Code-Switching: Students in Formal vs. Informal Settings

(Virtual) Poster Presentation

The way we communicate is always changing. It even changes when we speak to different people or in different settings. We decided to look further into the details of how specifically collegeaged students change their lexicon and grammar in formal and informal settings. This is known as code-switching–alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in a single conversation. We have looked at responses from students from each scenario and have drawn conclusions from both sets of responses. We want to see how college-aged students code-switch their language in different situations. The two different environments we are going to study are formal/classroom settings and informal/social media settings. We want to see how college-aged students react to online school versus in-person school. We sent out questionnaires for students to complete anonymously. UO academic residential communities and Instagram stories will be how we get the majority of our responses. Hybrid learning has created an academic environment that is formal, yet informal. When students code-switch in response to a change in setting, the type of language they speak reflects their attitudes and interests in those different situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly transformed many students’ attitudes towards education in the United States. We can use our results to help predict what the future of education may look like postpandemic.