Fostering Foreign Language Learning with Twitter: What Do English Learners Think About It? (original) (raw)
Related papers
FOSTERING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING WITH TWITTER: REFLECTIONS FROM ENGLISH LEARNERS
TOJDE, 2018
Education in 21st century is dominated by the generation of digital natives who are greatly exposed to and participate in technology in their social and educational lives. There is no doubt that anything experienced in social life directly affects learners' educational experiences. Highly popular social networks are being used in almost every educational area. In the process of teaching English as a foreign language social networking sites enhance active participation of learners for real purposes. This helps them gain motivation and real life experience through gaining different roles, such as authors and readers. One of the most widely used social networking sites is Twitter, a microblogging platform. This study focuses on use of twitter as a microblogging platform by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages. The study aims to gain insights about learners' perceptions of the use of Twitter in language learning process and how participants feel about their tweeting as an extra-curricular activity throughout 4 weeks, each consisting of three different hot topics either determined by the class teachers or by students themselves. The study based on voluntary participation, and the content had no relation with the curriculum. The participants answered a questionnaire and evaluated Twitter along with language learning process. The results reveal that Turkish learners had mostly positive opinions on using Twitter and stated that twitting messages facilitated their language learning experience. Including extracurricular activities, such as Twitter, into language teaching is suggested as a result of this study.
MA Thesis, 2023
This study aims to investigate the role of Twitter in improving the communicative competence of Saudi female senior students. It also aims to explore the students' attitudes toward integrating social networking tools into the language learning environment. To achieve these goals, 32 students, majoring in English at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, participated in the study. The data were collected through the use of a pre-post test, which included a set of questions; each of which tests one aspect of the communicative competence. A likerate-scale questionnaire was used to elicit the participants' attitudes towards the use of Twitter in the EFL environment. Results obtained from the analysis of the test and the questionnaire reveal that Twitter significantly improved the students' communicative competence; and provided them with motivation towards autonomous language learning. It turned out from the whole study that advanced Saudi learners of English need the chance to actively produce language and the chance to use English as a tool of communication.
Students’ Perception on the Use of Twitter to Learn English: a Preliminary Study
2017
The advanced and continual technology development leads social media like Twitter as a daily life style. The implementation of it into language learning is a trend nowadays. This study attempts to examine students’ perception toward the use of Twitter to learn English. This research was conducted using qualitative method. The data were obtained through in-depth interview with students of English Education Department of Universitas Islam Indonesia, who are active users of Twitter. The findings showed that students have positive perception and attitude toward the use of Twitter to learn English. It also revealed that students believe that Twitter is an online platform which is helpful for English learning especially for vocabulary building, grammar, writing and reading skill. In addition, Twitter helps students increasing their confidence in using English in their daily life.
The Role of Social Media in Foreign Language Teaching
Sosyal medyanın yabancı dil öğretimindeki yeri (The role of social media in foreign language teaching). In H. Yılmaz; E.Yücel; S. D. Üğüten & F. Şanal (Eds.), Farklı yönleriyle yabancı dil öğretimi (Foreign language teaching with various perspectives)
The importance of technology in our lives has been increasing day by day and the use of technological tools for educational purposes has become an undeniable reality. More and more integration of technological tools such as computers, tablets and smart phones together with internet eased the utilization of those in foreign language teaching.The number of mobile applications for foreign language teaching has been increasing and especially social media has become an indispensable part of students' lives. Grahl (2013) divides social media into 6 despite the fact that the boundaries among them are not clear-cut: 1) social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn etc.), 2) social bookmarking sites (Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc.), 3) social news (Digg, Reddit, etc.), 4) media sharing sites (Instagram, YouTube, etc.), 5) microblogging sites (Twitter, etc.), and 6) blogging and forum sites.This review of literature study focuses on Facebook out of many social networking sites, Twitter as one of microblogging sites, blogging and finally podcasts as one of media sharing tools. The main objective of the present study is to prove the role and importance of aforementioned four social media tools in foreign language teaching by presenting studies conducted in Turkey as well as in other parts of the world. By demonstrating the benefits of those tools in a tabular form, the researchers also target to pave the way for further studies on social media.
