ABSTRACT
Mothers use social cues to connect and bond while teaching their children. Western-individualistic culture holds that facial expression and gaze are the most significant cues to revealing a mother’s intention, but in Eastern-collectivism culture, such as Sundanese culture, it is forbidden to expresses emotion freely. This study explored Sundanese social cues that were utilised by mothers to state their intention while communicating with their children. Data was collected through naturalistic observation in three kabupaten (regencies) in West Java Province. Mother and child interactions in six families were recorded, each for five days. The mothers’ instructions were categorised and interpreted based on categories of social cues, from which were identified three vocal intonations, repeating word(s), three facial expressions, two eye gaze(s) and three gesture varieties. The result shows that even though a flat-faced expression does not give any clue about a mother’s intention, it is the most frequent cue (82.8%) that Sundanese mothers use, and utilisation of eye contact is restrained. Sundanese mothers use other modalities to indicate their intention, which are high intonation (62.8%) and pointing gestures (71.2%).
