Sociolinguistic aspects of the code switching between English-Urdu bilingual online communications.
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u 1) INTRODUCTION PAGEREF _Toc385367405 h 31.1PURPOSE OF THE STUDY PAGEREF _Toc385367406 h 51.2 AIM OF THE RESEARCH PAGEREF _Toc385367407 h 61.3 CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE PAGEREF _Toc385367408 h 61.4 RATIONALE FOR THE CHOSEN TOPIC PAGEREF _Toc385367409 h 71.5 RESEARCH PROBLEM PAGEREF _Toc385367410 h 81.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS PAGEREF _Toc385367411 h 82) Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc385367412 h 93) Research Methodology PAGEREF _Toc385367413 h 133.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc385367414 h 133.1. Participants PAGEREF _Toc385367415 h 143.2. Data collection PAGEREF _Toc385367416 h 153.3. Data analysis PAGEREF _Toc385367417 h 163.4 Research instrument PAGEREF _Toc385367418 h 163.4.1 Linguistic features PAGEREF _Toc385367419 h 173.4.2 Functions and Reasons PAGEREF _Toc385367420 h 174) FINDINGS & ANALYSIS PAGEREF _Toc385367421 h 185) CONCLUSION PAGEREF _Toc385367529 h 305.0 INTRODUCTION PAGEREF _Toc385367530 h 305.1 Linking with Objectives PAGEREF _Toc385367531 h 305.2 Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc385367532 h 325.3 LIMITATIONS PAGEREF _Toc385367533 h 325.4 SCOPE OF FUTURE RESEARCH PAGEREF _Toc385367534 h 33References PAGEREF _Toc385367535 h 34
1) INTRODUCTIONThis topic is about Bilinguals and Bilingualism that has gain popularity over social sites over internet like TWITTER and FACEBOOK. Facebook is the most loved and popular social networking site today and with persons having knowledge of multiple languages, this study is about how they use their bilingual knowledge while any kind of informal chatting over online. There are several definitions as for the term Bilingualism. Some describes it as if someone simply using more than 1 language at a time is called a bilingual and is called bilingualism, where other as for some other researchers they say bilingualism is more about individuality; and individual bilingualism and this particular mainly focuses on individual command and accuracy over that particular and specific language and fluency in each written, oral, speaking and listening skills. Code switching is another important aspect of this topic as code switching is a frequent adaptation by bilinguals while having a chat on FACEBOOK (Arias and Casanova,(1993). Multilingual communication is now practiced all over the world because of its advantages as this actually is very helpful in every way possible this makes conversations much easier for persons as they don’t need to feel hesitated as they are free to talk either way they want. Educational requirement made it more popular due to this has an effective impact as on concerning parties. Talk about mass communication this has its special advantages in this criteria. As the topic we are talking about here is Bilingualism and this is in any way is a form of communication. Mass communication explains or gives us the way to communicate with the mass that is the people around and to talk properly and clearly we need to have a proper communication skill which includes a good sound knowledge of the related language and a strong hold and command over writing, speech, and listening skill over that language. Migration is another aspect that adds another dimension to this topic here that is migrating people needs to learn the language of that particular place or country they have migrated to, and they need to learn it properly as migration means that the migrated person has completely left and come to the current place from some other place permanently (Bautista,1980). And as of the importance of the being a bilingual at the place they have migrated to gives them fluency over language and so as fluency over everything they want to spread their hands to, being a bilingual in that new place can help someone drastically as they can adjust as the situation demands and at the right place. Trigger words such as lexical transfers, proper nouns and bilingual homophones, play a very important role in code switching between two languages. A trigger word is a word that initiates a process or course of action, if explained this means while in a conversation this kind of word initiates a course of action or this can start another set of course of action as in they will help initiating a new conversation. Code Switching is another aspect of Bilingual practice that effect the conversation in a big way, code switching means using more than one language at a period of time. This might appear while persons having knowledge of more than one languages converse with each other. They can either use code switching in one sentence or this might occur in more than one sentence. Sociolinguistic perspective of code switching is about the social factors such as the context, setting, role of the speaker etc. To go a little more vast way, bilingualism is while persons having knowledge of more than one language converse with each other is called bilingualism. However bilingualism is a more complex linguistic behavior dealing with three dimensions of psychological, social or cultural aspect (Centeno, Anderson, and Obler, 2007). Computer medicated communication is an expanded form as of the brief form is Computer medicated discourse; is majorly and solely concentrated upon the widely connected computer and their conversations. If explained, CMD (Computer Medicated Discourse) refers to communication carried out by sending and receiving messages via widely networked computers. The main focus of this process is concerned with the languages used throughout the conversation of the term CMC is normally and nature wise a texted based and people who desire to communicate can do it by transmitting messages through chatting, emailing. In present scenario a real time chat is more reliable and preferred using different social networking sites available over internet. As of code switching there are two types of code switching available, one deals with code switching over sentences, it is said to be the more simpler and easy form of code switching and do not demand any high level of proficiency in language. Another type of code switching is Intrasentential code switching, it is code switching