The use of English in the social network of a student in South China

English Today ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Botha
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
The Social ◽  
National University

Many Chinese university students are bilingual or multilingual, increasingly switching between various Chinese language varieties and the English language (Bolton, 2013; Botha, 2014, Bolton & Botha, 2015). Bolton and Botha (2015) reported that undergraduate students at a national university in China used English for a range of social activities including ‘reading’, ‘Internet searches’, ‘online socialising’ and ‘socializing with friends’, among others. There is a need to investigate the extent to which these students actually use English in these contexts, especially in the productive use of the English language in their social lives. In examining such practices, the following questions are addressed in this article: (i) How is the English language used in the personal life of a student in Southern China; (ii) What are some of the functions of spoken and written English-Chinese code-mixing and switching between members of this student's social network; and (iii) What kind of social information is conveyed through the use of English in this student's social network? In order to examine the sociolinguistic reality of language use by these students, this article explores some of the social dynamics underlying the emerging use of English-Chinese code-switching and mixing within a particular social network: that of ‘Natalie’, a Chinese university student who speaks Putonghua (Mandarin, as a first language) and members within her social network, conversing within a range of modalities. This case study focuses in particular on the use of English-Chinese code-switching and mixing practices, and the extent to which these communicative practices are shaped by various social factors, ranging from the status of English as a perceived ‘international’ language, to aspects of stance and the affective quality of the relationships between members in this social network, to the intertextual nature of many of the linguistic instances to these practices.

ПРАГМАТИЧНИЙ ПОТЕНЦІАЛ НАТИВНОЇ РЕКЛАМИ: ФОРМИ, ТРЕНДИ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ НАТИВНОГО КОНТЕНТУ В СОЦІАЛЬНІЙ МЕРЕЖІ FACEBOOK ЩОДО БРЕНДА ФАКУЛЬТЕТУ ЖУРНАЛІСТИКИ ЗНУ)

2020 ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
V. Kovpak ◽  
N. Trotsenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
The Social ◽  
National University ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

<div><p><em>The article analyzes the peculiarities of the format of native advertising in the media space, its pragmatic potential (in particular, on the example of native content in the social network Facebook by the brand of the journalism department of ZNU), highlights the types and trends of native advertising. The following research methods were used to achieve the purpose of intelligence: descriptive (content content, including various examples), comparative (content presentation options) and typological (types, trends of native advertising, in particular, cross-media as an opportunity to submit content in different formats (video, audio, photos, text, infographics, etc.)), content analysis method using Internet services (using Popsters service). And the native code for analytics was the page of the journalism department of Zaporizhzhya National University on the social network Facebook. After all, the brand of the journalism department of Zaporozhye National University in 2019 celebrates its 15th anniversary. The brand vector is its value component and professional training with balanced distribution of theoretical and practical blocks (seven practices), student-centered (democratic interaction and high-level teacher-student dialogue) and integration into Ukrainian and world educational process (participation in grant programs).</em></p></div><p><em>And advertising on social networks is also a kind of native content, which does not appear in special blocks, and is organically inscribed on one page or another and unobtrusively offers, just remembering the product as if «to the word». Popsters service functionality, which evaluates an account (or linked accounts of one person) for 35 parameters, but the main three areas: reach or influence, or how many users evaluate, comment on the recording; true reach – the number of people affected; network score – an assessment of the audience’s response to the impact, or how far the network information diverges (how many share information on this page).</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words:</em></strong><em> nativeness, native advertising, branded content, special project, communication strategy.</em></p>

scholarly journals Formation of raiding parties for intergroup violence is mediated by social network structure

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (43) ◽  
pp. 12114-12119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Glowacki ◽  
Alexander Isakov ◽  
Richard W. Wrangham ◽  
Rose McDermott ◽  
James H. Fowler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
East African ◽  
Nomadic Pastoralists ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Total Impact ◽  
Social Network Position

Intergroup violence is common among humans worldwide. To assess how within-group social dynamics contribute to risky, between-group conflict, we conducted a 3-y longitudinal study of the formation of raiding parties among the Nyangatom, a group of East African nomadic pastoralists currently engaged in small-scale warfare. We also mapped the social network structure of potential male raiders. Here, we show that the initiation of raids depends on the presence of specific leaders who tend to participate in many raids, to have more friends, and to occupy more central positions in the network. However, despite the different structural position of raid leaders, raid participants are recruited from the whole population, not just from the direct friends of leaders. An individual’s decision to participate in a raid is strongly associated with the individual’s social network position in relation to other participants. Moreover, nonleaders have a larger total impact on raid participation than leaders, despite leaders’ greater connectivity. Thus, we find that leaders matter more for raid initiation than participant mobilization. Social networks may play a role in supporting risky collective action, amplify the emergence of raiding parties, and hence facilitate intergroup violence in small-scale societies.

