essay on impact of facebook on learning and teaching

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Jennifer Means

[email protected]

Ontario Tech. University

Facebook is currently one of the most popular social networking sites. Research has shown both advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook as a tool to support curriculum. This chapter explores the use of Facebook in supporting the learning agenda of the classroom, as well as implications of the use of Facebook in education. The research highlights the use of Facebook as a Learning Management System in the educational environment and provides examples of how to utilize Facebook to support a community of learners.

Keywords: community of learners, Facebook, learning agenda, learning management system, social networking sites.

Introduction

Social networking sites (SNSs) are virtual spaces where people can gather to communicate, share photos and discuss ideas with one another (Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Raacke & Bonds‐Raack 2008).  Communication methods have changed with the implementation of SNSs. It has also impacted the way we teach and learn (Crystal, 2008a, 2008b; Johnson, 2009; O’Brien & Sharber, 2008). Facebook has great potential for teaching and learning. A Facebook group could even be used in education as a Learning Management System (LMS). An LMS is the infrastructure responsible for delivery and management of educational content, it assesses learning goals, and collects and presents data for the learning process of the institution (Szabo & Flesher, 2002). Above the delivery of content, is the ability to handle course registration, administration, skills gap analysis, tracking and reporting (Gilhooly, 2001).

“Technology is not new to the education process of teaching and learning, education is one of the areas most heavily impacted by technology” (American Psychological Association, 2009, p. 455). Additionally, “The Internet and related technologies have the power to bring literature, research, information, and people from around the world directly into the classroom” (American Psychological Association, 2009, p. 456). Technology, which includes SNSs, has the ability to increase and improve communication and cooperation between students and teachers. SNSs allow users to connect and interact with one another (Correa, Hinsley & Gil de Zúñiga, 2010), by posting and sharing information (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). These options can be incorporated into the teaching and learning process.

Junco (2012), examined the relationship between frequency and participation in Facebook activities and student engagement and found a positive correlation. Gruzd, Staves & Wilk (2012) found that social networking tools, such as Facebook, are popular to the general public and have been embraced by academia in a professional context. Scholars are using Facebook as it is convenient for making connections with peers for collaboration. It can also be used as a powerful tool in teaching. Students are open to the possibility of using Facebook in education (McCarthy, 2013; Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman & Witty, 2010), however, it has not yet been taken to its full potential in education.

Students’ use of Facebook

In a fall of 2009 survey, it was noted that 73% of teens, aged 12 to 17, used SNSs (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith & Zickuhr, 2010). Students use Facebook for a variety of reasons, including communicating and collaboration with peers.  Users can broadcast messages to Facebook friends, post status updates, and use Messenger for private conversations (Smock, Ellison, Lampe & Wohn, 2011). Social interactions and connection is the objective of online social networks (Cheung & Lee, 2010).

Students can also use Facebook for educational purposes, including collaboration, discussion and to obtain extra help. Students can form groups on Facebook and post questions to obtain feedback from peers. They can share links, such as videos on the wall of the group page and in personal messages. Teachers can access the Facebook group to send reminders to their students about assignments and tests.

Facebook use in higher education has increased over the years. Both faculty and students have utilized the SNS to support learning. Research shows that SNSs can promote a community of learners and assist with the development of social relationships. However, SNSs can also cause distraction in the learning process.

A Community of Learning

A community of learners “can be defined as a group of people who share values and beliefs and who actively engage in learning from one another-learners from teachers, teachers from learners, and learners from learners. They thus create a learning-centered environment in which students and educators are actively and intentionally constructing knowledge together. Learning communities are connected, cooperative, and supportive. Peers are interdependent in that they have joint responsibility for learning and share resources and points of view, while sustaining a mutually respectful and cohesive environment” (“Learning and the Adolescent Mind”, 2019).

For introverted students, creating a community of learners allows the student to feel more comfortable, therefore, making larger contributions to the educational community. “Once characteristics of a learning community are established, there is a ‘direct impact on the continuance of participation within the community” (Whitworth & DeMoor, 2003). A sense of community is imperative for learners to obtain meaningful experiences (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). Facebook as part of the community of learners can be used to create more communication among teachers and students (Bowers-Campbell, 2007).

How to use Facebook as a Learning Tool

Bull, Thompson, Searson, Garofalo, Park, Young & Lee (2008) stated the following:

The informal learning that occurs in the context of participatory media offers significant opportunities for increased student engagement in formal learning settings. The experience with communication technologies that teenagers today possess must be tapped by educators and connected to pedagogy and content in order to address learning objectives in schools. Teacher education faculty members are experienced in this arena. We are currently at a moment in time in which the current and next generation of educators each can make a genuine contribution by working together. (p.106).

Research studies have demonstrated that the use of Facebook can increase the satisfaction and motivation of students. O’Sullivan, Hunt and Lippert (2004) and Mazer, Murphy and Simonds (2009) found when students reviewed the teacher’s page, there were higher reported levels of motivation, learning, teacher integrity and an overall positive attitude in regard to the course and the teacher.

According to Li and Pitts (2009), when a teacher has virtual office hours on Facebook, there is a positive impact on student satisfaction with the communication between the teacher and the student. This also addresses the students’ needs when it comes to the importance of teacher/student communication. Hewitt and Forte (2006) states that Facebook interactions have a positive impact on the perception of the professor and that two thirds of respondents shared they felt comfortable with having teachers on Facebook. This presents the opportunity for teachers to bring Facebook into education.

Teclehaimanot and Hickman (2009) provided the suggestion that teachers be passive when it comes to interacting with their students on Facebook outside of class time. Teachers should not comment on students’ personal pictures and not send Facebook invitations out to their students. This addresses students concerns regarding professional/personal relationship status discussed in disadvantages section of this chapter.

