AN ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
USED IN CHATTING ON SOCIAL NETWROKING
Ari Sudrajat
NIM. 09220008
e-mail: arisudrajat14@yahoo.co.id
English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department of Sekolah Tinggi
Keguruan dan IlmuPendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung
ABSTRACT
The objectives of this research entitled “an analysis of the english language used in chatting on social
netwroking” were to find out what types of code – switching occurr in the facebookers` comments, how often
did the code – switching types occurr in facebookers` comments and to find out the reasons why the
Facebookers switch their language. In this research the writer used Qualitative method. The subject of this
research all the dialogue were 20 Indonesian college student facebook users who were also chosen randomly
from “friend list”of the writer`s facebook account, the sample was entire population. The data collected through
recording their comments from March 18th to April 17th, 2013 viewed in the 10 users' profiles comment
columns. The data were analyzed and classified into the category of each types of code-switching based on
Poplack`s theory (1980) and how often those code-switching appeared in their comments. To analyze the
reasons why the Facebookers used code-switching in their comment, the writer used Hoffman`s theory (1991).
The findings of the research showed that: the facebookers tended to use inter-sentential code switching
(58.97%), intra-sentential code switching (33.33%) and tag code switching (7.69%). The reason why the
facebookers used code-switching included: because of real lexical need (45%), Talking about a particular topic
(40%) and because of speech content clarification (5%).
Key words :Analysis code swithing, facebook.
A. BACKGROUND
Facebook users, They have their own style of
writing in commenting or creating status on their
account. We can say that a facebook user is a person
Language is a system of signs which we use to
communicate with each other According to David and
Rebecca (2007:1) “Communication is a matter of
letting other people know what we think, language has
an important role in human life and has several usages
for human as a means of communication and
interaction in community life.”
In this globalization era, no denying that the
knowledge of the English language is one of the most
important tools available to our bright future. It is one
of the international languages; we can easily
communicate and share our ideas to our friends in all
over the countries through the social networking
service, but in another hand this case will be a problem
for people who could not speak and written English,
moreover we are required to become bilingualism.
In social life, it is necessary to become
bilingualism; If you speak only one language, you may
not know what you are missing out on. Being bilingual
opens up different pathways of thinking, of expression
and reduces misunderstanding.
who has an account on facebook site then shared their
own experiences or feeling through their wall. In this
paper the writer focuses on the language used by the
facebookers who use code – switching in their
language to communicate with the others. Through
facebook we can find a phenomenon of bilingualism,
as we know as Code-switching, nevertheless from the
language interaction mentioned above, this present
study will focus on code switching in this case.
B. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
1. Definition of Code Switching
Meisel (1994:415) stated that:
Code-switching is the ability to select the language
according to the interlocutor, the situational context,
the topic of conversation, and so forth, and to change
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languages within an interactional sequence in
accordance with sociolinguistic rules and without
violating specific grammatical constraints.
2. Types of Code Switching
a. Tag switching
Tag switching according to Poplack (1980) “is an
insertion of a tag in one language into an utterance
which is entirely in other language.” Romaine
(1989) added that “this switch can be inserted
anywhere, which do not have too many syntactic
limits.
b. Inter-sentential
This switching occurs between sentences. It
switches at a clause or sentence level. In which each
clause or sentence is in different language.
Intersential switching requires more fluency in both
languages that tag switching because the portions
have to follow the rules of both languages.
c. Intra-sentential
Intra-sentential switching, the third type defined by
Poplack (2002 in Chaiwichian, 2006), is a type of
CS that occurs within a clause or sentence
boundary, It occurs in the middle of a sentence.
Romaine (1991) argues that this type of switching
concern the greatest syntatic risk and may be done
only by the most fluent billinguals
3. Why People Code Switch?
People code switch within their speech or writing,
however, this study will focus on theories given by
Hoffman (1991) and Saville-Troike (1986).
Hoffman (1991) classified the reasons to do code
switching into seven points, they are as follow:
a. Talking about a particular topic
People sometimes prefer to talk about a particular
topic in one language rather than in another.
Sometimes, a speaker feels free and more
comfortable to express their emotions, excitements,
or even anger in a language that is not their
everyday language.
b. Quoting somebody else
Regarding this reason, Hoffman (1991) suggested
that “people sometimes like to quote a famous
expression or saying of some well-known figures”.
c. Being emphatic about something
Usually, when someone who is talking using a
language that is not his native tongue suddenly
wants to be emphatic about something, as Hoffman
(1991) stated “he/she, either intentionally or
unintentionally, will switch from his second
language to his first language.
d. Interjection (Inserting sentence fillers or sentence
connectors)
Regarding the reason, Hoffman (1991) suggested
that “language switching and language mixing
among bilingual or multilingual people can
sometimes mark an interjection or sentence
connector. It may happen unintentionally or
intentionally.
e. Repetition used for clarification
About this reason, Hoffman (1991) said that “when
a bilingual wants to clarify his/her speech so that it
will be understood more by the listener, he/she can
sometimes use both of the languages that he masters
saying the same utterance (the utterance is said
repeatedly
f. Intention of clarifying the speech content for
interlocutor
When a bilingual person talks to another bilingual as
suggested by Hoffman (1991), it was mentioned that
there will be lots of code switching and code mixing
that occur. It means making the content of his/her
speech runs smoothly and can be understood by the
hearer.
g. Expressing group identity
Code switching and code mixing can also be used to
express group identity. The way of communication
of academic people in their disciplinary groupings,
are obviously different from other groups (Hoffman,
1991).
