Electronic Theses and Dissertation

This study was aimed at investigating the use of code-switching (cs) among multilingual family members. this study used qualitative method through descriptive design. the subjects of this study were a family member consisting of five members and their relative who stay and frequently speak three different languages (arabic-english-bahasa indonesia) at home. the data were obtained by observing and interviewing them. the observation activity was operated to collect direct evidence of the types of cs (poplack, 1980) while the interviewing is led to gain accurate data of functions (gumperz, 1982) and reasons (hoffmann 1991) of they used cs in everyday conversation. the findings of this study revealed that the family used three types, three functions and four reasons of cs. the most frequent type used by the family was intra-sentential and the least repeated type was tag-switching. the functions which were found were to appeal to literate, to ease communication, and to establish goodwill and support. then, they did cs because they wanted to talk about particular topic, be emphatic about something, make interjection, and express group identity. in brief, the family did cs because of particular goals and reasons. to be considered, the researcher suggests other researchers to collect best data by recording the conversation rather than take notes.