By Céleste Leu and Nadia Abdi Mohamoud
KEYWORDS: Multilingualism, Social Media, Language choice, Code-switching, Abbreviation
In this blog entry, we investigate multilingualism in computer-mediated communication, and more specifically, the use of languages on social media.
In our multilingual society, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become prevalent and its further development led to social media 2.0, which are currently a key medium for the spread of multilingualism on the Internet. The term CMC is defined by Leppänen and Peuronen (2012: 384) as “any communicative action that takes place through the use of networked computers” and thus involves several forms of discourse whether asynchronous (e-mail, Facebook wall, forum, YouTube comments) or synchronous (real-time chat, instant messaging, video calls). In the early days of the Internet, English was the dominant language and a vast “majority of websites and Internet users were English-speaking” (Leppänen and Peuronen, 2012: 385). Being the invention of English-speaking scientists, the Internet was designed to compute only in Roman alphabets (Leppänen and Peuronen, 2012: 385). Nowadays, Internet users are offered a wide range of writing systems which has led to the increased use of other languages. Consequently, language choice among Internet users has been the object of many studies but few researched written language shift (i.e., online code-switching) (Lee, 2017: 41). In this context, social media are a promising case to study written language shifts. Social media are defined as “websites and applications which enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking” (Social media, n. (2016)). Subsequently, social media websites such as YouTube, Twitter or Facebook draw “users from different cultures and language backgrounds [who] are generating and sharing content” (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 1). In the studies reviewed below, the impact and influence of social media websites on the use of any second language by bilingual and multilingual speakers for monolingual speakers and the spread multilingual practices (i.e., code-switching or abbreviation from other languages) will be discussed.
Multilingualism in CMC
Multilingualism in CMC and especially the impact of social media websites and apps on the use of a second language by multilingual users are important because nowadays, more and more people from around the world use the internet and communicate with total strangers who might not have the same mother tongue. Furthermore, “the media contribute to the experience of linguistic diversity” (Danet and Herring 2007) and hence help the spread of multilingual practices – in other words, how we use different languages and go from one to the other. Indeed, the internet and especially social media – such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. – allow us to express ourselves and talk with anyone in any language. By using several languages, Internet users tend to employ a special instrument of communication which is called “code-switching” (henceforth CS). It is defined by John Gumperz as “juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems” (1982, cited in Lee, 2017: 39). It is commonly used by multilingual people and often appears on the World Wide Web and social media. Another common practice is the abbreviation, like “WTF”, “LOL”, “tbh”, “brb”, which you certainly have already used as well! To attempt to answer our research question – What is the impact and influence of social media websites on the use of any second language by bilingual and multilingual speakers for monolingual speakers and the spread multilingual practices (i.e., code-switching or abbreviation from other languages) – we divided the reviewed academic studies in three themes which are bilingual and multilingual users, multilingual practices (abbreviation/code-switching) and social network websites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube). We will develop these themes in the following sections with evidence from different studies in sociolinguistics.
Tell me how many languages you speak; I’ll tell you how to behave on the Internet
The Internet englobes different interlocutors who all have different language repertoires. Monolingual, bilingual and multilingual users frequently interact together and each draws on large and various linguistic resources. Hence, researchers have an interest in the use of languages on the internet and especially on social media to “examine […] the strategic use of multilingualism on Twitter” (Kim et al. 2014: 2) for example. The internet is a worldwide phenomenon and people from (almost) every country have the possibility to access this system, as a result “the Internet has had a profound effect on communication around the globe” (Paolillo 2007:1). Furthermore, “the media contribute to the experience of linguistic diversity: television, radio, literature, popular film, and digital media may be consumed from foreign sources” (ibid: 6).
Although people from many different countries might add up to a wide range of languages available, sadly languages are not all represented in the same way on the web. Indeed, “groups with more socio-economic power have a crucial impact on the spread of particular languages” (Kim, et al. 2014: 2) and thus there are languages that are seen more frequently than others. According to Paolillo, “[t]he best available data for the Internet represent only 11 languages, all of which have speakers numbering in the tens or hundreds of millions, and all of which are national languages of presently or historically powerful nations.” (Paolillo 2007: 2). For example, English is highly visible and largely used by a lot of different people on the Internet. There are multiple reasons behind this.
