모바일 텍스트 메시지에 나타난 비언어적 커뮤니케이션 양상의 연구

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore different aspects of the emoticons used and how the use of emoticons differs between English native speakers and Koreans in terms of social distance and relationships in mobile communication. The research was conducted by surveys with English and Korean college students and a total of 107 responses were collected. The results show that English student group use emoticons more often than the Korean group and for both groups, the main reason for using emoticons is to show emotions and to make messages friendly. Both groups use emoticons with close relationships such as ‘friends’ and ‘close classmates’. However, according to Korean student respondents, they tend not to use emoticons much with ‘family’. In the case of relationships that provoke the most discomfort when receiving message with emoticons, a sizeable percentage of English speaking students responded ‘friends’, which was not anticipated at the outset of the study whereas the Korean responded ‘acquaintance’ and ‘someone you do not know’. Regarding the appropriate use of emoticons, a number of Korean students think emoticons should be used when showing emotions that cannot be delivered by text. However, many English students stated that the use of emoticons should be in informal texting and it is not appropriate in a formal relationship.