 

helps us to understand their experiences and attitude.” This qualitative research focused on 

investigating gendered perspective on online communication strategies used by English department 

students. The conversation of this research was conducted naturally where the participants didn’t 

recognize the focus objective of the research and it happened once for each person. There was no 

repetition so their answer was natural.  

The subject of this study were the 8th semester students of English Department. There were 

eight participants, i.e. four female students and four male students. This consideration is based on the 

statement from Creswell (1998) which recommends 5-25 subjects for phenomenological qualitative 

research. The researcher used purposive sampling when choosing the students as the participants in 

which the categories used are English department student, student of 8th semester, and they are willing 

to join. Furthermore, the selected students had already taken basic courses of English learning in the 

previous semesters. Thus, the students were accustomed to speak English bravely. The reason of 

choosing eight semester students as the participants because they will graduate soon this semester, and 

hopefully, this research enriches their knowledge about communication strategy so they can speak 

English effectively and have a greater chance to have better job.  This statement has been supported 

by Baker & Westrup (2003) who said that learners who speak English very well can have greater 

chance for better education, finding good jobs, and getting promotion. 

For collecting the data, the researcher employed some research instruments. They were 

communication strategies sheet, video recording, and interview. Communication strategies sheet was 

developed based on the taxonomy of communication strategies proposed by Celce-Murcia et al. 

(1995). The researcher printed out the communication strategies sheet for each student. The use of the 

communication strategies sheet itself in this study is as a guideline for the researcher to analyze and 

categorize the communication strategies used by the participants during the conversation. It helped 



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176 

the researcher to be more focus on collecting the data so there won’t be any missing information that 

must be collected for analyzing the data. Furthermore, the researcher chose video recorder as another 

instrument used because it helped the researcher a lot in observing the communication strategies used 

by the students. It is because communication strategies not only consisted of verbal strategies in form 

of but also includes non-verbal strategies such as gestures or facial expression, so the researcher needs 

detail information about it and records it into a video. At last, interview is useful when there is a need 

to collect in-depth information in a systematic number of respondents. In this case, the interview needs 

to collect the participants’ perception of using communication strategies to the different gender. 

Furthermore, by using the information from the interviews, it helped to strengthen the validity and 

reliability of this study. 

For collecting the data, the researcher conducted an online face-to-face conversation and 

interview. All of the participants have a chance to communicate with the interlocutor both the same 

gender and opposite gender. The female interlocutor focused on discussing about university life while 

male interlocutor talked about studying abroad. The conversation was conducted through an online 

application called Whatsapp video call. The researcher chose this strategy due to the situation that 

happened in Indonesia that caused by COVID-19. The government demanded all of the citizens to 

stay at home. As a result, to overcome this situation, the researcher used an online face to face 

conversation. The data transcription of their conversation then was analyzed by using the taxonomy 

of communication strategies proposed by Celce-Murcia et al. (1995). Then, for the interview session, 

the researcher did the interview through Whatsapp call and recorded using audio recorder.  

After conducting the online face to face conversation, the researcher collected the data and tried 

to figure out what communication strategies used by the participants. The classification of the 

collected data based on gender, for example, what communication strategies performed both males 

and males, females and males, males and females or females and females used. The result of analysis 

based on communication strategies sheet was crosschecked for two or three times to the video recorder 

transcription for avoiding any missed information that the researcher analyzed. Moreover, for the 

interview data analysis, the researcher transcribed the recording into words. Based on the transcription 

of the interview session, the researcher tried to interpret it to draw the conclusion. Interpreting was 

used to investigate the why the research subject used some communication strategies and their 

perception about gender of communication partner influence to their chosen communication 

strategies. At the last step is drawing the conclusion, based on the interpretation, the researcher can 

draw the final result of the interview. 
 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

