VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN

“CODE MIXING USED ON FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORK BY EFL

STUDENTS AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS, HANOI
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION”

Hiện tượng trộn mã tiếng Anh trên mạng xã hội Facebook của học sinh
chuyên Anh ở trường chuyên Sư Phạm Hà Nội

M.A THESIS

FIELD : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

CODE : 8220201.01

Hanoi, 2018
 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
******  ******

NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN

“CODE MIXING USED ON FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORK BY EFL

STUDENTS AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS, HANOI
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION”

Hiện tượng trộn mã tiếng Anh trên mạng xã hội Facebook của học sinh
chuyên Anh ở trường chuyên Sư Phạm Hà Nội

M.A THESIS

FIELD : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

CODE : 8220201.01
SUPERVISOR : Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Tam

Hanoi, 2018
 DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Code mixing used on
Facebook social network by EFL students at High School for Gifted Students,
Hanoi National University of Education” is the result of my own work in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English
Linguistics at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The research has not
been submitted to any other university or institution wholly and partially.

Hanoi, 2018
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from
a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr.
Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported
me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and
suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to my students, without whom it would never
have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last by not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice they
have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.
 ABSTRACT

English have been nationwide taught in all Vietnamese schools for the past ten
years; consequently, Vietnamese youngsters nowadays could be exposed to English
at the early age, and consequently, English turns out to be familiar with them. Under
the boom of entertainment industry and Western influence, English, more or less,
become preferable in social network; so the mixing of English into Vietnamese has
emerged as a quite visible case in social network communication. Code-mixing,
according to Poplack (1980), Holmes (1992) and Liu (2008), refers to both inter-
sentential and intra-sentential code-altemation occurring when a bilingual speaker
uses more than one language in a single utterance above the clause level to
appropriately convey his/her intents. That is, code mixing is the process of mixing
the various language units below clause level within a sentence. Code-mixing has
become such a topic of good interest that quite a number of researchers have studied
it in both spoken and written data, such as H.D.Tuc (2003) and T.T. Cuc (2012). In
this study, attempts were made to investigate the patterns and levels of code-mixing
of English by EFL students in High School for Gifted students, Hanoi National
University of Education (HNUE) on a social network Facebook. The data of this
study was collected from 35 Facebook users, randomly chosen from the 35 high
school students in HNUE, during five weeks. Both qualitative and quantitative
methods were used to analyze the code-mixing patterns and levels used by students
in their Facebook status and reasons for code-mixing phenomenon.
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND FIGURES
Figure 1: A parsing tree for insertion ( Muysken, 2000:7)
Figure 2: A parsing tree for alternation ( Muysken, 2000:7)
Figure 3: A parsing tree for congruent lexicalization ( Muysken, 2000:7)
Figure 4: A triangle of code-switching types ( Muysken, 2000:9)
Figure 5: Reasons for code-mixing English on the social network Facebook by
young students at High school for Gifted students, HNUE
Table 1: Analytical framework ( Muysken, 2000)
Table 2: Distribution of code-mixing patterns ( Muysken, 2000)
Table 3: Levels of code-mixing
Table 4: Most frequent code-mixing phenomenon
Abbreviations
HNUE: Hanoi National University of Education
L2: second language
L1: Vietnamese
ML: the matrix language
EL: the embedded language
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION................................................................................................................ 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. 4
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 1
1. Rationale for the Study .................................................................................................................................. 1

2. Research questions and research objectives ................................................................... 2

3. Scope of the Research .................................................................................................................................... 3

4. Significance of the study .................................................................................................. 3

5. Structural Organization of the Thesis ............................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 1:THEORETICAL BACKGROUND................................................... 5
1.1. Language contact........................................................................................................... 5
1.2. Code mixing .................................................................................................................. 6
1.2.1. Code ............................................................................................................................ 6
1.2.2. Code mixing ................................................................................................................ 6
1.2.3. Code mixing and code switching .............................................................................. 7
1.2.4. Code-mixing and borrowing ..................................................................................... 9
1.2.5. Patterns of code mixing ........................................................................................... 11
1.2.6. Constraints on code mixing ..................................................................................... 14
1.2.6.1. Linguistic constraints on code mixing ................................................................. 14
1.2.6.2. Extra-linguistic factors related to code-mixing .................................................. 15
1.3. Review of previous studies ......................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 2:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................... 20
2.1. Research methodology................................................................................................ 20
2.2. Data Collection Instruments ..................................................................................................................... 20
2.3. Data Collection Procedure ........................................................................................................................ 21

2.4. Data analysis:............................................................................................................... 22

CHAPTER 3. DATA FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................. 24
3.1. Patterns of code-mixing .............................................................................................. 24
3.1.1. Statistical findings:................................................................................................... 24
3.1.2. Insertion .................................................................................................................... 25
3.1.4. Congruent lexicalization .......................................................................................... 29
3.2. Levels of code-mixing ................................................................................................ 31
3.2.1. Findings of the quantification of mixed word class ............................................... 31
3.2.2. Overview description and discussion of mixed word classes ................................ 32
3.2.2.1. Nouns ..................................................................................................................... 32
3.2.2.2. Verbs ...................................................................................................................... 38
3.2.2.3. Adjectives ............................................................................................................... 41
3.3.1. Vietnamization of English vocabulary .................................................................... 43
3.3.2. Englishisation of Vietnamese .................................................................................. 45
3.3.3. New word coinage.................................................................................................... 46
3.3.4. New clipping pattern ................................................................................................ 48
3.3.5. Grapheme ommision ................................................................................................ 50
3.3.6. Acronyms .................................................................................................................. 50
3.4. Students‟ explanation for their use of code-mixing .................................................. 52
3.4.1. Summary of the findings .......................................................................................... 52
3.5. ANSWERS TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................. 55
3.5.1. Answer to Research question 1 ............................................................................... 55
3.5.2. Answer to Research question 2 ............................................................................... 56
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 58
4.1. Recapitulation ........................................................................................................................................... 58
4.2 Limitations of the Research ....................................................................................................................... 59
4.3. Suggestions for Future Research .............................................................................................................. 60

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 61
APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................... 63
 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the problem and the rationale for the study, together with the
objectives and the scope of the whole paper are clearly stated and explained. Above
all, this chapter also builds the research questions to work as clear guidelines for the
whole research.
1. Rationale for the Study
Recently, the interest of learning and using foreign languages has increased.
English is one of the foreign languages frequently used besides the mother tongue.
With the growing influence of globalization, English is now considered as a lingua
franca that is widely learned. Therefore, many countries have become multilingual
with the frequent use of English in their daily life. It is observable that many
English words used as substitutes appear in the newspapers, magazines or social
network of other languages, which has aroused interest of various linguistic and
sociological researchers. Sharing the same desire, it is also wished to get the holistic
view on the process of producing such a mixture of English language into the
researcher‟s mother tongue,Vietnamese.
English have been nationwide taught in all Vietnamese schools for the past ten
years; consequently, they could be exposed to English at the early age. As a result,
English turns out to be familiar with them. Furthermore, under the boom of
entertainment industry and Western influence, English, more or less, become
preferable in media. It was also proved by Leung (2010) that young people
preferred code mixing. For those reasons, Vietnamese young people are chosen as
the subject of the study.
For half a century, quite a number of research have been done on code-mixing
both in spoken and written languages performed by a number of researchers. In
2003, H.D.Tuc also had a close view on spoken code-mixing of English into
Vietnamese community. In 2012, a research on code-mixing in written language
was conducted by T.T.Cuc. Though valuable results have been found, they still
leave the gaps for code-mixing for Vietnamese teenagers.

1
 Such issues, as described above, have given me a desire to investigate this
phenomenon of code-mixing. Additionally, the researcher conducts the research
about code mixing because the researcher is interested in continuing the study of the
previous researchers in sociolinguistics especially in the linguistic realization of
code mixing and the reasons for using code mixing by high school students at High
school for Gifted students (HNUE). The previous researchers discussed about code
mixing which are used in magazines, manual user, and a community. This research
is expanding the form of code mixing on social media networking especially
Facebook. Then, it also classified various kinds of reasons provided by the
correspondences to show their reasons for using code-mixing.
For all of the reasons listed above, this research was carried out to focus on the
patterns and levels of code-mixing of English on Facebook, a social network by
EFL students at High school for Gifted students, HNUE using both qualitative and
quantitative methods. The research, once finished, is expected to shed some light on
code-mixing patterns and levels high school students used on Facebook in general,
raise sociolinguistics‟ awareness about related issues and lay a foundation for
further studies.
2. Research questions and research objectives
The specific objectives are raised as follows:
a. Examine the frequency of using code mixing between English and
Vietnamese on Facebook among EFL students at High School for Gifted Students,
Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE)
b. To find out the types of code mixing of English that high school students in
HNUE often utilize on Facebook social network
c. To determine the main reasons for high school students in HNUE code mix
on Facebook social network
Particularly, the study attempts to answer these following research questions:
a. What is the realization of code-mixing on Facebook of EFL high school
students in HNUE?

2
 b. What are reasons for the code-mixing in online postings on Facebook by EFL
high school students in HNUE?
3. Scope of the Research
This study only focused on the actual situations and some major issues related to
code-mixing of English on the social network Facebook by 35 high school students
in HNUE
4. Significance of the study
This study aimed to to illustrate the patterns and levels of code-mixing of
English by high school students in HNUE on the social network Facebook and the
reasons why students code-mix. Firstly, the research itself, partly helped the readers
have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of code mixing used on the
social network Facebook by EFL students at High School for Gifted Students,
HNUE. Secondly, in the light of the obtained results, it will aslo be helpful for the
upcoming researchers to get into new direction for their own study. In other words,
academically, this research can be used as an additional reference for discussion of
sociolinguistics study, especially about code-mixing phenomenon.
5. Structural Organization of the Thesis
Finally, to guidance for either the researcher in writing the research paper or
readers in reading the whole contents of research paper, the researcher set up the
order of the research paper as follows:
Part A - Introduction – provides the rationale of the study, aims and objectives and
the significance of the study as well as raises research questions.
Part B - Development - consists of three chapters:
Chapter One – Literature review – presents an overview of relevant literature on
the issues of code-mixing.
Chapter Two – Research methodology – provides a description of research
methods, selection of the participants, data collection instruments, and data
collection procedures.
Chapter Three, Four – Findings and discussions - presents the results of the
study and the discussion of the results.

3
 Chapter Five– Conclusion - summarises the main points of the study, draw some
conclusions, points out the limitations of the study and make some suggestions for
further research.
In this chapter, the researcher has elaborated on these following points:
(1) Rationale for the study
(2) Research questions and research objectives of the study
(3) Scope of the study
(4) Significance of the study
(5) An overview of the rest of the paper
To sum up, these elaborations have not only justified the major contents and
structure of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper.

