Using the Interpersonal Relationship Communication Approach to Assess Language Dominance in both Written and Oral Communication among Multilinguals

Olusiji Lasekan Olusiji Lasekan

doi:10.20896/saci.v8i1.623

Abstract

Copious research works have attempted to assess language dominance among bilinguals. However, very little empirical research has been conducted to determine the concept among multilingual by using interpersonal relationships communication domains such as families, friendships, and acquaintances. This is crucial because the choice of language use between two interlocutors in any domain depends on the level of social relation that exists between them. Therefore, this current study aims to determine language dominance for oral and written communication at different domains of interpersonal relationships such as family, friends, and acquaintance. Each domain size was used as a proxy to measure language dominance among different groups of multilingual living in the Southern part of India. As part of this study, a structured sociolinguistics questionnaire that probes the use of the Facebook Friend Lists feature was adopted to determine each domain size and language use in each domain. The questionnaire was administered among forty-three multilingual postgraduate students. The result showed that the dominant language for oral and written communication in the entire geographical setting is the first language (L1) and English, respectively. This suggests that the interpersonal relationship communication approach is practical to determine language dominance in a community.

Highlights

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in language dominance among bilingual researchers
This is because the choice of language for Face to Face communication is highly determined by the degree of interpersonal social relations that exist among interlocutors of the same multilingual community (Lasekan, 2018)
This study is mainly concerned with the usage of interpersonal relationship communication as a model to investigate dominance in both oral and written communication among families, friends, and acquaintances, which predicts the degree of dominance at home, other social institution domains, and the whole community

Summary

Introduction

There has been an increasing interest in language dominance among bilingual researchers. In Indian setting, Fishman (1986) investigated the dominance of language in different social institutions such as home, school, workplace, marketplace, amongst others. The limitation of some of these studies is that social institutions such as home and workplace are not suitable enough to determine the language dominance in these domains. This is because the choice of language for Face to Face communication is highly determined by the degree of interpersonal social relations that exist among interlocutors of the same multilingual community (Lasekan, 2018). The conclusion gives a summary and critique of the findings

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion