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

METHODS

This chapter presents the methods of gaining and processing the data. It covers Approach of the Study, Data Collection (Subjects, Instrument, Data, Procedures of Collecting Data) and Data Analysis (Identifying the Data, Classifying the Data, Analyzing the Data).

3.1       Approach of the Study

In conducting this research, I used qualitative approaches supported by quantitative data because of two reasons. First, the outcome is the product of the researcher's subjective interpretation of the data. Second, it uses number to help the writer analyzing the data (Drnyei, 2007, pp.37-38).

           

3.2       Data Collection

            This part consists of subjects, instrument, data, and the procedure of how I collected the data. I described briefly the steps of collecting the data.

3.2.1    Subjects

            The subjects of this research were 40 Petra Christian University, the English Department students, consisting of 20 students from the first semester  and 20 students from the seventh semester. These 40 students were considered representative enough to be generalized as the first and the seventh semester students of the English Department. In addition, the number of the respondents for each semester was equal in order to get the valid and consistent data. Those students were chosen as the subjects of this research because they represent well the students with the shorter and the longer studying time in the English Department. The eighth semester students were not chosen as the representative of the students with the longer studying time since at the time of doing this research, some of them had already graduated and some of them rarely came to the college so it brought more difficulties for me to gather them and ask their favors to help me in doing this research. However, the first and the seventh semester students have been the active students so they were easy to be met in the college. Moreover, in conducting this research, the subjects were not differentiated by gender, age, status, or other factors.

3.2.2    Instruments

            The instruments of this research were a role-play and three questions to be discussed by the respondents in pairs. The topic was Petra Square Apartment and its construction work. The followings are the questions.

1. What do you think about Petra Square Apartment which is located near our campus? Do you agree with the existence of this apartment or not?

2. As you know this apartment is being done 24 hours a day. This certainly can bring impacts (noise and traffic jam) to the environment. Do you agree with this 24 hour construction work or not?

3. When this apartment is finished, would you rather live in this kind of apartment or in a boarding house?

3.2.3    Data

            The data of this research were fillers in the utterances produced by the first and the seventh semester students of the English Department.

3.2.4    Procedures of Data Collection

Pairing

            In order to get the types and the functions of the fillers produced, I used a role-play in gaining the data from the respondents. First of all, I divided those 40 respondents into 20 pairs consisting of two students from the same semester. So, there will be ten pairs of the first semester students and ten pairs of the seventh semester students. The pair system was used instead of the individual or group system because fillers occur mostly in an interactive or two ways communication. So in my opinion, the individual system had a strong weakness to be deleted from this procedure since it was a one way communication. Similarly, the group system consisting of more than two respondents had a strong weakness not to be used for this research because the more the respondents, the more ineffective the conversation was since if one spoke up, the other would only listen and kept silent. It made me difficult to gain fillers if the respondents mostly kept silent during the role-play. That was why I decided to apply a pair system since the conversation was run in a two-way-communication in an effective way for two respondents only. Besides, by applying this pair system, I could get fillers easier.

            Besides deciding the pair system, I also decided to pair the respondents from the same semester because I assumed that generally the students from the same semester would minimally know each other and were closer to each other, so they were expected to get involved to the conversation comfortably. In contrast, the students from different semesters were thought to get more difficulty when having the conversation because they were strange to each other so it would influence the smoothness of the conversation. That was why I decided to pair the students from the same semester.

 

Preparing the Questions for the Pairs

            To make the respondents spoke up during the role-play, I prepared a topic with some questions to be discussed by the respondents. The topic should be general and well-known so that every student could answer, explain, and even discuss the questions asked. Thus, I chose Petra Square Apartment as the topic for at least two reasons. First of all, the location of Petra Square Apartment was very near Petra Christian University so all students should know about the existence of this apartment. Secondly, at the moment of doing this research, the apartment was also in progress of being built in 24 hours, thus it brought some impacts to the environment, including to the students of Petra Christian University. In addition, the three questions about that apartment demanded the thought from the respondents, so they were expected to produce a lot of fillers. This really helped me in collecting the data about the types and the functions of fillers produced.

 

Pre-Recording Process

            After preparing the questions, I started the process of recording which took place in B building's class, ILC, and ASC because those places were quite comfortable for the respondents to have a light conversation.

            In order to get the data, I did the following steps. First of all, I introduced myself to my respondents and explained a little bit about my purpose of asking their favor. This was important in order to make them calm and feel safe. I was sure that it would make the process of recording run smoothly and I would get the data I wanted because they would trust me and it made them convenient.

