Abstract
This research aims to investigate the concept of code-switching (CS) between English, Arabic, and the CS practices of Saudi online users via a Translanguaging (TL) lens for more inclusive view towards the nature of the data from the study. It employs Digitally Mediated Communication (DMC), specifically the WhatsApp and Twitter platforms, in order to understand how the users employ online resources to communicate with others on a daily basis. This project looks beyond language and considers the multimodal affordances (visual and audio means) that interlocutors utilize in their online communicative practices to shape their online social existence. This exploratory study is based on a data-driven interpretivist epistemology as it aims to understand how meaning (reality) is created by individuals within different contexts. The participants were eight bilingual Saudi nationals (both men and women), aged between 20 and 50 years old. This study contributes to the DMC literature and bridges some of the existing gaps. The findings of this study indicates that online users’ literacy lays in decoding multimodal communication, and that this multimodality contributes to the meaning. Either this is applicable to the online affordances used by monolinguals or multilinguals and perceived not only by specific generations but also by any online multi-literates, the study provides the linguistic features of CS utilized by Saudi bilinguals and it determines the relationship between these features and the contexts in which they appear.
Author Information
Shirin AlAbdulqader, Institute of Public Administration, Saudi Arabia
Paper Information
Conference: ECLL2023
Stream: Applied linguistics research
This paper is part of the ECLL2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
AlAbdulqader S. (2023) The Social Aspects of Code-Switching in Online Interaction: The Case of Saudi Bilinguals ISSN: 2188-112X The European Conference on Language Learning 2023: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-112X.2023.2
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-112X.2023.2
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