Communication strategies performed by the students  

The researcher had already collected the main data through an online face-to-face conversation with 

the participants. The data collected were in the form of video and audio recording. Those data were 

transcribed and then analyzed based on strategic competence from Celce-Murcia et al. (1995). Based 

on the data analysis, five sub-categories of communication strategies were employed by the students 

during their communication. Both male and female students used those five categories, but not all of 

the strategies were used by the students. There 16 communication strategies used among 19 strategies 

that proposed by Celce-Murcia et al. (1995). Those communication strategies that were used by the 

students during their conversations were topic avoidance, message abandonment, circumlocution, 

approximation, all-purpose words, non-linguistic means, restructuring, literal translation from L1, 

code-switching, retrieval, fillers, hesitation devices and gambits, self and other repetition, self-initiated 

repair, self-rephrasing, appeals for help, and meaning-negotiation strategies. Meanwhile, message 

replacement, word-coinage, and foreignizing were the strategies which never employed by the students 

during the conversation. Furthermore, the details analysis of the finding will be explained on the 

following paragraph with more explanation for the frequencies of each communication strategies, the 

description of the communication strategies used, and the interpretation of why the participants used 

those communication strategies related to gender.  

 

Table 1. Table of recapitulation of communication strategies performed by the students 

Type of  Communication Strategies Appearance 

Male to 
male 

Male to 
female 

Female to 
female 

Female to 
male 

Message Replacement  - - - - 

Topic Avoidance  2 4 1 - 



Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

177 

 

From the table of recapitulation above, both male and female students showed different number 

of occurrences. There was no significant gender effect on communication strategies used except for 

some strategies such as literal translation from L1, code-switching, fillers, hesitation devices and 

gambits, self-initiated repair, appeal for help, and meaning-negotiation strategies which showed 

significant differences. It can be deduced that excepts for those strategies mentioned above, the rest 

communication strategies showed similar numbers of usage. Here is the explanation for strategies that 

showed similar numbers of occurrences.  

For topic avoidance and message abandonment strategies, both of them are the opposite of 

communicating. They are decisions not to communicate. If topic avoidance occurs when someone is 

trying to avoid some topics or concepts which they don’t understand about and lack of vocabulary 

about it, message abandonment is a communication strategy used by the speaker when someone 

suddenly stops talking and leaving a message unfinished because of language difficulties. Here is the 

sample for topic avoidance “Yeah, I think. And then, the importance of education in college, I think [eee] I 

don’t know, I don’t know.” For message abandonment, here is the sample “More be hard and … [eee]”. 

Students showed similar numbers of usage of these strategies. This finding revealed with Mahardika et 

al.’s study (2014) which found out that almost similar numbers used by male and female students for 

these strategies. The researcher speculates that they have the same characteristic that is avoiding talking 

about something they don’t know about. Also, they may think that by using those strategies could 

enhance the effectiveness of communication. This statement echoed with Canale’s study (1983) which 

argued that communication strategies can assist learners to enhance the effectiveness of 

communication. However, for this case, it was not suggested for the students to use these strategies a 

lot because it will make the interlocutors confused especially when leaving an unfinished message. This 

statement is supported by Mariani (1994) who stated that reduction strategy can affect the content of 

the communication goals. 
Furthermore, for other strategies such as circumlocution (1), all-purpose words (1), and 

retrieval (3) which the most rarely used by the students, the researcher assumed that those strategies 

performed by the students unconsciously. One possible explanation for appearing of retrieval strategy 

by one male student it is because of the characteristic of the student itself. He might accustom to use 

this strategy while facing language difficulties, especially when speaking English. He retrieved the 

word until it complete and meaningful. Meanwhile, for the circumlocution strategy only appeared 

once. The researcher speculates that the students find it difficult when using this strategy. 

