Code-Switching to English amongst Arabic-speaking Jordanians in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-499
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Canadian Culture ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Arabic Speaking

Language contact leads to a number of linguistic phenomena, most noticeably code-switching, which refers to bilinguals’ utilization of two languages in the same conversation and even within a single utterance. This study investigates Arabic-English code-switching among Jordanian immigrants in Manitoba, Canada and presents a qualitative analysis of the socio-pragmatic functions this linguistic behavior serves. The participants were 11 (3 females and 8 males) Jordanian immigrants living in Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba. Two instruments were employed to elicit the data necessary for this study: audio recordings and semi-structured interviews. The code-switching occurrences were categorized into different socio-pragmatic functions based on the analysis of the content of almost 18 hours of recorded conversations. The analysis of the content of the audio-recordings besides the semi-structured interviews showed that Jordanian immigrants resort to code-switching to achieve a number of socio-pragmatic functions: filling lexical needs, integrating into the Canadian culture and lifestyle, qualifying a message, mitigating embarrassment and negative connotations, quoting the exact words of somebody, and creating humorous or ironic effect. Keywords: Code-Switching; Socio-Pragmatic Functions; Canada; Arabic; English.

A design contribution to the entrepreneurial experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan David ROLDAN ACEVEDO ◽  
Ida TELALBASIC
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Value Proposition ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
User Centric ◽  
Constant Growth

In recent history, different design approaches have been entering fields like management and strategy to improve product development and service delivery. Specifically, entrepreneurship has adopted a user-centric mindset in methodologies like the business canvas model and the value proposition canvas which increases the awareness of the users’ needs when developing solutions. What happens when a service design approach is used to understand the entrepreneurs’ experience through the creation of their startups? Recent literature suggests that entrepreneurial activity and success is conditioned by their local entrepreneurship ecosystem. This study investigates the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem of Medellín, Colombia - an ecosystem in constant growth but that lacks qualitative analysis. The sample consists of 12 entrepreneurs in early-stage phase. The data was gathered with two design research methods: Cultural Probes and Semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the information collected facilitated the development of 4 insights about the entrepreneurs and an experience map to visualise and interpret their journey to create a startup. The results of this study reflected the implications of the ecosystem, the explanation of the users’ perceptions and awareness and propose a set of ideas to the local government to improve the experience of undertaking a startup in Medellín.

Code-switching in parents’ everyday speech to bilingual infants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena V. Kremin ◽  
Julia Alves ◽  
Adriel John Orena ◽  
Linda Polka ◽  
Krista Byers-Heinlein
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Common Phenomenon ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Bilingual Communities ◽  
Apparent Reasons ◽  
At Home

Code-switching is a common phenomenon in bilingual communities, but little is known about bilingual parents’ code-switching when speaking to their infants. In a pre-registered study, we identified instances of code-switching in day-long at-home audio recordings of 21 French–English bilingual families in Montreal, Canada, who provided recordings when their infant was 10 and 18 months old. Overall, rates of infant-directed code-switching were low, averaging 7 times per hour (6 times per 1,000 words) at 10 months and increasing to 28 times per hour (18 times per 1,000 words) at 18 months. Parents code-switched more between sentences than within a sentence; this pattern was even more pronounced when infants were 18 months than when they were 10 months. The most common apparent reasons for code-switching were to bolster their infant’s understanding and to teach vocabulary words. Combined, these results suggest that bilingual parents code-switch in ways that support successful bilingual language acquisition.

Intra-Sentential Code-Switching among Bilingual Saudis on Twitter

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Hussein Ali Habtoor ◽  
Ghzail Faleh Almutlagah
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Common Phenomenon

Code switching (CS) is a common phenomenon in language contact situations wherein bilinguals utilize two languages in the same context. This study investigated the occurrence of intra-sentential code switching by 12 bilingual Saudi females on twitter who differed in age and education. The data were collected by taking screenshot for 1260 tweets. Data were analysed statistically to show the phenomena of Arabic- English code switching. Moreover, a qualitative method was used for data analysis. Findings of the study showed that code-switching was observed clearly on twitter and that intra-sentential code-switching occurs frequently. It was also observed that at the level of particular syntactic categories in Arabic-English CS, nouns were the most often switched elements in the corpus. This study focused on nouns and verbs as examples of these syntactic categories of CS. English as inserted language was mostly used by participant, so the study focused on Arabic sentences in which English is the embedded language. Finally, it is found that the most inserted words in English were related to the internet and other social aspects. 

Migrant doctors’ narratives about patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar ◽  
Olga Zayts
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Vicarious Experience ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Host Culture ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Professional Self ◽  
The Creation

Abstract Narratives of personal and vicarious experience are part and parcel of being a doctor, as doctors routinely (re)interpret and (re)tell patients’ narratives when reflecting on clinical cases. Taking an interest in migrant doctors’ self-initiated narratives about patients in doctor-researcher interviews about cultural transitions, this study examines over thirty hours of audio-recordings of forty semi-structured interviews conducted as part of a collaborative project in Chile and Hong Kong. The study explores how migrant doctors construct their professional ‘self’ through narratives about patients, and how these narratives help migrant doctors legitimise their arguments and professional stance in criticizing cultural and societal attitudes towards health and illness, and the professional practices of local doctors. Finally, the paper reflects on the ways in which migrant doctors’ identity positionings provide space for the creation of a “symbolic territory” in which the practices of migrant doctors co-exist within the boundaries of the practices of local doctors in the host culture.

