Code Mixing in Arabic Conversations of College Students: A Sociolinguistic Study of Attitudes to Switching to English
Posted: 4 May 2020
Date Written: April 7, 2020
Abstract
Code mixing is very much a norm in our times rather than a deviation where speakers are bi or multilingual. In KSA, college goers are quite comfortable mixing, rather freely interspersing their Arabic speech acts with English words, phrases, and sometimes, whole sentences. With the larger aim of exploring code mixing as a tool in second or foreign language learning, the current study examined the attitudes of college goers at Qassim university, Saudi Arabia. To evaluate the extent of the practice, the special circumstances under which students take to code mixing and how far it can be used by the teaching community. Results indicated the presence of positive attitudes to code mixing with English and Arabic, a greater degree of openness to the very practice of code mixing, and its possible inclusion as a teaching practice (with refinements) in the EFL environment.
Keywords: Code-mixing, Sociolinguistic study, EFL, attitudes
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