Group 3
Location: Outside the Grand Hall
Targets: Five (five local men, mid-thirties to sixties)
Group 2
Location: SLC
Targets: Four (local Chinese, three girls, one boy)
- Politics, national issues, girls
- Presumed Context: Casual chit-chat session between friends
- Meta-communication:
- Hand gestures e.g. content- form a box with hands
- The oldest man hit the table while saying, 'No! I represent all...' after being asked by another man whether he represented something
- "She sell unit trust is it? She sell then of course la!" + hand gesture
- Informal setting
- Average usage of meta-communication
Lunch @ Grub Bistro
Club Meeting @ SLC
Chit-chat Outside Grand Hall
- What to sell for a charity event + pricing
- Club members meeting
- Meta-communication:
- See: One girl was glaring and eyeing another from head to toe. Later on, she disagreed with a price the short-haired girl suggested
- Hear: "Yes, like I said, I was talking about this..." *"Do you know what I mean?" "I understand what you say, but others are selling bigger portions."
- Semi-formal setting
- Meta-communication was mostly verbal
Group Discussion @ Library
Lunch @ Face-to-Face
Group 5
Location: Library
Targets: Five (Two boys: one local, one foreigner; three local girls)
Conclusion
Group 4
Location: Face-to-Face
Targets: Three (One young Korean man, one old local Chinese man, one young Indian woman)
- Math questions
- Classmates having group study
- Meta-communication:
- Verbal cues (mainly by the male 'tutor'):
- "Do you understand?" before going in depth
- "Why don't you take a seat?" when a girl kept talking nonsense
- "Are you trying to say this?" when the girls did not understand what the local boy meant
- Others:
- Two girls who were talking to each other: "Cakap BM dia tak faham" and they laughed
- One boy said, "I'm on a diet." followed by a laugh
- Semi-formal setting (peer teaching session)
- meta-communication was largely demonstrated verbally
Group 1
Location: Grub Bistro
Targets: Four (2 local Chinese boys, 2 foreigners)
Meta-communication frequency
- Food, traveling, politics, safety issues
- Lecturer having lunch with his students
- Meta-communication:
- Actions: The Korean man used hand gestures
- Tone of voice: "There are SO many speed traps!"
- Facial expression: The Korean man showed a scared expression while saying, "That time I was very scared."
- Others: A slight laugh to show that they are kidding (The Korean man suggested chasing after the robbers instead of calling the police then he laughed)
- Informal setting
- Much meta-communication was noticed
- Main topics: Cockroaches; how good their lunch was
- Predicted Context: Classmates having lunch (maybe after class)
- Meta-communication:
- use of objects to tell the story about the cockroach
- verbal cues: "Have you tried this before?" followed by "As I was saying..."
- Conversational topics; informal setting
- The four talked to each other a lot, except when they were eating
- Minimum meta-communication was noticed
Meta-communication
communication about communication, which can be nonverbal or verbal.