Communication Repair in Virtual Academic Discourse during COVID-19 Pandemic

Interaction through communication remains crucial in education. However, this became more magnified when academic institutions shifted to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the reason why this study was conducted to explore more on the communication types, mechanisms, and reasons behind the phenomenon. The study employed Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis to understand the four-recorded virtual academic discourses of AB English Language Studies as the main source of data. These discourses were transcribed and analyzed using the analytical framework of Miles and Huberman (1994) to find out the existing types and mechanisms of communication repairs. In addition, study participants were interviewed to find out the reasons why these types and mechanisms were used during the virtual academic discourses. Findings revealed that there are three types of communication repairs utilized by the participants, including repetition, code-switching (substitution), and modification. In addition, the mechanisms include self-initiated self-repair and self-initiated other-repair, and the communication breakdown that demands repair in the virtual academic discourse is associated with communication barriers, comprehension constraints, and low self-esteem as common reasons. Thus, it is concluded that communication repair opens opportunities to eliminate communication breakdown, especially for those people who know communication repair strategies.