Methods, Finding, Discusssion, and Conclusion (Types and Functions of Fillers)

4.1       Findings

            In this part, I divide the findings into two parts regarding there are two research questions in this research. The first is the types of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students, while the second is the functions of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students. 

 

4.1.1    Findings on the Types of Fillers Used by the First and the Seventh Semester Students

This part will answer the first research question, which is the types of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students, and the differences and/or the similarities of those types of fillers between the first and the seventh semester students.

The details of the findings and its frequencies are shown in the table below.

Based on Table 4.1 which shows the types and the frequencies of fillers used by both the first and the seventh semester students, we can see the differences and the similarities of those types of fillers. First of all, we can see the comparison from the frequencies and the total number of each type of fillers occurred. From Table 4.1, it can be seen that the first semester students used 316 fillers, consisting of 58 (18.35%) silent pauses and 258 (81.65%) filled pauses (141 (44.62%) unlexicalized filled pauses and 117 (37.03%) lexicalized filled pauses), while the seventh semester students used 424 fillers, consisting of 65 (15.33%) silent pauses and 359 (84.67%) filled pauses (207 (48.82%) unlexicalized filled pauses and 152 (35.85%) lexicalized filled pauses). Overall, we can see that both the first and the seventh semester students produced unlexicalized filled pauses as the most frequently used type, followed by lexicalized filled pauses in the second position, and silent pauses in the third position.

By viewing Table 4.1 especially to the columns of Silent Pauses, it can be seen that there are a similarity and a difference between the first and the seventh semester students. The similarity is both the first and the seventh semester students used all types of silent pauses with unit (.) as the most frequently used type, followed by double unit (--) in the second position, and treble unit (---) in the third position. Then, the difference is the first semester students produced less numbers of unit (.), which is 10.76%, than the seventh ones, which is 12.50%. In contrast, the first semester students produced more numbers of double unit (--) and treble unit (---) than the seventh semester students, which is two times bigger, 5.70% : 2.12% and 1.90% : 0.71%.

        The examples of silent pauses can be seen below.

 A: And the noise and the traffic jam is (---) the noise and the traffic jam is not the (--) impact...

In these utterances, A produced two times silent pauses, that is one time treble unit (---) and one time double unit (--) because A got difficulty in finding the right word and then A preferred to keep silent while thinking what to say next. It can be seen that A repeated 'the noise and the traffic jam is' followed by silent pauses before finally A found the intended word, that is 'impact'.