Language Choice and Code Switching in German-Based Diasporic Web Forums

Bilingual interaction is still a neglected issue in the study of the multilingual Internet. A review of the literature suggests two main approaches, both of which adapt theories of the pragmatics of code alternation (Auer, 1995) to computer-mediated settings: (1) the study of code switching (CS) or the use of more than one language during a single communicative episode (e.g., Heller, 1988), and (2) the study of language choice, or the distribution of languages used in a bilingual or multilingual community according to factors such as participants, topic, and setting (Auer, 1998; Fishman, 1972; Li, 2000). Work on CS in computer-mediated communication (CMC) typically draws on interactional sociolinguistics and a conversational approach to bilingual interaction (Auer, 1995; Gumperz, 1982) and investigates CS as a resource for the management of interpersonal relationships and other interactional aims. According to Georgakopoulou (1997), the aim is to examine “how, within frameworks of generic assumptions and expectations, speech communities draw upon their linguistic resources in order to maximize the effectiveness and functionality of their communication” (p. 160). Depending on setting and genre, CS in email, chat, and discussion boards has been found to contextualize shifts in topic, footing, or modality, in order to mitigate potential face threats and to perform social stereotypes (Androutsopoulos & Hinnenkamp, 2001; Georgakopoulou, 1997; Paolillo, in press; Sebba, 2003; Siebenhaar, 2005). Studies of language choice in CMC, in contrast, operate on a macrolevel, drawing implicitly or explicitly on domain theory and the sociology of

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