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Code‐Alteration among Arab College Students
Author(s) -
Hussein Riyad F.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/1467-971x.00141
Subject(s) - arabic , section (typography) , relation (database) , variety (cybernetics) , code switching , code (set theory) , code mixing , scope (computer science) , linguistics , english language , psychology , mathematics education , computer science , artificial intelligence , programming language , philosophy , set (abstract data type) , database , operating system
The present study investigates Jordanian university students' attitudes toward code‐switching (CS), and code‐mixing (CM), to find out when and why they code‐switch and the most frequent English expressions that they use in Arabic discourse. For this purpose a three‐section questionnaire was developed and distributed to students (N = 352). Section 1 elicited biographical data; Section 2 elicited students' attitudes toward CS/CM in relation to English, toward CS/CM in relation to Arabic, and toward CS/CM in relation to language users; and Section 3 elicited data as to why and where students CS/CM with English and the motives behind that. The students are shown to have negative as well as positive attitudes toward CS/CM with English in Arabic discourse – attitudes that are in some ways contrary to expectation. The results also indicate that students CS/CM with English for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is the lack of Arabic equivalents for English terms or expressions. Finally, there is frequent use of many English expressions, which varied in range and scope in the speech of Arab educated speakers.