Arab World English Journal (February 2016) Theses / Dissertation (ID 158)
Name of researcher: Ahmed Samir Abdulghaffar Elsayed
Title of Thesis: Code Switching in WhatsApp Messages among Kuwaiti High School Students
University name: Manchester Metropolitan University,
Degree: Master Degree of Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Year of award: 2014
Advisor Name: Dr. Antony Picot
Abstract
The dissertation investigates code-switching as a spontaneous language contact phenomenon. It examines language use and choice by Kuwaiti students in their WhatsApp messages. Particularly, it deals with code alternation and insertion from Arabic into English and vice versa to develop local justifications for the interactional significance of code-switching in WhatsApp messages. Samples were collected from 60 male and female high school students. A corpus of 100 WhatsApp messages was taken from the participants’ WhatsApp chat groups. The methodology used in this study is mainly analytical. It was based on thee sequential approach of CS Introduced by Peter Auer (1984). The findings clearly show that bilingual Kuwaiti students switch between Arabic and English to achieve a communicative goal. Thus, their switches have pragmatic values. Switching from Arabic to English is found to be related to the positive image about the English language and to the specificity of English delivering a variety of communicative functions. On the other hand, switching from English to Arabic is seen to be related to the maintenance of identity, whether this identity is sociocultural or religious-based. Moreover, the study found that code-switching in WhatsApp messages is a communicative strategy that facilitates communication by erasing language barriers in addition to emphasizing cultural identity.
Keywords: Bilingualism and Code switching, Code Switching and Borrowing, Code Switching and WhatsApp messages., Sociolinguistic approaches to interactional code-switching, Social reasons for code switching
Note: Citing this thesis , please use:
Elsayed, Ahmed Samir . (2014). Code Switching in WhatsApp Messages among Kuwaiti High School Students, (Master’s Thesis).
Retrieved from Arab World English Journal Database. (ID Number: 158, February 2016).
http://www.awej.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=845:ahmed-samir-abdulghaffar-elsayed&catid=20&Itemid=117