            Then, I used informal/casual language to give the instruction about what they have to do because I considered that in such ages, people would be more comfortable and relax talking in casual language. So, I thought it would be easier to find the data if they felt comfortable and relax.

            After that, I showed the questions that would be discussed by them in pair. I asked them whether they need time to think about the answer or not. If they thought they need the time, I allowed them to think for around three until five minutes, but I forbade them to write the answer on a piece of paper since I needed the spontaneous and natural utterances. While they were thinking, I prepared my recorder device in my cell phone to record the conversation.

Recording Process

            When the respondents were ready, I started recording. The respondents opened the conversation with greeting before going deeper to the main topic. Then, the three questions mentioned in the instruments were asked and answered by the respondents in turn like a common conversation. However, they had to read the questions from a piece of paper that I gave because in order to get the valid data from all respondents, the questions asked should be the same. Finally, they ended the conversation with farewell. During this process, I did not talk or get involved in the conversation since I did my role just to record the conversation. Averagely, each group talked for four until six minutes.

Post-Recording Process

            After the recording process, I thanked my respondents for providing the time and willingly participating in my research. Then, I asked them to fill in the form that I had provided to get some information, such as their full names, their ID numbers, and their cell phone numbers. I also asked their permission to use their speech for my study.

Transcribing 

            I started to listen to the recorded conversation from my recorder device for several times. This was important to identify fillers in the utterances. Then, I transcribed the conversations and listened to the recording again to check whether the transcription was the same as the recording one. When transcribing, I used the transcription symbols which are commonly used for conversation analytic research. These symbols were developed by Gail Jefferson (1978, cited in Wooffitt, 2005). The following symbols are used in the data.

(.)         unit (silent pause) / a brief pause

(--)       double unit (silent pause) / longer than unit

(---)      treble unit (silent pause) / longer than double unit

.           end of the utterance

*   *     overlapping talk

**        interrupted talk

*          interrupting talk

>          continuing talk from the same speaker

(  )        unclear fragment on the tape

()          the act of doing something when speaking

After transcribing, I started to identify those fillers.

3.3 Data Analysis

3.3.1    Identifying the Data

            I limited the part of the conversation that would be identified in order to get the valid data from all conversations. The greeting and the farewell parts of the conversation would not be identified. Only the utterances related to the three questions about the main topic, Petra Square Apartment, would be identified. To mark fillers in the conversation in the table, I put a small superscript number before those fillers. The number will be in order.

In identifying fillers in those conversations, I used three principles. First, I identified the same fillers from the examples given in the primary sources, such as well, you know, basically, I think, sort of, kind of, like, I mean, if you see what I mean, ee, err, ehm, huh, ah, uh, and so on (Brown and Yule, 1983, p.129) (Hatt, 1998, par.5), (Rose, 1998, p.7). In addition, I also used Yule's theory (2006, p.242), that fillers are a break in the flow of speech, so every silence in the conversation would be identified as fillers.

Then, to make sure that they are fillers, I used a second principle from Baalen (2001, par.7) that fillers could be deleted from the sentence without a change in content. I read the sentence with and without deleting the sounds and/or the words that were assumed as fillers to check whether the content was changed or not.

            Finally, I used the third principle to make sure whether the sounds and/or the words were fillers or not, that is by listening to the recorded data for at least two times. According to Wu (2001, p.2) fillers do not flow within the context of the conversation. In addition, Carter, Goddard, Reah, Sanger, and Bowring (1997, p.201) mention that fillers happen when the speakers are planning and thinking about what s/he wants to say next. By listening to those conversations again, I could check whether the sounds and/or the words flew within the context or not, and whether the speaker was planning and thinking about what s/he wants to say next or not. In short, by applying those three principles explained above, I could identify fillers as my data.

           

3.3.2    Classifying the Data

            I classified the data into two big classifications, that is the types of fillers and the functions of fillers.

a. Regarding the types of fillers:

            I categorized those fillers according to the theories from Rose (1998), Baalen (2001), and Stenstrm (1994).

Silent Pauses

Silent pauses were marked with unit (.) or double unit (--) or treble unit (---) based on the length of the silence at the point where pauses occurred. Due to no further explanation from the sources in terms of the length of unit, double unit, and treble unit in the conversation, I decided to set it by myself. Unit takes 3.2 until 16 seconds, double unit takes 17 until 38 seconds, and treble unit takes more than 39 seconds moment of silence. By using this standard, I classified the silences into these three classifications.

