CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Communicating in English language can still be considered as an obstacle to many in our
country today. Even though English is the most common second language used there is still high
number of people who are still unable to use the language verbally and in written form. Due to
this there is a perception that being a bilingual is a privilege that many people would like to have.
Bilinguals usually change their codes depending on a few factors. The types of people they
interact with often play a major role in their selection of code. There are people who feel
comfortable using English when they speak to people outside of their close circle but there also
people that use their first language to interact with people they are not familiar with. One thing in
common is that bilinguals usually tend to use both languages in their conversation, which is also
known as code-mixing and code switching in the study of sociolinguistic.
For this fieldwork we have conducted a study on the occurrence of code-switching and codemixing in a conversation among ESL students. The conversation took place at our participants
house. They are referred to participant A, B and C throughout this paper. We have recorded their
conversation and managed to obtain their permission to use the recording for our study.

TOPIC OF CONVERSATION
The recorded conversation is between three friends who are referred as participant A, B and C
that centers on Korean Pop entertainment which is also known as KPOP. Our participants were
discussing on current issues happening in the industry. It began when A initiated the conversation
by asking B and C whether they have heard about an incident that happened to a male group
named B1A4. One of the members of the group was physically harassed at an event in Mexico
by a fan who tried to forcefully kiss him. The conversation then leads to a small discussion of an
incident that happened in our country earlier this year, which involved the same male group.
The participants continued their conversation with another incident involving a female singer
named IU. IU is a popular singer who recently got into a plagiarism controversy which leads her
to boycott every award event at the end of this year including Mnet Asian Music Award, the
1|Page

biggest award show which is also known as MAMA. C told the other that she heard IU is
boycotting the show because she was not awarded enough last year. A then reads out a comment
in an article involving other groups who also will be giving the event a miss as well. This leads
to another discussion between participant A and C who wanted the group to attend the event one
of the group members named Younghwa is leading the voting poll for best male solo artist. A
continued to read more comments regarding the issue and the conversation ends with participant
C slightly has a disagreement with participant A.

LEVEL OF FORMALITY
The level of formality of the conversation is informal due to the relationship status between the
participants. The participants can be identified as close friends because there was a lot of body
gestures included while they were conversing. This is because there is a moment when
participant C can be heard mimicking participant As speech. It is evident that the participants
share a good relationship with each other which shows in their level of formality.

THE AIM OF STUDY

The aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence of code-mixing and code-switching among
ESL students. Based on the recording it is clear that code-mixing and code-switching take place
during the conversation and there are many factors that lead to it which will be discussed further
in the paper.

2|Page

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION
Code switching and code mixing is a very common phenomenon among bilingual or multilingual
countries with diversity of races. Bilingual speakers are able to switch and mix around with
lexicon or phrases from one language to another language while changing information with their
addressees. Weinreich (1953) defines bilingual people as individuals who switch from one
language to the other according to appropriate changes insinuation.
Cases for and against code switching and code mixing can be compared to the perspective of
structural linguistics and sociolinguistics. Structural linguistics view code switching as a
constraint on its grammatical aspects syntax and morphology, while Sociolinguistics view code
switching is a discourse phenomenon where it has specific function (Boztape, 2003).
In Malaysia, the Government has entitled English as an official second language and become a
compulsory subject. With diversity of culture, some Malaysians speak more than two languages.
Due to interference and transfer from L1 to L2, L3 and other languages, some speakers tend to
switch their languages back and forth, adapting to their status, context and addressee.

CODE SWITCHING AND CODE MIXING OCCURRENCE DURING DISCOURSE.

