Utilizing Social Networking Sites for Reinforcing the Linguistic Competence of EFL Learners

Abstract

The unprecedented progress in digital appliances nowadays resulted in increasing reliance on the use of technology, which facilitated construction of knowledge including the acquisition of languages (Thorne, 2010). Formal education has developed drastically and neither educators nor classroom input is perceived as the only source of information; unlimited resources exist for learners to construct knowledge (Benson, 2007). Online applications foster learners' autonomy and independence and encourage them to practise the target language in authentic situations using different tools like Social Networking Sites (SNSs). Recent studies signal how SNSs increase learners' motivation (Aydin, 2014), interaction and socialization (Ryberg & Christiansen, 2008), and pragmatic and linguistic proficiency (Blake, 1998). The more language learners have opportunities to use them effectively; the greater improvement in their multiliteracy and digital skills is (Chartrand, 2012). This study aims at investigating the perceptions of undergraduate learners on SNSs and the extent to which they benefit from them to reinforce their linguistic performance. The data are collected from a survey questionnaire through closed-ended and open-ended items. The analysis shows the participants' perceptions that SNSs can help improve oral and communication skills, yet they could not get the much benefit from these platforms in improving writing techniques and knowledge of grammar. The data also signal the participants' concerns and limitations in using language-learning applications like Livemocha, iTalki, Lang-8, Hello-Hello, Duolingo, Palabea, and other relevant ones. They attributed this to lack of training on using these resources. This study provides implications of using these digital platforms.

Sustaining Formal and Informal English Language Learning through Social Networking Sites (SNS): A Systematic Review (2018–2022)

“…These thirty articles revealed that there are five groups of targeted subjects that are of interest to researchers. A significant sum of studies was performed on the tertiary education level learners with 19 articles contributing to the list [30,31,35,36,[38][39][40]43,45,46,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]58]. Five articles were directed towards the response from educators [33,34,42,56,57].…”

“…Five articles [36,38,41,49,50] have researched the assimilation of Facebook in formal English learning whereas only one article [42] employed Facebook for informal English learning. About a third of the total articles reviewed [29,35,37,39,40,45,46,48,[51][52][53]57] have not specified any SNS platform in the research, indicating that a lot of studies were done to investigate the influence of SNS as a whole on learning rather than just a single platform. Instagram may be regarded as the second most popular medium for informal learning, with two articles [43,47] devoted to the topic, but just one article [58] focused on its application in formal learning.…”

“…Instagram [58] [43,47] Whatsapp [30,31] Telegram [34] LINE [54] Twitter [32,55] YouTube [44] More than one platform [33,56] Not specified (SNS in general) [29,35,37,39,40,45,46,48,[51][52][53]57] In addition, WhatsApp [30,31] and Twitter [32,55] alike attracted less attention from researchers for their usage in informal learning with each one possessing only two articles highlighting its features. Telegram [34], LINE [54] and YouTube [44] are the platforms with the least number of articles documenting their versatility in either formal or informal learning.…”

“…Only two articles integrated more than one platform into single research [33,56]. As a comparison between formal and informal learning, it can be deduced that researchers emphasized more on the relationship between SNS and informal learning [29][30][31][32][33]35,37,39,40,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] (23 articles) rather than considering SNS as integration in formal learning [34,36,38,41,49,50,58] (7 articles).…”

“…A total of eleven studies have highlighted the learners' periodic access to SNS in their English language learning process. The most recorded time of SNS usage ranges between 0 and 5 h daily [29,45,47,[51][52][53]. Several other studies measured SNS usage with no specifics of total login time but rather accepted the visiting frequency of SNS as a daily trend for these English learners [36,[41][42][43] with an exception for one study which recorded SNS usage according to log-in hours per week with less than 5 h of SNS usage per week as the least while more than 20 h per week is the maximum amount of SNS usage [57].…”