Students can be provided with information regarding the use of Facebook in education in order for them to begin the process of sharing information. Teachers and students can have access to school information, learning, and discussion. The information can be shared from student to student or student to teacher.  Facebook allows the exchange of information, making it an important educational tool for teaching and sharing knowledge on an ongoing basis (Alger, 2009).

Advantages of Facebook as a Learning Tool

We know that students are utilizing SNSs for social benefits, including communication with peers. As a result, the incorporation of tools, such as Facebook can be streamlined into education. This allows students to easily connect with teachers and peers after class hours. “Material can [now] be presented in more vivid ways than in the past, which may engage students more actively” (American Psychological Association, 2009, p. 456). Facebook allows students to access technology that provides the opportunity for interaction outside of class time, including online collaboration and multitasking by engaging in more than one class or topic concurrently. It provides rich learning and teaching practices in informal learning contexts.

Facebook has built in tools, such as discussion board (wall), instant messaging (chat) and email (messenger), which all allow for multitasking (Judd, 2013). Multitasking is more pronounced among students (Carrier, Cheever, Rosen, Benitez & Chang, 2009). Many people utilize technology in many areas of their lives, including in education (Wood et al., 2012). Facebook also offers available virtual office hours for teachers, which presents a positive impact on student satisfaction due to the ability of communication outside of the classroom (Li & Pitts, 2009).

When exploring the functions of Facebook, a consideration would be to use it as an LMS. The teacher would have the ability to create a course page or group and manually add the students. Research shows that using LMSs possesses numerous benefits for teaching and learning. It allows faculty to shift the focus from content to process based learning (Vogel & Klassen, 2001) and helps to “facilitate change from passive to active learning” (Herse & Lee, 2005, p. 51).

Schroeder and Greenbowe (2009) utilized a Facebook group and WebCT together to allow students to discuss course questions. They stated WebCT was compulsory and the Facebook group was optional. The end result showed the number of Facebook posts was four times higher than posts on WebCT.  The Facebook posts discussed more complex topics and there were more detailed responses to the posts.

Disadvantages of Facebook as a Learning Tool

Although we know students are using SNSs more frequently, there are still considerations around how to use them in education. Some students would prefer to keep their personal lives separate from their professional (education) lives. Many students believe that Facebook is a place for socialization and should be separate from academic work (Hew, 2011). A barrier to using Facebook as a learning tool could be the perception of technology use in one’s personal life over use in learning. It is rare that students use Facebook for education as they tend to keep their personal and professional lives separate (Jones, Blackey, Fitzgibbon & Chew, 2010).

Students seem to have positive experiences with Facebook as a “social study space” but feel it is off limits for teachers. This presents the question, would faculty do more harm than good by trying to formalize the use of Facebook in education (Gray, Annabell & Kennedy, 2010)? Facebook defines connections as “friends”, so students could have difficulty in understanding why the teacher wants to be a friend connection (Rambe, 2012). Students have frequently used Facebook, however, there are concerns about the use in education, as students do not want to be friends with their teachers on Facebook. Teachers who use Facebook may indirectly disclose information that could impact the teachers’ reputation and have a negative impact on the student/teacher relationship.

Facebook groups can be used as a LMS in the classroom. Students are generally pleased with how a Facebook group can be used as an LMS, however, there are limitations. Facebook may not provide a safe environment for sharing information and it does not fully support all components of an LMS (ie. support of files).

According to the American Psychological Association (2009), there needs to be a distinction between entertainment and engagement. Visual engagement does not necessarily represent intellectual engagement and too much use can be critical to learning (American Psychological Association, 2009, p. 456).

Facebook can also be a distraction to learning and some students may disagree with using Facebook as an educational tool. As teachers begin to understand how Facebook is being used, there will be a greater understanding of the impact during class time. Teachers can then develop options to use Facebook to support the learning agenda.

Conclusions and Future Recommendations

Particularly because of the immediacy, vividness, and on-demand nature of technology in the classroom, satisfaction may be mistaken for achievement. Thus, more than ever, attention needs to be devoted to the scholarship of teaching and specifically to how technology inside and outside the classroom affects learning outcomes for new generations of students (Mayer, Griffith, Jurokwitz & Rothman, 2008, p.338).

Research shows that students do not want to blend learning with their social lives (Jones, Blackey, Fitzgibbon & Chew, 2010). Future research is required to explore perceptions on using a different Facebook account specifically for learning. Many feel Facebook does not provide a safe environment due to privacy concerns. Further research can explore the safety of information and privacy issues within the platform.

Additional research can investigate the effectiveness of using Facebook as an LMS. Teachers can post announcements, facilitate online discussions and share resources with their students. Facebook allows the students to communicate with their peers and the teacher. This allows for continued collaboration and more accessible communication inside and outside the classroom. What will contribute to the effectiveness is the design, teacher attitude and technical support (Ozkan & Koseler, 2009).

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Technology and the Curriculum: Summer 2019 Copyright © 2019 by Jennifer Means is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Article contents

Using facebook as an educational resource in the classroom.

• Carolyn M. Shaw Carolyn M. Shaw Strategic Enrollment Management, Wichita State University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.114
• Published in print: 01 December 2015
• Published online: 20 November 2017
• This version: 20 November 2017
• Previous version

Facebook is a social networking site created in 2004 which has since obtained over a billion users, and it has the potential to facilitate learning in the classroom. With the widespread use of Facebook in society, it simply makes sense to look into ways it might be used in higher education. In fact, a number of studies have been done by scholars in different disciplines regarding the use of Facebook (in general and in academia). These include studies by scholars in library science, education, media and communication, psychology, management information systems, business, political science, marketing, instructional technology, and commerce and accounting. Students come to school wired and are willing and eager to use technology, but higher education has a well-established trend toward non-adoption of new technologies. A variety of studies on the use of Facebook, however, indicate that there are a wide number of potential benefits to using Facebook as an educational tool. There are four inter-related potential benefits: creating a sense of community and promoting collaboration, enhancing communication between instructors and students, developing computer literacy and language skills, and incorporating current student culture into the learning environment. In addition, Facebook is particularly well suited for sharing and discussion of current events in the news.

