Theoretical Framework
The research we aim to embark on will employ the Theory of Speech Act, a linguistic theory was coined by John L. Austin in 1962.This theory basically states that a speaker performs a social action by saying something.
According to this theory, speech can be analysed in three levels:
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Dresner et al (2004) point out that emoticons mainly work in three ways: as emotion indicators, as indicators of non-emotional meanings and as illocutionary force which do not reflect on facial expressions.
Methodology
Internet research is divided into two categories, web-based and online research. The web-based research is further divided into non-intrusive and engaged research. As this research is based on observation and interaction with participants, therefore, it will be a web-based engaged research. (Warrell & Jacobsen 2014, 25.) Following are our research steps:
1: The research team will create a Facebook page which will be used to invite participants.
2: The research team will invite the subjects from a known Facebook teacher group (Tieto-ja viestintätekniikka opetuksessa/ICT in Education) to discuss this issue and answer a survey online.
3: An online questionnaire will be used to collect data. A Likert-scale will be used to indicate the magnitude of emoticon use and how positive or negative the participants perceive the emoticons.
4: The observations will be analysed qualitatively and the questionnaire will be analysed quantitatively.
5: The data will be analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively