Introduction
Nowadays the representatives of the general public use various devices they have due to the technological development to reach social media through the Internet and communicate with others. Digital world allows them to get to know new people, share various data and organize different activities. In addition to that, the users can have a chance to use creative learning strategies that attract them because of the possibility not just to study in formal settings but also in informal ones. In this way, they can make friends with individuals who have similar ideas and preferences and to interact with them for educational purposes. All in all, the usage of non-traditional educational approaches attracts enormous attention today so that social media and its advantages both in the classroom and at home are widely discussed.
Professionals underline that computers, phones, and other similar devices can be extremely beneficial in the framework of learning and teaching because they give a chance to reach web-based social networking platforms whenever and wherever one is. Thus, people refer to Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites to communicate with the members of their community. It is stated that they are very popular on campuses and learners constantly refer to them. It is critical that not only adults and the youth utilize social media but also school children who are willing to find out something new, active and creative. Thus, it can be claimed that learners of all ages are greatly dependent on various websites and apps. Even though this tendency is usually considered to be incorrect and harmful to the users, the educators found out that they can use it for educational purposes. Professionals believe that social networks allow the users to “experience authentic language interactions and develop sociopragmatic awareness (e.g., language use in specific contexts, relationship building…), which are often absence in textbooks” (Wang & Chen, 2013, p. 135).
In addition to that, many people underline that today the Internet users tend to forget about the possibility to use their computers and laptops to reach social networks can give preference to the phones. The thing is that using them, they have a possibility to get in touch in any place. Phones are rather small, which means that they can be carried everywhere. The representatives of the general public use them every day, which means that they can be emphasized as main connectors between people and social networks. Still, realizing how dependent on their devices, professionals create numerous apps that can be used for different purposes, including the educational one. For instance, DuoLingo appeared on the market for the users to study several languages in a non-academic environment.
Considering the information mentioned above, it seems to be reasonable to conduct a research study that will discuss the effectiveness of social media and mobile apps for educational purposes. With its help, professionals and learners who are focused on language learning will have an opportunity to find out how they can use these items in practice to achieve more benefits. The paper will try to support the assumption that social media and mobile apps can be useful when learning a second language. However, various points of view will be considered equally so that the results become more objective. In this way, research will focus on such things as:
- The way social media and mobile apps are treated by the learners and educators;
- How they can be utilized in the educational framework (when learning a second language, in particular);
- What advanced apps and social media types are usually used;
- What are both positive and negative effects of social networks and mobile apps on learning processes.
Thus, this paper will discuss whether social media and mobile apps can be really advantageous when learning a second language or not. The ways in which they can be used will also be pointed out so that eventually recommendation for the learners and educators can be developed. So being successfully conducted and presented, this research study is likely to make a contribution to different spheres including education, communications, and media. It will have theoretical and practical significance, which will prove its value.
Literature Review
The usage of social media and mobile apps for educational purposes is a relatively new issue due to the fact that such possibility appeared not so long ago because it depends greatly on the technological development. However, a lot of information related to this topic can be already found. Still, different professionals tend to discuss various frameworks of social media and apps usage, which means that their effectiveness for learning a second language by international students is not yet well-discussed. In addition to that, many learners and educators believe that in practice these methods are not very useful, which makes them neglect possible advantageous opportunities. Thus, there is a necessity to review those literature sources that discuss related topics so that the framework for the future research study can be created.
New social media is thoroughly discussed by Sawyer (2011). The professional claims that they are currently used by the majority of the general public on the everyday basis so that the individuals from different countries can communicate and share knowledge regardless of their location. However, the author underlines that people involved in intercultural interactions that became rather popular due to the globalization need to adapt to a new social environment and its peculiarities. Sawyer (2011) states that social media can help people to find connections between their own culture and those represented by other users, as they start living in the global village.
Even British Council (2009) got interested in teaching and learning with the help of social media, which proves that such approach is widely recognized. It is stated that, using up-to-date learning technologies, educators allow their students to socialize informally and feel relaxed when interacting with native speakers in real life. They provide the educators with several recommendations. British Council (2009) encourages them to organize group work, make exercises fun, give tasks outside of the formal setting, and act as facilitators. It states that the teachers should use different learning technologies and explain to their learners how to do that. They should refer to those social media that are preferred by the students and focus on them. Second Life, Facebook, and TeachingEnglish are of the highest priority.
Chowdhury and Saha (2015) are also interested in the effects of social media, but their attention is mainly focused on Facebook. The professionals conducted research in Kolkata city to reveal its positive and negative influences. They concluded that being accessed to Facebook through a mobile app or Web browser the users have an opportunity to reach various educational opportunities. The authors stated that the undergraduate and postgraduate students, in particular, tend to obtain the most benefit in the educational framework, as they can share their knowledge in different spheres communicating in English with both non-native and native speakers.
