Bahasa Komunikasi atas Talian dalam Suasana Akademik (Online Communicative Language in an Academic Setting)

Abstract

Sites on social media have provided a platform whereby the young can create groups based on their common interests and build connections by updating various topics to discuss. However, with social media taking up such a large space in our lives, there is a concern as to whether it is impacting our communicative language; more importantly, our youth’s communicative language. In view of this phenomenon, this study is an attempt to add to the understanding of online communicative language used by youths in social media. It is also to fill the research gap that exists in the field of research on language patterns used in academic settings among youth in online communication networks. Specifically, this article will report on the linguistic features of online communicative language used by youths in an academic setting on Facebook and determine whether the language patterns used are effective in conveying the relevant information. This study employed two research tools, namely Virtual Ethnography and Content Analysis. Data collected was in the form of screen captures and snippets of conversations. Content Analysis was employed to look into the occurrences of languages in contact in phenomena such as code-mixing, code-switching and borrowings of certain words from the first language to second language and vice versa. The findings of the study indicate that the language used by the participants on Facebook consists of a mixture of code switching, code mixing, fillers, emoticons, spelling modifications, foreign language words and colloquial Malaysian English. © 2022, Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. All rights reserved.