Pragmatic Functions of English/Setswana Code-Switching in WhatsApp Groups of a Communication Class
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1606.01Keywords:
communication, translation, technologies, speech acts, code-switchingAbstract
WhatsApp is a widely used technological and social platform. It is officially recognized as a channel of communication between lecturers and students at some public tertiary institutions in Botswana. As a multilingual digital space, WhatsApp enables users to alternate between languages within a single interaction, making it a fertile environment for code -switched communication. The features and purposes of code-switched communication therefore deserve scholarly attention because they provide a rich linguistic resource for pragmatic analysis. Thus, this study aimed to identify various situational uses of code-switching in the WhatsApp group of Communication Skills classes, analyze the pragmatic functions of code-switched messages, and relate these functions to students' learning needs. The research adopted a mixed-methods approach involving content analysis and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Drawing from the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), data was collected from WhatsApp groups of two classes for content analysis and from discussions with twenty (20) students. The findings reveal that except for subtle rebukes and requests, the pragmatic analysis of extracted WhatsApp data aligned with the Focus Group Discussion findings. The main convergent pragmatic functions were clarification, emphasis, humour, and cultural identity, and the only divergent pragmatic function was exclusion. The research concludes that code-switching is influenced by socio-cultural factors, particularly culture and language, as students strive to provide detailed information and seek clarification concerning their academic studies. The research recommends that students should be encouraged to communicate in English, which is understandable to lecturers and students, as code-switching often leads to linguistic marginalization and dominance.
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