Wang and Chen (2013) also consider this social website to be an interactive virtual social communication tool that is extremely popular among students. Professionals consider that it can be an advantageous platform for informal learning. Unlike Chowdhury and Saha (2015), they discuss younger generations, which leads to the conclusion that social media can be an effective learning and teaching tool for students of all ages. The professionals believe that informal interaction through Facebook can enhance communication and collaboration greatly. In addition to that, it streamlines knowledge sharing process, motivates children to study hard and makes them positively approached towards new learning experiences. Thus, properly defined strategies can improve tutoring and assist students in reaching learning achievements.
Just like other professionals, Harmandaoglu (2012) admits the fact that social networks are widely used entertaining and educational tools. Unlike previously mentioned works, in this one, the professional discusses Twitter and the way it can be used by students and educators when learning languages. Its main advantages turn out to be its immediacy and modernity. Just like other social media, it provides the users with the opportunity to go beyond those office hours and classrooms that tend to become demotivating and boring. With a simple hashtag, learners can easily find any information they require for a class; they can follow their teachers to be in touch constantly and receive announcements in time. The author concludes that Twitter can help to master a second language reaching educational and personal goals at the same time.
Not only English learning in general but also the development of literacy skills is discussed by Bok (2011). The professional considers how adolescent females can use new technologies and popular culture to master a language. The attention is paid mainly to the usage of Korean popular culture (K-pop) fan site as English language learning tool. It is concluded that Soompi improves global social connections greatly. It can be used to encourage the users to get involved in peer-to-peer learning and education. Females can focus on their interests and enhance language skills at the same time. In addition to that, they receive an opportunity to try different social roles that are close to K-pop world. The author believes that the educators can make their lessons more motivating if they refer to this website. Moreover, such alteration can make the students more interactive.
In order to prove that the usage of social media can be beneficial not only in the framework of English learning but in general for mastering a second language, it is better to consider a case study of another language. For example, Dermott (2013) focuses on French. The professional underlines that the usage of social media facilitates interaction and develops linguistic competence in this way. They allow creating a favorable learning environment that appeals to the majority of the learners and makes them motivated. Thus, it is significant for the educators to be open and innovative so that they can accept and promote new teaching and learning opportunities. Dermott (2013) also believes that the most advantage can be reached when using not only one particular type of social media but several. In this way, the teacher can adapt the tasks so that their drawbacks are minimalized.
These ideas are supported by Ivanovic (2012), who believes that social media and entertainment that are used in by different people on the everyday basis can be rather beneficial for learning English. Still, the professional underlines that even though Tweeter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube attract many users and allow them to enhance their knowledge of English, these websites are not meant for such purposes, which means that they are not the best option that can be used by learners. Ivanovic (2012) encourages them to pay attention to those social media that are made for people who want to master languages, especially English. She offers to refer to the social language network known as Verbalisti. It was tested in Serbia and turned out to be rather successful. It is full of educational content and specific blogs. The author concludes that general social media networks can hardly be used to plan education even though they offer some communication opportunities and opinion exchange.
In their turn, Liu, Abe, Cao, Liu, and Ok (2015) analyzed social media websites and found out that they can be used to facilitate teaching and learning English as a second language. However, just like Ivanovic (2012), they considered special social network sites for language learning to be more advantageous than general ones. Learners can receive native speakers’ feedback and get engaged in collaborative learning due to shared interests. Educators are encouraged to assist students in the evaluation of the feedback quality, monitoring student work, and finding other resources.
As it was already mentioned, social media can be accessed through different devices. Codrea-Rado (2014) believes that in this case learners and educators should use them to the full. The professional underlines that many phones and tablets allow the users not only to refer to various websites but also to utilize different apps that are meant for language learning. For example, she recommends trying DuoLingo. This app makes education more personalized so that the program adapts to the user’s strengths and weaknesses. One can complete various tasks focused on vocabulary, grammar, etc. Even such startups as AirBnB that have their mobile apps can be advantageous in this framework because they provide a possibility to navigate short conversations.
Thus, it cannot be denied that social media and mobile apps can be rather effective in the educational framework. Still, their usage for learning English as a second language is not yet thoroughly discussed. Thus, research is needed to deepen into this issue.
Proposed Methods
The proposed study is going to reveal people’s experience of social media and mobile apps usage when studying a second language. The sample will include students and educators of different ages who mainly work with the English language. I believe that it will be enough to randomly gather volunteers from the one educational establishment for the initial results. However, it is impossible to deny the fact that reaching a broader sample is better for achieving more objective and generalized results. Thus, the recommendations for the further research will include this point.
The participants will be ensured that both their privacy and anonymity are guaranteed. It is also significant to tell them that there is no right or wrong answer and everything they say can be accepted when it reveals the discussed issue. In this way, they will not be shy or afraid to answer. Due to this step, the researcher can also enhance relations with the sample for them to feel more comfortable and positive.
Taking into consideration the fact that the research deals with human beings, it is critical for me to obtain ethics approval. I will gather my app forms and other papers for them to be signed and to prove that I am following the procedure. I will consider possible risks faced by the participants as well.
Qualitative research will be conducted to gather the information that will be required to prove the assumption that social media and mobile apps are effective for international students who learn their second language. The study will be based on interviews mainly. According to McCawley (2009), these are means “to collect data through one or more conversations between two or more people” (p. 13). Even though they can be conducted with the help of various technological devices such as telephone or video conference, this research will refer to face-to-face communications. In this way, the connection between the interviewer and interviewee will be found faster.
