The Impact of Online Code- Switching on Students’ Facebook Communication:The Case of Master 1 English Students at Belhadj Bouchaib University Centre

Abstract

Nowadays, Facebook has become the trendy used social media in communication. Students who are involved in online conversations have to be bilingual or multilingual for the sake of maintaining code switching which is widely used among English students of Belhadj Bouchaib University Centre. This research paper seeks to find out the factors and reasons that push English students to switch from one language to another in their daily conversation via Facebook to look for all the motives that make this social phenomenon occur. It also tries to have an eye on the consequences of code switching. In order to examine the factors that make these students switch between English, French and Algerian Arabic, a questionnaire encompasses all the possible questions to reveal the point of view of the chosen sample population. An observation method is also used in order to collect more relevant data.The general findings show that English students of Belhadj Bouchaib University Centre code switch because of some important reasons such as the lack of vocabulary in one of the languages, this, for a better comprehension and self-expression. In addition, it has been shown that the use of code switching can lead to either positive results in terms of acquiring more vocabulary in both languages, or negative ones such as the use of a new vocabulary, the Facebook one, which most of the time regarded as a deviation of the acquired or learned language.