within the same sentence, it means codes can be switched with the same sentence as we speak of, this form of code switching is said to be the more tough and needs more elaborating style and complexity and thus requires more proficiency and more strong hold over language (David, 2009). Studies say the first form of code switching is more in practice and the second type is less as the second type needs more strong hold and proficiency over language and the first one doesn’t demand any such proficiency and strong hold over language. Although there are a few restrictions as of while switching codes, studies say this restrictions results in a better and clearer communication. Those restrictions are free morpheme constraint, this restriction restricts from using codes in between any words or at the end of any sentence. The second restriction is Equivalence constraint; this restricts and tells to watch for the grammatical errors as “code switching should not violate the grammatical structure of both languages. There are several prominent aspects as of code switching in bilingual blogs are discussed as “socio pragmatic functions of oral code switching are also present in code switching in written discourse. Secondly, Code switching in bilingual blogs is used as an effective communicative tool of writing. Thirdly, code switching is used to reflect upon one’s culture as much as one’s linguistic background. Another aspect is Code switching and Cmd. Studies say linguistic properties, modes/variables and the social meanings attached to CMD (Computer medicated discourse) (Dorman, 1991). To be a little more descriptive Code switching and CMD could go hand in hand, studies show as social meanings, linguistic properties could as well be attached to CMD (computer medicated discourse), CMD can be in the form of synchronous real time chat, where both parties the receiver and the sender needs to be online as to do the real time chat messaging. . This study focused on online tandem learning, key features of text-based online social interactions and how students switched codes during the process of learning. The findings of this research also revealed that most of the switches were triggered due to lexical needs while working on the assigned projects due to some other reasons that might as well be online real time conferences.
1.1PURPOSE OF THE STUDYThis over all study is all about Urdu speakers communicate over internet and social networking sites like FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Data were examined for the following features as how much does this code switching occurs while people spent their time over online, what kind of linguistic features are there and what does this code switching serve for URDU bilingual speakers does their communication. The purpose for conducting this research is to study the code switching between Urdu and English bilinguals through online communication(Francis, Bork and Carstens,1979). Code switching is something that occurs very often while they communicate over very popular social networking sites as FACEBOOK nowadays. The general idea as for practicing this Code switching mostly is because it makes things way easy for people as CODE SWITCHING (switching to different languages as per your requirement or convenience) is you do when you want things to go in your way, people often does this for keeping things private. So the main purpose for this study is to find out if things are convenient for one.
1.2 AIM OF THE RESEARCHThe purpose of the study or the Aim of the research is almost the same in either way but things are a little different as for the AIM OF THE RESEARCH aims at remedies or way out for the same as well. Talk about remedies or the way out, there are not much; as code switching during conversation over internet are to make things or the conversations go easy, so as for remedies there is no need for the this. So the aim or this study is to look for code switching between URDU and ENHGLISH bilinguals through online communications. The question that might arise during the process of researching about code switching could be all about the prominent linguistic features of code switching in an online communication process between Urdu and English bilingual speakers. And this might as well be there if what could be the common reasons and functions for Urdu-English bilingual’s speakers to code switch when communicating via online networking sites. This is quite obvious that two people having common language knowledge would definitely use their common language in between while communicating, for example: Faiz and Fatima they both know Urdu and starts off their conversation over Facebook with Urdu language as that is their mother tongue, but while in process they might switch to English or some other language they might know.
1.3 CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGEBilingualism contributes to society in many prospects. Bilingual education has been practiced in many forms, in many countries, for thousands of years. Defined broadly, it can mean any use of two languages in school – by teachers or students or both – for a variety of social and pedagogical purposes. In today’s period of demographic transformation bilingual education means something more specific. It refers to approaches in the classroom that use the native languages of English language learner (Goldstein, 2004). If questioned that “How does this Bilingual education work” the answer to this would be; in different ways because during the process numerous program models are used. These are often classified as transitional development, or two way bilingual educations depending on the programs methods and goals. As discussed before code switching occurs during the process when a speaker changes his/her language and alternates between two or more languages or language varieties, in the context of single conversation and Multilingualism is speakers of more than one language sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. So by now we all know how this actually contribute to knowledge, to go on a little brief note, participants in communication over social networking sites does need to know more than one language for code switching as this code switching needs to be done by them only, meaning code switching needs more than one language in process.