scholarly journals A Study on the Rationale of Social Media Use by the Students of King Khalid University

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayed Salahuddin Ahmed ◽  
Abdulkhaleq Q. A. Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Language Preference ◽  
Subject Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media

s not it deplorable that in a country that tops in the entire world in using several social media sites does not utilize the same media in acquiring knowledge and skills? In Saudi Arabia, undergraduate students spend a significant amount of time on social media every day, but they are reluctant (or not motivated enough) to use the same media for educational purposes. This study was carried out on the undergraduate English majors of King Khalid University in Muhayil Asir in Saudi Arabia. In the English department, every student carries at least one smart phone with Internet connection, and they are found occupied with their phones on the campus, sometimes even in classrooms, but they are weak both in subject knowledge and skills of English language. The teachers-cum-researchers were baffled with students’ competence because regular users of Internet and social media are supposed to be updated with the subject knowledge as well as confident in using English language. The researchers designed an empirical study to explore students’ rationale of using the social media and their language preference. The study concludes with gloomy findings that students use the media mainly for entertainment and ineffective communication in English language. The worst fact is: they are not motivated enough to use the social media for educational purposes.

Analyzing Work Teams Using Social Network Diagrams

2014 ◽  
pp. 170-191
Author(s):  
Shalin Hai-Jew
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Work Team ◽  
Team Members ◽  
The Social ◽  
Workplace Teams ◽  
Project Phases ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Network Diagrams

Workplace teams are a common social structure that enables the successful completion of collaborative projects. They have been studied as “hot” teams, virtual ones, and other manifestations. For both management and team members, it is helpful to have a form of meta-cognition on teams to solve work team issues pre-, during-, and post-project. One way to systematize understandings of a work team is to apply social network analysis to depict the work team’s power structure, its functions, and ways to improve the team’s communications for productivity, creativity, and effective functioning. This chapter depicts three real-world team-based projects as social network diagrams along with some light analysis. This work finds that social network diagrams may effectively shed light on the social dynamics of projects in the pre-, during-, and post-project phases.

Gender and Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-177
Author(s):  
Didem Koban Koç
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teaching Program ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings

The present study investigated gender differences in the use of linguistic features as well as the social meanings attached to those differences. Academic essays, written by 44 (22 male, 22 female) first-year undergraduate students enrolled in the English Language Teaching program at a government university were analyzed with respect to the use of linguistic features (adjectives, empty adjectives, intensifiers, linking adverbials) as well as the number of words and sentences used by the students. The results showed that, in comparison to males, females used more adjectives, intensifiers, and words. Males, on the other hand, used more empty adjectives and linking adverbials than females. Based on the results, pedagogical implications are discussed, and recommendations are provided in order to increase teachers' awareness of gender differences and improve students' writing skills.

scholarly journals Arabic Learners’ Preferences for Instagram English Lessons

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammeed A. AlGhamdi
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Learning Material ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Similar Program ◽  
Arabic Speaking

This paper focuses on the use of the social network Instagram to provide supplementary English language learning material to learners from Arabic speaking countries. The author was able to use his online account in Instagram to assess the needs of these learners through data analyses. The content made specific to Arabic speakers by offering translation in each post from English into Arabic and vice versa to foster their interest in the English language. The account was followed by more than 48000 learners. The study aimed to comprehend how Arab learners promote the process of learning English language via the use of the social network Instagram. The study found that Arab learners do not like complicated, lengthy information and, instead, prefer simple, brief explanations related to the English language. The results of this study suggest that a similar program of offering English lessons on Instagram in the future would have an even greater following if only simplified content was offered.

How Social Network and Opinion Leaders Affect the Adoption of New Products

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghuram Iyengar ◽  
Christophe Van den Bulte ◽  
John Eichert ◽  
Bruce West
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Peer Influence ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Marketing Effectiveness ◽  
The Social

Abstract Do word-of-mouth and other peer influence processes really affect how quickly people adopt a new product? Can one identify the most influential customers and hence those who are good seeding points for a word-of-mouth marketing campaign? Can one also identify those customers most likely to be influenced by their peers? A pharmaceutical company seeking to improve its marketing effectiveness by leveraging social dynamics among physicians set out to answer these questions. There is indeed evidence of social influence, even after controlling for sales calls and individual characteristics. Also, people who are central in the network and those who use the product intensively are more influential. Finally, people who view themselves as opinion leaders are less affected by peer influence, whereas people who others really turn to for information or advice are not differentially affected. This last finding suggests that self-reported opinion leadership captures self-confidence, whereas a central position in the social network captures true leadership. Since sociometric techniques identify true opinion leaders more effectively than self-reports do, word-of-mouth programs targeting sociometric leaders are expected to be more effective than programs targeting self-reported leaders

