Code-Switching Practices in Online Interactions Between Indonesian and Malaysian Coworkers: A Digital Workplace Perspective
Abstract
This study examines how code-switching is sequentially organized and interactionally meaningful in digitally mediated workplace communication between Indonesian and Malaysian coworkers. Drawing on Peter Auer’s (1998) interactional framework, the research analyzes naturally occurring WhatsApp and Slack exchanges to investigate how language alternation between Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, and English functions within unfolding professional interaction. Adopting a qualitative descriptive-interpretive design grounded in Conversation Analysis, the study explores six analytical dimensions: sequential position, participant-related switching, action accomplishment, stance and alignment, task-oriented relevance, and uptake and response. The findings demonstrate that code-switching is systematically organized rather than random, with its meaning emerging from its placement within turn-taking structures and from interlocutors’ responses. English frequently indexes institutional authority, technical precision, and procedural discourse, while Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia facilitate relational alignment, solidarity, and conversational continuity. Switches occur at analytically salient moments such as clarification, instruction-giving, evaluation, troubleshooting, and decision confirmation. The study extends Auer’s spoken-interaction model to asynchronous and multimodal digital contexts, contributing theoretically to code-switching research and empirically to understanding cross-border multilingual workplace communication in Southeast Asia.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Risna Tamrin, Bahar Bahar, Ana Rosida, Syahruni Junaid
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