Facebook: a medium for the language planning of migrant churches

This presentation focuses on the use a group of Brazilian Pentecostal migrant churches make of Facebook as a medium for language planning (LPP), i.e. the deliberate choice of language to be established as the one a group of speaker should adopt. More specifically, I explore the language choices made by a group of faith leaders in Portugal, Italy, the US and the UK when posting on their Facebook pages in contrast to the choices made by their followers. I argue that the linguistic positions adopted by faith leaders on Facebook impacts on the level of online interaction of their migrant members. I conclude by pointing out that the most successful migrant churches in engaging their followers online are the ones that adopt a flexible approach to LPP.