A sociolinguistic probe of language use on Facebook among Algerian Internet users

Abstract

As Facebook has tremendously evolved into one of the best-liked ways of communication on the Internet, language has also been enticed in terms of its use and practices. This paper aims to raise its issue in the multilingual Arabic–French–English Facebook posts and comments from three purposely selected groups, comprising 40 participants each. The data were collected via an online questionnaire to explore the language(s) or language varieties used by the members in concordance with code-switching as a sociolinguistic phenomenon and the reasons behind such behaviour in online written discourse. The data were analysed through a mixed methods approach. The findings revealed that the participants of each selected group use a specific language or language that varies depending on the group membership, the language of the posts and the language they master best. Additionally, it was detected that most of the participants code-switch on Facebook either due to lack of fluency or to facilitate socialising.

Keywords: Code-switching, comments, Facebook, Internet users, language, posts;