4
 CHAPTER 1:THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Language contact

Language contact has attracted the interest of many scholars, who describe it as a
phenomenon where two or more distinct languages come into closest use within the
same speech community. According to Weinreich (1974), he claimed that “Two or
more languages are said to be in contact if they are used alternately by the same
persons”. Matras (2009) said that “Language contact occurs when speakers of
different languages interact and their languages influence each other.”Language
contact takes place everywhere. It is hard to find an existing language that survives
without having any contact with others. Besides being the main factor leading to the
actions of code-mixing linguistic items and borrowing, language contact is viewed as
one of the external factors that „can, and often does, lead directly to structural
linguistic change‟ according to Thomason (2006: 1). Language contact occurs when
there is interaction between people from different language backgrounds. Robins
(1989: 14) sees language as „adaptable and modifiable according to the changing
needs and conditions of speakers‟. The adaptability and modifiability of language can
be seen in the adaptation of vocabulary to the scientific and industrial developments
as well as in the importation of foreign words. Other researchers raise the questions
such as to what degree of difference the code used in two „languages‟ has to be and
whether different dialects are categorised as different languages (Appel & Muysken,
1987: 3; Thomason, 2001: 3). Thomason (2001: 1) gives a more flexible definition of
language contact as „the use of more than one language in the same place at the same
time‟. This indicates that fluent bilingualism is not essential but communication
between different languages is necessary. Moreover, contact can occur without
speakers of two or more languages being in the same place at the same time, as in the
case of contact through music, films, internet, books, magazines, and newspapers.
Thomason‟s definition covers a wider range of language contact, including spoken
and written contact, and can therefore be used as the guiding definition in this study
for the analysis of language contact in the social network Facebook.

5
1.2. Code mixing
1.2.1. Code
Code is a familiar term used in almost every field. According to Stockwell (2002:8-
9), a code is “a symbol of nationalism that is used by people to speak or
communicate in a particular language, or dialect, or register, or accent, or style on
different occasions and for different purposes.” Similarly, Ronald Wardaugh
(1986:101) also maintains that a code can be defined as “a system used for
communication between two or more parties used on any occasions.” When two or
more people communicate with each other in speech, we can call the system of
communication that they employ a code. Therefore, people are usually required to
select a particular code whenever they choose to speak, and they may also decide to
switch from one code to another or to mix codes, sometimes in very short utterances
and it means to create a code. On the other hand, according to Holmes (2001), code
is used by sociolinguists to describe the linguistic choices. Code choices relate to
the social factors. Thus, language is not used as a highest level, but also refers to
language selection such as accent, social class or social dialect. Varieties and styles
are summarized in the barrel language (polite style, respectful style, intimate style
or casual style). Meanwhile, according to Ayeomoni (2006), code is a verbal unit
and it can be small like a morpheme or complicated and comprehensive like the
whole system of language. From those opinions of the code given by many linguists
above, it can be concluded that a code can be said as a language. The code is a form
of the language variation that is used by a society to make communication with
other people.
1.2.2. Code mixing
Code-mixing is the change of one language to another within the same utterance or
in the same oral/written text. Muysken (2000) defines code-mixing as the lexical
items and grammatical features of two languages that in the same sentence.
According to Li (1998; 2000), “code-mixing refers to any a mixture of linguistic
elements of two or more language systems in the same utterance at various levels:
phonological, lexical, grammatical and orthographical”. Wardhaugh (1986:103)

6
explains that “code mixing occurs when a conversant uses both languages at the
same time to show that they change from one language to the other in the course of
a single utterance”. In addition, Nababan (1991: 32) says that it is a mixing of two
or more language or language variation in speech act or discourse without
something in using language situation which demands the speaker, it is only
because of informal and speaker habitual. Other definition from Suwito (1985),
concept of code mixing is the use two languages or more by inserting the elements
of one language to the other, which is used consistently. Furthermore, Suwito
(1985) states if in an utterance there is a mixing combination between varieties of
languages in a same clause, it is called code mixing. What he means by the
language varieties here are dialect, registers, styles, etc. In addition, Myers- Scotton
(1993a) states that code-mixing is considered as a socially functional phenomemon
which occurs with the speaker‟s intention.
It can be deduced from the definitions above is that code mixing is code variation
which other language insertion in one utterance when speaking, use two languages,
caused by informal situation, and habitual of multilingual society.
1.2.3. Code mixing and code switching
Code-mixing is sometimes referred to as code-switching. However, some authors
distinguish between code-mixing and code-switching. Muysken (2004) and
Wardhaugh (1992) see code-mixing as occurring at the lexical level (i.e. within a
sentence) and code-switching as relating to an alternation of languages between
clauses, sentences or utterances.
Ritchie and Bhatia (2004) distinguish code-mixing from code-switching in terms of
the use of various linguistic units such as morphemes, words, modifiers, phrases,
clauses and sentences within a sentence (for code mixing), and words, phrases,
clauses and sentences across sentence boundaries within a speech event (for code
switching).
The employment of the two phenomena appears to be terminological. Therefore,
some authors, for example Ritchie and Bhatia (2004), use the term language
mixing/switching, or Barnard and McLellan (2014) use code-switching to refer to

7
both of these two phenomena. Sharing the view that there is not a clear distinction
between code-mixing and code-switching, other authors argue that both phenomena
are “parole”, i.e. speech, not “langue”, i.e. language (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.
270), and are on a continuum (Gardner-Chloros, 2009). According to Hamers
and Blanc (2000) code-mixing, similar to code-switching, is the transference of
elements from language A, or the base language, to language B. The core
distinction between code-mixing and code-switching appears to be the language
level at which the phenomena occur. That is, code-switching can occur across
sentences, or at an inter-sentential level, while code-mixing only occurs
within a sentence, i.e., at intra-sentential level. The phenomenon of code-mixing
and code-switching is defined differently resulting from different research interests
and perspectives.
Like Bokamba (1989) states that these two phenomena serve different linguistic and
psycholinguistic functions, and thus must be distinguished from each other. He adds
that while code-switching does not necessitate the interaction of the grammatical
rules of the languages involved in the speech event, code-mixing does. To illustrate,
Bokamba (1989) gives the following examples from Kinshasa Lingala and French:
Example 1.1. Na- ke- i Kimwenza. je revien-s dans une heure
I-go- I past Kimwenza. I return- 1 pers in one hour
(I have gone to Kimwenza. I will return in an hour.(Bokamba, 1989, p.279))
Example 1.2. Mobali na yo a- telephon- aka yo deux fois par jour spouse of you he
telephone- Hab. you two times per day
(Your husband calls you twice a day.(Bokamba, 1989, p.279))
According to Bokamba (1989), Example (1.1) is a demonstration of code-switching
because there is no interaction between the rules of the Lingala and French syntax.
The speaker shifts from one language [Lingala] to the other [French] inter-
sententially. Example (1.2) demonstrates code-mixing because there is a clear
interaction between the syntactic rules of the languages. Consequently, in his study
code-switching and code-mixing will be treated as two different phenomena.

8
In this study, we adopt the view point of Poplack (1980), Holmes (1992) and Liu
(2008) which indicates that code-switching relates to clause/sentence and discourse
while code-mixing refers to mixing the various language units below clause level
within a sentence.The examples below are given to illustrate the differences
between code-switching and code-mixing.
Example 1.3:“Những năm đầu tiên đi làm, bạn hãy luôn nghĩ “Work to learn not work
to earn”. .. Cuối buổi, chị Hồng Len nhắn nhủ các bạn “Keep calm and fly high!”…
(She said: "In the first years of work, always think" Work to learn not work to earn .
" .. At the end, Ms. Hong Len reminded you " Keep calm and fly high! "...)
From the example 1.3, it can be seen that code-switching occurs when translating
from Vietnamese code to English code while maintaining the integrity and
standards of both languages.
Example 1.4:“Khởi điểm của trào lưu này là ở châu Âu với những party mùa hè sôi
động, những concert ngoài trời lấp lánh vào buổi tối”
(Beginning of this movement is in Europe for the summer's most popular party, the
sparkling outdoor concerts in the evening.)
From the example 1.4, the Vietnamese language plays a role of main code, inserted
English words are only auxiliary codes, mixed into main codes. It is concluded that
code mixing is as characteristic of mixing English in Vietnamese language
communication of young people. According to the syntactical criteria of the
Poplack (1980) transcode model, English units are only mixed with meaningful
units, not ensuring syntactic forms. If transcoding is the phenomenon of a person
speaking multiple languages, each code is an "intact language", then mixing code is
to use the "small pieces" of codes mixed in other languages.
1.2.4. Code-mixing and borrowing
There has been a variety of studies conducted to tell the difference between code-
mixing ( as a subtype of code-switching) and borrowing. Borrowed words (or loan
words) are described by Hoffmann (1991) as features of “langue” ( p.102).
This means that when words from a language have entered the vocabulary
system of another language and are ready for use by the community after a process

9
of assimilation of certain aspects, they are seen as loan words. The process of
assimilation is revealed, for example, through the pronunciation and/or grammar
and/or spelling. In this case, the phenomenon of borrowing is not a feature
of speech or “parole” (M. F. Mackey, 2000), as “parole” is seen as an
individual‟s production (writing/speaking) of language pieces, for example an
utterance or a long speech.
Some authors (e.g., Haugen, 1956; Poplack, 1980) argue that code-mixing ( as
a subtype of code-switching) and borrowing are distinguishable. They usually
base their distinction on two aspects: assimilation and the language unit level
of the phenomenon. For example, Poplack (1980) distinguishes borrowing
from code-mixing by describing borrowing as the adaptation of lexical material
to the morphological, syntactic and phonological patterns of the recipient language.
In sum, in this paper, loan words are considered to be those words that come from
the L2 (English) and are assimilated (in one or more aspects such as pronunciation,
spelling, grammar) into the L1 (Vietnamese), or are used by the Vietnamese
community, or have even entered the Vietnamese lexicon. The phenomenon of
borrowing is seen as the using of words from the L2 in utterances of the L1 by
individual/s without any assimilation. Obviously, those words have neither
been accepted officially by the Vietnamese community nor entered the lexicon
of the L1. Accordingly, the phenomenon of borrowing does not include loan
words. Therefore, it is considered that borrowing is a form of code-mixing. The
term “code-mixing”, thus, is used in the present study to refer to instances of words
or phrases which the speakers directly borrow from English without adapting
such words/phrases into Vietnamese. For example, words such as “email”,
“Google”, or “video clip” appear to be widely used by Vietnamese youngsters
though there are Vietnamese words equivalent to them.However, many
Vietnamese people tend to borrow these English words and use them in their
conversations. When inserting such words into their utterances, two cases
may occur. The first case is when people phonologically adapt the words to
Vietnamese, pronouncing “email” as /i-mei/ or /i-meo/, “google” as /guk-gǝ /, and

10
“video clip” as /vizeo-kǝ -lip/. This first case will be considered examples of
loan words because those words are assimilated to Vietnamese phonetically.The
second case is when the speakers insert those words into their utterances but
still pronounce them as they are pronounced in English, i.e. without any
adaptation to their first language. This second case is viewed as an example
of the borrowing phenomenon, (i.e., involves the speakers‟ insertion of the
words that are borrowed from English without any indication of adaptation), and
will be counted as code-mixing. Note that the speakers‟ use of the borrowed
words as exemplified above occurs in the context where they are sometimes used
by the media, and tend to be used more and more by young Vietnamese people.
1.2.5. Patterns of code mixing
Pieter Muysken (2000) states that the term “code- mixing” refers to all cases where
lexical items and grammatical features from two languages appear in one sentence.
Code mixing is a mixture or insert foreign words (other codes) between two or more
languages in small units may be in words or short phrases in speaker or writer
utterance, in which there is a dominant language to make it sound cool and give
appropriate context to the listener or audience, then it makes the speaker or writer enjoy
and relax to use the language. Pieter Muysken (2000) suggests that there are three main
code-mixing patterns which may be found in bilingual speech communities, they are:
Insertion, Alternation and Congruent Lexicalization. The patterns of intra-sentential
code mixing found are often rather different from one another.
Muysken‟s (2000) aim was to unite the previous theories and create an umbrella
model that could account for every single instance of mixing. According to
Muysken (2000), people can code-mix in three different ways: insertion,
alternation or congruent lexicalization.
Insertion takes place when the relationship between the languages involved is
unequal. In insertion, one language is the matrix language (ML) into which short
constituents of a second language – the embedded language (EL) – are inserted. An
example from Muysken of an inserted Dutch prepositional phrase into Moluccan
Malay is quoted below:

11
“Kalau dong tukan bikin dong tukan bikin voor acht personen dek orang cuma
when they always make they always make for eight persons and then people only
nganga dong makan. “look they eat „When they [cook], it is always for eight
people, and then they only look at it, they eat…‟ (Muysken 2000: 4)
Muysken‟s second type of mixing is labelled alternation. Alternation comprises
exactly what the name implies: an alternation between two language systems within
a clause or a conversation. It contrasts with insertion, because in insertion one
language dominates the sentence structure and determines the grammatical frame
(the ML). In alternation, there is no dominating language: the grammatical frame of
both languages is used to create a sentence. The speaker will, at the switch point,
leave one language system entirely to enter another instead of inserting constituents
into the frame of one dominant (matrix) language. This alternation of language
systems is clear from the example that Muysken (2000) provides of an alternation
between Dutch and Moroccan Arabic: maar „t hoeft niet li-„anna ida seft ana …. but
it need not for when I-see I „but it need not be, for when I see, I….‟ (Muysken 2000:
5). There is no dominant language in this fragment and the switch involves a
complete change of language system.
The third type of code-switching, congruent lexicalization, only occurs when the
two languages involved are linguistically close to each other or are perceived to be
so by the speakers. Because of the similarities between the two languages,
perceived or real, constituents can move much more freely within the sentence.
Within both insertion and alternation, switched elements have to adhere to the
structure of one particular language. In congruent lexicalization, both structures are
felt to be one and the same. This results in fewer constraints on code-mixing. An
example is code-mixing between Dutch and English. These two languages share
much in terms of constituent order and even lexical items as, for example,
„where‟/‟waar‟ and „is‟ sound very similar in both languages. Weet jij [whaar]
Jenny is? „Do you know where Jenny is?‟ (Dutch: waar Jenny is) (Muysken 2000:
5).The resulting clause is, therefore, difficult to classify linguistically: while the

12
beginning of the sentence is clearly Dutch (weet jij), the second part (whaar Jenny
is) is structurally and lexically appropriate in both Dutch and English.
If these three different forms of code-mixing were to be translated into a parse tree,
the top tree node for insertion would be assigned to the ML, and the constituent
nodes to a shared ML/EL index when an EL fragment is inserted. For alternation,
this would mean that a constituent from language A is followed by a constituent
from language B, but the top tree node is not specified, since there is a full change
of grammatical systems. In congruent lexicalization, the overall grammatical
structure is shared by language A and language B. In this shared grammatical
structure, words from both languages can be inserted at random.

13
The three categories are not meant to be isolated entities: each categories will have
some overlap with the next depending on the language contact situation, as is
illustrated by the following figure:

Some switches that are classified as insertion, may also display characteristics of
alternation or congruent lexicalization and vice versa.

Based on above the patterns, the researcher can conclude that insertion of material
is the same as with the insertion of a words, it means the language unit that stands
on its own, it consists of free morpheme and bound morphemes. Meanwhile,
alternation means that the alternation arises when two languages can be substituted
for each other function in terms of both grammatically and in terms of lexical. The
last congruent lexicalization as usually defined not only requires that the languages
in contact be structurally congruent, but also presupposes a high level of bilingual
competence, as well relatively equal prestige and no tradition of overt language
separation.
1.2.6. Constraints on code mixing
1.2.6.1. Linguistic constraints on code mixing
Sociolinguists have been interested in not only the functions, meanings and patterns
of code mixing but also the points at which code-mixing occurs in the sentence. In
other words, what are the constraints on code-mixing? Basing on what has been

14
researched by Muysken (2000), studies on constraints of code-mixing have
undergone three stages:
(i) an early stage focusing on grammatical constraints specific to particular
constructions of specific languages;
(ii) the later stage with classical studies in around 1980s exploring universal
constraints on code-mixing such as Poplack‟s (1980) Free Morpheme
Constraint and Equivalence Constraints, Sciullo, A. M., Muysken, P., &
Singh, R. (1986) Government Constraint and Scottons ‟ (1993a) Matrix
Language Model;
(iii) the present stage, which may be characterized by the search for new
perspectives of mixing strategies and constraints to particular strategy.
All these theories, either research agreement or attacks from research community,
carry unconvincing counter-evidence to attack themselves. While the two former
constraints could not be applied to all specific language pairs, the later one failed to
define and distinguish the notion of system morphemes (Muysken, 2000). Thus, it is
reasonable to admit that adequate formulation of constraints on code mixing are not
yet possible.
This study is not meant to support any specific constraint of code- mixing but rather
take these contraints into consideration when dealing with English and Vietnamese
in contact in a given corpus.
1.2.6.2. Extra-linguistic factors related to code-mixing
Bentahila and Davies (1995) realized that code-mixing could not be satisfactorily
only along the dimensions of structural constraints or rhetorical functions. A
consideration of such extra-linguistic factors as age, sex, social works will play an equal
role in explanation the patterns of code-mixing as well. For instance, Poplack (1980)
reported it her study of English- Spanish bilinguals: code mixing was used more often by
those with high proficiency than those with less proficiency in English.
Myers- Scotton (1993a) made an attempt to provide a general theoretical functions
of the sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of code-mixing called “Markedness
Model”. The theory of “Markedness Model” as well as the role of extra-linguistic

15
factors are valuable to the researcher when the patterns and levels of code-mixing
are analyzed in later parts.
To sum up, this study has reviewed linguistics contraints including specific and
universal ones as well as extra linguistics influential factors to code mixing. The
study wishes to fill the gaps left by the empirical studies about code mixing in a
social network- Facebook.
1.3. Review of previous studies
There are a number of scholars in the world having been done research on code-
mixing. For example, Chen (2010) investigates code‐mixing between Chinese and
English in magazine advertisements in Taiwan. A total of 226 code‐mixed
sentences were collected from 64 volumes of 43 different magazines published in
Taiwan in 2004. The linguistic analysis reveals that English is often used to add to
the colorfulness and attraction of an ad. A questionnaire survey was also conducted
to find out people's attitudes toward code‐mixing in advertising. The results of the
survey indicate that most respondents view the use of English quite positively.
Additionally, Leung (2011) conducted a survey of 278 local Chinese residents in
Hong Kong to explore their attitudes towards Chinese-English mixing in print ads.
The results show that most code-mixed ads could be understood and code-mixed
copy could best advertise convenience products and shopping products.
Furthermore, code-mixing was preferred by young and educated people. In the
Malaysian context, Kia (2012) and his Malaysian colleagues examined code-mixing
of English in the entertainment news of Chinese newspapers in Malaysia. This
study highlights the identification of the features of English lexical items that were
code-mixed into Chinese entertainment news from the linguistics perspective. A
total of 1,000 sentences from Chinese entertainment newspapers from January to
May 2007 were collected. It was identified that English abbreviations such as “CD”
and “SMS” were inserted into Chinese entertainment news making the sentences
simpler and easier to understand. Many adjectives were reduplicated, such as “sweet
sweet” so that is has the same grammar characteristics as Chinese. Many nouns and
verbs change their parts of speech when code-mixed into Chinese entertainment

16
news. Furthermore, Yen Miao Ju (2009) investigated the code-mixing phenomenon
and found the motivations for code-mixing among a group of trilingual Cantonese-
English-Mandarin teenagers through videotaping the Mandarin conversations
between trilingual teenagers in a Hong Kong international school. Results showed
that the individual‟s Mandarin proficiency, language dominance, and the speaker‟s
perception of her interlocutors‟language background are three key factors
influencing the code-mixing patterns. A variety of code-mixing patterns were
attested involving Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Among these patterns,
Mandarin and Cantonese often play the role of being the matrix code while English
often acts as the embedded code. Similar to previous studies on bilingual Cantonese-
English code-mixing, English nouns, including proper nouns and field-specific
terminology, are most frequently mixed in as the embedded language. Moreover,
trilingual code-mixing occurs not only among participants with lower viandarin
proficiency for filling up the lexical gaps, but also among those speaking fluent
Mandarin whose code-mixing patterns are influenced by a range of sociopragmatic
factors. The data of this study could potentially constitute a corpus which is the first of
its kind documenting Hong Kong trilingual teenagers‟ code-mixing.
Code-mixing among teenagers has also been widely researched in Viet Nam. One of
the pioneer of studying code-switching of English into Vietnamese is H. D. Tuc
(2003). In his study of Vietnamese-English Bilingualism (2003), he chose
Vietnamese community in Melbourne, Australia as the subject of the study and he
also had a close view on spoken code-switching of English into Vietnamese
community in Australia. Totally, there were sixty informants with an equal number
of males and females, ranging from eighteen to sixty-two of age, being interviewed.
The findings showed that among 3157 codes switched found in the corpus, nouns
occupy the highest percentage (50.61%), followed by verbs (12.35%) and adjectives
(4.6%). Other parts of speech contribute about 10%. What is special here is the ratio
of switching at clause level takes almost one fifth of all the switched cases. Almost
the English codes are about household, working and daily life activities.

17
Another author studying code-switching of English into Vietnamese is Nguyen
Quang Tien. In his study in 2012, “English-Vietnamese Code-Switching in Tertiary
Educational Context in Vietnam”, the objectives are to know what affects the use of
English, including its role in code-switching in classrooms in Vietnam, a case study
was conducted to address the main question, “What is the impact of the tertiary
education context on code-switching in classrooms in Vietnam?” The subject was
one teacher of two English classes (one in a public university and the other in a
private one). The data for this study include document analysis, classroom
observations, the teacher‟s stimulated recalls, and the students‟ written feedback.
The study found that more code-switching happened in the public school than in the
private school due to the in-class time budget, the students‟ English levels, cultural
factors, the teacher-evaluation system, and teacher cognition. The study also found
that inter-sentential code-switching was dominant compared to intra-sentential
code-switching.
Furthermore, T.T. Cuc (2012) carried out a research on code-mixing of English
into Vietnamese, in a written form of spoken language. Her study investigated six
volumes of Hoa Hoc Tro Magazine, a magazine for teenagers which was published
weekly and has great influence on Vietnamese youth. The findings showed that
there were 1379 English lexical items mixed; among which more than 90% were
nouns while the rests were verbs and adjectives. Most of the words mixed belong to
entertainment or IT topics. The results from 239 questionnaires collected from three
different regions of Northern Vietnam showed that approximately half of the
readers understood and felt good about the mixed codes. Despite dealing with code-
mixing better, the readers with higher education level or better living conditions do
not find code-mixing attractive as much as those living in rural areas or studying in
lower grades. A significant finding is majority of readers refuse to blame on English
code-mixing for destroying Vietnamese purity. Those findings are helpful in aiding
the present research to analyze the data and can be the skeleton for the present study
due to the similarities between two corpuses as well as the aims of two researchers.
Moreover, the purposes of two studies are almost the same – to find out the patterns

18
of code-mixing. For those reasons, the findings of the current study would be
compared to those of Cuc‟s when relevant.
Among the studies above, some may be dissimilar with the current study in terms of
language pair or the corpuses for investigation. To give more detailed, the current
study is an attempt to further Cuc‟s researches in context with different corpus. At
the same time, unlike the focus of the study is on a written magazine, it is to focus
on a language variety of high school students in a social network Facebook.
Summary:
In this chapter, by providing the key concepts of language contact, code-
mixing, patterns of code-mixing and constraints on code mixing, the researcher has
created a theoretical background about the research problem. Moreover, with the
aims of clarifying the ways of researching, evaluation and adaptation are deeply
defined with enormous features. Last but not least, the researcher‟ deeper
investigation into international related studies helps guarantee the validity of all
these concepts and definitions.