Linguistic interplay between Yoruba and English

English Today ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-53
Author(s):  
Grace Ebunlola Adamo
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Important Data ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
The Future ◽  
Yoruba Language ◽  
Local Languages

The purpose of this paper is to foreground the extent to which the English language has eroded the originality and purity of the Yoruba language. The main focus will be on code-switching practices, which I believe to be detrimental to Yoruba in the long run. Although linguists have long proposed a ‘leave-your-language-alone’ attitude (see Hall, 1950), there is little doubt that the effects of first British colonization and then globalization have changed the linguistic ecology of Africa. Few sociolinguists would deny that a people's language is a symbol of their identity and culture. In an important textbook in the field, Holmes (1992: 70) confirms that ‘Language is an important component of identity and culture for many groups, maintaining their distinct identity and culture is usually important to … self esteem.’ What are we then to make of the extensive code-switching that I will be documenting in this article? Linguists' tolerance has certainly extended to code-switching studies in Africa, from which much important data has been drawn. The main scholar in this area is Carol Myers-Scotton, whose two books on code-switching (1993a,b) were based primarily on her research in Africa and remain central to the field internationally. Scholars like Coupland and Jaworski (1997) propose that the use of mixed speech in a conversation is not necessarily a language defect but a sign of flexibility and creativity. Understanding the social, psycholinguistic and syntactic motivations for switching is one thing, but the applied linguist and educationist also has to ask serious questions about what this means for the future of local languages heavily implicated in code-switching.

scholarly journals Professors’ and Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes Toward the Use of Code-Switching and Its Function in Academic Classrooms

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Raghad Y. Alkhudair
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Given

This paper aims to determine the usefulness and functions of code-switching in the classroom when used by both lecturers and students. The study was conducted at a Saudi university campus and follows a quantitative approach using sets of questionnaires to collect the data. Then, the data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Based on the analysis, the given study shows that professors and students consider code-switching from English into Arabic in the classroom as a beneficial instrument in enhancing the learning process. That is because it allows otherwise insurmountable problems for two-way communication in the L2 target language (English) to be overcome. Also, the findings of the current study reveal a range of positive attitudes toward using code-switching in two ways, Saudi-English immersion classrooms. Specifically, the majority of the professors use this technique in certain situations to achieve a better understanding by the students. In the same vein, students in this study show huge acceptance and prove how such a phenomenon has worked as a learning facilitator. It is hoped that the results of this study will be useful for professors and researchers investigating the importance of code-switching in the classroom.

scholarly journals Social Networks of Lexical Innovation. Investigating the Social Dynamics of Diffusion of Neologisms on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quirin Würschinger
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
New Words ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lexical Innovation ◽  
Social Diffusion

Societies continually evolve and speakers use new words to talk about innovative products and practices. While most lexical innovations soon fall into disuse, others spread successfully and become part of the lexicon. In this paper, I conduct a longitudinal study of the spread of 99 English neologisms on Twitter to study their degrees and pathways of diffusion. Previous work on lexical innovation has almost exclusively relied on usage frequency for investigating the spread of new words. To get a more differentiated picture of diffusion, I use frequency-based measures to study temporal aspects of diffusion and I use network analyses for a more detailed and accurate investigation of the sociolinguistic dynamics of diffusion. The results show that frequency measures manage to capture diffusion with varying success. Frequency counts can serve as an approximate indicator for overall degrees of diffusion, yet they miss important information about the temporal usage profiles of lexical innovations. The results indicate that neologisms with similar total frequency can exhibit significantly different degrees of diffusion. Analysing differences in their temporal dynamics of use with regard to their age, trends in usage intensity, and volatility contributes to a more accurate account of their diffusion. The results obtained from the social network analysis reveal substantial differences in the social pathways of diffusion. Social diffusion significantly correlates with the frequency and temporal usage profiles of neologisms. However, the network visualisations and metrics identify neologisms whose degrees of social diffusion are more limited than suggested by their overall frequency of use. These include, among others, highly volatile neologisms (e.g., poppygate) and political terms (e.g., alt-left), whose use almost exclusively goes back to single communities of closely-connected, like-minded individuals. I argue that the inclusion of temporal and social information is of particular importance for the study of lexical innovation since neologisms exhibit high degrees of temporal volatility and social indexicality. More generally, the present approach demonstrates the potential of social network analysis for sociolinguistic research on linguistic innovation, variation, and change.

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