Circumlocution is a strategy in which the speaker overcome their speaking problem by describing or 

exemplifying the target object. They cannot remember the term or the word that they wanted to say, 

so how could possible they explain it using other words which leads the interlocutor to understand the 

Avoidance or 

Reduction 

strategies  

Message Abandonment  4 11 11 11 

Achievement or 

Compensatory 

strategy 

Circumlocution  1 - - - 

Approximation  4 15 4 3 
All-purpose words  - - 1 1 

Non-linguistics mean 4 15 11 5 
Restructuring  3 8 2 10 

Word-coinage  - - - - 

Literal translation from 
L1  

14 22 9 6 

Foreignizing  - - - - 
Code-switching  - 6 11 19 

Retrieval  2 1   

Stalling or Time-

gaining strategies   

Filler, hesitation devices 

and gambits  

126 182 158 236 

Self and other repetition  40 76 57 60 

Self -monitoring 

strategies  

Self-initiated repair  4 13 21 10 

Self-rephrasing (over -
elaboration)  

10 18 6 10 

Interactional 

strategies  

Appeals for help 8 7 29 32 
Meaning negotiation 

strategies  

15 15 17 33 

Total 236 393 338 437 



Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

178 

message. This statement is supported by one of the participants who said in the interview “It is because 

to explain the words that I’m confused has already difficult things to do, how could be I can explain 

it using words. It makes me more confused.” And for all-purpose word strategy which is used to 

explain a certain item using the general word as a compensatory, both male and female students rarely 

used it because they possibly have already known the words in English since they are English 

department students. Again, those three strategies showed no significant effect of gender in 

communication strategies used.  

Moreover, approximation, self-rephrasing, and restructuring strategies are strategies that deal 

with the placement and use of words. Those strategies showed insignificant numbers of usage. These 

similarities both male and female students in performing these strategies perhaps because they prefer 

employing verbatim strategies. They are as English department students have better language 

proficiency compared to the other majors. Their understanding and stock of vocabularies in their mind 

might pursue them to explain something and coping their communication problems by arranging the 

words. That’s why they used approximation, self-rephrasing, and restructuring as their 

communication strategies. The finding of approximation strategies was supported by Mahardika et 

al.’s research (2014) which revealed that there were slightly different numbers of occurrence both male 

and female students for this strategy. Besides, restructuring strategy in which showed lower rate 

appearances is echoed with Ugla’s study (2013) which stated the finding of this strategy is a very low 

rate.  

For non-linguistic means strategy, the occurrences of this strategy used by the students across 

gender are slightly different and showed a lower rate of occurrences. Male students performed it 19 

times, while female students 16 times. These findings did not match with what they said in the 

interview session in which they said that to overcome their communication problems, they usually 

use gestures or explain it in other words. Online communication (video call) limit the use of gestures 

as compared to face to face conversation. Furthermore, this finding indicates that there is no gender 

affecting the use of this strategy. This fact echoed with their statement in the interview session which 

said that for overcoming their communication problems while speaking English, they would use 

gestures. One of the students said “Yes, it’s always a problem. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable 

speaking in English, and the way I deal with it is by using body language or finding closest related 

words.” Perhaps, this is an easier way for them to make the interlocutor understand their thought 

while they are confusing to explain using words. Yet, this strategy is not always successful to be 

applied because it has limitations and leads to misunderstanding if the interlocutor has a different 

perception. In addition, the researcher assumed that both male and female students are expressive. 

This is indifferent to Parkins’ study (2012) who states that women are the more emotionally expressive 

gender in the realm of face-to-face communication. This statement indicates that when females have 

face-to-face communication, they will be emotionally expressive.  

The last one is self-repetition. There was only one different number of occurrences of this 

strategy, 116 times for male students and 117 for female students. This strategy is the second-highest 

strategy used by the students during the conversation. There are slightly different numbers between 

female and male students. The researcher realized that there are significant different numbers of this 

strategy used by the male students to the interlocutor. They frequently used this strategy while talking 

to the opposite gender. Actually, the female students did the same, but the different numbers of 

occurrences are not significant. This phenomenon could happen because they felt more burden and 

nervous while talking to a different gender. This statement in line with one of the student’s statements 

which said that he becomes more nervous when talking to someone of a different gender. Also, the 

similarities of this strategy used by them could be the cause of their eagerness not to make mistakes 

while speaking English. They gained time to think the correct utterances or words they want to say by 

repeating the words. This strategy also showed their intention to maintain communication.  