Let’s Tweet to Learn English’: Using Twitter as a Language Tool in the ESL/EFL Classroom
Teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has gone beyond the mere practice of classroom situations. The present development of digital media and electronic devices has a significance influence on human life, and therefore on education. It has been apparent that the learners may not learn in a way a teacher teaches, but there is more possibility of learning to happen if the learners are instructed in their ways. As the young generation has already been used to with digital technologies- I would rather say they are now technology addict- the technology based instruction needs to be integrated into the syllabus. The use of social media is taken as a language teaching and learning tool, and has recently received a wide range of studies. The majority of studies have claimed that the use of web-based technologies have helped learners develop language skill, while some research has resulted in the negative effectiveness. The use of Twitter, among other social media, in ESL/EFL teaching and learning has received a good deal of attention. Learners are benefitted with distinctive features of the use of Twitter in language learning. This article accounts for the significance of using digital technology in language teaching and learning activities, while discussing the usefulness of Twitter in developing language skills. It further proposes Twitter-based activities to develop reading, writing, listening, and grammar and vocabulary skills in the target language. It finally makes aware of the possible challenges of using Twitter in different EFL/ESL situations.
The Use of Twitter Application to Teach English
The advanced and continual technology development leads social media like Twitter as a daily life style. The implementation of it into language learning is a trend nowadays. The findings showed that students have positive perception and attitude toward the use of Twitter to learn English. It also revealed that students believe that Twitter is an online platform which is helpful for English learning especially for vocabulary building, grammar, writing and reading skill. In addition, Twitter helps students increasing their confidence in using English in their daily life.
Reaping the benefits of using Twitter in advanced language learning
OLBI Working Papers, 2015
The need to use and integrate digital literacy tools is critical in the current landscape of advanced language learning. Microblogging (e.g. Twitter) is one such tool that fosters student interaction and collaboration among language learners. This article will conceptualize the practice of tweeting, in relation to social constructivist theory and to new literacies, in senior high school language classes using CEFR's B1 and B2 proficiency level tasks. The perceived benefits of using Twitter for language learning will be listed. Guides to getting educators started with Twitter, suggestions for tweet tasks and connections for CEFR C1 and C2 advanced language learners will also be included.
Twitter in Foreign Language Classes
Handbook of Research on Learning Outcomes and Opportunities in the Digital Age
This chapter looks at the potential of the mircroblogging tool Twitter as a multifaceted resource for foreign language learners and educators. It highlights how this microblogging and social networking service provides authentic settings that are both dynamic and communicative, and which facilitate the cultural enrichment of first-year French learners, by enhancing their socio-pragmatic awareness and developing their multiliteracy skills in a second language. We argue for the importance of making students aware of this linguistic culture from an early stage of their language studies. This invisible second language culture is rarely discussed in traditional classrooms and only sporadically presented in foreign language textbooks; however, it can easily be experienced in digital environments like Twitter, making it an ideal context for such exposure. Our results suggest that the incorporation of linguistic cultural elements is indispensable to the development of intercultural communic...
What the Tweets say: A critical analysis of Twitter research in language learning from 2009 to 2016
This study presents an overview and critical analysis of the literature related to Twitter and language learning published from 2009 to 2016. Seventeen studies were selected for inclusion based on a four-phase identification procedure, which helped us to identify published studies that resulted in a content analysis of themes in the articles emerging from the data set. Guiding questions include the following: What types of research have been conducted on Twitter in educational settings? How was Twitter used for language learning? What educational benefits were found by using Twitter for language learning? and What challenges and future research does the current research offer for Twitter and language learning? The analysis points to the potential of microblogging as a way to promote interaction and communication, potentially with native speakers, to build community, and to encourage noticing and negotiation of meaning. Results reveal that Twitter is used diversely in language education settings; it can be used at different levels, settings, and with a variety of tasks. They also shed light on educational practices and how language learning students interact with native speakers, develop language skills and competencies, and build community in the language classroom.