There will be a possibility to pay attention to the non-verbal behavior of the responders that can support one’s words or contradict with them. This method is considered to be the most advantageous because it is inexpensive but also rather extensive. It gives an opportunity to gather different ideas regarding one topic and allows the parties to clarify the things they do not understand clearly, which tends to make the obtained results more objective and reliable. Even though it is always critical to remember that the interaction between the researcher and the participant of the study may be biased due to their interaction, the amount of the obtained information is likely to overweight. The preparation for the interview will consist of several steps:
- In the framework of the preamble, I will define such peculiarities of interviews as the kind of questions, the time needed, how the data will be used, how confidentiality will be ensured, etc.
- I will create my questions, organize them appropriately and memorize.
- I will consider possible answers to ensure that I am prepared to support the conversation and gather important information through clarifications.
- I will point out different techniques that can be used during the interview and practice them.
- I will prepare a recording form to simplify the process of data analysis and test it. I am also thinking of having a voice recorder so that full answers can be played back several times.
As it will be difficult to connect all interviewees later, I will clarify everything right after the procedure. As I am going to have both closed-ended and open-ended questions, I will use statistical analysis and grouping. I will pay attention to the observed tendencies and key phrases to ensure the possibility of generalization.
In addition to that, peoples’ comments regarding the issue will be gathered with the help of social media. Using my personal accounts, I will create a short polling survey. I will ask if the users believe social media to be effective for international students to learn a second language offering them three answers (yes, no, do not know). In addition to that, there will be a possibility to add a comment with any information one believes to be significant, such as personal experience, types of social media, etc. Of course, this approach will not provide such authoritative and explicit data as the interview, but it will give me an opportunity to consider what the representatives of the general public think about this topic. In addition to that, I will have a chance to reach the diverse population that cannot be gathered in real life. Results, obtained from the comments will give me an opportunity to support or refute my assumption and will be helpful when making recommendations. The data will be grouped and analyzed statistically.
In addition to everything mentioned above some references to literature sources will also be made to ensure that the findings of this research coincide with the information pointed out by different professionals in the sphere.
I believe that, using such methods, I will have an opportunity to receive the most explicit and detailed results. I will test my assumption regarding the effectiveness of social media and mobile apps and also identify how learners and educators use them in practice so that particular successful and unsuccessful strategies and approaches can be identified.
Results and Discussion
This paper is meant to reveal the results obtained during the qualitative research study regarding the effectiveness of social media and mobile apps in the framework of the second language learning. The information will be presented in the form of a properly organized text. Some statistical data will also be present. It is expected that there will be a necessity to create tables or/and figures for this information to be easily understood. The discussion section is going to explain the results of the research study. It will describe the findings and support them with the information obtained from authoritative literature sources for it to be more reliable. Possible limitations and weaknesses of research will also be identified so that they can be improved in the future words. Possible topics of interest that can be discussed on the basis of this paper will also be mentioned.
Of course, it is impossible to state what results will be obtained in the future. Still, considering the literature review, I can presuppose that this paper will prove the effectiveness of social media and mobile apps for international students who learn a second language. I believe that it can be found out that they use their phones during language classes and at home to translate those words and phrases they do not know yet. In addition to that, I expect to reveal the fact that phones provide a wide range of great apps to learn English language, such as DuoLingo. In addition to that, I think that many students and educators will treat Twitter, Facebook, and other social media as great tools that give a chance to interact with the native speakers whether by talking, writing or reading their comments. Still, I believe that my positive approach should not interfere with the real results obtained during research. Thus, I will also underline drawbacks and negative effects of social media and apps. I believe that my decision to use statistical analysis and prepare research questions that focus on both advantages and disadvantages of these tools ensure high quality of obtained results and objectiveness of discussion.
References
Bok, E. (2011). Exploring millennial popular culture: Multilingual adolescents’ literacy and identity work in online spaces. Web.
British Council. (2009). Teaching and learning through social networks. Web.
Chowdhury, I., & Saha, B. (2015). Impact of Facebook as a social networking site (SNS) on youth generations: a case study of Kolkata city. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 4(6), 28-42.
Codrea-Rado, A. (2014). Can I successfully learn a language online? Web.
Dermott, G. (2013). The role of social media in foreign language teaching: A case study for French. L’APLIUT, 32(2), 141-157.
Harmandaoglu, E. (2012). The use of Twitter in language learning and teaching. Web.
Ivanovic, M. (2012). English language learning through social media and entertainment. Web.
Liu, M., Abe, K., Cao, M., Liu, S., & Ok, D. (2015). An analysis of social network websites for language learning: Implications for teaching and learning English as a Second Language. CALICO Journal, 32(1), 114-152.
McCawley, P. (2009). Methods for conducting an educational needs assessment. Web.
Sawyer, R. (2011). The impact of new social media on intercultural adaptation. Web.
Wang, C., & Chen, C., (2013). Effects of Facebook tutoring on learning English as a second language. Web.