Age class difference: Perceptions of Code

Switching among Malay users in Social Media in

Malaysia
By: Batrisyia Roid Mazlan (TQA170041)
Introduction
● Code switching has become a norm in multilingual Malaysia in many conversations
among different races in Malaysia.

● The growth of social media texts, such as Twitter, has created many new opportunities
but also many new challenges for language area.

● However, an essential precondition for any kind of automatic text processing is to first
identify what are the perceptions among Malaysians on the use of such text in social
media.
Problem Statement
● Many educational institutions use English as medium of instruction and having Malay as their
mother tongue language, code-switching has rapidly grown among Malay teenagers

● While large-scale studies have been done to explain the linguistic phenomenon in verbal
communication, the area of code-switching in computer-mediated communication (CmC) has
not been clearly analysed the differences in terms of perceptions and views regarding code-
switching from different age groups

● Thus, this research attempts to fill this gap by revealing the perceptions among different
group generations in Malaysia on the use code-switching in non-verbal communication in
social media
Purpose of the Study

To observe the variety in perception of code-switching among different age groups in

electronic writing

Research Questions

1. What are the differences of perceptions on code-switching among different age class in
Malaysia?
2. What is the level of acceptance among Malaysians in practicing code-switching in
social media?
3. Which age group uses code-switching the most in social media in Malaysia?
Code-switching in Malaysia
● As of 2009, Malaysia has a total of 137 living languages with Bahasa Malaysia or the
Malay language as both the official and national language (Lewis, 2009).

● According to Kachru’s Three Circles of English model, Malaysia is part of the Outer-
Circle country because of this country’s colonial history.

● Bahasa rojak or salad language is a term popularly used to describe the language
situation of Malaysia or specifically Manglish (Colloquial Malaysian English).
Generation Cohort Theory
● The sociologist, Mannheim (1952), introduced the concept of generation and developed
a generation cohort theory to explain the phenomenon. 

● There has been little reported research carried out to explore and determine actual
generation cohorts in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia. 

● Since every generation cohort is formed collectively, individuals in the same cohort are
expected to share similar value orientations among themselves but which are different
from those in other cohorts.

● Researchers then popularize the theory by proposing a generational framework for the

U.S. population, which is widely adopted by many countries, including Malaysia
Participants

● 12 individuals took part in this study. 3 people from each group generation.
● There are 4 categories of age;
○ Baby Boomers (55-75 years old),
○ Gen X (40-45 years old),
○ Gen Y (25-39 years old)
○ Gen Z (4-24 years old).
● Consent form was given to every participant to ask for permission to access data and
information
● The selection of participants was done through convenient sampling.
Instrument
Data Collection

● A personal, open-ended interview was used to collect data

● It has been the recommended qualitative means for studies related to generation
(Fountain and Lamb, 2011).

● The interview questions were adopted from various studies done by other researchers to fulfil the
objectives of this research.

● A total of 12 questions were asked during the interview.

Data Collection Procedures

A name list was first be created containing only Malay-English bilingual speakers

A consent form explaining the purpose of the study and asking for the participants’
permission was given to every participant before the interview takes place

The participants were given a sample of Twitter tweets that contain code-switching in order
for them to familiarise with the idea of code-switching in social media

Participants were interviewed through face-to-face interaction to answer Research Question

1, 2 and 3
Data Analysis Procedures
The transcribed data was organized simultaneously in set categories for sorting and
managing into themes and individual and organizational indicators for the analysis
stage

The transcribed data was supplemented for a thorough analysis and cross-sectional
method in comparing the response given by the participants.

The data collected was then be categorised with the accordance to the age class and
highlighted the significance of the data gathered.
Perceptions on code-switching among different age class in Malaysia

What is/are the language(s) you use in social media?

3.5
3
2.5
2 English
Mix of Malay and
1.5 English
1 Depends

0.5
0
Gen Z Gen Y Gen X Baby Boomers
Perceptions on code-switching among different age class in Malaysia

From your own opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of practicing
code-switching in social media?
Age Advantages Disadvantages
Group
1 Gen Z - Easier to understand - People will use it in wrong way when they are in
- Reflects on identities as Malaysians language class
- Vocabulary of our language will be a hustle
2 Gen Y - Easy to get the message across - Wrong usage of words and make the sentence doesn’t
- Learn something new make sense
- All races can understand and learn both - You will never get to start speaking your unlike
languages language.
3 Gen X - Relax and informal - Bad impact for our next generation
- Can fit into “teenagers’ platform”
4 Baby - Time saving - Tidak membangunkan budaya berbahasa yang baik
Boomers - Understand youth better (Do not develop a good language culture)
- Obvious disadvantage would be poor command of
either language.
- Unprofessional
Perceptions on code-switching among different age class in Malaysia
Why do you code-switch in social media?

Age Group Response

1 Gen Z - To accommodate people
- Not many of my friends are fluent in
English
- More polite to code switch from Malay to
English if the initial comments are in Malay
2 Gen Y - Is it normal to use code-switching
- Improve my level of confidence
3 Gen X - Fast and easy
- Social media is an informal platform
4 Baby Boomers - Short cuts
- Faster to think and write
Level of acceptance among Malaysians in practicing code-switching in
social media

Do you find it appropriate to code-switch in social media?

3.5
3
2.5
2 Yes
1.5 No
Depends
1
0.5
0
Gen Z Gen Y Gen X Baby Boomers
Perceptions on code-switching among different age class in Malaysia

Why?

Age Group Response

1 Gen Z - Social media is not a formal setting
- Show that we are okay using it
2 Gen Y - Some is appropriate but some is not because they butchered the
meaning completely
- Learn something and improve 2nd language
- Easy to understand
3 Gen X - Informal communication
- We use it daily
4 Baby Boomers - Time factor
- Bahasa Standard mau tulis very long one
(It takes longer time to write in proper sentence)
Which age group that uses code switching the most in social media?

Gen Z Gen Y Gen X Baby Boomers

Gen
Gen Z
Z Gen Z Gen Z Baby
Gen Y Gen X Boomer
s
● All generations believe that code-switching has good impact on social media
users and it helps to ease the communication process as long as the message
can be understood by the recipient

● Most of the participants accept code-switching to be used in social media as

online medium is considered as an informal platform to interact with each other

● From their own observation, the believe that teenagers or Gen Z people are the
ones who use code-switching the most in social media

● Gen X and Gen Z participants worried that code-switching might give a

negative impact to teenagers in the future
Findings from this study help to identify different perceptions of code-switching
among different generations in Malaysia which hopes to contribute to the linguistic
field such as to bridge linguistic gaps.

Main contribution
● Provide the differences on perceptions among different generations
● Explore the reasons behind the practice of code-switching in social media

Recommendation
● More code-switching studies should be done in Malaysian context as this is
growing rapidly
References
J. Fountain, C. Lamb (2011). Generation Y as young wine consumers in New Zealand: How do they
differ from Generation X? International Journal of Wine Business Research, 23 (2), pp. 107- 124

Lewis, M.P. (Ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the world (16th ed.). Dallas, Tex.: SIL
International. Retrieved from http://www.ethnologue.com

Mannheim, K. (1952). The problem of generations. Essays on the sociology of knowledge, pp. 276-320

Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in code-switching.

Oxford: Clarendon.

Poplack, S. (1980). “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en espanol”: toward a typology
of code-switching. Linguistics, 18(7), pp. 581- 618.