1.4 RATIONALE FOR THE CHOSEN TOPICThe general idea of Rationale could be said as a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or belief. To go on a brief note about being rationale for the chosen topic could consist of the reasons supporting the Code switching during the process of communicating with each other. Communication needs words that you might throw to express your views or thinking that needs and communication needs both parties to be literate and well equipped with the same language, to have a proper and healthy communication. Talk about being on logical base and set of reasons, most of us think the same I suppose, as to be in touch with our own people and the communication might even include some business proposals or it could be anything. If observed a common argument against bilingual education has always been in scene that is if anyone have succeeded without it; this has happened. It has been observed as well that code switching in classroom and any other kind of communication process is quite a common occurrence. The practice of code switching is often considered as a low prestige form, poor language skills or not so good command over the language and a result of incomplete mastery of those two languages. In spite of the negative perceptions of code switching it observed as a purpose oriented activity. There is a lack of Pakistani English language teachers as to how, when and to what extent they actually can code switch.
1.5 RESEARCH PROBLEM
The Problem that might only be one as far as this study can go that is how to collect data and research properties. The only solution to this problem could be “SURVEY METHOD”. Surveys are of two kind; Sampling survey and Census Survey. Sampling survey is one its kind. This methodology says to collect data in a sampling method that is choosing some samples from any selected universe; here universe refers to any selected group of participants. To go a little broad way the whole sampling method says “ First choose a group of participants then choose the topic to be surveyed about and then choose some participants as for the purpose of collecting data”. This sampling method has its advantages and disadvantages as well. To go with advantages sampling method is easier and less time consuming process, we talk about time here as because time is important in every process. The disadvantages with this process is the data collected could be less accurate, as there’s information but that is not a complete one, as the result will include only a percentage of the whole universe not the all of it. The other method is Census survey method, this methodology says to collect data from each and every aspect of the universe. The advantage of this method could easily be the accuracy, as here the information is collected from each and every participant, so the disadvantages of this method will be: this will definitely be lengthy and secondly this will be time taking and money consuming also. But since this is the most accurate process, thus will only be the choice for collecting data. And so will be the problem for the research as well.
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONSQuestions related to code switching in bilingual communication will and always should be related to the same. Since this report is all about code switching and the reasons behind it, the questions should be quoted with the same context. We have been talking about communication over social sites like FACEBOOK and TWITTER and many others, so we can make the best of it, as social sites are nowadays affecting majorly the common people’s life, they love spending hour after hour over these social networking sites. What we can do to make the best out of it is we can make some questions asking about the same, samples for this question could be:
Name:
Age:
Sex:
For how long have you been using FACEBOOK? :
How long do you spent over FACEBOOK a day? :
What language do you use while chatting? :
How many languages do you speak? :
While answering these questions, we can only assume that people would answer them correctly, and then only would get to know the real data of the whole survey we’ve been conducting so far.
