Virtual Speech Community: A Sociolinguistic Analysis Of Kenyan Facebook Communication

Abstract

Rapid evolution of communication technologies has changed language use, thereby yielding new forms of discourse and authorship, as well as novel ways to create and participate in communities. Computer mediated communication has attracted the attention of researchers as a linguistic phenomenon. Researchers have focused on usage patterns and peculiarities of the internet language. Research questions such -,as those of creating virtual speech communities and conversation analysis, however, have not been taken into account. The difference between real and imagined speech communities, however, in online communication is still unclear. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the aspect of virtual speech community in Facebook communication. In particular, it seeks to analyze the features that characterize Facebook communication as a virtual speech community. The objectives of the study were to: investigate how Facebook members form a speech community, examine the interaction features of Facebook speech community, determine how the context of Facebook communication affects the linguistic patterns of use and describe how members of Facebook reinforce their speech community. Herring's computer mediated discourse analysis theoretical framework was used to analyze the data which was collected. The study used a survey design. The study population was 2545 participants. Random sampling was employed to select 255 participants as a sample size for the study. The study used secondary data based on library and online research. There was also the use of interviews, participant observations, questionnaires and data logging methods to source data from Facebook users. The data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Data collected from interviews and participant observation methods was analyzed qualitatively while data collected from questionnaires and data logging was analyzed quantitatively. The findings indicated that technologically mediated communication such as Facebook, has fostered the development of new textual ways of forming virtual speech communities. Facebook speech community was characterized by sharing interest, discourse norm and text and language. Facebook users also developed a set of interaction norms for their speech community. Medium and social factors affected the linguistic pa.tterns of use. This study also showed that specific communication patterns and social actions had specific roles in the maintenance of a speech community. This study is expected to make valuable assessment of online communication analysis, such as those of creating speech communities across time and space, thus, contributing towards an understanding of emerging issues of style and register in sociolinguistic study.