19
 CHAPTER 2:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter has provided the basic theoretical background for the
paper. Continuing the line, this chapter underlines the practicality of the research by
presenting the method by which it was carried out. In details, this method is
discussed through four sub headings, namely research methodology, data collection,
procedure and data analysis.
2.1. Research methodology
The study was conducted using both Qualitative and Quantitative methods.
To answer research question 1, the researcher chose a descriptive qualitative
method to find out the appearance of types of code-mixing which taken from
Facebook. Qualitative design is useful for gathering and analyzing data. This
method is able to provide factual data needed to support the theory of code-mixing
through the obtained data for status content analysis. Keegan (2009:11) said that
“qualitative research is explores questions such as what, why, and how, rather than
how many and how much: it is primarily concerned with meaning rather than
measuring. Understanding why individuals and groups think and behave as they do
lies at the heart of qualitative research”.
To answer research question 2, the reasons why youngsters code-mixed from one
language to another can also be studied via questionnaire distributed through emails
and chat messengers.The researcher conducted a small survey research with 35 EFL
students from grade 11A2 in High School for Gifted Students, HNUE participating in
the survey about the types of code-mixing used on Facebook and the reasons for
utilizing codes on the social network Facebook.The sample of the research nearly
covered the entire target subjects, with aim to bringing a more complete result.
2.2. Data Collection Instruments
The ultimate goal of this study is to explore the types of code-mixing used by
high school students in HNUE and determine the reasons why students code-mixed
on the social network Facebook. Firstly, students‟ Facebook statuses where code-
mixing phenomenon occurred began from November 5, 2017 up to December 9,

20
2017 are observed.The research goal is mainly achieved by means of qualitative data.
On the one hand, to gain an insight regarding the reasons for code mixing, a
carefully structured questionnaire was designed. Questions that were relevant to the
concept of code mixing and might elicit answers from the 35 participant‟s reasons
for code mixing were included in the survey questionnaire designed to obtain a
deeper knowledge regarding the research topic. The questionnaire comprises 4
questions structured in three main parts. The first part consists of the questions
about personal information of respondents such as name, age, gender, education
backgroud and their contact information (if they are willing). The second part, also
the first and the second question ask about the frequency of respondents to code-
mix on the social network Facebook and what language respondents utilize on the
social network Facebook. These questions helps to filter informants so that only
answers from those groups who sometimes, usually, often mix codes would count.
The responses of those who never or rarely would not be considered. The third part
including the questions 3 and 4 exploring respondent‟s reasons of code-mixing
phenomenon. Likert scale was also implemented in the question 3 so that
informants selected from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. The detail of
questionnaire is available in APPENDIX 1.
2.3. Data Collection Procedure
Data collecting procedure is as follows:
(i) Collecting data of facebook status by high school students in HNUE from
the social network Facebook
(ii) Statically analyzing the data in terms of code mixing types: converting
frequency type of code-mixing percentage by following formula: X = F/N
x 100%
X = the percentage type of code-mixing
F = frequency type of code-mixing
N = total number type of code-mixing
100% = standard percentage
(iii) Analyzing the contents of the code mixing cases

21
 (iv) Designing and delivering questionnaires
Phase 1: Designing and Piloting questionnaires
Based on the Literature Review, the researcher gradually designed the
questionnaire for students. Then, piloting questionnaires was also
conducted with 5 voluntary students, the result of which was taken into
great consideration for the formulation of the final draft of Questionnaire.
Phase 2: Delivering questionnaires
After redesigned, the student set of questionnaire was distributed to high
school students. Thanks to the support from students, the researcher met
almost no difficulty collecting data.
2.4. Data analysis:
After the data had been gathered, they were classified, analyzed and synthesized
carefully and systematically with a view to revealing particular patterns to be
interpreted later. Both descriptive statistics and qualitative data were fully
employed.
Firstly, in order to answer the first research question,the data for this study was
analysed using the works of Muysken (2000) as guidelines to explore the patterns of
code-mxixing and also basing on the coding scheme used in H.D.Tuc (2003) and
that of T.T.Cuc & D.T.T.Ha (2015) to investigate the levels of code-mixing.
As regards to the patterns of code-mixing, the researcher based on Muysken
(2000) theory about analyses of typology of code-mixing. The characteristics of
code-mixing typology are presented in the table below.
Table 1. Analytical framework
No. Types of Code Mixing Characteristics
1. Insertion the lexical items from language A inserted into
the structure of language B
2. Alternation structures from TWO languages both at the
grammatical and lexical level
3. Congruent Lexicalization TWO languages in contact have to be
structurally congruent.

22
 As regards to the levels of code-mixing, the classification of the levels of codes
which was employed in the study of H.D.Tuc (2003) and that of T.T.Cuc &
D.T.T.Ha (2015) categorized into parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives
and others. All the code-mixed words or phrases would be put into these groups of
parts of speech to see: (1) among all the intra-setential code-mixed words, what
functions most of them have. (2) which words or phrases seem to happen the most.
(3) in which module the frequency of code-mixing is the highest.
Secondly, in order to answer the second research question,the survey
questionnaire was conducted with three parts.The top part of the student‟s
questionnaire, such demographical factors as name, age, gender, education
backgroud will be taken into account to help the researcher get a deep insight about
the reasons why high school students code mixed on Facebook. In the second part,
as stated earlier, only answers from those who sometimes, usually and often code-
mix on Facebook would be taken as valid responses. All the questionnaires were
counted and classified into valid and invalid groups. In the next part, both questions
3 and 4, answers of strongly agree and strongly disagree would be counted to see
the percentage of why high school students code-mix on Facebook. The detail of
reasons why students code-mix is available in APPENDIX 1.
Summary
This chapter has justified the methodology of the study by elaborating on the
participants as well as the data collection method: questionnaires and giving
analytical framework. Clarification has also been given to the data analysis methods
and process. The presentation and interpretation of findings from such analysis are
going to be made clear in the next chapter.

23
 CHAPTER 3. DATA FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The previous chapter has clarified the methodology applied in this study,
particularly the descriptions and justifications of the choice of participants, the
instruments and data collection and analysis process. In this chapter, all the results
collected from the questionnaire will be presented and discussed in details.
Below are the data presented in accordance with the three research questions.
The discussion is also engaged in the data presentation with a view to making the
arguments more sharply deployed.
The discussion is divided into the following areas:
a. Patterns of code-mixing
b. Levels of code-mixing
c. Students‟ explanation for their use of code-mixing
3.1. Patterns of code-mixing
3.1.1. Statistical findings:
Based on the findings of this study, the summary of the study are:
Table 2. Distribution of code-mixing patterns base on Muysken (2000)
Typlogy of code-mixing Number of occurrences Percentage
Insertion 180 84.50%
Alternation 27 12.68%
Congruent lexicalization 6 2.82%
Total 100%

As seen in Table 2, the total number of code-mixing cases to be identified from the
linguistic data corpus of this research is 213. Among the 3 types of code-mixing,
insertion is the most employed type.
Code-mixing in the form of insertion appeared in 180 statuses made by the high
school students of HNUE among the total of 213 statuses that the researcher could
identify from the data corpus. In other words, insertion code-mixing accounts for
84.50% of the total number of code-mixing cases. The insertion of an English word
into a Vietnamese sentence written on Facebook by the high school students was so

24
popular that this number and percentage are obvious evidences of a prominent trend
in students‟ habit of mixing English into Vietnamese on Facebook.
As regards alternation, it is placed at the second rank in the occurrences of code-
mixing in high school students' Facebook status with 27 instances (12.68%). A
possible explanation for the number of alternation occurrences compared to the
number of insertion occurrences might be that inserting a word from one language
to another requires minimal competence at a lexical level whereas for alternation,
individuals need to fully master the language at grammatical and semantic levels.
As regards congruent lexicalization, a closer look at the data indicates that 6
occurences of congruent lexicalization was triggered. In other words, congruent
lexicalization code-mixing accounts for 2.82% of the total number of code-mixing
cases. Interestingly, high school students initiated congruent lexicalization code-
mixing in a small number. This is reasoned that congruent lexicalization had higher
difficulty level due to the involvement of grammatical structure of both languages.
3.1.2. Insertion
Insertion is the typology of code-mixing that has the highest number of occurrence
with 180 instances (84.50%).The explanations of code-mixing typology insertion
are presented in the analyses below.
Example 1:

Example 1 demonstrates a sample of insertion. In this case, an English noun “bus”

and an English verb “crush” are attached into a structure of Vietnamese sentence.
Therefore, this example is categorized into insertion since it fulfills the criterion in
which a single constituent B (the English noun “bus” and the English verb “crush”)
are inserted into a structure in languages (the Vietnamese sentence ).

25
Example 2:

Example 2 shows another sample of insertion. Many English nouns and English
verbs that are inserted into a Vietnamese sentence structure. Therefore, the italicized
words are classified into this categorization for they fulfills the criteria of insertion
in which English single constituent (the B language) is inserted into a Vietnamese
sentence (the structure in A language).
From the whole data analyzed, insertion has the highest number of occurrences
probably because inserting only a word or phrase from one language to another does
not necessarily require students to be in a high level of competence in English.
Moreover, the insertional mixing in the students'postings on Facebook was mostly
triggered by the topics of their conversation. Since the topics are generally about
school assignments, drama production, music composing and also including another
minor topic such as internet and social networking, the embedded English elements
found in the postings were mostly words or phrases that deal with academics or
computer- related terms (e.g.worksheet,games, newsfeed, comment) and other terms
related to the drama production and music composing such as: fan, scandal, etc.
Example 3:

In addition, the insertion found in the postings was also including English words
that the young students already familiar with (e.g.: bus, selfie) to substitute the

26
terms in Vietnamese and this may due to the students' creativity in mixing two
different languages to impress their friends on the social network Facebook.
3.1.3. Alternation
Alternation which refers to a switch between two languages within a sentence is
placed at the second rank in the occurrences of code-mixing in students' Facebook
status with 27 instances (12.68%) corresponded to this category. Further
explanations of the code-mixing typology of alternation are presented in the
analyses below.
Example4:

(I don't want there is a problem (between us) and you are my best buddy)
Example 4 provides a sample of alternation. The student used Vietnamese sentence
“Tớ không muốn xảy ra vấn đề gì giữa chúng ta” at the beginning of her statement,
but then she switched into English „and you are my best buddy' in the halfway of
the statement when the student tried to emphasize that the reason she did not want
to have a problem was because she and the interlocutor were best friends. Hence,
this situation is categorized as alternation because a constituent from the language
A, which is Vietnamese sentence, is followed by another constituent from language
B, the English language.
Example 5:

27
Alternation is also occurred in Example 5 when the student used Vietnamese
language at the beginning of his statement, but she then altered into English
sentence “I want to fall in love” at the end of his statement to show her desire. The
student is looking forward to falling in love with a boyfriend at this school where
she study. This case is categorized as alternation because a constituent from the
language A, which is Vietnamese sentence, is followed by another constituent from
language B, the English language.
Example 6:

(The costume has made a concept and must re-design just because everyone in
class thought that their ideas were not so artistic)
Alternation is also occurred in Example 6 when the student used Vietnamese
sentence at the beginning of his statement, but he then altered into English '...re
design just because everyone in class thought that their ideas were not so artistic' at
the end of his statement when the student emphasized the reason why the costume
had to re-design their concept. Hence, Example 5 fulfills the criteria of alternation
because the switch happens within a sentence in which a constituent from
Vietnamese sentence is followed by a constituent form English language.
Based on the analyzed data, alternation occurred less than insertion probably
because the switches into language B (English) in the halfway of statements in
language A (Vietnamese) were only triggered when young students wanted to
emphasize or stress importance, like in Example 4 also to give personal criticism
toward someone else while Example 6 based on the personal observation that ever
done by the participants. Moreover, Example 5 shows the students‟ wish.

