The Use of Greetings, Opening and Closing, By Indonesian Students Studying at LA Trobe University

Abstract

This research was aimed at finding out the greetings, both openings and closings, used by twelve Indonesian students studying at La Trobe University. The focus of the study was the language used, the formality of openings and closings, the politeness or mitigation especially in closings, and kinds of non-verbal greetings in used. There were six different groups performing the conversation: the first group involved a conversation between close friends, the second group was between two participants who were not close friends, the third was a conversation among three participants, one participant introduced his friend to a new-comer student, the fourth was a conversation between Moslems, the fifth was a conversation between a Moslem and a participant from another religion who were casual acquaintances, and the last was a conversation between an adult and a child. Tape recorder and pencil and paper technique were used to collect the data. The results of the study indicated that the local language and the Bahasa Indonesia of the speakers and interlocutors influenced the greetings, the level of formality in greetings and the politeness especially in closings used in their home country were the same as in Australia, and the non-verbal greetings like smiling, bowing, and waving were considered to be the emphasis of the greetings themselves. The results suggest that further research particularly on the use of greetings will be conducted among various age, education and cultural background.