In 1975, Pfaff published a paper which described three general styles or code switches. Type 1, is
the occurrence of code switching take place during common interaction between peers, close
friends or regular associates on daily conversations topics code switches occurs either at
surface sentence breaks or at independent clause breaks. This essentially to reduce social
distance and let the addressee feel comfortable and approachable with the speaker.
Previous research conducted by Ho (2007) found out that code mixing and code switching can
occur between Cantonese and English. The researcher defines code-mixing to any admixture of
linguistic elements of or more language systems in the same utterance and sounds. Although
Mandarin and English are using different orthographic writing, code mixing still can occur by
evaluating the characters sound. Author provides in-depth sight on the usage English in
Cantonese utterances delineates social stratification more obvious, divides those privilege with
3|Page

education, high social status from those without. The author found out also that code-mixing in
Hong Kong remains a form of English lexicon insertion into Cantonese speech.
Another study has conducted by Redouane (2005) to examine whether the code switching and
code mixing between Moroccan and Arabic-French depends on the contrasting synthetic
properties of the language involved. The samples selected were bilinguals able to speak
Morrocan Arabic and French. The conversation were recorded through phone calls. The findings
of this study have highlighted the speech of these Moroccans Arabic-French contained varied
switches between French and Arabic in both formal and informal situations.

FACTORS TRIGGERING CODE MIXING AND CODE SWITCHING.

According to Holmes (2013), a speaker may switch his or her languages to signal solidarity to
the shared ethnicity or group membership with an addressee. Such switches are often very short
and they made primarily for social reason. Holmes (2013) added a speaker tend to switch code to
signal their sophistication and identification with modernity. Moreover, code-switch and codemix depends linguistic constraints on domain of language, contexts, participants, social factors
and dimension. Herdia and Altarrib (2001) argues on the idea of bilingual speakers who code
mixing and code switching are just to compensate of their lack of language competency. Due
several lexicon gaps, speakers could not find the right word in L1 and have to borrow another
word from L2 vice versa. In addition, code-switch and code-mix can be seen as deliberate action
to accord the settings and function of interaction.

4|Page

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN
SAMPLE
We used three samples for this study. One of the samples used is one of the authors for this paper.
The participants will be referred as participant A, B and C in this paper. This is because apart
from the author, the remaining two participants have asked for confidential of their identities.
Stated below is the personal information of our samples:
SAMPL

PERSONAL INFORMATION

E
A

Name: Radhiah bt Mohd Hanafi

Age: 21
Gender: Female
Race: Malay
Nationality: Malaysian
Educational Background: B.ED TESL (Part 5)

Hometown: Kelantan
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Race: Malay
Nationality: Malaysian
Educational Background: Student of English for Professional Communication
program (degree)

Hometown: Kuantan
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Race: Malay
Nationality: Malaysian
Educational Background: Student of English for Professional Communication
program (degree)
Hometown: Kuantan
5|Page

Even though the researcher is part of the conversation, the conversation can be considered as a
natural speech. This is because the researcher did not know that she was being recorded by her
partner.

METHOD
The method that we used for this study is qualitative. We have recorded a three minute
conversation and the data we have collected is in the form of recording. The recording was done
in secret. After the recording is done we have to seek for participants consent to use and analyze
the recording for our study. Based on the recording we have to identify the occurrence of codemixing and code-switching in the conversation among ESL students.

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND FINDINGS

Based on the recording it is evident that the occurrence of code-mixing and code-switching take
place in the conversation among ESL students. The number of times code-mixing and codeswitching occurred in the conversation is equal which is approximately six times.
There are two types of tag-switching which are tag at the beginning of a sentence and tag at the
end of the sentence. Majority of the tag-switching occurred in our study is tag at the beginning of
a sentence. The recording started with a tag-switching whereby participant A initiated the
conversation with the phrase you know have you seen that then switched it to Bahasa
Malaysia. A speaker normally switches to another language as a signal of group membership and
shared ethnicity with an addressee. In this situation the people participant A spoke to belong to
the same ethnicity as her which is why she code-switch her speech to Bahasa Malaysia. It is also
to show solidarity to the people she was interacting with.
The kind of tag-switching occurred in the conversation might also be an influence of
participants educational background. As stated earlier the samples of this study are ESL
students. Due to this it is possible that some of the English word or phrases used in the
6|Page