Filled Pauses

     Filled pauses are filled with some vocalizations. Filled pauses are divided into two types, which is unlexicalized filled pauses and lexicalized filled pauses. These filled pauses were italicized and bolded as the mark.

a. Regarding the functions of fillers:

            I categorized the functions of those fillers according to the theories from Rose (1998), Stenstrm (1994), Baalen (2001), and Wu (2001).

Filling the Pause

The function is to fill the pause because the speaker needs time to breaks off the speech while continuing to articulate (as cited in Stenstrm, 1994, p.7).

Hesitating

The function is to help the speaker to think about what s/he will say next (Matthei & Roeper, 1983, p.164, and Wu (2001, p.6).

 

Interrupting

The function is to help the speaker when s/he in conversation wants to utter different topic or start a new topic when the other speakers talk about some topics Jordan (2001, p.15).

Holding a Conversation Turn

The function is to help the speaker who does not want to give up his/her turn and instead wants a little extra time to think about what s/he is going to say next by using fillers to signal this (Juan, 2006, par.2).

Empathizing

The function is as an attention-getting device, which helps the speaker to check whether the listener pays attention or not and invite the listeners to get involved in what the speaker says (Stenstrm, 1994, p.64-65).

Mitigating

The function is to help the speaker to express that s/he is not committed to what s/he is saying and then to help the speaker to soften or mitigate utterances in order not to hurt the addressee's feelings (Baalen, 2001, par.6).

Editing the Term

The function is to edit the term, which means to correct the speech error of the speakers. Thus, the speaker is aware that s/he has made a speech error so s/he wants to correct it Baalen (2001, par.8).

            Due to no further explanation on how to classify these functions of fillers exactly, I had to consider some factors that helped me a lot in deciding these functions, that is the speaker's smoothness, length of time needed, intonation, certainty, and intention or the whole meaning of speaking. By noticing and counting these factors, I could classify easier these functions. It cannot be avoided that one filler can have more than one function due to some intention from the speaker, but only the most obvious function was used in this research.

            For an easier way of classifying the data, I made a table, consisting of four columns, that is number of turn, utterances, type of fillers, and functions of fillers. Then, I put the utterances into the table based on the number of turn. After that, beside the column of Utterances, I wrote the type and the function of fillers in the provided columns, based on the number of fillers marked or referred. Here is the example of the table.

3.3.3    Analyzing the Data

            There were some steps that I followed in order to do the analysis:

a.   Regarding the types of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students:

After classifying those fillers into the comparison table of Types of Fillers between the first and the seventh semester students, I counted the number and the percentage of each type of fillers, that is silent pauses and filled pauses (unlexicalized filled pauses and lexicalized filled pauses). After that, I counted the total number and the percentage of each type of fillers. For an easier way of analyzing the data, I put the total number of each type of fillers in the Table 3.2 below. Then, I analyzed the number of each type of fillers and started to interpret them.

Regarding the functions of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students:

After classifying those functions of fillers into the comparison table of Functions of Fillers between the first and the seventh semester students, I counted the number and the percentage of each function of fillers, that is filling the pause, hesitating, interrupting, holding a conversation turn, empathizing, mitigating, and editing the term. After that, I counted the total number and the percentage of each function of fillers. For an easier way of analyzing the data, I put the total number of each function of fillers in Table 3.3. Then, I analyzed the number of each function of fillers and started to interpret them.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into several parts, that is the findings and the interpretations on the findings.

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'.

            Then, if we pay more attention to the columns of Unlexicalized Filled Pauses from Table 4.1, both the first and the seventh semester students produced a similarity and the differences. The similarity is both the first and the seventh semester students produced ee as the most frequently used type and ehm as the second frequently used type. Then, the difference is the first semester students produced ee lesser than the seventh semester students, which is 27.85% : 38.68%. Another difference is the first semester students did not produce oh, while the seventh semester students did not produced ah, nah, and huh as their unlexicalized filled pauses.

            Examples of unlexicalized filled pauses:

     B:  Ya, me too, ee, since I disagree with the existence of this apartment, I I will also disagree with, even with the 24 hours a day ee in the construction working because ee as what I said before, the road is getting smaller... it's a two way roads, so ehm, the traffic, ehm, that something that cannot be avoided...

In these utterances, B produced a lot of unlexicalized filled pauses, that is ee for three times and ehm for two times when s/he was talking her/his opinion about the negative impact of Petra Square Apartment's 24 hour construction work. B used several unlexicalized filled pauses to fill the pause and to hesitate. These unlexicalized filled pauses are easily identified because they have no meaning due to basically they are vocalizations. 