• social media
• higher education
• educational tools
• learning environment
• educational resources

Introduction

As instructors in higher education seek new ways to connect with their students in order to facilitate learning, they are increasingly experimenting with a variety of new technologies in the classroom. One technology that has been incorporated to only a limited extent, but that has potential, is the use of the social networking site Facebook. Facebook was created in 2004 specifically for use among students at Harvard University but quickly became available to universities across the United States, and eventually to the general public around the world in 2006 . Use of Facebook has since skyrocketed from 100 million users in 2008 to 1.3 billion users in 2014 (Facebook Statistics, 2014 ). There are many other similar technologies, such as Google+, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but only Twitter approaches the high number of users that Facebook has. In March 2014 , 82% of Internet users worldwide had Facebook accounts. Because of its wide usage, Facebook provides a readily accessible platform that can be adapted for educational purposes, given thoughtful planning and curricular design. There are many other online applications that can enhance learning, such as blogs, wikis, and discussion boards, but the focus here is specifically on the use of social media in the classroom. For a good discussion of blogging and wikis, see Lawrence and Dion ( 2010 ) as well as the track summaries of Teaching with Technology from the annual APSA Teaching and Learning Conference.

The potential benefits and possible drawbacks to using Facebook in an educational context will be explored. Facebook is briefly described in terms of its functionality and common terminology. Previous studies about the uses of Facebook, broadly as well as in an academic setting, are reviewed. Specific examples of different options for incorporating Facebook as a pedagogical tool are presented.

Description of Facebook Functionality and Terminology

Components of Facebook for those who are not familiar with the platform are described, but note that Facebook functionality changes frequently and some of these descriptions may not remain entirely accurate in the future. New functionality might not be included in this description. In order to use Facebook, all users must create their own account and profile. Profiles contain basic information about the user including name, birthday, relationship status, contact information, group associations, and a photo, as well as background information about “favorites” such as books, movies, music, etc. Users can choose to provide very minimal profile information, or can be quite detailed. Users can choose to post status updates regularly, which might include a simple text statement (e.g., I am really busy today!) or a photo with or without text (e.g., picture of my cat lying on my laundry). Users can also share links to other web pages or to postings that other users have made. All of these posts can be viewed in a user’s news feed .

In order to create a network of people to interact with on Facebook, a user can search for other users by name and send a friend request to them. When this request is approved, the user can view postings by them and vice versa. There are a number of privacy controls that allow users to select how much of their information is shared with different friends. Communication between friends can take a variety of forms including messaging (similar to sending an email), chatting (instant messaging), posting comments on a user’s wall (publicly viewed space for each user), liking a post made by someone else (signaling that you have viewed and like their post), or commenting on a post (making a response to a statement, photo, or link).

In addition to personal profiles, Facebook also provides for the creation of pages and groups . Facebook page s are often associated with businesses, organizations, or institutions. In this context, a common Facebook page might be affiliated with a university or an academic department. Pages are public and visible to all users on Facebook. Users can choose to like the page and will receive status updates that are posted by that organization. Pages are often used to communicate upcoming events and other news to large numbers of people who have an interest in the organization or institution. Groups are designed to create communities of people who share a common connection, allowing them to organize, discuss issues, post photos, and share related content. Group settings might be open , allowing anyone to join, or closed , requiring an invitation from the group administrator. Settings also allow the administrator to determine whether postings to the group page are private, to be seen only by group members, or public. Groups have slightly more functionality in terms of sharing information. Members can create and share files and pose survey questions to the group. All posts made on the group page appear in the members’ newsfeed. More discussion about how to use these different Facebook tools is found in the section “Using Facebook in the Classroom (and Beyond).”

Brief Overview of Scholarly Literature

A number of studies have been done by scholars in different disciplines regarding the use of Facebook (in general and in academia). Sources include studies by scholars in library science, education, media and communication, psychology, management information systems, business, political science, marketing, instructional technology, and commerce and accounting. One unexpected discovery was that a large number of librarians seem to be exploring the possibilities of Facebook and other social network sites. Many studies are based on surveys of students and faculty regarding their usage of and attitudes toward Facebook. One of the most comprehensive reviews of these recent studies is by Hew ( 2011 ), who looks at 36 separate empirical studies that include surveys as well as content analyses. Drawing on all of these sources, he divides his findings into two categories: (1) a Student Facebook Usage Profile, which includes motivations for usage, usage patterns, and privacy settings, and (2) the Effects of Using Facebook, which includes self-disclosure effects, online discussions, academic performance, and student attitudes. Based on data from these 36 studies, the results reveal that students mostly use Facebook for social interaction to maintain existing offline relationships (77% reported none of their Facebook friends originated online). Very little content is related to education (4% of total postings). A large majority (91%) reported that they had never contacted academic staff using Facebook. On average, students spend about 40 minutes per day on Facebook and have between 150 and 350 friends in their network. Disclosure and privacy settings varied, with students more willingly sharing their birthdays, hometowns, and email addresses than their phone numbers and physical addresses.

One of the challenges in drawing on the insights of Hew and other studies is that statistical survey data rapidly becomes outdated when discussing technologies such as social networking sites (SNS). There has been a rapid evolution in societal perceptions and uses of the Internet since the early 2000s (Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010 ). In addition, many of the experiments that have been conducted have had a fairly narrow scope and thus cannot answer all of the questions raised about usage of social networking sites. For example, one study tested student attitudes about an instructor’s Facebook profile with the instructor being a female under 40. It seems likely that were this repeated with a male faculty member over 40 the results might vary notably (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2009 ). There is thus room for many more studies in order to gain a more complete understanding, as well as to follow the most recent trends in usage and social attitudes. It is also important to look at the data results specifically, not just the author’s interpretations, because some draw negative conclusions from data that others view as positive. For example, one study indicates that over 60% of students are willing to “friend” teachers (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009 ). This could be characterized as “a majority” of students are willing to friend their instructors, or could be framed as “barely half” are willing to do so. People must draw their own conclusions about whether a glass is “half empty” or “half full” based on the data available.

