Lê Minh Toàn

ENENIU18067

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – FINAL PROJECT

An analysis of code-switching in the talk show Bar Stories Episode 34: a

sociolinguistic case study

I. Introduction:

In the last 20 years, Vietnam as a developing country has achieved remarkable

progress in terms of economy and globalization. Vietnam became a member of the
ASEAN free trade arena. It signed a free trade agreement with the United States in
2000, and joined the World Trade Organization in 2007. Vietnam economic relations
with other countries worldwide has expeditiously enlarged. Many international investors
who mainly use English for communication see Vietnam as a promising investment
opportunity. Consequently, the demand for skilled employees that are fluent in English
is rising more than ever.  These factors explain why more and more young Vietnamese
people are willing to expose themselves to English. 

Since English has become increasingly popular and appears in every aspect of
daily life such as: conversation, news, ELT class and so on. For young Vietnamese
people, the alternate use of Vietnam and English in their classes or workplace is now a
crucial portion of their daily discourse. This is known as code-switching. Code-switching
(CS) is a phenomenon in which the speaker shifts from one language to another within
the same utterance or during the same conversation (Hoffman, 1996:110) or in
“bilingual communities where speakers use their native tongue (L1) and their second
language (L2) in different domains'' (Kim, 2006). The topic of CS has caught great
attention of scholars from different fields such as anthropology, psychology and
sociolinguistics in the last few decades. CS occurs in a wide range of contexts and
settings. There have been many research studies on code-switching in Vietnam but
they mainly focus on CS in formal settings like workplaces or ELT class. For that factor,
this study is conducted to analyze the phenomena of CS in a formal context by
examining the code choice of 3 characters in the talk show Bar Stories-Episode 34. The
host and content creator of the show is Dustin Nguyen who majored in Hospitality
Management in the United States and went back to Vietnam 7 years ago. The first
guest of the show is PewPew, a streamer that had studied abroad for 6 years and the
second one is Chau Bui, a social media fashion influencer. The three of them have
bilingual competence (Vietnamese and English).

The purpose of this study is to identify, classify the types of CS used in the
discourse of the participants. Furthermore, this study aims to analyze the occurred
frequency of particular types of CS and finds out the motivation for the participants to
code-switch. 
 In short, the study targets to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the types of CS found in the talk show Bar Stories - Episode 34?
2. What type of CS is used the most in the talk show Bar Stories - Episode
34?
3. What are the reasons for the 3 participants to CS in their conversation in
the talk show Bar Stories - Episode 34?

If these questions are answered appropriately, the study can demonstrate the
positive impact of CS in daily communication, especially on young people.

II. Literature review:

1. Code and code choice

The term code or variety is simply defined as “a set of linguistic items with similar
social distribution” (Hudson, 1996, p.22). It is used in specific social situations that
include different accents, linguistic styles, dialects, and even languages that contrast
with each other for social reasons. “In every community there is a wide range of codes
that are always available from which people can choose for communication according to
the social context” (Holmes, 2001, p.6).  Therefore, people from monolingual, bilingual
or multilingual communities must choose a suitable code to communicate with other
individuals. This is defined by sociolinguistics as “code choice” which is stated “Code-
choice refers to a speaker's decision of which code to use in a given utterance, and in
case of a CS utterance, to what extent the different codes are to be used”. In other
words, speakers may accommodate to each other's code- choice, positively or
negatively (Genesee, 1982)

2. Code-switching

In spite of the fact that many definitions of CS have been proposed, the foremost
common and acknowledged one appears to be that by Poplack (1980). The alternation
of two languages within a single discourse, sentence, or constituent is defined as CS.
The sort of switching in this definition may be thought of as shaping a continuum
ranging from entire sentences to single words.

3. Types of code-switch

a. Bloom and Gumperz Model of code-switching

Bloom and Gumperz’ (1972) early work set the foundation for later scholars to
address the questions of why speakers exchanged between dialects when and how
they did. On the premise of sociolinguistic components, 2 types CS were classified by
Bloom and Gumperz, namely situational CS and metaphorical CS. Situational CS focus
on the change of code according to the situation. On the other hand, metaphorical CS
refers to the switch of code that determines the situation.

b. Poplack Model of code-switching

Poplack (1980) introduced 3 types of CS namely: intra-sentential code-switching,

inter-sentential code-switching, extra-sentential code-switching

 Intra-sentential code-switching: the change of code occurs within the clause

boundary, including within the word boundary
 Example: Các nhãn hàng họ tài trợ gear cho em
 Inter-sentential code-switching: the change of code occurs at clause or sentence
boundary
 Example: Chào anh. How are you doing?
 Extra-sentential code-switching or tag switching is an insertion of a tag or short
phrase that is in one language to the utterance of another different language
 Example: Chỉ vì em thất bại đâu có nghĩa là mọi chuyện sẽ chấm
dứt, right?