To sum up, the similarities numbers of usage of those strategies mentioned above because the 

students both male and female want to enhance the effectiveness of communication, they prefer 

playing with the words, they are expressive, and they want to maintain the conversation by gaining 

time. For the following paragraphs, the researcher explains more about differences in communication 

strategies performed by the students. As mentioned above in the table, there are some categories that 

showed significant differences in the numbers of usage. Those strategies are literal translation from 

L1, code-switching, fillers, hesitation devices and gambits, self-initiated repair, appeal for help, and 

meaning-negotiation strategies.  

Literal translation from L1 strategy was one of the favorite strategies used by the students. This 

was proven by the number of occurrences in which male students used it 36 times, while female 



Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

179 

students 15 times. Literal translation is translating words by words, the lexical item, idiom, compound 

words, or structure from L1 to L2. It means that the speaker directly translates the words without taking 

into consideration the grammatical of the sentence. Here is the sample, “… second is I live a far from 

my family and when. I’m feel so missing them, I just can look at by video call or calling my mom like 

that. Yeah, just that.” The female student wanted to say that whenever she misses her family, she 

usually calls or video calls her mom. She didn’t consider the grammatical aspect. As we can see, this 

strategy was more frequently used by male students rather than female students. Looking through the 

conversation of the participants, the male students spoke simpler and shorter sentences compared to 

the female students. This can be one possible explanation whereas the male students’ characteristics in 

which say something to the point so that they uttered simply. This is in line with Mahardika et al’s 

research which found out the male students have frequently used this strategy than female students.  

For another strategy that showed differences numbers of usage is code-switching. Code-

switching is using L1 word with L1 pronunciation or a LT word with LT pronuniciation in L2. 

(Dornyei, 1995). In another words is including the use of the native language of words or utterance 

during the conversation in the target language. From this research, almost all of the students had ever 

used this strategy during their conversation with the interlocutors. One of the students mentioned that 

whenever he talked to the native speaker, he would like to change the language into the native 

language to make it clearer. The result of this strategy showed female students performed it more 

frequently which was 30 times while male students only 6 times. The researcher speculates that the 

female students’ characteristic which is socially oriented influences them to perform any strategy as 

long as to maintain their conversation keep going. They don’t want to leave ambiguity and see this 

strategy as an easier strategy for maintaining the conversation. This finding is supported by Fishman 

(1983) who stated that men use short responses to show a lack of interest while women would utilize 

more responses to demonstrate her participation and interest in the interaction.  

Fillers, hesitation devices, and gambits is the most frequent strategy performed by the students. 

Whether male or female students used this strategy more frequently than other strategies. The result 

echoed with Mahardika et al’s study which also found out that both male and female students use 

fillers most frequently. The use of fillers, gambits, and hesitation devices itself is used as gaining time 

for thinking what’s they want to say. This is in line with Ikawati’s finding (2011) which stated that 

students needed a little time to think about what to say next while they have oral communication.  

Although they use this strategy frequently, but the numbers of usage are quite different. Female 

students performed it 394 times while male students 308. The significant different numbers among 

them in using this strategy possibly because female students avoid silence during conversation and use 

this strategy as their way to show their effort to keep the conversation going. Yet, this cannot be the 

only consideration as the effect of gender on the use of this communication strategy, other variables 

such as individual characteristics, the background of knowledge, or enthusiasm in the topic discuss 

should be taken into account. Besides, the lower numbers of usage of the male students were probably 

caused by the fact that male students have confidence enough in conveying their thought while 

speaking. Like what Zhao and Intraprasert’s study (2013) argued that male students had a greater 

willingness to manage anxiety while interacting in English to maintain the conversation than female 

students. That’s why male students performed fewer numbers of usage as a consequence of their effort 

in managing their anxiety.  