Overall, the numerous studies that have been conducted provide useful insights to instructors for moving forward and considering the potentials for incorporating Facebook into the classroom.

Potential Benefits to Using Facebook as an Educational Tool

With the widespread use of Facebook in society, it simply makes sense to look into ways it might be used in the classroom. Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, and Witty argue students come to school wired and are willing and eager to use technology, but “higher education has a well-established trend toward non-adoption of new technologies” ( 2010 , p. 134). A variety of studies on the use of Facebook, however, indicates that there are a wide number of potential benefits to using Facebook as an educational tool. Four inter-related potential benefits: (1) creating a sense of community and promoting collaboration, (2) enhancing communication between instructors and students, (3) developing computer literacy and language skills, and (4) incorporating current student culture into the learning environment are explored. Facebook is particularly well suited for sharing and discussion of current events in the news. Note that these benefits do not imply that Facebook should be used primarily to deliver content, but it could be used supplementally to promote student reflection on content delivered through other teaching methods.

Creating Community/Promoting Collaboration

Some of the most obvious potential benefits to incorporating the use of Facebook into the classroom stem from the basis that Facebook is designed as a social networking site (SNS). For instructors who see teaching as establishing a relationship with students, Facebook may be an effective way to connect (Roblyer et al., 2010 ). There are many challenges to building relationships with students, including constraints that limit students’ discretionary time on campus due to part-time work, children, or long commutes, as well as online courses that limit face-to-face time (Schwartz, 2009 ). With decreased time on campus, Facebook has the potential to be a “new commons . . . a place where the diverse parts of a community . . . come together and hold a conversation with a shared sense of participation and responsibility” (Dales et al. as cited in Schwartz, 2009 ).

The most common reason Facebook users state for using the site is to connect with friends (Hew, 2011 ). Although users interact most frequently with those whom they already know, Facebook can be used to extend their network to people in their classes whom they have not met previously. Schwartz ( 2009 ) also writes about the potential for Facebook to create space for mentoring between instructors and students. She cites a model developed by Jean Baker Miller that describes “mentoring episodes,” brief interactions that build relationships. Five factors that strengthen mentoring relationships are episodes that increase energy and well-being, increase potential to take action, increase knowledge of self and others, give a boost to self esteem, and promote an interest in more connection. Not all Facebook interactions meet these criteria, but sometimes they can.

Facebook can create a sense of community among users, which can lead to greater collaboration and sharing of ideas that promote learning. Muñoz and Towner ( 2011 ) refer to social constructivist learning theory, noting that learning is actively constructed by comparing material to what individuals already know. Thus the more opportunity for dialogue and sharing of ideas, the more learning can take place. This can be done through formal learning with clear curricular structure, or through informal learning with fewer or no guidelines.

Similarly, Ractham and Firpo discuss learning within “communities of practice.” These are “a method for helping create the authentic situations, activities, and contexts for generating and sharing tacit knowledge. Communities of practice are groups of people who share a common concern or passion and seek to learn it better through interaction with others within the group. Communities of practice help foster a culture of learning in which learners share their prior experience and learn from the experience of others” ( 2011 , p. 2).

Creating a learning community is particularly challenging and important for hybrid or online courses where students don’t have the opportunity to meet face-to-face often or at all. The online format can also benefit socially shy students who find it difficult to engage in person, but who are willing to make contributions in an online venue. (This has been recognized through the use of discussion boards in course management tools such as Blackboard.) Developing technologies (Web 2.0) allow students who might be less involved, introverted, or simply unable to show up to class, to be engaged. If only 20% of students in a given classroom are willing to participate, technologies can be used to break down the participation barriers for the other 80% (Ractham & Firpo, 2011 ). This is described as the “long tail” phenomenon, with the head being the 20% of active students and the tail being the 80% of inactive students.

None of this is meant to suggest, however, that students will voluntarily engage in such social interactions without being required to do so for a grade. Although a few might take full advantage of such opportunities to interact, most will require a further incentive to engage in dialogue and an exchange of ideas with their peers.

Enhancing Communication

A similar potential benefit to that of creating community is using Facebook to enhance communication. Any resource that helps instructors and students communicate more clearly or more frequently is likely to be beneficial to the educational experience. To the extent that Facebook can increase the quantity or quality of communications between instructors and students and between students and their peers, it should be considered as a possible teaching tool. A survey by Roblyer et al. ( 2010 ) indicates that students communicate as frequently with Facebook as they do with email, whereas instructors are far more likely to rely exclusively on email for communication. Libraries recognize that they need to connect to their patrons before they can offer services to them. Students often prefer to ask their reference questions online by email or Facebook (if offered) than face-to-face (Roblyer et al., 2010 ). In a survey by Mazer, Murphy, and Simonds ( 2007 ), students specifically suggested that instructors use Facebook as a way of communicating with their students. Similarly, Sturgeon and Walker ( 2009 ) note that students appear more willing to communicate with instructors if they already know them through Facebook. More students agreed that they communicate more often with instructors if they have a Facebook account, and that they have an additional connectedness in the classroom as a result of Facebook connections (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009 ). Facebook also has a high convenience factor, as a student at one institution noted “I usually use my mobile phone to answer the question in the discussion forum . . . I can do it on the go” (Ractham & Firpo, 2011 , p. 9). With email usage by students falling in recent years and use of social networking sites (SNS) and text messaging increasing, the potential for increased communication through Facebook seems high. Facebook can be used by instructors to enhance their accessibility to students by placing themselves in the space where students are: online with SNS.