After that, when we see the columns of Lexicalized Filled Pauses from Table 4.1, we can find a similarity and the differences as the result of the different semester of the respondents. The similarity is both the first and the seventh semester students produced yeah as the most frequently used type. Then, the difference is the first semester students did not produce I guess, like, sort of, what is it, and what else, while the seventh semester students did not produced well as their unlexicalized filled pauses. Another difference is the first semester students produced I think more than two times bigger than the seventh semester ones, which is 4.11% : 1.42%. Besides, the first semester students produced well for 6.96% (the second biggest number of lexicalized filled pauses after yeah), while none of the seventh semester students produced it. Ya, yeah, and yes were produced less frequently by the first semester students than the seventh semester students, which are 2.53% : 9.43%, 8.23% : 9.67%, and 0.95% : 1.83%.

            Examples of lexicalized filled pauses:

     C:  Well, since I use motorcycle, I can just slip the cars, but it's kind of be dangerous, you know.

In these utterances, C three lexicalized filled pauses, that is well, kind of, and you know. C used these fillers when talking his experience riding motorcycle in traffic jam caused by Petra Square Apartment's 24 hour construction work. These lexicalized filled pauses are easily identified because they do not change the meaning of the content if they are deleted.

            After deciding fillers and their types, we can see Table 4.1 to see the frequencies. From the total number of each type of fillers, the most popular type of fillers used by the first semester students is ee (unlexicalized filled pause), followed by ehm (unlexicalized filled pause) in the second position and unit (.) (silent pause) in the third position, while for the seventh semester students, the most popular type of fillers used is ee (unlexicalized filled pause), followed by unit (.) (silent pause) in the second position, and yeah (lexicalized filled pause) in the third position. Ee is the most frequently used type of fillers by both the first and the seventh semester students.

4.1.2    Findings on the Functions of Fillers Used by the First and the Seventh Semester Students

This part will answer the second research question, which is the functions of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students, and the differences and/or the similarities of those functions 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 4.2 which shows the functions of fillers used by both the first and the seventh semester students, we can see the differences and the similarities of those functions of fillers. First of all, we can see the comparison from the frequencies of each function of fillers used. Both the first and the seventh semester students used six out of seven functions of fillers, that is Filling the Pause, Hesitating, Interrupting, Holding a Conversation Turn, Empathizing, and Editing Term. One function of fillers which is Mitigating was not used by both the first and the seventh semester students. Overall, the students used fillers to hesitate as the most frequently used function, followed by to fill the pause in the second position, and to empathize in the third position.

Filling the Pause

A: Ya, actually we are the same. I also ee do not know ee either about the noise and the traffic jam that caused by the 24 hours constuc-construction a day.

            These ya and ee above are the examples of fillers that function to fill the pause. A said these utterances when A was talking about the negative impact of Petra Square Apartment's 24 hour construction work a day. A used ya and ee as fillers in order to fill the pause because maybe A needed time to breaks off the speech while continuing to articulate.

Hesitating

B: Because their noise ee the house become (.) what's that? (.) become broken.

            These ee, (.) and what's that? above are the examples of fillers that function to hesitate because those fillers help her/him to think about what B will say next. B got difficulty to find the right word to say, that is 'broken', so B produced some fillers.

 

Interrupting

C:  ... it's very disturbing for the students and the all of the (--) people in this campus.

D:  Yeah, and when this apartment is finished, would you rather live in this kind of apartment or in a boarding house?

            This yeah in D's utterance above is the example of filler that functions to interrupt. C was talking about the disturbing impact of Petra Square Apartment construction, but then suddenly D used yeah to change the topic, which is about the preference to live in the apartment or in the boarding house. By using fillers, D interrupted C to build a new topic.

Holding a Conversation Turn  

E:   Because ee, I haven't experience living in ee boarding house. Ya, I I never get used to.

            This ya in the utterance above is the example of filler that functions to hold a conversation turn. Reading the utterances above, it is supposed that E finished her/his turn after the word 'boarding house'. However, before the listener started to speak, E continues her/his sentence by using filler ya. E did not want to give up her/his turn.

Empathizing

F:   So, but, you know, it's it's a big noisy and you know it's make traffic jam, so are you okay with that?

            These you know in the utterance above are the examples of fillers that function to empathize. F was asking her/his listener's opinion about the negative impact of Petra Square Apartment construction work, so F used this you know to help her/him to check whether the listener pays attention to her/him or not and invite the listener to get involved in what F says.

Mitigating

G: ...I would go to my boarding house, my lovely boarding house.

H:  Okay then. Ee it seems that I have to go to my class.

