Social Factors for Code-Switching-a Study of Malaysian-English Bilingual Speakers

Abstract

The study reported in this paper concentrates on the factors motivating code-switching within the social context of Malay-English bilingual speeches. Information for the survey was collected by means of transcribing different short video clips in Malay-English conversations. In the current study, the data were analysed within the sketch of Malik's framework [22] to find the social factors and social dimensions of code-switching parts. The finding of the study revealed that 'show identity' is the most frequent reason for motivating the speakers to switch languages. Information gained from the study will help provide insight on why Malaysian-English bilingual speakers use code-switching in their conversations.