conversation which leads to the occurrence of code mixing and code-switching are due to their
speaking habit.
Another reason for the occurrence of code-switching in the conversation is that due to the topic
discussed. Bilinguals tend to find it easier to discuss a particular topic in one code instead of the
other one. Based on the data collected we can conclude that the participants find it easier to
discuss the topic using Bahasa Malaysia because they can express their thoughts better using the
language instead of another code. This is because the topic discussed in the recording is
something participants seemed to have high interest in.
The conversation mainly conducted in Bahasa Malaysia. Code-mixing occurred when the
participants used English word or phrase in the conversation. For example, IU start boikot
sebabnya tahun lepas dia nyanyi tiga lagu tapi menang dua award je. The word award was
used instead of hadiah because it has become a common word used in Bahasa Malaysia. This is
because Bahasa Malaysia nowadays have borrowed quite a number of English words which then
have been integrated in our daily lives conversation as a part of Bahasa Malaysia. Another
example of borrowing word used in the conversation is fan which means peminat in Bahasa
Malaysia.

7|Page

CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION

INTRODUCTION
The data collected in Chapter 4 will be discussed throughout this chapter.

CODE SWITCHING AND CODE MIXING

Bilinguals, speakers who can speak two languages, have tendency to code switch and code mix
their language. As previous studies have conducted, our research has showed the same results.
Our samples have showed how bilinguals code switch within a domain or social situation.
Our samples linguistic choice may be influenced by their high solidarity and intimate
relationship. High solidarity can indicate how close the speakers relationship between the
addresses. As Ho (2007) stated, code-switch and code-mix utterances can be seen as an act to
delineates social stratification more obvious, divides those privilege with education, high social
status from those without. However, our finding contradicts whereby, the samples accept codeswitch and code-mix as part of the linguistics choice. Moreover, all of our samples are bilinguals,
hence, code-switch and code-mix utterances do not offend any of our samples - as speakers or as
addressees.
Social factors need to be taken into considerations too. From Structural linguistics perspectives,
our samples who are advanced ESL learners, should have used English appropriately, according
to syntax or accurate use of grammar. Therefore, code-switching and code-mixing utterances
may affect how language system should be working. Nevertheless, as Sociolinguistics argues,
code-switching and code-mixing has its own purpose. Sometimes, the lack of lexicon from target
language has forced these code-switch and code-mix users to borrow from another word or
phrases to express a concept or notion. Code-switch and code mix may seem as an illusion to
compensate incompetency in English from Structural linguistics point of view, nonetheless,
greater attention to social context, stylistic, and linguistic constraints should be taken into
consideration.

8|Page

Besides that, women language should be highlighted in this paper although this research
inclines towards code-switch and code-mixed.

REFERENCES

Boztepe, E. (2003). Issues in Code-Switching: Competing Theories and Models. Issue: Vol 3, No.2 .
Ho, J. W. (2007). Code-mixing: Linguistic form and Socio-cultural Meaning. The International Journal
of Language Society and Culture, 1-8.
Holmes, J. (2013). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics . England: Pearson Education Limited.
Redouane, R. (n.d.). Linguistic Constraints on Code Switching and Code mixing of Bilingual Moroccan
Arabic-French Speakers in Canada. ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on
Bilingualism (p. 1933). Somerville: Cascadilla Press.
Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of
New York.

9|Page

APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1
DIRECT TRANSLATION FROM THE RECORDING
SUBJECT

DIALOGUE

CODE-SWITCHING/CODE-

A:

MIXING
Eh you know.. have you seen that B1A4 yang CODE-SWITCHING

B:
A:
B:
A:
C:
A:

Gongchan tu almost kena kiss dengan fan?