2) Literature ReviewHere we are discussing about the code switching and the bilingual method of communication. We are developing a thesis and the main objective of this thesis is to expand the views from the perspective of code switching and bilingual languages. So to carry on the process of the thesis, we need to have the proper idea and the clear view about what we are trying to evaluate. So it is needed to expand the whole idea about the subject chosen and by that to have the proper sense about the topic. In today’s world the technology is much advanced and over the top than before and everything seems to be in the doorstep of people. People find themselves so much superior by using the world of technologies. Needless to say that science has its big time contribution on this one as it always had its impact from the ancient ages as human develops themselves to be the most superior and intelligent species of them all. Human invented their inventions one after another to find the satisfaction and comfort in their work, according to their needs. This need and hunger of invention of human makes the science to the better development and the achievement today. It has achieved its unique level as the days passed by. But the topic of out thesis project is not the development of the modern science but some of the elements of modern science. Today’s modern science has its effect on the mankind as the biggest example of that are the social networking sites. It was introduced few years back as one more blessings of the technological science. Social networking is term i.e. as web based internet site that connect the people from North Pole to South Pole by just sitting on their home and just using the internet. So this strong invention earns the praises from all over the world and the effects were spread like a wildfire to the entire universe. People started getting themselves involved into this single thing and day by day the spending of time increased as people find it interesting to communicate with the unknown persons. The popularity of social network increased day by day since then and it had never looked back from that time. One of the most popular sites amongst the social network website is called Facebook. We all literally introduced with the name from earlier. The most popular social network website which has its millions of users all over the world (the most by any social network), was first invented by Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow members. So the main purpose of the social network site is the communication. The number of people communicate through a social network is its primary base. Human invented the method of communication to their favor, to build the relation with the fellow followers. From creating some sorts of sounds to use it as their medium of communication to the invention of different types of languages to help the communication to the better level, all are done by the human to make effective communications and to further the possibility of connecting with each other. So one of the most talked and revolutionary method is to introduce the social networking as the blessing. So this research is the effective effort to study about these things that are described in detail above. The effort is to study the bilingualism and code switching method to do the effective communication over the most popular social network websites. The bilingualism is the term that is the component of using two languages subsequently, probably seen in the social network sites when people communicate with each others. In our case we will take the example of using Hindi-Urdu bilinguals to do the effective communication. Now in case of bilingual for an example suppose two unknown person meet themselves over the facebook and started talking in Urdu as it became the primary language of their communication. But as the conversation goes on they came to know each other a bit further and they suddenly found out that both of them knew Hindi also. So they started to communicate with each other in Hindi also. So this typical thing is the instance of bilingualism (Kachman, 1991). It is a weird kind of thing as not much theory is presented by the researchers onto the topic of code switching. Also it is weird as the researchers can’t find or figure out the possible way or ways on how it comes into effect between two of individuals. Extensive researches are done in the following order to grab some possible way but nothing much is derived about the code switching. But I think there is still some great deal of study can be conducted over the matter to find out how the effective code switching have its impacts on facilitating the communication between two individuals over the social networking website. We selected facebook as the medium of study and the centering element to discuss about the review since; facebook is the most popular social network site of the world. Some of the main aspect of the study is to find out the procedure on how the process of code switching takes place and develops itself to do the effective communication between to individuals. This shape of structure of the effective code switching and the implication it will do in the near future are the purpose of study by generating some questions and trying to find the possible answer to that. So to do that session of question and answer we need to approach some of the participants i.e. some common people who are not much in quantity and are selected ones by us to help sort out the solutions that we are looking for. The participants are chosen by us according to some criteria they belong and the criteria should be in the age gap of 20 years to 35 years, they should know two languages like Urdu and English and they are settled for at least 5 years in an English speaking country. The questions that are to be asked are simple and all about some basic query about the facebook and the online chatting. The methods applied for the approach was the qualitative approach and that approach is dedicated along with the semi-structural interviews and some discussions if needed along with the group. So by applying the procedures and to emerge out into the result is one of the key perspectives of the thesis project and to ascertain the design of the research. This design will help to sort out and determine whether this code switching or the idea of bilingualism together is supporting to build the strong connection and the bond between the people or not. As the purpose of doing any thesis is to help the mankind with its good effects, that’s why we have choose some unique subject that is never been taken and researched before. This unique kind of thesis is all about some hard works, dedications and the proper skills to decide what type of data to be collected and the quality and the quantity of data need to represent the question of the research. So in the literature point of view of this project we need to discuss about the effective running of the project and decide whether it is going on the right path or not with the proper sense of literature to distribute. Also have to make sure that the whole theory of the project is understandable to all the readers.
So the two terms that come in discussing this literature review. In this aspect and till now the two terms come, known as the Code Switching and Bilingualism so far. We decide to put some sense on each of the matter to disclose the topic further and to support the literature review to help it proceed further. So the first thing comes first as we will discuss about the code switching now. So the code switching is that fundamental method which develops to be the main architect behind any communication where two bilingual individuals having their conversation and there is the presence of two different or multiple languages into their single line of conversation or utterance. Our research is all about expressing the views and finding the knowledge by doing the social and structural study behind the code switching behavior. The sociological structure includes the following things and entirely based on the conversation of the speakers, the role of an individual speaker, context and the settings. On the other hand, there is also the presence of structural aspect where the perfection of the utterance is reflected by rectifying the grammatical influence of the sentences. This study will represent the sociological aspect basically when it has to deal with the reflection of the speakers or the individuals who are speaking the bilingual of Urdu and Hindi via some online researches and online chatting. So the main aspect of code switching is depending on its structural aspect presenting the view. There are many researches are involved in the related term know as the code switching as we have learned earlier. So depending on the other studies we have developed our different point of view and we basically saw that this part of researches and the entire work on the code switching is divided into three parts like linguistic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic. As per the types suggest, sociolinguistic is all about the social influences that it brings with, where psycholinguistic always deals with the entire system where the bilinguals have their impacts on the linguistic method.
