To Laugh or Help or Let-It-Pass: Attitudes towards Non-Standard Use of English on Twitch

Abstract

This study focuses on the use of non-standard English on Twitch, an online platform where gamers livestream their footage while commentating on it. It is a rapidly growing platform featuring active interaction between viewers and broadcasters. Based on various theories, including Jenks’s (2012) view on the let-it-pass principle in relation to English as a lingua franca (ELF), and Hummel’s (2012) theory of prescriptivism, several questions were asked: what are the viewers’ attitudes towards the use of English on Twitch? In their attitudes and behaviour in the chatroom, do they distinguish between native and non-native speakers of English who broadcast in English? In what ways do they respond to non-standard realisations? A corpus of approximately 30 pages was created and a questionnaire was handed out, which gathered 328 respondents. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and results suggested that, while the let-it-pass principle seems to be applied equally in channels featuring a native speaker and channels featuring a non-native speaker of English as broadcaster, viewers tend to be more helpful towards non-native speakers while also being less mocking towards non-native speakers. The most common type of response (since let-it-pass is often not an explicit response) was a response that simply copied the non-standard realisation. This study is relatively broad due to the fact that it is a pioneering work; Twitch is an unexplored platform in regard to research. Suggestions are made in regard to using Twitch in future research, such as the continued study of ELF, the comparison of synchronous and asynchronous platforms, and whether the norms on Twitch are of exonormative or endonormative nature.