ALS455 - Language and Society

Question 1
It is common nowadays for people to communicate in social network (eg. Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter).
a) What is the language variety used in this setting?
-Language variety is a term in sociolinguistics that refers to a language but in a specific form.
These forms may include different registers, dialects, or styles in that certain language (e.g
American English, Cockney dialect, Malaysian English, etc.). When it comes to social networks,
generally many use English is the medium language but of course, it is not uncommon for users to
communicate in their native language as well. However on social networks, there will be language
variety across the many different languages used. This includes forms such as leetspeak (where
one replaces the letters with either numbers or symbols), internet slang (e.g LOL, ROFL, BRB),
emoticons (e.g :D, ^o^, <3) and using capitalisation or changing the punctuation for emphasis or
stress (e.g WHYY??!?!, PLS stop THAT!!). Its also important to note that there are users that also
use the standard variety of their language to communicate on the social networking platform,
perhaps due to a formal setting (e.g typing up an email for an inquiry to a university) or due to their
personal preference.
b) Do social factors contribute to the code choice in such setting, as they usually do in conventional
conversations? Why?
-Similar to conventional conversations, social factors do contribute to the code choice we use in
social networking sites. Depending on who we communicate with online and the environment or
context of the situation, the language variety would use would often vary. For example, lets say if a
user were to communicate with their grandparents online. Due to the generation that the user grew
up in and the generation that their grandparents grew up in, the way they communicate online
would be different. Normally in this situation, the user would try to avoid typing in leetspeak or
internet slang (e.g HOw ru 9r4nDM4? H4vE jOo E47em? :DDDDD) and instead use standard
English, assuming that their grandparents will not be able to understand their language variety.
However if the user was with their friends, then they would be more comfortable in using internet
slang such as TTYL or mixing their sentence structure around because their relationship and
solidarity level would be high and they would have no trouble communicating with one another and
misunderstandings are unlikely to occur. Furthermore, if one were to write an inquiry to a large
organisation or a university, despite it being online, the code choice in such a setting would still
matter. It would be wise to type in standard English and in a more formal tone if one were to type
an email to a university, inquiring about their enrolment process. Writing using capitalisation at the
wrong places or changing the grammar or typing in numbers would most likely leave a bad
impression for them.

Question 2
Interview two immigrant workers in Shah Alam and find out how they cope in using Malay language
Malaysia. What are the pressures that might be faced by the immigrant speakers in Shah Alam
community?
-For our first interviewee, we interviewed a Subway employee from Nepal. His name is Raul and
he is 24 years old. He has been working in Malaysia since 2012 but he cannot speak Malay at all.
When we asked him how he copes in other people using Malay language, he told us he tries to get
along with his fellow workers (as they all speak Malay). But he also mentions that there are
similarities between his language, Urdhu and Malay. The pressures that he faces from not being
able to speak Malay is that he has to face the customers every day and that although he is very
fluent in English, he says that he cant rely on it all the time; especially when there are customers
that are not fluent enough in English that they end up ordering in Malay. If a customer does end up
ordering in Malay, he usually ends up calling one of his colleagues to take over.
-For our second interviewee, we interviewed a sales promoter at Giant Seksyen 13. His name is
Marud. He is from Bangladesh and he is 38 years old. He has been working in Malaysia for a long
time. In fact, he came to Malaysia to work in 1992. He knows how to speak Malay but there are a
lot of terms that he is still not accustomed to yet and it gets especially difficult when people speak
too fast or in certain dialects that differ from the standard Malay language. The pressure that he
faces when it comes to speaking Malay is when impatient customers start talking really fast or in a
different dialect or style that he has to keep to be able to understand them. Furthermore, he says
that his accent is also an issue. He mentions that his accent when it comes to speaking Malay is
quite thick that hes afraid that people may not be able to understand him or communicate properly.