Now that we have the idea of the code switching, why not we have the clear view about the bilingualism? The bilingualism is a kind of art that is focusing on the skills and study of the individual of the group of individuals who are able to speak or write two different languages or can communicate with other persons in other than his own language without changing the meaning of the sentences. They are able to give the similar information without changing the meaning whether it is written or spoken. Another part that we have found through the research is that the bilingualism is a behavior that is full of linguistic complex and it has its multi dimensional aspect as well. This includes the social, cultural and psychological aspect of the whole thing. But again during the creation of the project we have study the variety of things and as we come across the multiple opinions of the other researchers we come to know that the there are multiple opinions that are given by them on bilingualism. One other thing that we also come to know that the simpler definition that they used is the sociological definition, and it is lot more simple than the other definitions like psychological definition. As per the sociological definition, the art of using two or multiple language alternatively is the bilingualism and the person who is able to do that with his skill alternatively is called the bilingual. The bilingual method is always attached with the code switching method and there we can see the multiple differences in the form of code switching. The two mostly observed code switching is the intra- sentential switching and the other is inter-sentential switching. These are the primary difference and the types of code switching, where the intra- sentential occurs into a sentence and the inter-sentential occurs between the sentences. This bilingual is totally situated or developed with the base of education. Due to the development of science and the increasing facility people are getting their chances to express themselves fully and also get their chances to educate highly. This expansion of education brings them the knowledge of knowing not only the bilingual but also the multilingualism. Also there are migrations and the technological advantages over mass communications. The extension of education result in the huge changes in the social environment throughout the world and this change is so much responsible for the literature aspect of the bilingualism. Some of the researchers done their researches on this background and to thoroughly execute their research they even learn and study about the bilingual also. Some of them according to our findings study about the English French speeches to their respective communities to learn about the method of conversation and the process of running the bilingualism to help their researches go further.
3) Research Methodology3.0 IntroductionThis particular research paper is the methodology paper that would discus in details the methods and approaches that were adopted for completing the research process. Besides illustrating the different measures and methods that were available for research this chapter would also illustrate the methods that the researcher chooses for this particular research work (Koenig, 1975). Each and every research is conducted in a number of stages and thus follows a specific procedure. And the success of any research depends on the procedure adopted by the researcher for this research .The chapter of research methodology would describe in details the methods that are available for research and the methods chosen by the researcher for this research along with the justification if choosing that method. Therefore, in this particular chapter we will get the information and the details of the Participants, Data collection, Data Analysis, and Research instrument.
3.1. ParticipantsThe four citizens of Pakistan, who aged between 22 to 27 years, are selected as participants. The selected participants of Pakistan can speak Urdu as well as English; therefore they are highly educated and have a permanent resident in the English countries since past three years. Some of the descriptions of the participants are discussed below:-
Linguistic background – the citizens of Pakistan selected as participants are native speakers of Urdu. Every selected participants is a non-native speaker of English, who residents in an English country from the past three years. The selected participants of Pakistan are confident and expert in speaking or writing English language because English plays a vital role in the society of Pakistan. Though English is an official language of Pakistan it also reflects on the symbol of status, fashion and modernism. From the nursery standard the children of Pakistan starts learning English language. In the various states of Pakistan it is much common for all the citizens of Pakistan to converse in English.
Gender – the various citizen of Pakistan who is selected as participants are female. The female participant is a result of using the ease sample of research participants which does not consist high amount of population.
Occupational and Educational Background- among the four selected participants, three participants had a degree of Masters Level and at present they are working in the firms and a bank whereas one participant is in a process of completing her master degree.
Age group- the selected participants of Pakistan are aged between 24 to 26 years. Out of four participants, two of the participants are 25 years old whereas, the rest two are 24 and 26 years old.
Participants Age Gender Location/ Origin Occupation Degrees
1 25 F Idaho/Pakistan Software Engineer Masters
2 24 F Ontario/Pakistan Banking Masters
3 26 F London/Pakistan MBA student Masters
4 25 F Idaho/Pakistan Human Resource Masters
Facebook users- Facebook is a social networking website. By this social networking site the friends as well as the members of the family can stay connected. Therefore, Facebook messenger, which is called as a way of instant messaging, is the element that is normally used for the resea