Dengan sapa?
Fan.
Dekat mulut?
Aah
Kat Mexico kan dekat Mexico?
Fan went rough kut macam urghh *body CODE-SWITCHING
gesture* dia (Gongchan) macam erghh *body

B:
C:
A:
B:

gesture*
Dengan sapa, dengan orang putih ke?
Mexico
Latin, latin America.
Scary nye. Tapi memang diaorang jenis macam CODE-MIXING

A:

*interrupted*
Tapi masa tu diaorang macam tengah dekat CODE-MIXING

B:
A:

fan-sign kan?
Bukan orang marah ke?
Aah..Pastu then ada comment tu cakap ah dia CODE-MIXING
(comment) tiba-tiba sebut nama Malaysia, dia
kata fan, international fan tu crazy takut nanti
jadi macam kat Malaysia aritu, diaorang (fan)
yang approve (KPOP GROUP INFAMOUS
HUGGING

MALAY

GIRLS)

tiba-tiba

diaorang pergi report these boys padahal bukan

B:
A:

budak-budak tu yang report kan?

Entah.. Malaysians yang sibuk *pause*
Pastu macam okay, tapi scary ah macam CODE-MIXING

C:

Gongchan tu macam oh my god

Scarred

10 | P a g e

A:

It was rough kut. He got *body gesture* CODE-SWITCHING

macam ni kut hah apebenda

B:

The thing is yang Malaysia tu hmm over la CODE-SWITCHING

A:
B:

yang pasal sape, B1A4 eh?

Hmmm
Semua tu propaganda *in lower tone*

A:

*snort with agreement* huh propaganda

(SILENCE)
C:
B:
A:
C:
A:

Eh dia boikot ke IU (KPOP singer) boikot ke?

IU boikot semua year-end award show.
CODE-SWITCHING
Kenapa?
Serius?
Entah
Kalau macam tu sia-sia la aku undi dia. Tak
-

C:

datang takde la menang nya.

*imitate A*

B:

sia-sia aku undi dia

Maksudnya banyak la jugak... Cuba kalau

C:

semua artis boikot

Tak, tak kalau awak baca ada orang cakap IU CODE-MIXING
start boikot sebabnya tahun lepas dia nyanyi

B:
C:
B:
A:

tiga lagu tapi menang dua award je.

Pulak
Yang tu saya tak tahu betul ke tak.
Petty nye kalau gitu.
*reading a comment*

CODE-MIXING
-

It's obvious that FNC was fighting MAMA on

the order of the stages and who got
*background noise interrupts*
much screentime before deciding to pull them
B:
A:

altogether.
Huh?
*still reading*

CODE-SWITCHING

They probably thought they deserved Big Bang

11 | P a g e

or Soshi level treatment. *pause*

Won't be missed... other than AOA, the rest of
their artists failed miserably. Betul. Kan tahun
C:
A:

ni kan.
Eyy dah la.. *speech is interrupted*
AOA je kan yang tu kan tahun ni

C:

Aah. Tak, the thing is dah la vote untuk group CODE-SWITCHING

A:
C:
A:

FNC kan banyak. Younghwa leading kut

Aah untuk solo kut
Untuk solo.
mungkin pergi dapat kat orang lain la CODE-MIXING

AND

kut.Zion T! Tu dah boleh nampak dah. Aku CODE-SWITCHING

undi dia so tak kisah la. Happy.
*read another comment*
No offense but AOA wasnt really going to win
shit anyway but CNBLUE and their leader are
dominating the votes in their categories even I
voted for them.
*another comment*
Dude and Yonghwa is sponsored by Union Pay
which is sponsoring the event... like this is the
dumbass move by FNC. It was bad enough
when they damaged Yonghwa's promos in
China with their whole "the whole group or
nothing" bullshit... I have a feeling that they are
pulling CNBLUE because none of their other
groups which also had a comeback this year
were invited to perform... I don't know I'm just
so mad right now.
*pause*
Ah ye kan tapi last year kan diaorang menang
tapi diaorang tak datang kan?
12 | P a g e