The Poplack (1980) model of code-switching is employed as a theoretical

framework for this study

4. Motivation for code-switching

Malik’s (1994) listed ten reasons for CS: lack of facility, lack of register,
mood of the speaker, to amplify and emphasize a point, habitual experience,
semantic significance, to show identity with a group, to address a different
audience, pragmatic reasons, and to attract attention. Even though various
studies have discovered the functions and reasons for code-switching, this list
of Malik is considered the most compendious so far. These ten reasons are
adopted as the conceptual framework for this study.

III. Methodology:

1. Study design

This study was conducted with a qualitative method - discourse analysis.

According to Daymon and Holloway (2002), discourse analysis plays an
important role as institutional and organizational factors that might shape the way
the language is used.  The series Bar Stories is a combination of the popular talk
show format in the US, combined with a lifestyle activity which is enjoying
cocktails. Dustin Nguyen plays the role of the host who mixes and explains the
specials of cocktails at prominent bars in Saigon. At the same time, he serves
those cocktails to famous guests that are in the field of music, film, fashion while
talking and listening to their sharing about their life and career. The series is very
popular among young Vietnamese people because the guests are well-known
 individuals that have strong influence on them. The discussion in the show is
very intimate, modern and pretty much related to the young Vietnamese’ status.
With regard to all these factors, the use of CS between English and Vietnamese
in the show occurs with a high frequency. By analyzing the motivation of CS from
the participants of the show, the result might suggest effective strategies for
verbal communication. Therefore, the discourse analysis method is appropriate
to apply in this case. 

2. Instrument

The material to be investigated is the dialogue transcription of Bar Stories

- Episode 34 which released in 2020 with the length of 1 hour 3 minutes and 28
seconds

3. Data collection

Every utterance and the time during the talk show in which CS occurs will
be marked and noted down. Next, the data will be gathered into sheets and transferred
to tables.

4. Data analysis 

In order to answer the first research question, identifying the type of

switching according to Poplack’s typology will be tabulated. After identifying the
type of CS, the second research question will be answered by calculating the
type of CS that occurs the most in Table 1. 

Type of CS Number of instance Percentage

Intra-sentential CS

Inter-sentential CS

Tag CS

Table 1: The frequency of each type of CS in the talk show Bar

Stories - Episode 34

Finally, the study will analyze each instance of CS according to the

reasons for which they were uttered and subsequently presented in tables Table
2. 
Data number

Utterance

Minutes to

Type of CS  Intra-sentential CS
 Inter-sentential CS
 Tag CS

Motivation for CS  Lack of facility

 Lack of register
 Mood of the speaker
 To amplify and emphasize a point
 Habitual experience
 Semantic significance
 To show identity with a group
 To address a different audience 
 Pragmatic reasons
 To attract attention

Table 2: Data table in analyzing CS and its function

IV. Anticipated findings

The findings are expected that there will be all three types of CS occurring
in the talk show. Intra-sentential is expected to be the dominant type of CS
according to previous study on CS in Vietnamese EFL teaching environment by
Thao, L.(2017). Finally, the main motivation for the participants to code-switch is
likely to be habitual experience due to the informality of setting and the fluency of
the participants in both English and Vietnamese. 

V. Timeline

Week Task
number

1  Proposal writing

2   Proposal writing
 Watch the talk show and marked the utterance with CS

3  Collecting data 
 Transfer marked utterance into sheets
 4  Analyze the data 
 Classify the utterance into the 3 categories based on
Popblack’s typology of CS
 Account the percentage of each type
 Transfer the data to Table 1

5-6  Analyze the data 

 Base on Malik’s framework, analyze the motivation for CS
in each instance

7  Transfer the data of each instance to Table 2

8  Summary and give out the result

VI. Reference: 

 Kim, E. (2006). Reasons and motivations for code-mixing and code-switching.

Issues in EFL, 4 (1), 43-61. 

 Hudson, R. A. (1996). Sociolinguistics: Second edition. Cambridge University

Press. 

 Holmes, J. (2001). In An introduction to sociolinguistics (pp. 6–6). essay,

Longman.

 Genesee, F. (1982). The Social Psychological Significance of Code Switching in

Cross-Cultural Communication. Journal of Language and Social Psychology,
1(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x8200100102 

 Bloom, J., & Gumperz, J. (1972). Social meaning in linguistic structures: Code-
switching in Norway. In J. J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (Eds.), rev. ed. 1986.
Directions in Sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication (pp. 407-434).
New York and Oxford: Blackwell,

 Boplack, S. (1980) Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en

espanol: Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics 18, 581-618
 Malik, L. (1994). Socio-linguistics: A study of code-switching. New Delhi, ND:
Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd
 Daymon, C., & Holloway, I. (2010). Qualitative Research Methods in Public
Relations and Marketing Communications.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203846544 

 Thao, L.(2017) Vietnamese-English Code-Switching In Conversation Among

Vietnamese EFL Teachers. Tạp chí Khoa học Ngôn ngữ và Văn hóa, 1, 1.