Some studies show that instructors can even enhance their own credibility and connection with students through their use of Facebook. Muñoz and Towner ( 2011 ) note that Facebook profiles can increase a user’s social presence and facilitate more personalized interactions, making instructors more accessible and relatable. Mazer et al. ( 2007 ) further reveal that Facebook profiles that are high in self-disclosure have the potential to increase students’ motivation and affective learning, based on a survey of students who viewed instructor profiles that were more or less revealing. A follow-up study revealed that students tended to perceive instructors with high disclosure profiles as more caring and trustworthy (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2009 ).

Facebook can also be used by students to communicate with their classmates about their courses. Lampe, Wohn, Vitak, Ellison, and Wash ( 2011 ) note the potential for students to collaborate on Facebook in order to “reduce ambiguity” in a class, in other words, to seek clarification on assignments and class expectations. Facebook and similar technologies can also be used by students working in groups to engage in “collaborative sense making,” using technology to build on each other’s knowledge and search for additional information (Lampe et al., 2011 ). Beyond simply clarifying assignments, collaboration might also include arranging to meet for a group project, to study for an exam, or to get help on an assignment. Lampe et al. ( 2011 ) conducted two studies examining which factors influenced student propensity to use Facebook for classroom collaboration. They discovered that intensity of personal usage and the willingness to contact an instructor through Facebook were both positively correlated with the likelihood of using Facebook for collaboration in a class. Some studies indicate that students prefer Facebook to other course management software (Chu & Meulemans, 2008 ). Schroeder and Greenbowe ( 2009 ) have discovered that students posted four times the number of posts in a Facebook discussion forum than they did in a WebCT site. A study by Karlin reports that 60% of students using social network sites talk about education online, and 50% talk about specific school work ( 2007 , p. 7). Students indicate that Facebook would be “convenient” for classwork (Roblyer et al., 2010 , p. 136). All of these studies suggest that Facebook is an effective medium for communication in the university setting.

Developing Skills

Another potential benefit to employing Facebook in the classroom is to promote computer literacy skills. Muñoz and Towner ( 2011 ) note that literacy practices are “moving well beyond the printed medium to embrace the digital realm,” with new terms emerging such as “new media literacy,” “digital literacy,” and “ twenty first century literacy.” They also note the need for students to learn “e-professionalism,” distinguishing between their personal and professional identities. When Facebook is incorporated into the educational setting, all of these skill areas can be developed.

In addition to teaching computer literacy skills, Facebook can also be used to help students develop their writing and communication skills. A study by Greenhow and Robelia ( 2009 ) indicates that students using social networking sites are creative in their self expression and consciously differentiate their communication choices based on audience, thus using many of the same editing and proofreading skills emphasized in the classroom. There is also considerable potential with regard to developing language skills for non-native English speakers. Kabilan, Ahmad, and Abidin ( 2010 ) conducted a survey of 300 undergraduate students at a university in Malaysia in 2008 inquiring about the suitability of Facebook as a tool for improving students’ English-language skills. Reflecting on their personal use of Facebook for socializing, over 70% of students agreed that Facebook enhanced their confidence in reading and writing in English. It also increased their motivation to learn English (pp. 183–184). Open-ended questions revealed that student interactions on Facebook were effective at building new vocabulary. When students saw new words, they would look them up and often use them later themselves. Kabilan et al. emphasize that Facebook allows for incidental learning, learning that occurs as an unplanned result of engaging in other activities (academic or non-academic). They note that learning can take place in informal settings as long as there are meaningful interactions between learners that lead to knowledge construction (p. 181). Facebook allows for authentic communication, where users are focused on meaningful communication, not the formal mechanics of language learning. The casual writing in Facebook allows creativity and expression without as much pressure for perfection sometimes demanded in the classroom. Kabilan et al.’s study notes the potential, but does not actually examine how Facebook might be deliberately incorporated into an educational setting.

Incorporating Culture

A final potential benefit of using Facebook is the opportunity to incorporate contemporary student culture into the classroom. By being online with Facebook, teachers become more aware of the current pop culture references to which their students are exposed. This awareness can be used to incorporate current events and culture as examples to help students connect with the course materials (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009 ). Placing abstract concepts in a real-life context can deepen students’ understanding of difficult course material. Teachers may also enhance their credibility with students by showing how they understand current cultural contexts.

Challenges and Limitations to the Use of Facebook

Despite the many potential benefits of using Facebook, there are also some challenges and limitations to be considered. Many of these concerns are manageable if one is aware of the limits and seeks to proactively address them.

Professionalism

One of the concerns raised most frequently by both instructors and students when considering the use of Facebook in an educational setting is the potential erosion of professional boundaries (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007 ; Muñoz & Towner, 2011 ). It is important that instructors understand how to interact with students in a way that promotes a positive perception of the teacher and classroom environment while not engaging in behaviors that might be perceived as harmful. The term “creepy tree house” has been used to describe an environment where students feel insecure because instructors are encroaching on their online space (Muñoz & Towner, 2011 ). Several scholars have conducted surveys asking student opinions about the appropriateness of instructors using Facebook. The results are ambiguous, varying from survey to survey. Mazer et al. find that 33% of students report that teacher use of Facebook is somewhat inappropriate , 35% report somewhat appropriate , 4% agree that it is very inappropriate , and 6% report very appropriate ( 2007 , p. 10). Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, and Witty found that 26% would “welcome the opportunity to connect with teachers on Facebook” and 22% felt that “Facebook is personal/social—not for education” ( 2010 , p. 138).

