YUSI INDAH PUTRI (0813042055)

NEGOTIATION OF MEANING

(SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION)

BY

YUSI INDAH PUTRI

NPM: 0813042055

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

ART AND LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY

LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY

2011

I.       Definition

Negotiation is one of the most common approaches used to make decisions and manage disputes. It is also the major building block for many other alternative dispute resolution procedures. It is a process that speakers go through to reach a clear understanding of each other. Negotiation occurs between spouses, parents and children, managers and staff, employers and employees, professionals and clients, within and between organizations and between agencies and the public. Negotiation is a problem-solving process in which two or more people voluntarily discuss their differences and attempt to reach a joint decision on their common concerns. Negotiation requires participants to identify issues about which they differ, educate each other about their needs and interests, generate possible settlement options and bargain over the terms of the final agreement. Successful negotiations generally result in some kind of exchange or promise being made by the negotiators to each other. The exchange may be tangible (such as money, a commitment of time or a particular behavior) or intangible (such as an agreement to change an attitude or expectation, or make an apology).

Negotiation of meaning is a series of exchanges conducted by addressors and addressees to help themselves understand and be understood by their interlocutors. In this case, when native speakers (NSs) and non native speakers (NNs) are involved in an interaction, both interact ants work together to solve any potential misunderstanding or non understanding that occurs, by checking each others’ comprehension, requesting clarification and confirmation and by repairing and adjusting speech (Pica, 1988).

There have been many proposals of negotiation of meaning advocated by experts. Yet, this analysis tries to depart from a definition suggested by Pica et al (1989). They defined that negotiation of meaning basically consists of four interrelated moves. They are Trigger, Signal, Response and Follow-up moves.

The first to go, Trigger, is viewed as any utterances followed by the addressee’s signal of total/partial lack of understanding. Then, Signal is that of total or partial lack of understanding. There are some types of signal:

(1) explicit statement or request for clarification.

(2) request for confirmation through repetition on the addresser

(3) request for confirmation through modification of the addresser, and

(4) request for confirmation through completion or elaboration of the addresser.

The next is Response, consisting of:

(1) switch to a new topic

(2) suppliance of information relevant to the topic, but not directly responsive to addressee signal

(3) repetition of the addressee’s modification of trigger

(4) self modification of trigger

(5) repetition of the addresser’s trigger

(6) confirmation or acknowledgement of signal only, and

(7) indication of difficulty or inability to respond.

The last is Follow-up moves that consist of:

(1) comprehension signal, and

(2) continuation move.

All of the analysis below will much rely on the concept above.

From T. Pica (1987). “Second-language acquisition, social interaction, and the classroom.”

Applied Linguistics, 8, 3-21.

Signals of comprehension difficulty :

·         Confirmation checks: Moves by which one speaker seeks confirmation of the other’s

preceding utterance through repetition, with rising intonation, of what was perceived to be all or part of the preceding utterance.

·         Clarification requests: Moves by which one speaker seeks assistance in understanding

the other speaker’s preceding utterance through questions, ... statements such as “I don’t understand,” or imperatives such as “Please repeat.”

·         Comprehension checks: Moves by which one speaker attempts to determine whether the other speaker has understood a preceding message.

II.                         Conversation Transcript

Conversation 1 (female-female)

L         : Ledy(20 years old)

A         : Acca (20 years old)

L          : Ca, lu tau gak Maicih..Maicih itu? (T)

A         : Maicih apaan? (S)

L          : Yang diributin di TL twitter itu loh.. (R)

A         : Maicih apaan siih? Kalo Paicih mah tetangga gw, Maicih tu istrinya ya? Haha.. TL apaan lagi? (S)

L          : TL TimeLine! Maicih tuu nama merek keripik yang dari jepang itu loh! (R)

A         : Oh iya deng, pernah denger gua.. yang katanya pedesnya bisa bikin meninggal itu ya? Hahaha (TU)

L          : hahaha iya.. tapi pedesnya bisa kita pilih sendiri.. soalnya pedesnya tuh mulai dari level satu ampek sepuluh. Ihh pengen loh gue! (R)

A         : beli sih beli jangan ampe enggak! Biar bibir lo dower..Tapi susah loh itu nyari nya di Lampung.(R) (T)

L          : iya.. dimana ya belinya? Penasaran gue, gak gaul ntar kita kalo gak makan tu keripik!(S)

A         : coba aja tanya-tanya di info Lampung. (R)

L          : Hah? Apaan lagi tuu? (S)

A         : Di akun twitter itu loh.. ntar kalo lo nge-twitt dia, tar kan di retweet balik, dikasih tau jualanya dimana. (R)

L          : iya juga ya!(TU)

A         : ya udah ntar kalo lo udh tau trus kasih tau gw ya! (T)

L          : ngapa? Lo mau pesen juga tah? (S)

A         : ya enggak, lo beli aja trus ntar gw minta! Hahaha (R)