28
3.1.4. Congruent lexicalization
Congruent lexicalization is the typology of code-mixing that occurred the least in
the analyzed data with 6 instances (2.82%) fit into this category. Generally,
congruent lexicalization defined as “a situation where the two languages share a
grammatical structure which can be filled lexically with elements from either
language,”(Muysken, 2000. p. 6). Further explanations of congruent lexicalization
in the participants' Facebook postings are presented in these analysis below.
Example 7:

Example 7 demonstrates an illustration of congruent lexicalization because there are

back-and-forth switches in the above example. At the beginning of the sentence, the
student used Vietnamese then she altered into English “load”. After that she
switched into Vietnamese then went back to English “ re-start again” and finally
switched into Vietnamese again. Therefore, the above example is categorized as
congruent lexicalization because the matrix language in of the sentence is
unidentified for the grammar in the sentence above. It is shared by two languages
English (A language) and Vietnamese (B language), and is lexically filled with
elements from either language.
Example 8:

(But people usually got irritated when their precious and well-thought ideas are
suddenly criticized)
Example 8 may indicate another sample of congruent lexicalization. There are
several switches in the sentence in Example 8. At the beginning of his statement,

29
the young student used English „But people usually got irritated...,' in the middle he
altered into Vietnamese “ khi mà” after that, he switched back again into English
„their precious and well-thought ideas.' and in the final of the statement he altered
back again into Vietnamese “bị phê bình ngay tức khắc”. Hence, Example 7 is
classified under the category of congruent lexicalization because the matrix
language is unidentified for the grammar in the sentence above. It is shared by two
languages, English (A language) and Vietnamese (B language), and is lexically
filled with elements from either language.
Congruent lexicalization or the switching back-and-forth is the least occurred types
across the whole data analyzed. Unlike insertion and alternation, the switching
back-and-forth in the identified postings did not trigger by topic or the participants‟
intention to emphasize important parts of their status on Facebook, but probably it
happened because young students probably randomly inserted lexical item from
language B (English) into a structure in language A (Vietnamese). These random
insertions might be caused by the participants' unconscious switching when they
updated statuses on Facebook. These random insertions then led into congruent
lexicalization in which the base language of a sentence could not be determined
since the sentence shared the grammatical structure between the language A and B
(Vietnamese and English) like what already presented in Example 7 and 8.

Among the three typology of code-mixing, insertion probably was the easiest type to do
followed by alternation and congruent lexicalization. Insertion was the easiest one might be
because the insertion of B lexical item was not bring a big impact to the grammatical
structure of s sentence in language A. The B lexical items were just simply embedded into
sentences in language A to substitute some lexical items in A language.

On the other hand, alternation and congruent lexicalization had higher difficulty
level than insertion might due to the involvement of grammatical structure of both
languages. The code-mixing alternation usually happens in the halfway of a
sentence. It needed high competency to directly switch from a constituent of
language A to a constituent of language B in order to create a united sentence from

30
the two constituents of both languages. A similar thing also happened to congruent
lexicalization. The switches back-and-forth that happened in a sentence were
needed to follow the grammatical structure of each language so that the shared
structure could be filled lexically either from language A or B.

3.2. Levels of code-mixing

In order for a thorough approach, the researcher apply the methods of categorizing
codes mixed in terms of their parts of speech such as Noun, Verbs, Adjectives and
others. In this part, not only the total number of codes mixed on the social network
by high school students but the frequency count of code-mixing in each word class
will also be presented. Then, in the discussion, the clarification of quantitative
aspects of each mixed word class will be thoroughly looked at.
3.2.1. Findings of the quantification of mixed word class
Among 366 code-mixing of English phenomenon were found, the most commonly
used parts of speech in the sentences are 316 nouns and noun phrases, followed by
27 verbs and 23 adjectives. In other words, more than 80% of the lexical items
code-mixed on fcaebook students at High school for Gifted students used are nouns.
This result coincides with that of H.D.Tuc (2003), Chen (2006) and D.T.T.Ha
(2015) on the percentage of English nouns mixed.
From the results, it can be assumed that all the codes mixed are content words
(Nouns & Nouns phrases, Verbs and Adjectives). There is an absence of English
pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs and interjections.
Moreover, the number of English words mixed on Facebook related to education
field and the student‟s life with a wide variety of topics discussed in which there
may be high tendency of English words mixed.
The table below shows details of English lexical items mixed on the social network
Facebook by high school students in HNUE.

31
 Table3: Levels of code-mixing
Word classes Quantity %
Nouns and nouns phrase 316 86,3
Verbs 27 7,4
Adjectives 23 6,3
Total 366 100,00%

Apparently seen from the table above, it can be assumed that there are more English
phenomenon mixed on the social network by high school students in HNUE. This
can be referred back to the Matrix Language Model that the systems morphemes
form English, the embedded language are of open class with content words only.
Other types of words, especially close system lexis are not switched into
Vietnamese sentences. Among all the code-mixed words nouns and noun phrases
are the most frequent ones (86.3%).
3.2.2. Overview description and discussion of mixed word classes
3.2.2.1. Nouns
As stated above, among all the code-mixed words nouns and noun phrases are the
most frequent ones.
In the list of the most common words and phrases found in the corpus investigated,
“status” is the word code-mixed the most on the social network Facebook.This can
be reasonable due to its close relation to the Internet.
The table below provides details of English nouns and noun phrases code-mixed by
high school students in HNUE.
Table 4: Most frequent code-mixing phenomenon
No. Code-mixing phenomenon Quantity %
1. “status” 52 16.45
2. “fan” 47 14.87
3. “selfie” 43 13.61
4. “fanpage” 39 12.34

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 5. “newsfeed” 35 11.07
6. “shipper” 33 10.44
7. “stress” 26 8.22
8. “exam” 24 7.59
9. “teen” 23 7.28
10. “ scandal” 18 5.69
11. “stress” 18 5.69
12. “idol” 16 5.06
13. “deadline” 10 3.16
14. “team” 10 3.16
15. “friend” 10 3.16
16. “sale” 7 2.21

Fishman (1972) claimed that language shift is topic specific, in which what
language an individual prefers to use in a particular context depend on these five
main topics – family, work, religion, education as well as recreation and social.
Figure 5 below shows topics of code-mixing modified from Fishman‟s (1972)
model.

Figure 5: Topics for Code-switching modified from Fishman’s (1972) model

Apparently seen from the table, most of the nouns relates to the social network such
as “status”, “newsfeed”, “selfie”. This can be reasonable because the wide network
encourages many youngsters to be connected with more people, to be updated with
the trends as well as to share their interests. Some others are about entertainment
such as music “fan”, “fanpage”, “scandal”, “idol” or education with “ exam”,
“deadline”, “team”, “stress”. What is exciting here is thirty-three appearance of the

33
word “shipper” and seven appearance of the word “sale” which have a close relation
with online business- a new trend of Vietnamese youngsters‟ society.
Despite the fact that these nouns also have Vietnamese equivalents, they still have
been widely among youngsters on the social network Facebook and as a result, their
Vietnamese equivalents are somehow disregarded. This is partly due to the
concenience in the condensed and user-friendly English codes. In the realm of
linguistics, the principle of economy favours the method that uses the least amount
of effort to achieve maximum result. The principle was originally studied in the
areas of phonology and syntax by Andre Martinet. He stipulated that
communication is dichotomous: it requires clarity and precision as well as a relaxed
delivery ( cited in Vicetini, 2003). In this light, code-mixing achieves both facets of
Marinet‟s ideal. It reduces effort and simultaneously removes any obstacle that
prevents comprehension. In other words, for example, “status” or fan” has only one
syllable while their Vietnamese equivalents contain a series of words “trạng thái”,
“người hâm mộ”. Thus, it requires less effort to vocalize and/or to write these words
compared to their Vietnamese equivalents. That coincides with the cases of opting
for English words that have fewer syllables than Chinese counterpart in the research
on code-mixing among university students in Hong Kong by Li (2000).
Furthermore, the reason youngsters used English words instead of Vietnamese
equivalents is that English words such as “fanpage”, “ scandal” and “idol” are
keywords on the search engine- Google. High school students are inclined to write
English words compared to their Vietnamese equivalents when they search things
on the search engine- Google.
In sum, these words also indicate the development and the trends of the youth
nowadays to some extent. With the boom of internet and the development of social
network, such terms as “newsfeed”, “follower”, “comment”, “status” and “online”
can be seen and heard more and more.
As suggested by H.D.Tuc (2003), Vietnamese shares the same general characteristic
of East and Southeast Asian languages such as Chinese, Thai Khmer, Hmong that
they do not contain any notion of number or amount. Vietnamese noun is

34
transnumeral, or in other words, has no marking between singular and plural.
Therefore, the nouns maintain invariable as non-count nouns in English no matter
what their number is. That is also the case in the social network Facebook. That is
to say that most English nouns mixed are not followed by plural marking as in
English grammar.
Example 9:

( In my listfriends…..)
Example 10:

( …. Many friends stay beside me….)

A case in point is “friend” in example (9); (10) may mean “friends” in particular. It
can be said that the reference of the mixed noun “friend” may be vague as it is a
plural noun in English. In other words, students may not be aware of notion of
number because the mixed noun has no marking between singular and plural.
However, there are also odd cases in which, when mixed into Vietnamese
sentences, the nouns “fans”, “tips” are marked with numerics as “những”, “các” and
they still keep their plural forms. It proves that the author here is fully aware of
plural rules in English grammar.
Example 11:

(….. Does anyone have tips for doing a maths test….)

35
Example 12:

From the list of the most common words and phrases found in the corpus
investigated ,“status” is the word code-mixed the most on Facebook. This can be
reasonable due to its close relation to the social network. Owing to the rapid
development of Internet, there have been more and more words related to network
appeared.
Example 13:

( Comment to this status and….)

