Languages, Code-Switching Practice and Primary Functions of Facebook among University Students

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this study was to determine the languages used in Facebook wall posts and comments,<br />code-switching practice of these multilingual university students and functional orientation of their<br />Facebook wall posts and comments. This study was mainly based on the investigation of the latest 50<br />Facebook comments of 100 Malay public university students in Malaysia. The first language of these<br />university students is Bahasa Malaysia and English is their second language. The content analysis of<br />wall posts was used to analyze the code-switching language used in the Facebook and the primary<br />functions of the Facebook comments by categorizing them using Thurlow’s (2003) SMS categories that<br />contain nine orientations. The findings indicate that majority of the Facebook users comments are<br />categorized under friendship maintenance orientation to maintain existing relationships and create new<br />friendships. The findings indicate heavily abbreviated languages in English and Bahasa Malaysia. It is<br />found that situational code-switching between English and Bahasa Malaysia is heavily utilized by<br />multi-lingual Facebook users. The research is significant in a number of ways as it offers the<br />communication culture of Facebook among public university students in Malaysia. In addition, the<br />study indicates that Social Network Sites can also be a potential teaching and learning tool to teach<br />English since learners nowadays are members of various Social Network Sites.</p>