Lebanese conversational style and cultural values

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 571-604
Author(s):  
Sasha G. Louis ◽  
Rana N. Khoudary
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Conversational Style ◽  
Topic Shift ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Expressive Phonology

Abstract This paper investigates the Lebanese conversational style in relation to Lebanese cultural values. The study adopts a discourse analysis approach based on interactional sociolinguistic methodology for the analysis of audio-recordings and semi-structured interviews involving Lebanese nationals (multi-active culture) and members of linear-active cultures, in addition to participant observation. Four distinctive linguistic features characterizing the Lebanese conversational style are identified: topic (focus on personal topics and abrupt topic shift), pacing (overlap and fast pace), expressive phonology and intonation, and formulaic language. The findings of this study reveal that the Lebanese have a high-involvement conversational style as a result of their cultural values which reflect those of high-context, multi-active and collectivist cultures. Furthermore, a connection is made between cultural and communicative differences which can account for instances of stereotyping and misunderstandings between members of the two cultural groups.

World Englishes, Code-Switching, and Convergence

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara E. Bullock ◽  
Lars Hinrichs ◽  
Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mixing Patterns ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Analysis Of Variation ◽  
Mixed Nature

In this chapter, it is argued that the study of World Englishes (WE) should assume a more central place in the analysis of variation and change in the context of language contact. Because they emerge from situations of bilingualism and contact, WE varieties are highly informative with regard to the structural issues of code-switching and convergence (also termed structural borrowing, transfer, interference, imposition). The inherently mixed nature of WE is shown here to mirror the diverse structural patterns that are commonly encountered in bilingual speech. It is argued that different mixing patterns arise in response to the social and medial embedding of WE vernaculars at the community, the individual, and the interactional levels. Social evaluations of relative prestige, individual projections of style, stance, and identity, and the complex nature of multilingual interaction conspire to bring about complex, new language structures.

scholarly journals Usage-Based Contact Linguistics: Effects of Frequency and Similarity in Language Contact

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Nikolay Hakimov ◽  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

Abstract The influence of usage frequency, and particularly of linguistic similarity on human linguistic behavior and linguistic change in situations of language contact are well documented in contact linguistics literature. However, a theoretical framework capable of unifying the various explanations, which are usually couched in either structuralist, sociolinguistic, or psycholinguistic parlance, is still lacking. In this introductory article we argue that a usage-based approach to language organization and linguistic behavior suits this purpose well and that the study of language contact phenomena will benefit from the adoption of this theoretical perspective. The article sketches an outline of usage-based linguistics, proposes ways to analyze language contact phenomena in this framework, and summarizes the major findings of the individual contributions to the special issue, which not only demonstrate that contact phenomena are usefully studied from the usage-based perspective, but document that taking a usage-based approach reveals new aspects of old phenomena.

scholarly journals Opportunities presented by the forced occupation of liminal space

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketevan Kupatadze
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cultural Hierarchies ◽  
Point Of Departure

In this article I employ the notion of the Third Space as a point of departure in order to expand and complicate our thinking about student-faculty partnerships, with the goal of enquiring into the acceptability of and comfort with such space for faculty who self-identify as underrepresented. I consider the practical and real repercussions for these faculty members of engaging in partnership in the context of a reality that is very much shaped by dominant cultural practices, and racial, social, and cultural hierarchies and divisions, and look at how the concept of the liminal space plays out in their professional lives. The findings presented in the article come out of a qualitative analysis of oral semi-structured interviews with underrepresented faculty.

scholarly journals A Bridge to Portugal: Language and Identity in Bridgeport, CT

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Fabio Scetti
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
American English ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Status

Here I present the results of BridgePORT, an ethnographic study I carried out in 2018 within the Portuguese community of Bridgeport, CT (USA). I describe language use and representation among Portuguese speakers within the community, and I investigate the integration of these speakers into the dominant American English speech community. Through my fieldwork, I observe mixing practices in day-to-day interaction, while I also consider the evolution of the Portuguese language in light of language contact and speakers’ discourse as this relates to ideologies about the status of Portuguese within the community. My findings rely on questionnaires, participant observation of verbal interaction, and semi-structured interviews. My aim is to show how verbal practice shapes the process of identity construction and how ideas of linguistic “purity” mediate the maintenance of a link to Portugal and Portuguese identity.

scholarly journals Exploring Teachers' Views on Code-Switching as a Communicative Technique to Enhance the Teaching of Mathematics in Grade 4

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-6478
Author(s):  
Ailwei Solomon ◽  
Sizwe Blessing
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Learning And Teaching

<p style="text-align: justify;">The teaching and learning of mathematics in South Africa are conducted through the authorised Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT). South Africa has eleven official languages, and English is a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) from the Intermediate and Further Education and Training (FET) Phase. This study explores teachers' views on code-switching as a communicative technique to enhance teaching mathematics in Grade 4 in selected primary schools in South Africa. This qualitative single case study employed the interpretivist paradigm and social constructivism theory. A convenient purposive sampling technique was used to sample six grade 4 mathematics teachers from three primary schools in the Alexandra township in South Africa. Researchers collected data through the use of semi-structured interviews, which were later analysed and discussed using themes. Findings indicate that teachers often code-switch from LoLT (English First Additional Language) into Home Language (H.L.) to enhance learners' understanding of the mathematics concepts. Researchers suggested the integration of code-switching into the curriculum policy and followed by in-service training for Grade 4 mathematics teachers in code-switching.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document