Example 14:

( More than 30 relationship status…)

Example 15:

36
(…..post a stutus…….)
Example 16:

Example 17:

Example 18:

Example 19:

In the sentences above, the English noun “ status” mixed are in singular form even
though the above examples followed such numbers as “hơn 30” (More than 30), or
quantifier “nhiều”(many, several), “các”(all), “những”(finite number, some)
respectively. This could be explained basing on Bisang‟s idea that these English
nouns have become transnumeral in accordance with Vietnamese grammar.
Here are some differences between syntactic structure of English, and Vietnamese
nouns. In English, nouns can be preceded by a class of determiners long with

37
singular, plural count and non-count nouns such as “the”, “a”, “some”, many , much”,
etc. In Vietnamese, nouns can be preceded either by Vietnamese articles, like “cái”,
“chiếc”, “những”, “các” (general classifier preceding most nouns) as above examples
(17), (18), (19), etc. or by none of those, as in the examples (13), (15).
When an English noun is mixed into Vietnamese corpus, it is influenced by
Vietnamese absence of articles before nouns. Therefore, the required articles in
example 12 and example 14 are omitted. In the view of English usage, these nouns
are considered as infinite ones; however, they become definite from the discourse of
context in Vietnamese. This finding is similar to that of H.D.Tuc (2003) in his study
of English code switched in Vietnamese, of Berk-Seligson‟s (1986) reporting cases
of Spanish articles omitted before a Spanish noun and especially nearly the same
with hat of T.T. Cuc and Đ.T.T. Ha (2015) in their research in Hoa Hoc Tro
Magazine.
There are also the cases of noun phrases illustrating the violation of structural
equivalence and contrast of English and Vietnamese nouns in the placement of
adjectives. While Vietnamese requires adjectives following nouns, English allows
nouns preceding place. For instance, in following example, “marketing online” was
used instead of “online marketing”; or in other example, “shop online” instead of
online shop”.
Generally, Vietnamese can be free to choose a noun, a verb or an adjective to follow
a noun as long as it fulfills semantic requirement. This may be the future which
makes many Vietnamese say that their language has no grammar. (Thomson,1987;
cited in Tuc, 2003)
3.2.2.2. Verbs
English verbs occupies 7,4% of total 366 mixed words. Most of the mixed verbs are
in the bare forms (infinitive without “to”) instead of third-person-singular, past or
past participle forms.
Most of the verbs refer to common actions done with computer and internet such as
“hack”, “upload”, “search”, “login”, “copy”, or online social networks like “tweet”,
“like”, “share”, “comment”, “sub” (subscribe), “follow”, “view”, “chat”, “post”.

38
Some others are about entertainment such as music “debut”, “cover”, “mix”,
“drop”, “hit”, “live”; fashion with “make up”, “pose”, take pics”, or education with
“brainstorm”, “check”, “bookmark”, “lead”, “list”, “apply”. What is exciting here is
many appearance sof the verb “ship” which has a close relation with online business
- a new trend in Vietnamese youngster‟s society.
Vietnamese verbs are distinguished with English ones by several features. The most
typical one of Vietnamese verbs is that they themselves do not demonstrate a clear
notion of “voice” in grammar sense. That means there is no distinct differentiation
between active and passive verbs. This is illustrated through the following cases:
Example 20:

(How should we do so that our photo are liked most on Facebook?)

Example 21:

(My facebook account is hacked)

It is clear that the sentences in e.g. (20), (21) are in passive voice as objects are put
at the beginning of the sentences. In English, such verbs as “like” and “hack” will
be put in passive form with “be” and past participle. However these verbs are
assimilated by syntactic structures of Vietnamese verbs to stay in the infinitive form
just like Vietnamese verbs. In other words, syntactic features of Vietnamese verbs
are retained in the mixed English verbs.
The next aspect to take into consideration is that English has the notion of tense
such as present tense, past tense and future tense but Vietnamese doesn‟t.
Vietnamese ones are also neutral to tense or grammatical functions. This is also a

39
general feature of many East and South-east Asian languages, which depend
entirely on the situational context for their reference.
Example 22:

(I want to turn off sunshine

So colors cannot fade
I want to tie wind up
So scents cannot flee)
Hence, “turn off” or “tie”in e.g. (22), despite following, the modal verb “muốn”
(want), still maintains its bare form rather than “to turn off” or “to tie wind”
Example 23:

( I‟m free now. Anyone wants to chat….)

In example (23) , “chat” maintain its bare form rather than “to chat” despite the
following the modal verb “want”
Example 24:

( Chi thought that anything like that never happened….)

40
Example 25:

( My mom said that she subscribed the extra class….)

Likewise, in these examples (24), (25), “think” and “subcribe” are not put in simple
past tense as that in English. It can be infered that Vietnamese verb phrases always
keep the same form in every situation; instead Vietnamese uses subordinate words
such as “đã”, “vừa mới”, “đang”, “sẽ” to denote the time.
3.2.2.3. Adjectives
The mixed adjectives comprised 8,4% of the total mixed words with 97 words. The
most common mixed adjectives are: “online”, “hot”, “sexy”, “tired”, “cool”,
“handmade”, “young”, “small”,“offline”
According to Kia (2011), these adjectives have also been common in press in
general for some sense of stylishness and modernity they bring. That is also applied
to on the website. Most of these adjectives are short with only one or two syllables,
which create the impression of activeness and youth.
Most importantly and grammatically, when being a modifier, adjectives of English
and Vietnamese occur at two opposite sides of the noun. English adjectives usually
come before the noun, and this situation is the reverse of that in Vietnamese.
According to linguists, it is because of Vietnamese grammar‟s flexibility which is
influenced by Eastern-oriented culture, following the natural and logical thinking of
human beings. That is why, when producing phrases in general and noun phrases in
particular, Vietnamese people have a great tendency to put what they first think of
or what is more important at the beginning places. Given these senses, structures
like “A thick book – quyển sách dày or a beautiful girl – cô gái đẹp” are expected.

41
Example 26:

( A thick book. I learnt by heart for hours….)

Example 27:

(……I‟m a cute, sensitive and beautiful girl….)

Additionally, example (28) below is typical for the order of noun + adjective, in
which such adjective as „handmade” are always on the right hand side of
Vietnamese nouns.
Example 28:

(……through such cute cards handmade….)

As being analyzed above, the distinctive feature distinguishing English adjectives
and Vietnamese ones is their position when co-occurrence with nouns. In English,
adjectives are modifiers preceding nouns while the order in Vietnamese is noun +
adjective.

Basing on the results found by Plaff (1979) in her study that the mixture of
adjectives is often found in the predicative position. In examples (29); (30), there is
no verb between the nouns and adjectives. “To be” before “hot”, “cool” is omitted,
or in other words, these adjectives have played the roles of predicates in the
sentences.

42
Example 29:

( Look at hot and fastionable teen‟s style in my class)

Example 30:

(…lecturers at High school for Gifted students are also cool and ready to…)

3.3. Findings about new forms of code-mixing

The cases of code-mixing categorized along parts of speech and their frequency are
found out. Moreover, in this study, there are quite a number of new findings about
special form of code-mixing. It can be inferred that the trends of using and
combining the two languages of the youth, who are always active and desire for
innovation.
3.3.1. Vietnamization of English vocabulary
While in code mixing, young students usually create a new word in host language,
but it is not assimilated, based on what they heard from pronunciation of origin
language or what they see from writing of origin language.
English words were assimilated under the influence of the Matrix language
(Vietnamese). The total number of these newly invented words which means
English words change themselves to be similar to Vietnamese is quite large. English
words are added tones so that it has the same pronunciation with English but similar
to Vietnamese in appearance. The examples can be found below

43
Example 31:

( Finally, I feel relaxed. Although I‟m not sure about the mark, I realise how
important teamwork and solidarity is. Perfect! Thank for my friends‟ assistance)
In this example, there was appearance of the English words change themselves to be
similar to Vietnamese. These original words such as “relax”, “ sure”, “and”,
“important”, “perfect”, “very much”, “funny”, “happy” are added tones so as to
Vietnamese-like.
English words appear in language of young peoples in both forms: write in the
standard English and write in the Vietnamese way of sound simulation (kul (cool),
xì tin (teen), xì căng đan (scandal)). Young people change the English
pronunciation into new forms. I consider them as a typical feature of language of
young peoples, as a special form of code-mixing. According to many scholars, these
cases are on the margin between code-mixing and borrowing as written form is in
Vietnamese. However, they derived from English and the knowledge of both
languages is essential to be understood.
Example 32:

(Today you look so cool and cute!)

Example 33:

44
(SALE-OFF. If you have money, please buy my product!)
Young students utilizes English words using the articulatory phonetics of
“standard” Vietnamese language by the act of writing or pronouncing. Many cases
have been transliteration, such as media into “mêđia”, model into“môđen”, golf
into “gôn” or shop into “sốp”, album into anbum, show into “sô”, catalogue into
“catalo” and marketing into “macketinh”.
From these examples, it can still be inferred that students are very creative in using
and combining the two languages. These cases show an individual‟s personality and
represent the trends of using languages of the students, who are always active and
desire for movement and innovation.
3.3.2. Englishisation of Vietnamese
The elevating status of English language learning and teaching together with the
boom of technology and the media in times of globalization has left major imprints
on the language use of young people in Vietnam. A noteworthy outcome has been
“Englishization of Vietnamese words”. “Englishization” has also been speculated as
a symbol of “stylishness” and “cool”.
Example 34:

( Today I made so many mistakes in the test. Do anyone ……)

In this example, the two words “size” and “ice” are English originated. However,
young students use these cases instead of Vietnamese words, meaning “sai” and
“ai” based on the same of pronunciation of English words and Vietnamese words.
Example 35:

( Tomorrow nobody wants to queue……)

45
In this example, the student used an English word originated “safe” instead of a
Vietnamese word “xếp”. The student may think that the word “queue” has the same
pronunciation with the English word“safe”.
Example 36:

( It‟s so lonely……)
Another example is that the English word “cold” is used instead of “cô đơn” in
Vietnamese.
It can be infered that youngsters are very creative in combining the two languages.
Clearly, these words require the knowledge of both languages from readers to
be understood. Therefore, I consider them as special forms of code-mixing.
3.3.3. New word coinage
Vietnamese phrases and expressions are broken into separate lexical items and
translated word-to-word into English. The new word coinage is recognizable in the
large quantity. This may be caused by the impacts of the Internet and technologies.
The world is open to youngsters and therefore, on the social network, there is full of
brand new word
Example 37:

( In the morning I want to eat chicken and my boyfriend said “Do as you want”….)
Example 38:

( I didn’t learn by heart. It’s so embarrassing. My close friend said “Don’t

worry”…)

46
In the example (37), the expression “ like is afternoon” “Thích + thì+ chiều”,
meaning “ I‟ll do as you want” appears lexically English but are indeed
semantically and grammatically Vietnamese. The expression cannot be found in
English dictionary.
Addtionally, In the example (38), “ugly tiger” means “embarrassed” and “no have
spend” means “No worries”. It can be infered that teenagers are trying to find their
way in the adult world and often feel most comfortable with their peers. Having
their own language helps them bond with other teens and build confidence. New
coinage words show that youngsters are shaping language to suit their needs.
Example 39:

