Code-switching and Gender in SMS Texting

With the noted advancement of mobile phone technologies, SMS texting emerged as a perfectly new mode of communication that challenges the conventional rules of standard languages. To gain insights into SMS newly-adopted language, the present work overarching goal was to look into Algerian EFL students' SMS texting practices. Given the texters' multilingual context, code-switching and language choice in gendered groups were examined. The study showed similar code-switching behaviours among male and female texters. As for language choice, the data revealed males and females using languages differently and for different reasons.