C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Research Method
According to Subana and Sudrajat (2001) “The
qualitative method is conducted in this study because
the data analyzed are not to accept or to reject tile
hypothesis, but the result of the analysis is the
description from the observed symptoms, which are not
always in the form of numbers or inter-variable
coefficient.”
The present study uses qualitative method because,
similar to other qualitative research it attempts to
generates rich, detailed and valid (process) data that
contribute to in-depth understanding of the context.
Qualitative research is a set of research techniques in
which data are obtained from a relatively group of
respondents. The most important qualitative research
techniques are the narrative and the visual research,
which is still often neglected.
2. Research Population and Sample
Referring to Burns (1995:62) population is “an
entire group of people or objects or events which all
have at least one characteristic in common and must be
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defined specifically and unambiguously”. The
population that was investigated in this study was the
first grade students of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Cimahi
consisted of 30 students.
Regarding sample, Burns (1995:63) explained that
sample is “any part of a population regardless of
whether it is representative or not”. In this research, the
sample was entire population. The writer used one
class consisted of 30 students, and they were divided
into two groups, one as control group and another as
experimental group, each group consists of 15 students.
In experimental group, they were given a treatment
usingsilent reading teachnique and in control group
without silentreading technique.
B. Respondents
The respondents of this study are Indonesian
facebook users. The data were taken from 10 facebook
users' profiles comment columns. The facebook users'
profiles were chosen randomly from “friends list”, in
the researcher's facebook profile. The other
respondents would be 20 Indonesian facebook users
who were also chosen randomly from “friends list”, ill
the researcher's facebook profile. They were asked to
fill in the research questionnaire (see appendix) related
to the study through messaging service in facebook
site.
C. Instruments
The main data were collected by recording
comments from 10 facebook users' profile comment
columns. The data were to answer the first and second
statements of problem. The data would reveal the types
of code switching, and so the frequencies of their
occurrences in the facebookers comments. The
facebookers` comments were chosen as the sources of
this study because the researcher has been interested in
the way facebook users communicate with other users,
Facebook users are use to mixing or switching their
language in exchanging the comments.
D. Procedure
The data collected through recording the comments
from March to April 2013 viewed in the 10 users'
profiles comment columns. All the comment between
the ranges of time was recorded in form of data
transcriptions.
The data were analyzed and classified into the
category of each types of switching in form of table.
This process is to answer what types of' code switching
occurred in the facebookers` comments. Then, from the
table, the numbers of the occurrences of each types of
switching would show frequency how often those
switching appeared in the facebookers` comments. The
next procedure can be described as follows:
1. Select the respondents, in this case facebook users,
to fill in the questionnaire. This procedure is to
reveal and explore the reason of code switching in
facebookers` comments.
2. Analyze the questionnaires results based on the
category of reasons from the theories given by
Hoffman ( 1991) and Saville-Troike (1986).
3. Classify and transfer data into tables.
The numbers would show what was the most
frequent or maybe the least reason uttered by
facebook users.
The collected data were identifed, clasified, and
analisied based on the code mixing used. To find out
the presented categories of code swicthing used in
“Gaul Bareng Bule” talk show program. The
presenatages is determined by using the Sudjana’s
F
formula: P  x 100 %
N
Explanation:
P = as percentage
F = as frequency of words
N = as total of words (Sudjana, 1996:47)
The presentation of the data analysis would be
discussed in the next chapter with the writer exegesis
toward the result analysis. Then exegesis connected
with the previous theory and study.
D. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
1. Data Findings of Types of Code Switching
The researcher will briefly review the relevant
distinctions that were made to point out differences
between code-switching patterns. Poplack`s distinction
among tag switching, inter-sentential switching, and
intra-sentential switching (Poplack 1980: 581-618).
The data was a transcription from facebookers`
comments and would be presented in the form of
tables. The data showed that the three types of code
switching occur in the comments. However, it appeared
that inter-sentential switching tends to be the most
frequent type of switching used in the comments. The
discussion of each type is as follows:
1. Intra-sentential Switching
One of the types of code-switching that appeared in
facebookers`
comments
is
intra-sentential
Switching. This type, as suggested by Poplack
(1980), involves the switch that occurs at the level
of words within sentences. The switching can be in
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the middle of sentences, clauses, or even words. The
present study shows that there are 13 comments
(33,33%) categorized into the intra-sentential
switching. Like in other similar previous studies,
such as from Ryanda (2005), Apriani (2006),
Indharyanti (2006), Miftahudin (2011) apparently,
the intra-sentential switching seemed also to be the
most frequent type of switching used in bilinguals
society. The followings are some of the recorded
data of intra-sentential switching.
2. Inter-sentential
In which switches occur within a clause boundary.