Firstly, the internet was first developed in English in the United states and thus, “the sheer concentration of [Internet] resources in North America [and northern Europe] mean[s] more use of English than any other language on the Internet.” (Paolillo 2007: 13). Moreover, “[these] two regions […] turn out to be among the least linguistically diverse regions” and their linguistic diversity is smaller compared to other regions (ibid;17). In addition to that, one research by Kim et al. showed that – in the case of Twitter – languages spoken by people who are monolingual (for example, an only English-speaking user) are more used than the languages used by bilingual or trilingual people:
“It has been shown that a single monolingual speaker of a particular language may hold the key to the survival of the language in the bilingual community, as the bilingual speakers try to accommodate the monolingual speaker ” (Kim et al. 2014: 2)
Because of that the monolingual language stays on top as its speakers cannot speak another language. Hence, “the proportion of English users in the network [Twitter] constitutes a key influencing factor in the frequency of English use by the multilingual subject.” (Eleta & Goldbeck 2014;8) because L2 English speakers (who are bilingual or multilingual; English being their second language) tend to try to “accommodate” monolingual speakers – who are in a lot of cases native English speakers – and act as “bridges” – allowing people who speak different L1 languages (L1 meaning your first language) to see the same content as their L2 language is English – for monolingual groups (Kim et al. 2014; 4).
Consequently, “English is used as a lingua franca on Twitter” (ibid) and people who speak two languages, including English, will prefer to tweet in English so that the vast majority can understand them. If they have a lot of followers who do not speak their L1, they’ll be tweeting in English. These are the reasons why English is so widespread on the internet and social media.
Multilingual practices
Language choice
Language alternation and other multilingual practices such as code-switching and abbreviation from other languages are the focus of several studies. Currently, most Internet users and thus social media users are non-native speakers of English; the language is a resource among their L1 which they draw on for several purposes (Leppänen and Peuronen, 2012: 388). In fact, social media sites are spheres where multilingualism blossoms and language choice heavily depends on the linguistic resources available and on the context (Lee, 2017: 16- 23). Carmen Lee (2017: 23) noted that language choice indeed depends on the “linguistic resources available to online participants”, but also on the users’ use and preferences when communicating with others. For example, in a predominantly English website or discussion, multilingual users tended to choose English to match other users (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 431). Influenced by the large number of English users, L2 users will draw on a specific linguistic resource: English.
Code-switching à la carte
One multilingual practice which occurs in social media sites is code-switching (CS). Nur Syazwani Halim and Marlyna Maros (2014) looked into CS and its functions among Facebook users. Examining Facebook interaction and especially status updates, they attempt to reconcile oral CS and written CS. Malay-English users’ occurrences showed that CS had 11 main functions, following the Androutsopoulos’ categorisation (Androutsopoulos 2013b: 681, as quoted in Lee 2017: 50; 51): switching for quotation; for addresses specification; for reiteration, etc. Some Facebook features such as tagging another user led to CS (1) :
(1) has headache preparing timetable for the 1st time ~~ tima kaseyy la kpd [thanks to] Ophelyatie Zin atas tunjuk ajar yg diberikan [for your assistance] 🙂 (Halim and Maros, 2014: 130)
A Malay-English user proceed from Malay to English to direct a message to a specific person with a tag. CS allows users to enrich their Facebook interaction and communicate more effectively. Halim and Maros (2014, 129-132) highlight CS’s functions on Facebook. CS is used to preserve the accuracy of a message, to direct a message to one of many recipients, to repeat a message with the intent to make it understandable, to clarify, emphasis or check a message. Moreover, the switch from one language to another also occurs when a user wants to start a new topic in a specific language (2) :
(2) Crafter’s rule: Kalau tengah banyak idea jangan berhenti [Don’t stop if you’re flooded with ideas]. (Halim and Maros, 2014: 130)
Finally, CS is also used when a specific language can convey more effectively a user’s emotions than the other or if expressions are not translatable or existent in the other language.
How Are You or How Are U?
Another multilingual practice which often occurs in CMC are abbreviations. They are used in an informal setting where the writers are not paying attention to their language proficiency (Halim and Maros, 2014: 128). On social networking sites such as Twitter, abbreviations are preferred to respect the maximum length of a post, to show informality, closeness or anonymity (Dabrowska, 2018: 235). Similarly, Halim and Maros (2014: 133) highlighted that abbreviations are a response to the “principle of economy” which rules blog or blogging type websites. Marta Dabrowska (2018: 247) analyses the type of abbreviation used by participants and their functions. She highlighted the use of abbreviations by both native English speakers and Indian speakers. Among nine different categories, sound-word substation (“u” for “you”), rebus writing (“bcoz”) or number-word substation (“2 wear”) are illustrated by Dabrowska and are well known abbreviations in online discourse. Although there is a large type of abbreviations, they appear occasionally (Dabrowska, 2018: 248). Moreover, their frequency varies in function of social media websites. YouTube and Twitter are the media platforms with the most abbreviations (with YouTube ranking first). Dabrowska (2018) rationalizes her results by highlighting that these two social media have greater anonymity than Facebook. A user’s image is less at stake on anonymous accounts than on Facebook-private accounts. The users do not feel to the need to use proper spelling and grammar because no one will judge them for an approximate writing. Nonetheless, in Facebook status updates, abbreviations still flourish due to the function of the feature: “convey one’s feelings and thoughts” (Halim and Maros,2014: 128).