Regarding self-initiated repair strategies, again the female students employed this strategy more 

frequently than male students. Self-initiated repair is a strategy in which the speaker initiates to correct 

his words after he realized there is something wrong with his utterances. The findings of this resonate 

in Ugla’s study (2013) that the research subject used a self-repair strategy extensively. This was to 

compensate for their low proficiency in the English language. The differences number of occurrences 

between female (31 times) and male students (17), the researcher speculates that female students are 

more aware of realizing their mistake compared to the male. This was probably somewhat strongly 

influenced by the innate characteristics of females. This could be a possible reason why females 

innately better at language learning (Oxford, Nyikos, and Ehrman, 1988). Consequently, they 

immediately aware of their mistakes and repaired their incorrect words.   

For appeals for help strategy, Tarone (1977) gives a brief explanation about the appeal for 

assistance that the speaker asks for the correct term or structure. It means that the speaker asks another 

for help in order to help him with a certain term or item in the target language. The numbers of usage 

of this strategy is quite different for both female students and male students. On one hand, male 

students performed it only 15 times while female students used it 61 times. Another researcher who 

has the same result conducted by Hou (1998), he mentioned that the participants used more asking for 



Maulida Nur Aziza / ELT Forum 10 (2) (2021) 

180 

help when they are performing the task. Different results showed by Mahardika et al’s research (2014) 

which found out that male students more frequently used this strategy than female students. The 

researcher assumed that possible explanation of this strategy because male students didn’t want to 

show their inability by asking with the interlocutors but they performed other strategies. In line with 

this, they argued that a similar gender between male students and the interviewer encourages the male 

students to ask the interviewer when finding difficulties.  

Differed with the male students who handled their communication problems by performing 

other strategies, the female students who were social-oriented in communication tried to ask for help 

from the interlocutor to get the answer and help quickly. Female students typically rely heavily on 

verbally and socially mediated approaches in their interaction (Halpern, 1992 as cited in Vandergrift 

1997). That’s why they don’t consider showing their difficulties to the interlocutors to get help from 

them. To sum up, male students are typically don’t want to show their inability to others, while female 

students perceived this strategy as their way to cope with their communication problems quickly.  

The last communication strategy which showed different numbers of usage is meaning 

negotiation strategies. Again, female students are dominating the numbers of usage of this strategy. 

Ugla et al. (2013) found out that the students used this strategy frequently, especially asking repetition 

requests. In line with that, this research found out that the use of meaning negotiation strategy was the 

second-highest communication strategy used by the female students, and the fourth-highest 

communication strategy used by male students. Regarding the gender perspective, the researcher 

argues that possible reason for explaining the frequent numbers of usage by female students because 

they do not want to leave ambiguity or uncertainty in the conversation. If we look back on types of 

meaning negotiation strategies that consist of indicators of non-misunderstanding, responses, and 

comprehension check, three of them help the speaker to clearer the ambiguity or checking the same 

understanding both the speaker and the interlocutor. They may think that this strategy also effective to 

deal with their communication problems. This statement is supported by the previous study from 

Yaman and Özcan (2015) which argued that negotiation for meaning strategies is effective oral 

communication strategies that help students overcome communication problems. 

To sum up, among all of the communication strategies performed by the students, the female 

students are superior in employing the strategies. As we can see, the total number of CS used by female 

students is 775 while male students only 629. This was consistent with the results in Mori and Gobel’s 

study (2006), in which females had more desire to make L2-speaker friends and greater interest in 

direct contact with English speaking people than their male counterparts. Other studies showed 

significant female superiority in the use of all language learning strategies (Ehrman and Oxford 1989; 

Ellis 1994). That statement strengthening the fact that female students employed more communication 

strategies.  

