English Code-Switching Among Indonesian Speakers in Australia

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the practice of code-switching among Indonesian speakers in Australia. The result of this study is compared to previous studies on code-switching taking place in Indonesia (Setiawan, 2016; Sumarsih et al., 2014). The present study finds that there is no difference between code-switching among Indonesian speakers taking place in Australia and that in Indonesia in terms of the most frequent switching type. However, Indonesian speakers in Australia seem to have a different attitude to code-switch to English differently. Instead of calling English code-switch “cool,” they consider such practice “normal” to take place in Australia, making it an unmarked choice for them. Other factors such as inclusiveness, expressiveness, and audience also influence their choice to switch to English.