Sociopragmatic Differences and Behaviors in the Use of WhatsApp in Virtual Classrooms at a Public College of Education in Ghana

Abstract

This study sought to establish how tutors at Komenda College of Education engaged students in virtual classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed a qualitative approach through the descriptive design. Data was 462 conversations between tutors and students through the WhatsApp messaging application. To ensure anonymity and confidentiality, all personal names and other details were removed. The study established that while tutors posted more messages than students, messages of the tutors were made up of instructions, commands and directions. Students addressed their tutors with high respect. Female students sent more and longer messages and utilized more emoticons than their male counterparts. Contracted and non-conventional forms of speech were very common in students’ WhatsApp chats with their tutors. Both the tutors and students used persuasive words (e.g. please, and kindly) as a way of gaining approval from the other party. Verbal fillers in the WhatsApp group chats performed two macro-functions: interpersonal and textual. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made.  First, institutions of higher learning should provide the instructional support to teachers and students on how to minimize or maximize their own speech differences while engaged in a virtual classroom. There should be pedagogical models in virtual classrooms that allow learners and facilitators to engage in more informal ways. Finally, for an effective online learning to take place, tutors and students should appropriately accommodate each other.