LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:11 November 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Study on Reasons for Code-Switching in Facebook by
Pakistani Urdu English Bilinguals

Sabahat Parveen, M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D. Research Scholar
Shazma Aslam, M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil. Research Scholar

Abstract

With over 800 million active users, Facebook is changing the way hundreds of millions of people relate to one another and share information. Language has also been influenced in terms of its usage and practices as it is one of the favored modes of communication on the Internet. Code switching is one of the language phenomena where such changes can be traced. This paper aims to find out code-switching in online interaction also the reasons for doing so by examining participants’ bilingual exchanges in social networking website. This study adapts Malik’s (1994) ten reasons for code-switching as a framework to investigate the reasons of code switching by Urdu English bilingual students of five postgraduate institutes of Pakistan. The data consisted of messages posted by bilingual students on their Facebook profile pages. The study uses descriptive qualitative method to analyze data collected through convenient sampling method. Findings show that code-switching is a prevalent phenomenon in Pakistani Urdu English bilingual speakers on facebook. Based on the analysis the study concluded that code switching is not only apparent in spoken discourse but also in online written discourse and the reasons for switching codes are similar to those of verbal communication.

Keywords:Code switching , Facebook, Reasons, Bilingual

Introduction

Code switching is a widespread phenomenon in bilingual speech and it is therefore not surprising that a great proportion of research on bilingualism focus this. More often than not, bilinguals will find themselves switching or mixing between languages that they are familiar with while engaging in a conversation daily. Known as code-switching in linguistics, many bilinguals will utilize their ability to shift from one language to another to communicate with others in an unchanged setting and usually within the same utterance (Bullock & Toribio, 2009).

Code-switching, alternatively known as code-mixing, is not an unfamiliar linguistic phenomenon in Pakistan, a multilingual country where bilinguals often communicate with more than just one language or variety in everyday interaction. Code-switching, which may be defined as the alternation between two or more languages in a speaker’s speech, occurs naturally in the speech of bilinguals. According to some studies, code-switching often happens subconsciously; people may not be aware of the fact that they have switched, or be able to report, following a conversation, which code they used for a particular topic (Wardaugh, 1998, p. 103).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sabahat Parveen, M.A, M.Ed, M.Phil, Ph.D. Research Scholar
Assistant Professor in English
Department of English Language and Literature
University of Education Lahore
Pakistan
sabahatmushtaq@hotmail.com

Shazma Aslam, M.A., M.Ed., M.Phil. Research Scholar
Kinnaird College for Women Lahore
Pakistan
poma_aslam@hotmail.com

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