In an effort to identify which types of interactive behaviors are considered most appropriate, Teclehaimanot and Hickman ( 2011 ) conducted a survey of 52 undergraduate and graduate education students at the University of Toledo. They categorized interactions as passive (reading profile information, viewing photos, watching videos that someone else has posted) or as active (sending a message, commenting on photos, sending a “poke” to engage another user). Surprisingly, Teclehaimanot and Hickman ( 2011 ) do not include the action of “liking” another user’s post in their category of behaviors to analyze. “Liking” a post is obviously an active behavior, but is perhaps not as intrusive as posting a comment. “Liking” also seems to be the most common response to many posts, so it would be useful to understand how this action is perceived by students and instructors. Teclehaimanot and Hickman also categorized interactions as student-initiated or teacher-initiated. The most accepted behaviors were student/passive behaviors, followed by teacher/passive, student/active, and teacher/active engagements. Students tend to want to be in control of online interactions with instructors. For example, instructors are not as welcome to “friend” students as students are to “friend” their instructors. There are boundaries to be drawn between being a professor and being a student’s friend. Analysis also indicated a gendered result, with more men agreeing that student-teacher interaction on Facebook was appropriate than women. Teclehaimanot and Hickman ( 2011 ) conclude that engaging in passive Facebook usage may be the safest practice, allowing students and instructors to get to know each other better, but to let that translate into more positive learning outcomes in the classroom rather than in an online environment.

Students have also offered advice to instructors with regard to their Facebook content, suggesting that teachers be cautious about what others say on their wall, and recommending that they avoid putting anything about politics on their pages. This recommendation with regard to politics might be more challenging in some disciplines than others. Students even recommended that instructors avoid posting content that students might make fun of them about (Mazer et al., 2007 , p. 12).

Privacy/Security

A similar concern to the issue of professionalism is addressing concerns about privacy and security. This is true on the part of both instructors and students. There are both instructors and students who refuse to create a Facebook account because they simply don’t want to expose themselves to the risks of having an online profile. For those instructors who do have Facebook accounts, they often do not want to share too much of their personal lives with students; and similarly, students do not want teachers to spy on them, or lecture them about what they find on the students’ Facebook pages (Mazer et al., 2007 , p. 12). Although popular media sometimes portray that young people do not care about privacy and are not careful about what they post, some studies have shown that students are well aware of the need to limit what they post to avoid negative impacts on future employment. Facebook does have specific privacy settings that allow users to distinguish between different groups of “friends” in terms of what content is shared. Younger users, in fact, make more adjustments to their privacy settings than do older users. However, not all users are familiar or comfortable with the privacy settings in Facebook. Those who are less confident are less likely to impose privacy restrictions on their account (boyd & Hargittai, 2010 ). One way to address privacy issues for the most cautious students is to allow them to create special accounts for class usage only that contain minimal information. A recommendation similar to this is suggested for instructors: that they create a simple professional profile that is used academically but not as their personal Facebook page. The one drawback to this minimalist solution is that self-disclosure is lower, which may affect some of the other potential benefits previously noted.

As with any online environment, users need to be aware of the potential for meanness, bullying and harassment. Students do not tend to encounter this type of behavior often, however, reporting instead that negative experiences most frequently include information that is misinterpreted, people trying to communicate with others who are not interested in doing so, and inappropriate pictures or messages posted on walls. Twenty percent of students reported that they were stalked (constantly messaged by an individual) once or twice a year, and that sexually provocative messages or references to partying were rare (Hew, 2011 , p. 667).

Facebook as a Distraction

Anecdotally, instructors believe that Facebook is a serious distraction to their students and can harm their academic performance. Hew’s ( 2011 ) review of the literature is inconclusive on this concern. If students’ average daily time online is between 10 and 60 minutes, then this suggests that students should still have plenty of time for their academic studies. A study by Kirschner and Karpinski ( 2010 ), however, shows a correlation between lower GPAs and high Facebook usage. Facebook users report spending fewer hours studying per week (1–5 hours) than non-users (11–15 hours). This study does not show causation but does indicate a need to be aware of potential problems.

Access and Navigation Skills

The use of technology in education is constantly evolving, and instructors need to be aware of the level of access students have to it, as well as their skill levels in using technology. One of the reasons that Facebook is a relatively easy technology to adopt is because a majority of students already use it. It can place students at a disadvantage, however, if they have limited Internet access, or have not previously established a Facebook account. (This is true for other online tools as well, such as Blackboard or Moodle.) In some developing countries, such as Brazil, the government has spearheaded a progressive push to extend Internet access across the country, putting nearly 100 million Brazilians online, even in the remote rainforests (Holmes, 2013 ). If individuals do not have Internet access at home, it is important that the university provide computers for student use so that using this technology in the classroom does not widen the digital divide.

Students who do not have a high sense of self-efficacy with regard to technological skills may not collaborate as frequently using Facebook for communication. In particular, students who are not confident about managing their privacy settings on Facebook are less likely to collaborate in this setting (Lampe, Wohn, Vitak, Ellison, & Wash, 2011 , p. 342).

Another challenge related to access is that Facebook is not integrated with other educational platforms such as Blackboard or Moodle. This means that students and instructors must log in to at least two different platforms in order to access course content and communication software. This is less of a challenge for students than faculty because they are on Facebook more frequently (Roblyer et al., 2010 ).

Assessing Student Performance in Facebook

Assigning grades based on student use of Facebook for course work can also be difficult. Because Facebook does not provide a word count function, or any kind of automated grading system, instructors must consider how to assess work done in the Facebook environment in a way that will not take excessive time. One simple way is to provide points based on participation. Facebook groups can be searched by name and will list all of the postings by one person together for a simple tally. If an instructor wants to grade based on quality of content, this would take more time to read all of the posts, but this is true for discussion board postings within university course software as well.

University Culture/Administrative Restrictions

One last challenge worth noting is the possibility of restrictive university administration policies regarding the use of Facebook. Before incorporating any aspect of Facebook into the classroom, instructors should be aware of what policies are in place at their institution regarding the use of social networking sites.

It is also important to recognize the culture of the university where an instructor is teaching. Some institutions place a much higher value on connectedness, availability, and openness to students than others do (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009 ). If such values are not part of the institutional culture, an instructor might be stepping beyond the norms of university community by incorporating Facebook into the classroom and should do so cautiously.