C:
A:

Entah la diaorang..biasa la tu
Tapi tahun ni memang CNBLUE tak sedap pun CODE-MIXING

C:

comeback kali ni mungkin *sigh*

*firm tone*

different people different taste

APPENDIX 2
ENGLISH TRANSCRIPTION OF THE RECORDING
SUBJECT
A:

DIALOGUE
Eh do you know.. have you seen that B1A4s Gongchan who almost got kissed

B:
A:
B:
A:
C:
A:

by a fan?
By whom?
A fan.
On the lips?
Aah.
Its in Mexico right, Mexico?
The fan went rough on him urghhh *body gesture* Gongchan was like erghh

B:
C:

*body gesture*
Whos the girl, is she a white person?
Mexican.
13 | P a g e

A:
B:
A:
B:
A:

Latin, latin America.

Thats scary. But those people are like *speech is interrupted*
But at that time they were at a fansign right?
I thought people were upset?
Aah..then theres a comment and it mentions Malaysia. The commenter said
international fan is crazy and it would end up like the incident in Malaysia.
Those fans gave their approval but they ended up reporting those boys. But it

B:
A:

was not the girls who reported the boys right?

I dont know. Malaysian is nosy *pause*
*continue with the story*

C:
A:
B:

Then its like okay.but its scary like Gongchan was like oh my god
Scarred.
It was rough. He was like *body gesture* like this like what is that?
The thing isabout Malaysia, hmm they were overreacting about that group,

A:
B:
A:

who are they, B1A4 eh?

Hmmm.
Everything is a propaganda *in lower tone*
*snort with agreement*
Huh propaganda.
(SILENCE)

C:
B:
A:
C:
A:

Eh is she boycotting, IU (another kpop singer) is boycotting?

IU is boycotting all the year-end award show.
Why?
Seriously?
I dont know.
If this is how things turn out then its such a waste for me to vote for her. She

C:

wouldnt win if shes not coming.

*mimics A*

B:

Its such a waste for me to vote for her.

That means there are many of them. What if every artist end up boycotting as

C:

well?
No not really actually. If you read what people say about this issue is that shes
boycotting because last year she only won two awards when she sang three

B:
C:
B:
A:

songs.
What even?
But this one Im not sure whether its true or not .
Its so petty if its true.
*reading a comment*
It's obvious that FNC was fighting MAMA on the order of the stages and who
14 | P a g e

got
*background noise interrupts*
B:
A:

much screentime before deciding to pull them altogether.

Huh?
*still reading*
They probably thought they deserved Big Bang or Soshi level treatment.
*pause*
Won't be missed... other than AOA, the rest of their artists failed miserably.

C:
A:
C:

Correct. Its this year right.

Eyy its not enough.... *speech is interrupted*
AOA is the only one right.
Aah. No, the thing is the vote for FNCs group is a lot. Youngwha (a singer) is

A:
C:
A:

leading right now.

Aah for male solo.
For solo.
The award most probably is going to another singer.Z ion T! I can see it
coming. I voted for him so I really dont mind. Im happy
*read another comment*
No offense but AOA wasnt really going to win shit anyway but CNBLUE and
their leader are dominating the votes in their categories even I voted for them.
*another comment*
Dude and Yonghwa is sponsored by Union Pay which is sponsoring the event...
like this is the dumbass move by FNC. It was bad enough when they damaged
Yonghwa's promos in China with their whole "the whole group or nothing"
bullshit... I have a feeling that they are pulling CNBLUE because none of their
other groups which also had a comeback this year were invited to perform... I
don't know I'm just so mad right now.
*pause*

C:
A:
C:

Yeah but last year they won even though they did not attend the show right?
I dont knowits probably normal for them.
But this year CNBLUEs comeback is not that good so maybe. *sigh*
*firm tone*
Different people have different taste.

15 | P a g e