            This ee in the H's utterance is the example of filler that functions to mitigate. G was talking about her/his lovely boarding house, but H wanted to end the conversation since she had to go to class, so instead of directly saying 'Okay then. I have to go to my class.', H used ee as filler to help her/him to soften or mitigate utterances in order not to hurt G's feeling. However, because the greeting and the farewell parts of the conversation were not be identified, this mitigating devices did not appear at all.

Editing Term

I:  ...I don't agree with this existence of this Petra Christian, eh, Petra Square Apartment, because...

            This eh in the utterance above is the example of filler that functions to edit the term. I was supposed to say 'Petra Square Apartment', but s/he made a mistake, that is saying 'Petra Christian University'. Realizing her/his mistake at the moment of speaking, I directly corrected that mistake by using eh, followed by the correct one.

By viewing Table 4.2 especially to the columns of Silent Pauses, we can see a similarity and the differences 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 (.), (--), and (---) to hesitate as the most frequently used function, compared to the other functions. Then, the difference is the first semester students use less unit (.) to hesitate, which is 10.44%, compared to the seventh ones, which is 11.79%. In contrast, the first semester students used more numbers of double unit (--) and treble unit (---) to hesitate than the seventh semester students, which is two times bigger, 5.70% : 2.12% and 1.90% : 0.71%. Another difference is the first semester students did not use unit (.) to edit the term, while the seventh semester students did not use unit (.) to interrupt.

Then, we can see a similarity and the differences between the first and the seventh semester students in using fillers for a certain purpose if we pay more attention to the columns of Unlexicalized Filled Pauses from Table 4.2. The similarity is both the first and the seventh semester students produced unlexicalized filled pause to hesitate as the most frequently function used, followed by to fill the Pause. Then, the difference is the first semester students produced ee to fill the pause and to edit the term for around two times smaller than the seventh semester students, which is 16.27% : 8.23% and 2.36% : 1.27%.

After that, the columns of Lexicalized Filled Pauses from Table 4.2 shows us that there are a similarity and the differences between the students from the first and the seventh semester. The similarity is both the first and the seventh semester students produced lexicalized filled pause to  fill the pause as the most frequently function used, followed by to empathize in the second position, and to hesitating in the third position. Then, the difference is the first semester students used I see to empathize for more than four times bigger than the seventh semester ones, which is 2.22% : 0.47%. Besides, the first semester students used well to fill the pause for 4.75% and to hesitate for 1.90%, while none of the seventh semester students produced, even used well for a certain purpose. It also happened for what is it, since none of the first semester students produced it, while the seventh semester students used it to hesitate for 1.65%. Another difference is ya was used less frequently by the first semester students than the seventh semester students in order to fill the pause, which is 1.90% : 7.55%.

From the total number of each function of fillers, the most popular functions of fillers used by both the first and the seventh semester students is to hesitate, and followed by to fill the pause in the second position. Editing the term is the least frequently used function of filler by the first semester students, while interrupting is the least frequently used function of filler by the seventh semester students. Both the first and the seventh semester students did not produce fillers to mitigate in their spoken interaction.

 

 

 

4.2       Interpretations on the Findings

            In this part, I explain the findings described above, regarding the differences and/or the similarities of the types and the functions of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students.

First of all, the fact that the total number of fillers produced by the first and the seventh semester students is quite significant, which is 316 fillers and 424 fillers, may mean that the longer the studying time or the higher the semester, the more fillers they produced. This might happen due to the length of the conversation because the seventh semester students, as the higher semester, averagely produced longer conversation than the first semester students, as the lower semester, since the longer the conversations, the more fillers occurred.

Regarding the number of silent pauses used, there is also a significant difference between the first and the seventh semester students in producing unit (.), double unit (--), and treble unit (---), which is 10.76% : 12.50%, 5.70% : 2.12% and 1.90% : 0.71%. This may suggest that the length of studying time gives a significant result on the use and the frequency of silent pauses. Then, it may also imply that seventh semester students are better than the first semester students in using silent pauses appropriately since the less occurrence of double unit (--) and treble unit (---) may mean that they are able to fill the gap quickly with other kinds of fillers, such as ee and ehm, instead of letting the silence fill the pause or letting the listener wait for the next utterance. When the seventh semester students need to fill the pause, they probably prefer to use unit (.) which does not take longer time as well as double unit (--) and treble unit (---). No wonder that the numbers of unit (.) by the seventh semester students is bigger than the numbers of unit (.) by the first semester students.

