Exploring Saudi EFL Learners’ Agency Toward the Use of WhatsApp for English Learning at Qassim University

Abstract

This study investigates a Saudi tertiary EFL (English as a foreign language) students’ experiences and use trajectory of WhatsApp for their out of class English learning in a longitudinal study for a 12-week semester. The study utilized agency theory (van Lier, 2004, 2008, 2010) as the analytical tool to acquire a deeper understanding of how the students’ use of WhatsApp could introduce innovative ways that could assist them to practice and collaborate in English learning outside the classroom. A mixed methods approach was adopted for data collection and included six instruments consisting of initial and post-project interviews, focus group participation, a post-project questionnaire, observations, and research log to gather data from the students’ use of WhatsApp. The participants were 25 male students who are studying in the first and second levels of the Preparatory Year Program (PYP) at the main campus of Qassim University. The study results showed that WhatsApp’s implementation demonstrated its sustainability outside the classroom for English learning as evident by the students’ continued use of WhatsApp even after the study ended by the 12th week; in fact, they continued to use it until the end of the semester (week 17). The affordances of WhatsApp allowed the students to develop autonomy, to practice what they were learning, to collaborate with each other, and to shift from being passive learners to active ones, not only in English studies but in other subjects as well. Finally, this study concludes by demonstrating the significance of interpreting the dynamic and complex nature of the innovation’s implementation process through the lens of van Lier’s agency theory from an ecological perspective. It also identifies the limitations of the study and recommends ways in which researchers could investigate the advantages of social networking in the language classroom.

A Study of EFL Students' Attitudes, Motivation and Anxiety towards WhatsApp as a Language Learning Tool

“…Finally, a study focused on the use of the WhatsApp application by students to develop their motivation in informal learning. The study found that students used WhatsApp as a sustainable learning tool outside classrooms even after they had completed a course (Alqasham, 2018). The four studies presented above show that students have positive attitudes towards using WhatsApp as a learning tool and Arab World English Journal www.awej.org ISSN: 2229-9327 292 the application had good efficacy on the four language skills and areas.…”

Effective Strategies to Improve Saudi EFL Learners' Willingness to Communicate: A Review of Literature

“…Actual and intended usage for the given purpose may in fact garner dissimilar results due to limitations such as intention-behavior disparity (Sheeran & Webb, 2018). Alqasham (2018) found that Saudi EFL students were keen on using WhatsApp as a tool for English language learning and showed signs of sustaining the activity beyond the study period out of their own volition. What the research provides is a valuable theoretical and pedagogical framework, but the outcomes remain to be evaluated on whether these have significant effect on student performance in willingness to use the language in a conversation.…”

“…However, there have been studies conducted that show student-centered education, such as Communicative Language Teaching or project-based teaching using social media and other tools, show better student achievement than the traditional set-up (Kassem, 2018). Some new strategies have also been implemented in different schools and levels in an attempt to improve students' English speaking capacity such as social media integration and motivation, (Feltman, 2018;Slim &Hafedh, 2019, Alqasham, 2018Alharbi, 2019). However, these have remained highly experimental and applied to only small populations.…”

The Effect of Social Media Networking Use in EFL Classrooms in Saudi Arabia: An Argumentative Review

“…Students were generally enthusiastic in their adoption of SNSs, as evident in Table 6 (Aifan, 2015;Kutbi, 2015;Alnujaidi, 2017;Alshabeb & Almaqrn, 2018;Sharma, 2019). Twitter and WhatsApp were especially popular applications (Alsharidi, 2018 [Table 2]; Alshammari et al, 2017;Alkhatnai, 2019 [Table 3]; Alqasham, 2018a& 2018b).…”

“…These were two students in Alkhatnai's (2019) study and one in Kutbi's (2015) study: the former listed drawbacks such as deterioration of classroom dynamics (lack of in-class interaction, reduction in teacher's authority), over-reliance on SNS by students, and lack of clear classification of information (Alkhatnai, 2019, p. 103); the latter was against the use of SNS as she was a first-time user and because she did not have access to the internet at her home (Kutbi, 2015, p. 74). Furthermore, some students were resentful of the perceived disrespect of religious values expressed on SNSs (Aifan, 2015) and some disapproved of content deemed inappropriate (Alqasham, 2018a). Teachers were apprehensive of using SNS in the classroom due to fear of distraction (Alshammari et al, 2017;Allam & Elyas, 2016), although they did acknowledge their pedagogical value.…”