 

Factors that influence the students in using communication strategies 

To answer the research question number two, the researcher conducted semi-constructed interview. 

They were eight questions delivered to the students using Indonesia language because the researcher 

intended to dig up more information from the respondents. For the factors that influence the students 

in using communication strategies, the researcher had already collected the data. Based on the 

interview transcription, there are some factors which influence the students in using communication 

strategies, they are: closeness of the relationship, gender, age, social status, preferences and interest.  

For closeness of the relationship, most of the students agreed that this factor influence their way 

of speaking style in communication. They said that whenever they talk to someone that is new or they 

don’t know before, they will select their words. Like what female student’s said “Partners in 

communication, right? I wouldn’t mind whether they are boys or girls because I don’t feel any different 

to have a conversation with either one. But it’ll be matter if, for example, A and B both are my friends, 

but compared to A, I barely talk to B. So, that makes our communication quite plain.”  

Furthermore, gender is another factor which influence the students in communication. Some 

of the students mentioned that gender of the communication partner influences them in their 

conversation. They will treat and behave different while talking with someone with the opposite 

gender. They differentiate their words, their politeness and their gesture. One of the male student 

stated that “Yes. I think it is also about gender. The way I talk to the girls and boys are slightly 

different. I would be more polite when talking to the girls.”  

Besides closeness of the relationship and gender, social status and age also matter. This was 

proven by the male student’s statement which said “Yes, indeed. I think it is due to the social status. 

The way I talk to my lecturers will be quite different from the way I talk to my fellow friends. I have to 



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mind my language somehow.” Besides, preferences and interest both the speaker and the interlocutor 

is influential for someone in communication. Some of the participants had the same argument about 

it and mentioned that this factor influence them to their communication style. One of them said 

“Perhaps the circumstance, relationship, and the range of the topic.” 

Another findings from the interview session is the students answer about the usual 

communication strategies that they used in their daily life. The researcher had already collected the 

data that show types of communication strategies performed by the students from the online face-to-

face conversation. On another side, the researcher asked the students about what type of 

communication strategies they usually used through this semi-structured interview in order to know 

how far their understanding about communication strategies. In fact, the result of the interview was 

slightly different from the result of the analysis of their communication strategies during the online 

face-to-face conversation. From the interview session, mostly mentioned that the students overcome 

their communication problems by using gestures, using similar words, description, asking for help, or 

switch their words into their mother tongue. However, the findings showed that there were 16 

communication strategies employed by the students during the conversation. The following sentences 

provide the students’ answers in the interview session.  

 

Male (4)  
“I used gestures and sometimes my first language which is Bahasa.” 

Male student (4)  
“I can just use my smartphone to translate it using the google-translator.” 

Female student (4)  
“Sometimes I feel uncomfortable to speak in English, and the way I deal with it is by using body language 

or finding closest related words.” 

 

The first statement indicated that the student chose a code-switching strategy to overcome his 

communication problems. Meanwhile, the second statement provided a different strategy that he also 

prefered using a smartphone to help him while facing language difficulties. This strategy can be 

categorized as asking for help strategy. Furthermore, the female student’s statement showed that she 

chose body language or gesture and finding closest related words. Finding the closest related words 

that the female student mentioned can be restructuring, self-rephrasing, circumlocution, or 

approximation strategy because those strategies focused on arranging words.  

Based on the findings above, the researcher predicts that the difference between the students 

answer in the interview and their communication strategies used during conversation happened 

perhaps because they do not know about what the exact name of the communication strategy. Yet, 

actually, they have the concept of the strategy but they don’t know any kind of other communication 

strategies, so they answered what they know. It can be concluded that the students employ more 

communication strategies rather than what they answered before. So, they need to know more about 

the types of communication strategies to help them improve their communication ability.  

