Abstract
A new trend of using Social Media or Social Networking Sites has been recently highlighted in this technology era. Social media influences people’s lives in many aspects including education and English language learning. It has made an effect on the English language either in a positive way by adding new words to the dictionary a negative way by misusing the grammar and using incorrect abbreviated words. The purpose of this study is to examine what the effect of using face book has on the English language learners and see if it and to see how much it serves as a tool in teaching English grammar. To achieve the objectives of the research, the study used a mixed method approach which involved the survey of students in high schools. The study recommended the promotion of face book usage for academic purpose, counseling for addicted students and the use of the right grammar and spelling when necessary.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Social networks are either specifically designed for education (e.g. Edmodo, Ning, etc.) and professional/research purposes (e.g. LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.) or originally focused on social-relational aims such as Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, are progressively gaining attention in relation to school and higher education practices and pedagogies, with important implications for changing and adjusting teaching and learning (Allen 2012; Greenhow et al. 2014; Manca and Ranieri 2013; RodrÃguez-Hoyos et al. 2015).
Indeed, these environments are presenting complex challenges to educators and policymakers, as well as providing new meaning to emerging educational paradigms, in the light of fostering and encouraging socio-constructivist learning. In relation to Facebook, for instance, Allen (2012) reports the affordances that this environment provides for online communication and networking, thus demonstrating the central role of reciprocal acts of attention exchange in the system. At the same time, how Facebook challenges traditional understandings of education and the relationships between teachers and students requires specific consideration. From this perspective, any educational use of Facebook would necessarily confront both teachers and students with the fact that identities, roles, places and persistent communication need to be managed in new ways.
Manca and Ranieri (2013) highlight how the pedagogical affordances of Facebook, such as widening context of learning (learners and instructors share personal and professional interests and aspirations, thus mixing different contexts of learning and social and personal life), mixing information and learning resources (the combination of instructional material with information and knowledge sources, produced elsewhere and available through several channels, influence the design and the delivery of the learning experience), and hybridization of expertise (peripheral and emergent interactions occurring on networks through the contribution of current and past learners, practicing professionals, and other teachers, encourage the development of social capital), which Face book can provide, are in fact rarely exploited. They also state that there are still many obstacles that may prevent a full adoption of Face book as a learning environment, such as declared and implicit institutional policies, teachers’ and students’ pedagogies and cultural issues.
With a specific focus on the use of face book sites among pre-college-age learners in formal educational settings, Greenhow and colleagues (2014) explore the psychological, social and educational dynamics of online face booking activity among adolescents aged 12-17. The authors envisage the opportunities and challenges related to the design of education-related face book sites, such as the blurring of boundaries between online and offline, in-school and out-of school, social and academic, and the tendency to distraction and complex privacy-related issues. The authors also report several implications related to social mediated learning environments and instructional design, such as the importance of building on adolescents’ values and prior experiences of online face booking in designing social-mediated spaces for learning, or the necessity to renegotiate teachers’ and students’ roles where face booking applications intersect with classrooms and curricula.