( Once day, You will have a chance to realise that your friends are millennial…)
In the example (39), the term “ young buffalo” doesn‟t mean “a baby cow”.
Instead, the phrase “young buffalo”,also known as “millennial”, hints a generation
that grew up in the age of technology. According to the Cambridge Dictionary,
“millenial” means the generation with birth years ranging from the 1980s or early
1990s.
Example 40:

(In the afternoon, while I was studying maths, I was giving her jams……)

In the example (40), the phrase “ umbrella tommorrow” itself is a coinage of two
words –“umbrella” and “ tommorrow”. In this case, it means

47
a sweet, soft food made by cooking fruit with sugar. Thus, it can be said that such
expressions thereby appear lexically English, but are indeed semantically and
grammatically Vietnamese.
3.3.4. New clipping pattern
Clipping is a word formed by dropping one or more syllables from a polysyllabic
word, such as cell from cellular phone. A clipped form generally has the same
denotative meaning as the word it comes from, but it's regarded as more colloquial
and informal. Clippings are reductions of longer forms, usually removing the end of
the word, sometimes the beginning, or both beginning and ending together (Crystal,
2003:1). In linguistics, clipping is the word formation process which consists in the
reduction of a word to one of its parts (Marchand, 1969).
Example 41:

( Home alone. My mother goes on business for a week)

In example (41), the students changed the word “business” into “bisnis”. She
dropped many syllables from the original word. It is not surprising that the apparent
irregularity of form of clipping opens door for creativity and playfulness, irony, and
unconventionality. Its resulting originality is attention-catching.
3.3.5. Grapheme substitution
According to Wing and Baddeley (1980) and Cook (2004), substitution is when a
letter is replaced by another one.
The case that will be discussed in this part is the word “kosmetik”. The word
“kosmetik” is adapted from English word “cosmetic”. In here, it can be seen that the
letter [c] changes into the letter [k]. It is clear that the adaptation can be seen by the
changing of the letter at the end of the word. Moreover, in this example, the word
“produk” was originated from English word “product”. It is no doubt that at the end
of the word the using of the letter is different when the letter [t] is tranformed into
the letter [k].

48
Example 42:

( I‟m selling some cosmetics product…….)

In example (43), the word “fokus” is originated from the English word “focus”. In
this case, it can be seen that the changing of the letter from the beginning of the
word and in the middle of the word. The letter “ph” changes into “f” in Vietnamese
word, the letter [c] changes into [k].
Example 43:

( Exam is coming. I need to stop playing and focus on studying)

Example 44:

( When I‟m sad, music is the best friend)

The third case is the word “musik” which was originated from English word
“music”. This adaptation can be seen by the changing of the letter at the end of the
word. Therefore, the English word “music” is adapted into “musik”.
It can be said that misspelling is seemed to be one of the pervasive mistakes in the
written tasks of students when they use mixed language on Facebook. The main
cause of spelling errors are probably due to the grapheme-phoneme correspondence
as in Vietnamese and thus it has posed serious problems for youngsters in English

49
spelling performance. Hence, having identified types of spelling mistake might be
helpful to assist their students to deal with English spelling.
3.3.6. Grapheme ommision
In the corpus, there was appearance of the English words whose letter is omitted.
According to Wing and Baddeley (1980) and Cook (2004), omission occurs when a
letter is deleted or missed from a word.
Example 45:

( It’s sunny. I turned from fair skin to black)

In example (45), the students used “suny” for “sunny” or “blak”instead of black.
From the example, it is concluded that the difference between the English language
and a learner‟s first language has seemed to be the main cause of spelling
inaccuracy by L2 learners as it can be noticed in previous studies (Cook, 1997,
2004; Okada, 2005). Mispronunciation by L2 learners has also been identified an
effecting factor for making spelling errors (Brown, 1988). Other causes which have
already been recognised as possible causes for misspelling are first language
interference (Brown, 1988; Cook, 1997, 2004), deficiency in knowledge of English
spelling rules (Van Berkel 2005) and careless mistakes such as slip of the pen or
writing in haste (Brown, 1988, Carney, 1994).
3.3.7. Acronyms
Acronyms is one form of abbreviation. It is created by using the first letter of every
word in a phrase to form a set of new word. Two examples of acronyms are shown
below for reference.
Example 46:

50
In example (46), ROFL is an alphabetism used to denote the absurdity of a state or
circumstance. In full form, it is written as “rolling on the floor”
Example 47:

In exampe (47), LOL is another alphabetism used to show disbelief. Its full English
form is written as “laughing out loud” which refers to a manner of laughing.
Sometimes “LOL” could also imply sarcasm. It is used extensively in Facebook but
in actual communication, it is a phrase that is rarely or not used.
In this variety of students‟posting, the students prefer to use the abbreviations
that are commonly used among a wider Facebook community, for example, the
abbreviation of “TFT” that stands for “Thanks For That”, then the word
“ILYSM” (I Love You So Much). In addition, in the variety of abbreviation, the
students also create some abbreviations that they have been used among the
Facebook user in their own circle of friends. Examples of these abbreviations are
as follows: BL (Boom Like), PM (Promote), PP means (Profile Picture), ASAP (as
soon as possible), RUOK (are you ok?), IMO (In my opinion), IDK (I don‟t know),
OFC (of course).
English words appear frequently in language of youngsters. The variation of
language of young people has a very rich and varied presentation. Language of
young people is used with mixed English words in large numbers and high
frequency in general trend around the world. In particular, when entering the
language of young people, English units have varied on phonetics, grammar,
semantics, making the difference of language of young people variation.
Thus, from the new findings of special form of code-mixing, it can be said that the
language of young people is not an abnormal phenomenon in Vietnamese that
they have shown the inheritance and innovation, the creation of young people
on the process of language renewal of young people class.

51
3.4. Students’ explanation for their use of code-mixing
3.4.1. Summary of the findings
This study also aims to find out reasons that young students code-mix English on
the social network Facebook. The study is conducted with the help of closed-ended
questionnaire consisting of reasons for code-mixing English. Thus the nature of this
research study was quantitative. The closed-ended questions were analysed
statistically. The questionnaire was administered under the researcher‟s supervision
from 35 participants selected from High school for Gifted students (HNUE). The
necessary instructions were given to the participants by the researcher to fill in the
questionnaire. The confidentiality related to the personal information of the
participants was assured by the researcher. The data collected through the
questionnaire was analysed statistically and presented in the form of graphs. The
graphs show the percentage with which the young learners code-mix English for
variety of below mentioned reasons.

Figure 6:Reasons for code-mixing English on the social network Facebook by

young students at High school for Gifted students
Following is the list of reasons mostly found for which young learners code-mix on
the social network Facebook.
i. to convey a message effectively
ii. to influence my listfriend on Facebook
iii. to pose better social status

52
iv. to exclude third person
v. while forgetting any term in my own language
vi. while quoting someone‟s exact words
vii. while some alternate term is not present in my own language
viii. while getting emotional
ix. while showing my extreme annoyance with someone
x. because I like this language
xi. because this language is better than my own language
xii. because I am motivated to do so as I find majority of people around me doing so
xiii. because it is a global language and has variety of functions to perform in all
contexts
xiv. because it is the need of the hour
xv. because I am forced to do so by my English teachers
3.4.2. Discussion
The data analysis indicated that the 72 percent of participants responded that it was
easier to convey the message in English. Interestingly, the participants said that
using code mixing words is sometimes easier to express something, the equivalent
Vietnamese words may sound very formal or academic. In this case, the participants
make use of some certain lexical items and code mix to English for more effective
expression. Another factor in teenagers‟ code mixing is to make their speech stylish
and outstanding so people around can be impressed and admired. A total of 78
percent of the participants surveyed responded positively to this factor. In addition,
80 percent of the participants claimed that English is a global language and has
variety of functions to perform in all contexts. All the responses collected and
analysed show the importance of code-mixing English in the native language by
young learners in HNUE. The status of English as a global language and its multi-
purpose uses and wide penetration in our lives put compulsion on students to code-
mix English in their native language. Mostly code-mixing English is done for
instrumental purposes. Furthermore, students utilized codes on the social network
Facebook while some alternate term is not present in their own language. Almost

53
half of the participants code-mix English while forgetting any term in their own
language, getting emotional and directly quoting someone‟s exact words. But there
are only few who code-mix English not only influence their friends list on Facebook
but also to pose their better social status, exclude third person and show extreme
annoyance with someone. All participants, however, do not consider that they code-
mix English because they think it to be better than their own language and their
English teachers force them to do so.
Moreover, other specified the reasons of code-mixing is the evironment. The
analysis proves that the environment where students live or study plays an
important role in facilitating code mixing. It influences a lot on what language and
style students use to communicate. The socio-linguistic benefits have also been
identified as a means of communicating solidarity, or affiliation to a particular
social group, whereby code mixing should be viewed from the perspective of
providing a linguistic advantage rather than an obstruction to communication.
Utilizing the second language, then, allows students to increase the impact of their
speech and use it in an effective manner.
To conclude, English is mostly code-mixed by young learners on Facebook for
instrumental purposes. As this language has fulfilled variety of purposes and
functions of everyday life of today‟s world, thus it has become need of the hour for
students. Even besides having instrumental purpose to code-mix English in their
native language, they show their personal interest to learn it for integrated purposes.
It is because they like this language as well. Whatever the reason is, it demands one
to either code-mix English on Facebook. The message is not fully encoded or
decoded until and unless young learners code-mix English in their native language.
It has become part and parcel of one‟s communication on the social network. Code-
mixing English by young learners do not mean that their own language is less
important and inferior or English language is much better than their own language,
rather the diverse functions it can perform in all contexts makes it a hot cake
nowadays. It is this universality of the English language that it is penetrating deeper
in their lives. It has increased functional value that compels people to code- mix

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English in their native language. Previously, students code- mixed English as either
mark of better social identity or to impress and convince their listfriends only.
However, in today‟s world it has become need of the hour to achieve some better
and to be followed and be liked on the social network. It is the demand to code-mix
English in their native language as it is the only language with which all advanced
technologies and devices are programmed and operated. Every advancement in
science and technology enhances the importance and value of code-mixing English.
Young learners code- mix English code unconsciously as it has become their habit
to do so. They do so voluntarily. Nobody forces them to code-mix English and they
are motivated to do so when they see people around them doing so.
3.5. ANSWERS TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
3.5.1. Answer to Research question 1
“What is the realization of code-mixing on Facebook of EFL high school
students in HNUE?”
The results obtained show that among the three typology of code-mixing, insertion
probably was the easiest type to do followed by alternation and congruent
lexicalization. Insertion was the easiest one might be because the insertion of B
lexical item was not bring a big impact to the grammatical structure of s sentence in
language A. On the other hand, alternation and congruent lexicalization had higher
difficulty level than insertion might due to the involvement of grammatical structure
of both languages.The researcher based on a theory of Muysken (2000) and took the
methods of categorizing codes mixed in terms of their parts of speech such as
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs and others. Among 366 code-mixing of English
phenomenon were found, the most commonly used parts of speech in the sentences
are 316 nouns and noun phrases, followed by 27 verbs and 23 adjectives. In other
words, more than 80% of the lexical items code-mixed on Facebook from high
school students, HNUE used are nouns. This result coincides with that of H.D.Tuc
(2003), Chen (2006) and T.T.Cuc and D.T.T.Ha (2015) on the percentage of
English nouns mixed. From the results, it can be assumed that all the codes mixed
are content words (Nouns & Nouns phrases, verbs and Adjectives).