In other words, intra-switching represents switching at
the clause, phrase level, or at word level if no
morphological adaption occurs and the mentioned
above criteria for the distinguishing code-switches and
borrowings are observed.
Suggested by Poplack (1980) is inter-sentential
switching. It was defined that “inter-sentential
switching involves a switch at a clause or sentence
level in different languages”. The switching either at
clauses or between sentences in one language conforms
to the rules of the other languages. From the study, the
writer found that some facebook users prefer to do
code switching between words and at the level of
sentences. The study found that the table (see table 4.1
in the appendix) shows that it is recorded (58,97%)
inter-sentential switching, meaning it is in the first
place of the frequent type of switching occurred in the
facebookers` comments.
3. Tag Switching
The last type of code switching that appeared in the
study was tag switching. Regarding this type of
switching, Poplack (1980) stated that “tag switching
involves the insertions of tag in one language into one
sentence or utterance in another language.” These tags
can be inserted anywhere, which are in other language.
Shows that tag switching occurs to be second type used
by facebook users (7,69%).
B. The Frequency of Code Switching Occurrences
This session discusses the frequency of code
switching that occurred in the facebookers` comments.
The data was taken from the table transcription of
facebookers` comments from 10 facebook users'
profiles (see appendix). Thus, the results aim to find
the frequency of each type of code switching that
occurred in facebookers` comments. The table shows
what type of code switching would be the most
frequent or the least type that occurred in the
facebookers` comments. The table is presented at the
below.
Table 4.1
Table of types of code switching occurrences
No
Types of Code
switching
Frequency
1
Tag Switching
Inter-sentential
2 Switching
Intra-sentential
3 Switching
Total
Percentages
(%)
3
7.69%
23
58.97%
13
39
33.33%
100%
As can be seen in table 4.1, the inter-sentential
switching seemed to be the most frequent type of
switching that occurred in the comments (58.97%); the
second type is intra-sentential switching (33.33%); and
the last frequent switch is tag switching (7.69%). This
numbers show that many facebook users appeared to
use inter-sentential switching.
C. The Reasons of code switching occurrences
Answering the third question from the statements
of problem, this section discusses reasons for facebook
users to do code switching in their facebookers`
comments. In this case, the present study uses theories
given by Itofthaan and Saville-Troike that “concerned
about the reasons for code switching.” Based on the
responses from the questionnaire distributed to 20
respondents, this study found out that there are 5
criteria of reasons according to Hoffman and SavilleTroike that frequently chosen by respondents. The
explanation about the five reasons for facebook users to
switch code are as follows:
Tabel 4.3
The Reasons of code-switching
No
Reasons
F
P
1
Talking about particular topic
8
40%
2
Quoting somebody else
1
5%
3
Being emphatic about something
-
-
4
Because of lexical words
9
45%
5
Repetition used for clarification
-
-
6
Clarifying the speech content for the
1
5%
interlocutor
7
Expressing group identity
1
5%
8
Softening and strengthening request or
-
-
-
-
command
9
4
Inserting a real lexical need
10
Excluding other people when a
-
-
20
100%
a. These research findings could give inputs for
further studies that will discuss code switching. It
is suggested that further studies can analyze the
functions in each type of code switching.
Moreover, since there is still a small number of
research on code switching in writing, therefore, it
could analyze other written literary works, e.g.
novels, poetry or even drama scripts.
b. It is also suggested that Facebook users have to
consider several factors such as whom they are
speaking to and when or where tile conversation
takes place before they do the switching.
Moreover, it is also intended that Facebook users
could avoid misunderstanding among those who
are not familiar to certain words in other language.
comment is intended for only a limited
audience
TOTAL
Briefly, the numbers show that the most frequent
reason used by mostly facebook users to do code
switching is because of real lexical need (45%). The
reason seems to be the main reason that stimulates
them the most to do code switching. It could be
because of the lack of equivalent lexicon in the first
language, so that they tend to use the real lexical in
other language. Then, it is followed by Talking about a
particular topic (40%) in the second place, it is not
surprising because love is one the most important
aspects in human`s life. Thus, it seems the least
frequent reason chosen by facebook users are quoting
somebody else, clarifying the speech content for
interlocutor and expressing group identity, since there
was only one user voted it (5%).
Facebook users seemed to concern mostly on topic,
style, efficiency, expression, that covered in 5
categories of reasons suggested by Hoffman and
Saville-Troike to conducting their comments.
E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
1. Conclusions
This chapter presents conclusion related to the study
in line with the statements of the problem and
suggestion for further research.
After analyzing the data, it comes to the conclusion
that Facebook users mostly did code switching. The
data presents that all the three types suggested by
Poplack (1980) such as tag, intra-sentential and
inter-sentential switching, appeared in Facebook
comments. Data suggested that among all the three
types of code switching, it appears that intersentential switching tends to be the main type of
switching that occurred in facebookers` comments
(58.97%), followed by intra-sentential switching
(33.33%). Different from those two types, tag
switching seems to occur the least frequent type of
switching that appeared in the comments (7.69%).
2. Suggestions
Based on the result of this research, the writer has
the recommendations as follows:
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