Using Facebook in the Classroom (and Beyond)

Given the variety of potential benefits as well as possible challenges to using Facebook in the higher education setting, instructors should give careful consideration as to why they want to use Facebook as an educational tool and how they will incorporate it into the structure of a class. Very basic ideas for use of Facebook are presented, as well as some more extensive possibilities, depending on the identified goals of the instructor.

Creating a Professional Facebook Profile

If one of the instructor’s goals is to connect effectively with students beyond the classroom, the most basic strategy is for the instructor to create a Facebook profile that his or her students can view at their own discretion. Studies show that students respond positively to instructors who provide some degree of self-disclosure (either in the classroom or online) (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007 ). This is a passive strategy that may make a small positive difference in the way that instructors are perceived by their students.

A further step that can be taken that still places students fully in control of the interaction is for instructors to hold online office hours on Facebook, letting students know that they will be available. Students can either message or chat with a professor synchronously rather than relying on asynchronous emailing. In addition, students can initiate these communications without taking the step of becoming a Facebook friend with the instructor. Schwartz ( 2009 ) notes that “students appreciate my accessibility and without question, respect my boundaries . . . even this surface level contact is important, helping us maintain and strengthen our connection until the next big question arises.”

Creating a Facebook Page for Classroom Management

Facebook pages are often used by institutions to communicate campus events and activities to students and to try to promote campus engagement, but they can also be used in individual classes as a classroom management tool. Students use Facebook more consistently than they access course management software such as Blackboard, so it makes sense to provide online content in a location that students access frequently (Loving & Ochoa, 2011 ). Instructors can create a class Facebook page and invite students to “like” the page so that they receive announcements, current events news, and updates on class projects, etc. Students can engage with the instructor or with their peers through posting comments and replies on the page. Librarians have experimented with this option to a greater extent than many instructors, seeking to push out helpful library resource information to students (Loving & Ochoa, 2011 ). It should be noted that pages are publicly viewable, so while the content may be class specific, others can still view it. This can pose a problem if the goal is to encourage students to participate candidly in an online discussion.

Creating a Facebook Group

For greater functionality, an instructor can create a Facebook group for the class, allowing students to share documents and engage in discussions in a less public setting. This option could be particularly beneficial for fully online or hybrid classes (part online/part face to face). Trying to get students to feel connected to each other when in an online environment can be a challenge, but increased engagement does help with learning. For online or face-to-face classes, students could be encouraged to simply use Facebook as a discussion board on a regular basis, commenting on assigned topics or current events through the group page, or engaging in live chat sessions. A Facebook group might include all members of a class, or it might consist of subgroups within the class who are perhaps assigned to work together on a course project. The document sharing function for groups is helpful in organizing a group project. One drawback is that Facebook groups do not have the grading or online testing features that course management software does.

One example of how a Facebook group was used is described by Ractham and Firpo ( 2011 ). They sought to form a “community of practice” as a supplement to their university course in 2009 . For their Introduction to Management Information Systems (MIS) class, Ractham and Firpo created a Facebook group of 69 students with two goals in mind: (1) enable instructors to build and maintain strong connections with and among the first-year students and (2) create an informal learning environment where students collaborate and learn from each other. The instructors adopted a pedagogy that invited students to fully participate during class discussions, and then encouraged these discussions to continue online through Facebook. Students were expected to provide content on the group Facebook page through wall posts, by posting videos and photos, and by commenting on each other’s posts of course topic–related news. Students were encouraged to ask questions and to answer the questions that were posed by others. Discussion was mandatory and linked to weekly assignments. The authors’ content analysis, following the conclusion of the class, was based on a total of 2,640 posts in the Facebook group as well as surveys completed by the students. Students posted on average twice a week and were most likely to use comments, followed by discussion postings. Posting photos was also a popular activity. The survey indicated that 78% of students believed that Facebook was useful as a supplemental learning tool for class. They thought the discussion and photo features were most useful for learning, while comments and private messages were more useful for communication. Videos, fun quizzes, and tagging were viewed simply as fun activities (p. 8). One variation to this structure would be to assign a “lead” role to different group members throughout the semester to post relevant content for viewing and discussion.

Groups might even include members beyond a single class, perhaps bringing together multiple course sections on campus for a greater peer to peer exchange, or even connecting with students from other institutions. In one experiment, students from Japan, Canada, the United States, and Brazil were connected via a Facebook group to share postings on their understandings of common terms in international politics (Shaw, 2013 ). The purpose of this collaboration was to expose students to the perspectives of their peers in other countries in order to understand that not all terms are understood in the same way around the world. In this international collaboration, over 100 students were assigned six key concepts, such as “development,” “globalization,” and “peace,” and were instructed to come up with an image that illustrated that concept to them personally. They were told to post the image as well as a brief explanation for why they thought that image was illustrative of the key concept. For example, one student posted a picture of a McDonald’s in Japan to illustrate globalization and explained that globalization meant that multinational corporations sold their products all around the world. On some topics postings were quite similar by students from different countries, but on others there were clear cultural or regional differences. The topic of development, in particular, led to postings that were clearly from the “Global North” or the “Global South” (developed vs. developing countries).

Another international collaborative project used Facebook groups to simulate peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine (Ben-Yehuda, Naveh, & Levin-Banchik, 2014 ). The facilitator recruited teachers from schools around the world to participate in an experimental Facebook simulation. They were each assigned different key actors in the Israeli-Palestinian talks and placed in regional blocks (EU group, U.S. group, Palestinian group, etc.) The regional blocks were instructed to come up with their own priorities and strategies for the talks (this was done asynchronously several weeks in advance by posting on the subgroup’s page). Then, all of the players logged in for two hours for a synchronous negotiation session. The facilitator created several thematic threads for the negotiations (e.g., Status of Jerusalem, settlements, etc.) and participants began posting their positions and trying to work out compromises. The project faced one challenge that is very real with students, not just teachers: not everyone participated at a high level (or at all). This led to some awkward negotiations (Hamas spoke for all Palestinians because Fatah was not present) and was a little bit frustrating. The other challenge that was perhaps unique is that the participants were from many time zones, so the synchronous negotiations required some participants to be up very early and others to be up very late. Overall, Facebook provided a simple, functional platform for this collaborative experiment.