Moreover, there is a small difference in unlexicalized filled pauses since the similarities are very big. The first semester students produced 27.85% ee while the seventh semester students produced 38.68% ee. Then, it may imply that the first semester students are better that the seventh semester students since out of a lot of types of fillers, the seventh semester students preferred to use ee. It is supposed to be good if they are able to use, not only ee, but also the other types of fillers. Besides, the more the ee occurred, it may sound as disfluency.

Moreover, in lexicalized filled pauses, there is also a great difference between the first and the seventh semester students in producing I think, which is 4.11% : 1.42%. This may mean that the first semester students are better than the seventh semester. It may suggest that the seventh semester students are not accustomed to use I think when stating their opinions. Maybe they are accustomed to directly state their opinion by saying "I disagree with..." or "I don't agree with..." while the first semester students are accustomed to fill the pause and to hesitate by producing I think.

In addition, the fact that the first semester students did not produce oh, I guess, like, sort of, what is it, and what else, while the seventh semester students did not produce ah, huh, nah, and well does not result on a significant difference because the difference range is small, compared to the similarities. This insignificant difference may suggest that the length of studying time does not result on the appearance of some examples of fillers produced. This might be because the students are not accustomed to produce those fillers. Probably each speaker has her/his own favorite fillers that s/he produces when s/he is speaking, so probably s/he does not produce the other fillers besides her/his favorite ones. For example, there are two students from each semester produced I guess instead of I think although both have the same functions. Maybe those fillers above, such as oh, I guess, like, sort of, what is it, what else, ah, huh, nah, and well did not appear for some students in different semester because maybe there are other fillers that can be used similarly, for example kind of for like and sort of; what's that for what is it and what else; yeah or ya for ah, huh, nah, and well; and eh for oh. Possibly, the disappearance of some fillers above is a matter of being accustomed to produce those fillers or not.

Still related to lexicalized filled pauses, interestingly, the use of well and ya gives a significant difference for the first and the seventh semester students with the comparison 6.96% : 0% and 2.53% : 9.43%. This probably happen because the seventh semester students may prefer to produce ya instead of well which actually has the same function. No wonder that none of the seventh semester students produced well, but the occurrence of ya is very high.

Interestingly, ya is not a native-language filler, but it belongs to Indonesian one since we have the word ya in Bahasa. The use of well (native-language filler) by the first semester students and the use of ya (Indonesian filler) by the seventh semester students may imply that the first semester students have a better quality in using fillers than the seventh semester students, because the more similar to the native speaker, the better the use of fillers.  

Besides ya, there is also an Indonesian filler, which is nah. This nah occur one time only in the first semester student's occurrence. Nah does not belong to the native-language fillers, such as huh, ee, err, and so on, but it belongs to Indonesian fillers since nah is commonly used by Kalimantan people. This nah appeared when the speaker was talking her experience enthusiastically. "... when I go to Petra ... when I go with, you know, like a general transportation like bemo, nah, ee, when you ah, when you use it, ee they they just stop it and they need some passenger....". The occurrence of nah by the first semester students may imply that when the speaker is talking her/his experience or narrating her/his story enthusiastically, sometimes s/he does not realize that the local fillers may appear due to the speaker may focus on the plot and the clearance of the story instead of the use of fillers. Maybe these local fillers do not appear when the speaker is getting involved in a light spoken interaction since s/he could control the use of non-native language fillers.

Although there are some differences explained above, actually there are also some similarities between the types of fillers by those students. For example, both the first and the seventh semester students used (.) as the most frequent type of silent pauses, followed by (--) in the second position, and (---) in the third position. Probably it is influenced by the topic discussed in the conversation, which is about Petra Square Apartment, which may not be too difficult, so to search the right word, they did not need more than 3.2 to 16 seconds. No wonder, (.) appeared the most in the conversation.

For unlexicalized filled pauses, there is no difference for the two most frequently used types, which is ee as the most frequently used type, followed by ehm in the second position. This may imply that both the first and the seventh semester students are not good enough since out of several types of unlexicalized filled pauses, they just used two types only as the most. Perhaps people sometimes do not realize when they say ee and ehm because maybe ee and ehm are the simplest and the easiest fillers to produce, compared to others.

For the lexicalized filled pauses, yeah is the most frequently used type. It may imply that both the first and the seventh semester students are not good enough since they just used yeah as their favorite lexicalized filled pause, whereas there are a lot of types of fillers that can be used. Perhaps yeah is also the simplest and the easiest fillers to produce since it is only one word, compared to I mean or you know which consists of two words. For some students, either in the first or the seventh semester, yeah is like an automatic fillers appeared when they begin to utter. Probably, it is just a matter of being accustomed.