L          : huuu.. dasar lo! Yodah deh! (TU)

 

Conversation II (Male-Female)

A         : Andrean (22 years old)

M        : Medita (20 years old)

A         : yank sakit lho perut aku (T)

M         :  apa yang dirasa? (S)

A         : Sakit melilit gitu! (R)

M         : Makanya!(T)

A         : “makannya” apa? Orang aku gak makan aneh-aneh kok..  (S)

M         : anah! Bukan “makan-nya” tapi ma-ka-nya, maka-nya loh! (R)

A         : oh!(TU)

M         : makanya kalo aku kasih tau tuu dengerin! Makan kamu gak teratur sih! Magg kamu tuh! (T)

A         : anah kok jadi bawa-bawa mama aku? (S)

M         : waa! Bukan mamah tapi magg sakit magg! Koq budeg sih kamu ini sayang! (R)

A         : ya maaf sih namanya juga lagi sakit lho. Kamu malah ngomongnya gak jelas! Yaudahlah anterin aku ke dokter lah ntar sore! (TU)

M         : yodah sekarang makan dulu yok!

A         : yok!

Conversation 3 (male-male)

F          : Fa’iz (16 years old)

A         : Aulia (14 years old)

A         : Mas, temenin gw sih ke plaza pos! (T)

F          : mok ngapa?(S()

A         : beli kaset PS GTA (T).

F          : hah.. kaset apa? (S)

A         : GTA kaset PS tembak-tembakan. Ayok sih mas! (R)

F          : dimana belinya? (S)

A         : Plaza pos. Kan tadi gw udah bilang! (T)

F          : ya iya tapi dmana gw gak paham tempatnya. (S)

A         : yang disebrang BNI itu.. (T)

F          : hah? BNI mana, alangkah banyak bank BNI disini. (S)

A         : ck! BNI yg deket bambu kuning tapi plaza pos nya di sebrang nya (R) (T)

F          : kalo ama pasar tengah? (S)

A         : nah iya daerah situ. Kan blakang plaza pos itu kan udaah langsung ktemu pasar tengah. (R)

F          : ooh! Ai ngomong geh daritadi. Bambu kuning mah jauh! (TU)

A         : lagian geh masa plaza pos aja gak tau.. yook temenin ya! )R)

F          : ya ya ya!(TU

III.                         Analysis

From the conversations above, we knew that one of the speakers is not really understand some of the words or meaning of that discussed by other speakers, they try to overcome the mistakes made by using the negotiation of meaning (Trigger, signals, responses and follow up) to overcome the mistakes made by both speakers for the intended meaning can be conveyed properly.

In the first conversation between female and female about “Maicih Food” both speakers have some words that they not understand. When Ledy asking about Maicih, Acca heard not understood. Then Ledy try to explain what Maicih is. And when Acca said about TL(timeline) on twitter, Ledy not understand. So they explain each other to clear the error. We can see from the number of negotiation of meaning that we have analyzed; Triggers, Signals, Responses, and Follow up. By doing much ‘follow up”, it means that she already enough understood what the other speaker said to her.

In the second conversation between male and female, they talking about “Andrean’s stomachache”. When Medita said “makanya”, Andre heard it as “Makannya”. So Medita clear the error by re-explain it until she feels that it clear for Andre. We can see from this number of negotiation of meaning; Triggers, Signals, Responses, and Follow up.

In the third conversation between male and male, they talking about “ Plaza Pos Address”. When Aulia said GTA Faiz feels confused, and need explanation from Aulia what it meant. And Actually they knew where the Plaza Pos is, but they have some missunderstood in way to explain the place itself. When Aulia said Plaza is in the opposite of Bank BNI, Faiz did not understand. But When Aulia said  Plaza is near with Pasar Tengah, Faiz understood because that was a familiar place that he heard. We can see from this number of negotiation of meaning; Triggers, Signals, Responses, and Follow up.

IV.   Conclusion

We can conclude that negotiation of meaning is defined as a series of exchange conducted by addressors and addressees to help themselves understand and be understood by their interlocutors according to Yufrizal (2007; p.80). On the other hand, Pica, (1988) states, when native speakers (NSs) and non native speakers (NNSs) are involved in an interaction, both interactants work together to solve any potential misunderstanding or non understanding that occurs, by checking each others’ comprehension, requesting clarification and confirmation and by repairing and adjusting speech. There are such a classification who made by the researcher, and one of them is made by Pica. In short, the writer use one of Pica’s negotiation of meaning to analyze the conversation;  Trigger (T); Sound that can make misunderstanding, Signals (S); Confirmation Check, Clarification Request, Response (R); Self Repetition, Follow up (TU) ; Statement showed understanding.

From all the discussion about the negotiation of meaning which have been discovered by researchers, include Pica and Yufrizal, it aims to overcome the misunderstanding words or statement which happen between NNS and NS.SB