Home > Catalogue > EL.LE > 10 | 1 | 2021 > Code-Switching Between Lingua Francas

EL.LE | Vol. 10 | Issue 1 | March 2021

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Research Article

Code-Switching Between Lingua Francas

The Case of a Plurilingual Facebook Group

Arianna Bienati    Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Italia    

Claudia Borghetti    Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Italia    

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abstract

This article reports on English-Italian code-switching in a Facebook group of university students. The aim of the study is to describe the students’ interactional practices and their alternate use of English and Italian as lingua francas. 773 posts and comments written by 81 members of the group were analysed in a pragmatic and conversational perspective. The study shows that code-switching was ruled by precise norms of interaction and served to manage participant constellations. It also facilitated mutual understanding among students with different degree of language competence, and contributed to the creation of the plurilingual ‘small culture’ of the group.

Published
March 31, 2021
Accepted
May 10, 2020
Submitted
Feb. 8, 2020
Language
IT

Keywords: Facebook • Code-switching • Lingua franca • ELF • Plurilingualism

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2021/01/003

Copyright: © 2021 Arianna Bienati, Claudia Borghetti. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.