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Social Media and Language Learning

Social media can be used formally or informally for language learning. Formally, educators can integrate social media tools into their classrooms through blogs, apps, or learning platforms. Informally, learners use social media outside of class for language acquisition through personal networks, language learning apps, online gaming, and fan communities. Studies have found that social media can positively impact learners' language skills, but learners' perceptions may vary depending on their proficiency level and whether they wish to share social media for educational purposes. Overall, social media is changing how people communicate and exchange knowledge, including in language learning.

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Maryam Afzal
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152 views21 pages

Social Media and Language Learning

Social media can be used formally or informally for language learning. Formally, educators can integrate social media tools into their classrooms through blogs, apps, or learning platforms. Informally, learners use social media outside of class for language acquisition through personal networks, language learning apps, online gaming, and fan communities. Studies have found that social media can positively impact learners' language skills, but learners' perceptions may vary depending on their proficiency level and whether they wish to share social media for educational purposes. Overall, social media is changing how people communicate and exchange knowledge, including in language learning.

Uploaded by

Maryam Afzal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Social Media and

Language Learning
A presentation by:
Muneeb Fazal and Asad Ameen
Introduction

Language:-
Language is the main component in interacting and communicating. Through
language, humans can interact and establish good communication with other
humans.
As a communication tool, language is used by every human being to convey
opinions, thoughts and feelings to others, both oral and written. By not using
language, of course someone will experience difficulties in interacting with
each other.
Social media language learning

Social media language learning is a method of language acquisition that uses


socially constructed It( Information Technology) platforms such as wikis,
blogs, and social networks to facilitate learning of the TL (target language).
Social media is used by language educators and individual learners that wish
to communicate in the target language in a natural environment that allows
multimodal(combinations of two or more modes) communication, ease of
sharing, and possibilities for feedback from peers(equal person) and
educators.
Uses of Social media in Language Learning

There are two types of uses:


● Formal Use
● Informal Use
Formal Use

Educators can integrate social media tools into their existing


pedagogy(method of teaching).
Pedagogical use of social media in a language classroom can take a many
forms, such as classroom blogs to discuss culturally relevant topics in the
target language, social media apps with specialized platforms for classroom
use, learning environments developed specifically for schools or universities.
Informal Use

Social media is employed by language learners outside of traditional learning


environments e.g. language learning school or institute.
Informal language learning through social media can occur through personal
social network use, language learning apps with a social component, online
gaming, fan communities and other platforms.
Impact of social media on Learning L2 or TL for Academic
Purposes
The literature on students perceptions towards using Social
Media (SM) for language learning reports mixed findings:
● Some studies indicate learners 'positive perceptions of their use for
academic purposes.
● Some suggest that learners perceptions might vary due to their proficiency
in the language.
● There is also evidence that students do not always wish to share their
Social Media environments for educational purposes.
Impact of social media on Learning L2 or TL

● Social media is constantly changing the way people live in different


aspects. Nowadays, various social media platforms are affecting
communication, information delivery, knowledge exchange, commerce,
education and all different aspects of life.
● With the vast spread of various social networking sites on the Internet,
researchers from different fields have started to direct their attention and
shed more light on the importance and impact of social media on different
aspects of life including social as well as educational aspects.
● Consequently, online chats and discussions, whether oral or written, have
replaced conventional face-to-face dialogues, leading to substantial
changes in the users' daily language and language skills.
● The extensive use of smartphones, laptops, and tablets along with
prosperous social media applications has perhaps availed rich linguistic
input at the fingertips of their users and has contributed in the production
of comprehensible L2 output.
Investigation on effect of Social Media

● To pursue their constant efforts and to look at those aspects as an area of


concentration that needs to be investigated further, Language learning
professionals and instructors specifically have attempted to investigate the
effect of social media and social networking sites in second language
acquisition and second/foreign language learning.
● In one of the researches, it was found out that the group who got learning,
commitment and inspiration through social media sites has indicated higher
results in an English proficiency test compared to the other one that got
training on an eye-to-eye premise
● Students perceptions of SM as a learning tool in general education
Although there is a scarcity of studies on learners perception of SM as
pedagogical tools, existing studies suggest that, overall, learners attitudes
towards them are positive.
● For instance, Lee and Markey (2014) investigated students 'perceptions of
using different SM (i.e., Twitter, blogs, and podcasts) and found that
students rated these tools highly (4.5 out of 5), with approximately 60% of
students showing positive attitudes towards their pedagogical use.
● Studies have also reported students negative attitudes towards these
technologies.
Pedagogical use of Social Media

The literature indicates that L2 students also hold positive perceptions


towards the pedagogical use of SM. For instance, Bani-Hani et al. (2014)
investigated how Arabic speaking EFL students perceived the use
Facebook for learning.
Results indicated that most students (88%) viewed
this application positively, and felt that it contributed to their improvement in
writing and vocabulary.
Social Media in Class Rooms

The case for incorporating social media into our language classes is
compelling.
Not only can social media sites be used to share classroom resources, news
and work, but they have also been shown to make greater student
engagement and, as emerging evidence indicates, linguistic gains as well.
Language Learning Apps

There are a myriad of language learning websites and apps that rely on
social interaction between learners or have a social component. These
resources have varying levels of social media elements.
Duolingo

● One example of an app with a low social element is the popular language
learning app Duolingo, which allows users to share their progress and
scores with other language learners within a largely independent learning
platform.
Tandem

● There are also apps that have a social media foundation. The
app Tandem is an example of an app with a more demanding social
aspect as an app that is designed specifically for language exchange with
other learners Tandem and other similar apps allow users to work on their
skills in the target language with other language learners and teachers
through consistent communication via written messaging and audio phone
calls.
● In this way, these social language learning apps
can facilitate language learning through
real conversations with other community members.
Social Media Platforms

● Common social media platforms such as Facebook Twitter Discord and


Omegle are used by language learners to communicate with other
learners and native speakers of the target language. Many social networks
include the ability to join virtual groups that either have other language
learners as group members or group members with an external shared
interest that they communicate about in the target language.
● Data have indicated that there are about 3.96 billion social media users
across the world.
● YouTube is another social network that is commonly used by language
educators and learners. There are many popular language education
channels on YouTube that have a large number of followers that use the
video-based platform to learn and interact with other users.
Online Gaming

● A MMO (massively multiplayer online) game can be used to facilitate


language acquisition via their built-in chat functions that enable
participants to chat with players that speak different languages. By
participating in an interactive gaming experience, players have the
opportunity to engage in the target language and help them gain an
understanding of conversational norms and grammar constructions.

● However, language use in video games is highly contextual and many


video games use repetitive language that can limit a more holistic
understanding of the target language. Games transform the learning
process from a passive task to one in which individuals engage actively
in the experience of learning by focusing first on meaning.
Effect of Social Media on Language Learning

Conclusion:-
Final results confirmed that the utilization of social media has been
significantly perceived to have positively impacted learning English language
in terms of writing style, reading skills, listening and lexical variation,
communication skills and grammar usage.
Thank You!

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