Overall, there is a significant similarity between the first and the seventh semester students in using those three types of fillers. Both the first and the seventh semester students produced unlexicalized filled pauses the most, followed by lexicalized filled pauses in the second position, and silent pauses in the third position. It may mean that the length of studying time does not influence the frequency of the types of the fillers used. Regarding the position of each type of fillers above, perhaps it is because producing unlexicalized filled pauses is simpler than producing the lexicalized ones, or on the other words, producing non-lexemes/words is simpler than producing words/phrases. Juan (2006,  par.3) also says that unlexicalized filled pauses are the easiest sounds to make while having a spoken interaction. In addition, silent pauses are in the third position maybe because of the occurrence of silent pauses may be easily interrupted by the other speakers so the recent speaker could not able to continue her/his utterances.

Moving to the functions of fillers used, by viewing the Table 4.2, we can see that there is a significant difference between the first and the seventh semester students in functioning silent pauses (.), (--), and (---), which is 10.44% : 11.79%, 5.70% : 2.12%, and 1.90% : 0.71%. This may suggest that the seventh semester students are better than the first semester students in using silent pauses since the less occurrence of double unit (--) and treble unit (---) may mean that they were able to hesitate by quickly filling the time that they need to search the right words with other kinds of fillers, such as ee and ehm, instead of letting the silence fill the pause or letting the listener wait for the next utterance. When the seventh semester students need time to hesitate, they probably prefer to use unit (.) which does not take longer time as well as double unit (--) and treble unit (---). No wonder that the numbers of unit (.) by the seventh semester students to hesitate is bigger than the numbers of  unit (.) by the first semester students.

Moreover, there is no significant difference in unlexicalized filled pauses since the similarities are very big. Then, it may imply that the length of studying time does not influence the functions of unlexicalized filled pauses.

Moreover, in lexicalized filled pauses, there is also a significant difference on the function of I see, well, and what is it used by the first and the seventh semester students. The first semester students used I see to empathize with comparison 2.22% : 0.47% from the seventh semester students. It may imply that the first semester students are better than the seventh semester students because they are able to engage the listener and make them feel part of the conversation. Probably it is because the seventh semester students prefer to use right or you know instead of I see as an empathizer.

It also happened for well in use. The first semester students used well to fill the pause for 4.75% and to hesitate for 1.90%, while none of the seventh semester students used well. Once again, it may mean that the first semester students are better than the seventh semester students. This probably happen because the seventh semester students may prefer to produce ya instead of well which actually has the same function. It also happened for what is it, since the seventh semester students used it to hesitate for 1.65%, while none of the first semester students used it because perhaps they prefer to use what's that which has the same function as well.

Then, ya, yeah, and yes give a quite big difference in the function used since the first semester students just used them in order to fill the Pause because probably it is influenced by their preference to use well instead of ya, yeah, and yes to fill the pause.

Overall, regarding the least function of fillers used, we can see a quite big difference. The first semester students produced fillers in order to edit the term as the least frequently used function, while the seventh semester students produced fillers in order to interrupt as the least frequently used function. This may suggest that both the first and the seventh semester students are not good enough to use fillers for those two purposes. This is maybe because the seventh semester students prefer to directly correct the wrong words without producing fillers to edit the term, while the first semester students perhaps prefer not to interrupt the other speaker by waiting until the utterances are finished to deliver.

Although there are some differences explained above, actually there are also some similarities between the functions of fillers by those students. For example, there is a significant similarity between the first and the seventh semester students in using those fillers for a certain purpose. Both the first and the seventh semester students used silent pauses (.), (--), and (---) to hesitate as the most frequently used function. This may imply that both the first and the seventh semester students are not good enough since out of seven functions of fillers, they just used one function only as the most. It is probably because silent pauses are commonly used to hesitate or to search the right words.

The same thing also happened in unlexicalized filled pauses. Both the first and the seventh semester students produced those unlexicalized filled pauses just for hesitating and filling the pause as the most frequently used functions. The other five functions were not used as many as hesitating and filling the pause functions. This may imply that both the first and the seventh semester students are not good enough. In addition, this may be influenced by the Indonesian fillers, such as ee and ehm since Indonesian people mostly produced these two fillers. Then, both the first and the seventh semester students may not be called as good as the English native speakers in using unlexicalized filled pauses for several functions, besides hesitating and filling the pause.

Then, there is a significant similarity between the functions of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students in terms of lexicalized filled pauses. The students used lexicalized filled pauses for filling the pause as the most frequently used function, followed by empathizing in the second position, and hesitating in the third position. This may suggest that both the first and the seventh semester students are good enough to use three out of seven functions of fillers. The occurrence of lexicalized filled pauses to empathizing may mean that the students are able to invite the listeners to get involved in what they say. 