Besides, the explanation above can not be the one of the reasons for the differences that appeared 

in this strategy. Due to the use of Whatsapp video call, an online platform, as the instrument, the 

researcher speculates that other factors may influence it. Those extrinsic factors affect the different 

numbers itself. The factors can be the quality of the internet connection, the quality of the headset or 

speaker of the smartphone whether interlocutor or the students, the quality of the video recorder, and 

it can be the situation. What is meant by the situation here is whether are there any disturbance which 

affects the concentration of the students.  

To sum up, there was no significant differences of CS used based on gender except for some 

strategies. This phenomenon happened caused by other factors such as topic discussion, the closeness 

of the relationship, topic, age, social status, preference and interest, internet connection, headset, video 

recorder, or the situation of the surrounding. For the future researcher, they need to try to conduct this 

study with different methods and numbers of participants. The researcher predicts that the result will 

be different if the study conducted face-to-face in real life.  

 

CONCLUSION 

There were no significant differences in communication strategies performed by the students based on 

gender except for some strategies. Those strategies are literal translation from L1, code-switching, 

fillers, hesitation devices and gambits, self-initiated repair, appeal for help, and meaning-negotiation 

strategies. They showed significant different numbers of occurrences. The researcher argues that the 



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182 

similarities number of occurrences happened because of some factors. Those factors include the 

students’ eagerness to enhance the effectiveness of communication, the different of students’ 

characteristics, they prefer playing with the words, they are expressive and they want to maintain the 

conversation by gaining time. Meanwhile, for the differences, it is influenced by some factors such as 

female students prefer avoiding silence in communication, females are socially oriented, males students 

speak simpler and to the point, innate ability of male and female, males students do not want to show 

their inability, and the students do not want to leave ambiguity. Besides, those factors, external factors 

also give a big impact on the numbers of occurrences. The external factors are the internet connection, 

the quality of headset/speaker of the smartphone, the quality of the video recorder, and the situation 

around the speakers or interlocutors.  

Furthermore, based on the interview result, there are some factors that influence the participants 

in the conversation. Those factors are gender, the closeness of the relationship, topic, age, social status, 

preference, and interest. Interestingly, some students argued that they do not matter about the gender 

of the communication partner in affecting them while communicating. Based on the result of online 

face-to-face conversation, students who have that argument performed different result. Both male and 

female students performed frequent communication strategies towards different gender of the partner 

of communication. Any factors related to the gender difference which might influence them are the 

closeness of the relationship, topic, interest, characteristic of the communication partner, and the 

feeling that the speaker has toward the interlocutor. As a result, due to the different gender with the 

communication partner makes some students nervous, lack of confident, or limiting their body 

language. Hence, they performed frequent numbers of communication strategies used. 

The researcher realizes that this research has limitation. Firstly, this research was conducted 

during the pandemic of COVID-19 viruses spreading around the world. Indonesian government 

demanded all of the citizen to stay at home. As a result, this study conducted through online platform. 

For the future researchers, they need to consider some matters such as the signal of the internet 

connection and the quality of the video and audio recorder while collecting the data through an online 

platform. Although, they are external factors, they have such a big impact on your data collection. The 

better of the audio and video recording, the better of the transcription and analysis as well. 

Communication strategies not only includes verbal words but also there are gestures, facial expression, 

or sound imitation which has to be analyzed. As a result, they need good quality of video and audio 

recording to get the best analysis of their studies. 

 Secondly, this research is limited to eight participants only. The researcher suggests that for the 

more concrete research, future researchers are better to use more participants and using different 

settings. For example, they can conduct a study that focused on investigating oral face-to-face 

conversation not online conversation. Furthermore, they can use different setting such as employing 

the real native speakers to have a face-to-face conversation with the participants. The more different 

methodologies used, the broader available resources related to this study. It is meant to gain concrete 

data and findings 

 

 

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