Thanking Strategies Used by English Department Students of Satya Wacana Christian University Students: a Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

This thesis focus is on social factors that influence what someone says or expresses his or her gratitude. From these factors, I am interested to know what types of thanking strategies which Satya Wacana Christian University students as the speakers choose to express the thanking strategies when they receive the act of kindness such as; receiving a favor, getting a compliment and getting a suggestion from others. The data of this study are taken from the questionnaire distributed to sixty respondents which consist of twenty students from 2nd semester, twenty students from 4th semester, and twenty students from6th semester students of the English Department Faculty in Satya Wacana ChristianUniversity. The data are analyzed based on the strategies of thanking proposed by Haverkate (1984). From the data analysis, I find out that strategy A which is thanking somebody explicitly is the mostly used strategy by the students. The other two strategies mostly used by the students are strategy G which is expressing emotion and strategy D which is expressing appreciation of the act. I also recognize both of male and female rarely use strategy E which is acknowledging a debt of gratitude and strategy B which is expressing gratitude.