Interestingly, the fact from the finding shows that there is no difference at all for both the first and the seventh semester students in producing fillers, especially for mitigating, since none of them produced fillers to mitigate. This is probably because the topic discussed in the conversation, which is about Petra Square Apartment, is not really related to the speaker's feelings, since mitigating functions to soften or mitigate utterances in order not to hurt the addressee's feelings (Baalen, 2001, par.5). This mitigating function actually appeared at the end of the conversation, such as "Okay then. Ee it seems that I have to go to my class". This ee functions not to hurt the addressee's feeling. However, because the data used for this research is limited to the questions and answers of the topic, this mitigating function is not covered in this research.

In this research, I only discussed on one function of one filler only. Actually, one filler can have more than one function, such as filling the pause and hesitating. Here is the example.

(a boy wants to express his feeling to a girl).

Boy     : What to say? Hmm... I I want to say (--) hmm, would you be my girl?

The italicized and bolded hmm above can function to fill the pause to prepare his mental and at the same time, can function to hesitate or to search the right word to say next. Although using one filler for more than one function in a certain situation is difficult, but it is good to equip the speaker with several devices when having interactional conversations.      

Overall, the fact that for both the first and the seventh semester students, hesitating takes the biggest percentage of the total fillers produced, followed by filling the Pause in the second position, does not give a significant difference. This may imply that both the first and the seventh semester students are not good enough since they just used fillers as what the common people use too in Bahasa, that is to hesitate and to fill the pause, whereas there are five other functions of fillers. This may mean that the length of studying time does not influence much for the students to use several functions of fillers. This might be because when people think about what to say next, they automatically produce fillers in order to hesitate. This function shows that the speaker completely forgets what he/she wants to say or the speaker needs time to search the right words (Matthei & Roeper, 1983, p.164, Wu, 2001, p.6). Then, filling the pause may suggest that the speaker actually breaks off speech while continuing to articulate (Stenstrm, 1994, p.7). Besides, it also probably helps the speaker while manifesting the hearer's attention.

 CONCLUSION

In this research, I observed the types and the functions of fillers produced by the first and the seventh semester students of the English Department, Petra Christian University, based on the length of studying time. I did a comparison, especially in the differences and/or the similarities between the fillers used by both the first and the seventh semester students. Then, I gained the data from the conversations from 40 students, consisting of 20 students for each semester, in a role-play. Mainly, I used the theory on the types and the functions of fillers from Rose (1998), Stenstrm (1994), Wu (2001), and Baalen (2001). Furthermore, I conducted this research in quantitative-descriptive approach.

            In the findings and discussions, I found that the first semester students produced less fillers than the seventh semester students. The first semester students produced 316 fillers (consisting of 58 silent pauses, 141 unlexicalized filled pauses, and 117 lexicalized filled pauses), while the seventh semester students produced 424 fillers (consisting 65 silent pauses, 207 unlexicalized filled pauses, and 152 lexicalized filled pauses). Then, both the first and the seventh semester students produced unlexicalized filled pauses as the most frequently used type of fillers, followed by lexicalized filled pauses and then silent pauses. In general, ee is the most frequently used filler. Both the first and the seventh semester students produced fillers in order to fill the pause, to hesitate, to holding a conversation turn, to empathize, and to edit the term. Hesitating and filling the pauses are the most frequently used functions. However, mitigating function did not appear at all in the data that I got.    

            As a conclusion, I concluded that there is no significant difference between the types and the functions of fillers used by the first and the seventh semester students due to there are a lot of significant similarities found. Besides, the length of the studying time does not influence much on the fillers used. Overall, both the first and the seventh semester students are not good yet in using several types of fillers and several functions of fillers because they just used ee and ehm as the most frequently used types of fillers, and they just used fillers to hesitate and to fill the pause as the most frequently used functions, out of seven functions. So, the statement that due to the longer studying time that the seventh semester students produced more lexicalized filled pauses for more appropriate functions compared to the first semester students is completely incorrect.

By conducting this research, hopefully the students of the English Department, Petra Christian University can realize how important the fillers are and how big the function roles of fillers are in the spoken interaction, especially in the interactional speech, because it cannot be denied that they are accustomed to have more transactional speeches in the classroom. In addition, hopefully by reading this research, the students can have a good and appropriate communication skill, and the lecturer or curriculum designers, especially those who teach speaking class, can design an appropriate curriculum that pays more attention to the interactional speech, besides transactional speech.

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