Code Mixing on Whatsapp Chatting at the Eighth Semester Students of English Department Simalungun University

Abstract

This research is conducted to find out the code mixing used by students in their WhatsApp chatting. There are two main points that the researchers described in this research. The first was about the types of code-mixing on WhatsApp. It is related to the process of code-mixing and the result of it. Second, why code-mixing was done. It is related to the factors or reasons that motivate people to do code-mixing. The participants of this research were the eighth-semester students of the English Education Department of Simalungun University that sometimes mix their utterances on WhatsApp chatting using English and Indonesian. The research design applied in this study was a descriptive qualitative method. Documentation and interviews were the methods used in collecting data. The researchers found the varieties of code-mixing on WhatsApp chatting at the eighth-semester students of the English education department. Based on the analysis of the data, (1) there are six types of code-mixing in WhatsApp that they used, namely word insertion, phrase insertion, hybrid insertion, repetition insertion, idiom/ expression insertion, and clause insertion; (2) there are two factors or reason that cause of code-mixing, namely social community or background and the highest reason of code-mixing usage by the students that they have less vocabulary. The whole data of code mixings that are found at the eighth-semester student of the English department are 97 data. The dominant type of code – mixing that they used in WhatsApp chat was word insertion they seldom used word insertion. The reason for using code-mixing in WhatsApp chats is because they lack vocabulary and want to improve their English skills, the repetition used for clarification and find an appropriate word or expression in one language make them change the word or phrase