Social network websites
Twitter is described as a micro-blogging site which “spread information across languages and countries” (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 424). It has a format which limits every post to 140 characters. Users share posts with other users (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 425). Twitter allows three types of posts: public post; public post reposted (retweet); and a reply to a post. In a multilingual network such as Twitter, the multilingual audience is encouraged to use English as a lingua franca due to the common belief that English is the language of the Internet (Kim et al., 2014: 243; Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 425). On these type of social networking websites, many of the users are multilingual and navigate between language groups. These users write in at least two languages and thus form bridges between monolingual communities because they translated and spread information between communities (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 425). Multilingual users alternate between languages in a form of reaction to the composition of a group (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 431). If a multilingual user stumbles upon a monolingual group, they will use the language of the group; if the user stumbles upon a bilingual group, they will use the dominant language. Dabrowska notes (2018: 242) that users’ identities are known but does not impact on the use of abbreviations. Users frequently have a fan-idol relationship, and thus do not maintain a close connection (ibid). On Twitter, users prefer two types of abbreviations: sound-wording substitution (“u” for “you”) and rebus writing (“bcoz”) (2018: 249). Furthermore, Multilingualism is also seen through hashtags, Lee highlights that Twitter posts frequently are in one language and the hashtags in another language (2017: 51-52). This kind of code-switching involving hashtags can be the subject of further studies. Likewise, the choice of language can be a tool to attract a specific type of followers (2014: 431), and thus increase popularity. Lastly, Twitter’s design forces multilingual users to choose one language among their linguistic resources because the platform do not offer a translation feature if several languages are used in one tweet (Eleta and Golbeck, 2014: 431).
Facebook is another social platform which allows a computer-mediated communication. With its microblogging concept which includes asynchronous messaging such as status updates, users can post short messages (Halim and Maros,2014:127). The social media offers an informal setting on which abbreviations, acronyms, spelling mistakes arise. The use of English among users (in this case Malay-English users) is once again supported by the popular belief that the Internet’s language is English (Halim and Maros,2014:128). Halim and Macros also reveal that English is used to enhance the Facebook experience by facilitating the communication (2014:133). Moreover, Facebook’s main purpose is “to maintain contacts with others, create a positive social image… and exchange news.” (Dabrowska, 2018: 239). As a result, Dabrowska notes that compared to other social media, Facebook shows a lower level of multilingual practices. Users know each other’s identities and wish to protect their image (Dabrowska, 2018: 241), and for this reason refrain themselves from using any form of multilingualism (abbreviations from other languages, for example) that might be affect their real-life image.
YouTube, last but not least, shows the higher use of non-standard language such as abbreviations (Dabrowska, 2018: 241). This result highlights that the platform’s users frequently use nicknames to hide their identity and thus are more prone to using non-standard language (2018: 241).
All in all, these studies have shed light on the multilingual practices on social media 2.0. However, studies on the multilingual practices are still limited, and for example, more the use of code-switching in social media would be a great addition (Lee, 2017: 44).
At the end of the day, English is still the LANGUAGE
In essence, the impact of social media websites on the use of English is a historical result. Since it was created in the United States and the first available sites and scripts were in English, it is believed to be the Internet’s language. Moreover, it is a socio-economically dominant language and thus it imposes itself to the Internet users, including the fact that English speakers tend to be monolingual. Accordingly, multilingual people use English on the internet to adjust to those who are monolingual, mainly on predominantly English websites, making it a lingua franca. They also opt for English in the hope that they could attract more followers if using the dominant language of the Internet. But the Internet is still highly multilingual because there are a lot of different people from different countries using their L1, making code-switching a popular multilingual practice. Social media also pushes people to use language in a certain way, for example making abbreviations popular because of word limits or code-switching for international purposes as it could reach more people who speak different languages (as with the same hashtags but in different languages). All in all, we can say that social media has a big impact on the use of English, especially for non-native speakers, and on the spread of multilingual practices. What is more, English has been a popular language for many years now, with a fairly easy grammar and taught at school, the language had already spread with ease around the world, without the help of social media, and became a lingua franca.
Our research was limited by the fact that social media is still a very recent phenomenon and is growing more and more every day, which makes it difficult to track every occurrence. For instance, a number of websites are unknown to plenty of people but popular in countries where English is not the dominant language. Likewise, an imbalance in studies is shown among social media. Twitter, for example, is the subject of an important of number of studies whereas multilingualism on YouTube is less studied. In fact, multilingual practices vary from one social media to another, and thus a more balanced set of data could lead to different observations. Furthermore, we cannot know if social media have helped specific speakers become more multilingual, simply because they sometimes are in contact with content in other languages or if they were already multilingual. It would be interesting, for further studies, to analyse more in depth the question of multilingual practices, looking thoroughly at who is using which kind of code-switching, on which social media and search why it changes from user to user (e.g. in terms of gender, social class) or from language group to language group.
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