L۲ Students’ Rapport Management with their Teacher Using Emojis in WhatsApp Messaging

The goal of this study was to find out how L۲ learners used emoticons in WhatsApp messages to manage their relationship with their teacher. Twenty students and ten male and female professors provided the data needed for the study. They were chosen from among the English teachers at a Language Institute in a non-random manner. The method used in this investigation was qualitative. The researcher then collected the qualitative data using a semi-structured interview. an interview using the researcher's prepared open-ended questions. Participants were questioned regarding all of the key aspects of WhatsApp chatting using emojis. Additionally, only ۲۰ students and ۱۰ teachers were asked to respond to the researcher's piloted and transcribed interview questions. The duration of the interview was over ten minutes.  Participants were allowed to respond in Persian, their native tongue, even though the questions were in English.  Qualitative content analysis was used to examine the interview data.  The primary recurring themes of the interviews were extracted through the coding of the interview data for this content analysis.  It should be noted that in order to safeguard the participants' identity, their names were kept totally private.  According to the results, emojis can be especially helpful in L۲ courses where students can find it difficult to communicate their feelings or grasp the subtleties of a foreign language.  Emojis are thought to provide emotions a visual representation, which facilitates communication between students and teachers and allows teachers to assess students' comprehension.

کلیدواژه ها:

Rapport management ، emojis ، WhatsApp messaging