55
 There is an absence of English pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs and
interjections.Moreover, the number of English words mixed on Facebook related to
education field and the student‟s life with a wide variety of topics discussed in
which there may be high tendency of English words mixed. In particular,when
entering the language of young people, English units have varied. From the
findings, there was the apperance of some special forms of code-mixing. In
conclusion, language of young people is used with mixed English words in
large numbers and high frequency in general trend on the social network Facebook.

3.5.2. Answer to Research question 2

“ What are reasons for the code-mixing in online postings on Facebook by high
school students in HNUE?”
The results of the research show that that the participants had some interests in
using English words in their postings in Facebook. By the data above, it is known that
the reasons of doing the codes are so varieties. In the questionnaire, teenager
participants were asked “why do you mix the codes in the social network
Facebook?” and the majority of the participants (80%) reported that because
English is a global language and it has variety of functions to perform in all
contexts. Actually, there is no surprise as the use of English code-mixing is quite
common in students generation nowadays. Teenagers are highly influenced by
English and use English in their social network Facebook without awareness.
The data analysis indicated that the 72 percent of participants responded
that it was easier to convey the message in English. Interestingly, the participants
said that using code mixing words is sometimes easier to express something, the
equivalent Vietnamese words may sound very formal or academic. In this case,
the participants make use of some certain lexical items and code mix to English
for more effective expression. Another factor in teenagers‟ code mixing is to
make their speech stylish and outstanding so people around can be impressed and
admired. A total of 78 percent of the participants surveyed responded positively
to this factor.

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 Moreover, other specified the reasons of code-mixing is the evironment. The
analysis proves that the environment where students live or study plays an
important role in facilitating code mixing. It influences a lot on what language and
style students use to communicate. The socio-linguistic benefits have also been
identified as a means of communicating solidarity, or affiliation to a particular
social group, whereby code mixing should be viewed from the perspective of
providing a linguistic advantage rather than an obstruction to communication.
Utilizing the second language, then, allows students to increase the impact of their
speech and use it in an effectivemanner.

Summary
The chapter has provided a thorough analysis and discussion of data collected
from the instrument as a way of giving detailed answers to the three research
questions. These results serve as the foundations for the summary of the major
findings and important implications to be discussed in the next final chapter of the
paper.

57
 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION
This final chapter will sum up the major findings, unfold some implications and
evaluate the whole paper by pinpointing the limitations, leading to an urge in
proposing some possible directions to further studies.
4.1. Recapitulation
This minor thesis is entitled “Code mixing used on Facebook social network by
EFL students at High School for Gifted Students, Hanoi National University of
Education”. The study is conducted to answer two research questions. The first
question aims to identify the types of code-mixing on Facebook among high school
students , HNUE and which types of code-mixing prevails among students. From the
results, it is infered that although many English words are mixed with high frequency
by students at HNUE,their features of English grammar and syntax are no longer
maintained. Instead, the embedded language words (English) were assimilated under
the influence of the Matrix language (Vietnamese). Those reasons why mixed English
nouns were no more followed by plural markers or preceded by articles, mixed
English verbs are neutral to tenses or persons, mixed English adjectives are on the
right hand side of the nouns, many English words are added tones so as to
Vietnamese-like, and also many other forms of code-mixing used by high school
students at HNUE. The second question identifies reasons why youngsters utilized
code-mixing between English and Vietnamese on the social network Facebook. In the
part, qualitative research method was employed, by questionnaires distributed to
students. The participants of the survey were 35 students from grade 11 A2 at High
school for Gifted students, HNUE. It is inferred from the findings that students used
code-mixing for the following reasons: to catch people‟s interest because using mixed
language was considered fun and unique, to share feelings and keep their privacy
since not all people were able to understand English, to show their prestige as English
learners, to introduce new words to those who did not speak English and affected by
their surroundings such as famlily, friends.
Based on the results of the study, several conclusions have been drawn as
follows:

58
 With the expectation of finding out the patterns of code-mixing (intra-sentential)
used on the social network Facebook by students at High school for Gifted students as
well as the reasons why youngsters code-mix, the researchers based on the theories of
Muysken (2000), empirical studies conducted by H.Đ. Tuc (2003) on code-mixing
among a Vietnamese community in Melbourne, Australia, Chen (2006), Leung (2010),
Kia (2011) on code-mixing in advertisements and entertainment news in Malaysia,
Hong Kong and Taiwan and T.T. Cuc (2012) on code-mixing in Hoa Hoc Tro
magazine.
The result showed that among the three typology of code-mixing, insertion
probably was the easiest type to do followed by alternation and congruent
lexicalization because alternation and congruent lexicalization require higher
difficulty level than insertion might due to the involvement of grammatical structure
of both languages. Moreover, about levels of code-mixing, there were English words
mixed on social network Facebook. Most of English words mixed are nouns, the rest
are verbs and adjectives. Code-mixing is quite popular on Facebook. English codes,
once mixed, hold many features of Vietnamese language such as transnumeral nouns,
verbs without voice or tenses or the order of Adjective-Nouns instead of Nouns-
Adjectives. Quite a few number of new form of code-mixing created, which enrich the
variation of Internet vocabulary.
English mixing phenomenon in the Vietnamese language of the
Vietnamese young people is now the result of exchanges, cultural and language
change in the age of globalization. This phenomenon can be visualized as a
continuous process, from transcoding, to code mixing to borrowing. But the most
outstanding feature of young people's language choice is still the code-mix.
4.2 Limitations of the Research
Admittedly, although the researcher has devoted herself to conducting this
study in a professional manner, it is unavoidable that she encountered some
difficulties in the process of implementation, which resulted in the research having
the following limitations.

59
 Firstly, the survey was conducted using mostly quantitative research method (i.e.,
by means of questionnaires distributed to most of the students in the English gifted
classes). However, if qualitative research was used with various forms like interviews
with students and permanent online observations), further layers of findings or results
might be revealed.
Secondly,this study was conducted with a small sample (35 participants). As a
result the data I collected is not sufficient to make any claims which I can apply to a
large amount of people. For future study more data should be collected with a
number of participants.
4.3. Suggestions for Future Research
The following suggestions for future research aim to compensate for the
limitations of this study.
First, the survey can be conducted with more assistance from qualitative research
under the form of interview with students and online observations to understand more
about their code-mixing phenomenon among youngsters at HNUE and to explore
additional dimensions.
Secondly, this study only concentrates on written code-mixing on the social
network Facebook of youngsters. Consequently, it is recommended that the further
researches could be extended the topic by investigating on spoken languages news or
the press for the youth such as radio, TV. Certainly, there are distinctive differences
between the spoken and written style. Hence, it would be interesting and valuable to
study further how English code-mixing is used in other kinds of mass media.
Thirdly, it is suggested that, longitudinal data collection should be conducted in
the futurein order to investigate more precisely the change in language use on
Facebook with age. The survey can be conducted on the same subjects but at
different period of time to detect the shift in their language use. However, this may
takes much time and effort to realize.
Last but not least, the questionnaire can be designed to include more items to
cover and analyze the code-mixing phenomenon on the social network Facebook
according to other theories as well such as goal theories and attribution theories.
Sometimes this can be challenging because the categories may overlap and it is hard
to determine the main reasons of code-mixing.

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 REFERENCES
English
[1]P. Muysken, Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.
[2] M.O. Ayeomoni, “Code-switching and codemixing: style of language use in
childhood in Yoruba speech community”, Nordic Journal of African Studies,
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[3] A. Bentahila and E.E. Davies, “The syntax of Arabic-French code-switching”,
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[4] S. Poplack ,“Sometimes I‟ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en espanol:
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[5] J. Holmes, An introduction to sociolinguistic, London, Longman, 1992.
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[8] S. Poplack and D. Sankoff, “Borrowing: the synchrony of integration”,
Linguistics 22, 1984, 99-136.
[9] C. Myers-Scotton, Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structures in
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Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993a.
[10] C.W. Chen , “The mixing of English in magazine advertisements in Taiwan”,
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of English Linguistics Vol.1, No. 1; March 2011 , 3-14.
[13] Berk-Seligson, S. (1986) “Linguistic Constraints on Intra-Sentential Code-

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 Switching: A Study of Spanish/Hebrew Bilingualism, Language in Society
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[14] Plaff, C. “Constraints on language mixing: intrasentential code-switching and
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English in the Entertainment News of Chinese Newspapers in Malaysia”,
International Journal of English Linguistics, 1 (1), 3-14.
[17] Li, D.C. (2000), “Cantonese-English code-switching research in Hong Kong: a
Y2K review”, World English, 19(3), 305-322.
[18] Li, D.C. (2003), “Cantonese- English Code-Switching Research in Hong Kong:
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[19] Berk- Seligson, S. (1986), “Linguistic Contraints on Intra-Setential Code-
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[20] Gardner- Chloros, P. (2009), Code-switching, Cambridge University Press,
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Vietnamese
[21] H. D. Tuc, Vietnamese-English Bilingualism: Patterns of Code-switching,
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Patterns and readers‟ attitudes, ULIS-VNU Lib, Viet Nam, 2012
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Context in Vietnam, Asian Englishes, 2012

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APPENDIX 1
REASONS FOR CODE-MIXING

My name is Nguyen Thi Van. I am conducting a research on the topic:

“Code mixing used on Facebook social network by EFL students at High
School for Gifted Students, Hanoi National University of Education”
I would like you to help me by completing this survey questionnaire. This is not a
test so there is no “right” or “wrong” answers. All the information that you give
in this survey is only used for the research and will be kept secret. Please give your
answers sincerely as only this will guarantee the success of the investigation. Thank
you very much for your kind cooperation!
Please write your information below:
a)Name: …………………………………
b)Age: ………… years
c) Gender: Male/Female
d)Educational background: ……………………….
e) Phone number or email address: ……………………….
1. How often do you update on the social network Facebook?
A. Never
B.Seldom
C. Sometimes
D. Usually
E. Always
2. Which one do you prefer, updating status by using English language, Vietnamese
language or mixing both of the language?
A. English
B. Vietnamese
C. Both of the language
3. What is your main reasons of code-mixing on the social network Facebook:
Decide to what extent you agree with the following statements by circling the
number representing the corresponding degree:

63
 1 2 3 4 5 6
Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly
Disagree Disagree Disagree Agree Agree Agree

Reasons for code- Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly

mixing Disagree Disagree Disagree Agree Agree Agree
i. to convey a message
effectively
ii. to influence their
listfriend on
Facebook
iii. to pose better social
status
iv. to exclude third
person
v. while forgetting any
term in my own
language
vi. while quoting
someone‟s exact
words
vii. while some alternate
term is not present in
my own language
viii. while getting
emotional
ix. while showing my
extreme annoyance
with someone

64
 x. because I like this
language
xi. because this
language is better
than my own
language
xii. because I am
motivated to do so
as I find majority of
people around me
doing so
xiii. because it is a global
language and has
variety of functions
to perform in all
contexts
xiv. because it is the
need of the hour
xv. because I am forced
to do so by my
English teacher

Other reasons: (Please specify)_______________________________________

4. Do you think using two languages together has created a new way of
communication?
A. Yes,
B. No
C. Maybe
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION

65