Reasons to Code-Switch: A Case Study of Malaysian Twitter Users
- Zulkifli Zufati Izazi, School of Languages, Literacies, and Translation, Universit Sains Malaysia, *Corresponding author, E-mail: zulfati_izazi@yahoo.com
- Tengku Mahadi Tengku-Sepora, School of Languages, Literacies, and Translation, Universit Sains Malaysia
Abstract
As a multicultural and multilingual country, Malaysians often utilize code-switching in daily verbal conversation. This code-switching phenomenon has recently been found to be evident in their written communication throughout the internet, as well. The study in this paper concentrates on the reasons for the employment of code-switching within the context of Malaysian social media users. Information for the study was collected through an online survey distributed through Twitter, a social media platform. The construction of the survey was based on Hoffman’s (1991) and Mustaffa’s (2014) established reasons for code-switching in verbal communication. The findings of the study revealed that ‘the simplicity of the word’ and ‘being accustomed to the habit’ were the most frequent reasons that lead surveyed Malaysian Twitter users to code-switch. The information gained from the study will help provide insight on the reasons why Malaysian social media users employ code-switching in online interactions
Keywords: code-switching, social media, sociolinguistics, Twitter
DOI: 10.14456/rjsh.2020.5
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