Connecting with Students Abroad and with Alumni

An additional suggestion regarding the use of Facebook for education is to use it to link with students studying abroad as well as alumni (Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010 ). Students who are studying abroad gain a wealth of experience through their travels that could be very valuable to share with students at home. By encouraging them to post their experiences on Facebook to share, many others can benefit. This might also have a positive side effect of helping students abroad cope with homesickness by connecting them to their peers through sharing their experiences. By using Facebook to connect with alumni, universities are able to maintain a network of relationships with former students. Many alumni are willing to assist current students or recent graduates with internship opportunities, job hunting, and career development. Institutional Facebook pages or groups can provide a useful platform for these interactions to take place.

Cultural Context

There is clear evidence that Facebook is not a North American phenomenon but has been widely adopted around the world. International usage data from 2013 shows that 75% of Facebook users are outside of the United States, with 250 million in Europe, 254 million in Asia, and 200 million in Central and South America (compared to 184 million in North America) (Internet World Stats). Facebook is now available in 70+ languages. A review of the existing literature regarding Facebook usage in the classroom, however, reveals a clear North American bias. Most of the studies that involve survey data focus almost exclusively on U.S. university settings and students. Hew ( 2011 ) in fact argues that future research should be conducted with students and teachers from different countries in order to better understand whether and how different sociocultural and geographical contexts may influence the use of Facebook compared to the Anglo-American focus of research to date.

Countries with the greatest potential might include Brazil, India, and Russia, where Facebook usage is increasing significantly. Commentators have suggested, in fact, that Brazil, with over 70 million Facebook users, has become the “social media capital of the universe” (Chao, 2013 ). Facebook vice president Alexandre Hohagen suggests that Brazilians are inherently social people, finding usage of social network sites quite attractive (Holmes, 2013 ). He notes that this is not a uniquely Brazilian trait, but that other conditions have come together to make Brazil a particularly dynamic market for social networking sites such as Facebook. Both Horst ( 2011 ) and Holmes ( 2013 ) note that social media has a true democratic quality in Brazil, where there is growing access to mobile phone service. Through digital inclusion efforts such as LAN houses (Internet café–like settings) and digital inclusion points (DIPs), Brazil is managing to bridge the digital divide between the rich and poor with regard to Internet and SNS access. In addition, use of Facebook seems to extend beyond a mere social pastime, to serve as a professional connective network (similar to LinkedIn). This may make the use of Facebook even more beneficial in education, allowing connections between current and former students, and potentially developing mentoring or employment opportunities.

Suggested Practices

Given the wide range of uses for Facebook in an academic setting, and the balance that individuals have to find with regard to professionalism and privacy, there are not many guidelines that fit all situations. However, there are some suggestions that emerge based on the survey data and experiments noted. One recommendation is that instructors provide clear instructions for using Facebook, especially the privacy settings, before incorporating it into the classroom. Instructors should also give clear guidelines regarding boundaries of use (when they will respond, types of postings that are acceptable within a group, etc.). This addresses some concerns about professionalism as well as navigation skills. It is also a good practice to share with the students the reasons for selecting Facebook as a classroom tool and what learning objectives the instructor hopes to accomplish through its use.

Another recommendation that also seeks to address concerns about navigation skills and access, as well as privacy concerns, is that use of Facebook in the classroom should be made optional or supplemental, not mandatory. This is a trade-off, however; if the purpose is to build community, then having some members who don’t participate weakens attainment of that objective. Also, given students’ busy lives, they may choose to opt out of anything that does not have a graded component. One compromise would be to make Facebook engagement one of several graded alternatives, thus letting students self-select into the activity that is most comfortable for them.

Conclusions/a Look to the Future

The literature on Facebook usage in educational settings has been presented, recognizing that there is still research to be done in a non–North American context. This literature points to a number of potential educational benefits, including: creating community and promoting collaboration, enhancing communication, developing computer literacy as well as language skills, and incorporating pop as well as foreign cultures into the classroom. Some of the recognized challenges include privacy concerns, maintaining professionalism, guaranteeing access, preventing distractions to learning, and operating under university restrictions. Depending on the instructor’s specific pedagogical goals, Facebook can provide a setting where students can get to know their instructor better, receive clarification on assignments and engage in discussions with their classmates, and even connect with students beyond the campus (in study abroad and from other institutions). It can even be used as a platform for negotiations in a simulation. Facebook clearly provides room for flexibility and creativity in the classroom.

Given the ever-evolving state of technology, however, it is unlikely that Facebook will remain the predominate social network site forever. Surveys of teens reveal a global decline in usage of Facebook as a “one-stop” site (GlobalWebIndex) and wider usage of multiple apps with more narrow functions (such as Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest). There are also competitive regional apps such as Qzone (in Chinese) (Smith, 2013 ). Despite challenges from these other apps, Facebook is far from obsolete and remains a useful platform for use in the classroom. In addition, many of the benefits and lessons noted here in reference to Facebook can also apply to using other online social apps. Students will likely have the same concerns about privacy and professionalism if Google+ is incorporated into a class as they do with Facebook. This constant shifting usage of social apps presents a real challenge to instructors who tend to be slow to incorporate technologies into the classroom in the first place. Faculty need to continue to be open to experimenting with new things at the margins to see what brings value to the educational experience and what does not.

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Higher Education Students’ Perceptions Towards Using Facebook as a Learning Platform

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Given the ongoing debate among educators regarding the effect of social networks on education, our aim in this article is to explore the perceptions of students towards using Facebook as a learning environment. In this vein, on the basis of the survey we carried out among university students, it was revealed that 87.4% of the informants resort to this Web-based community to improve their learning. Facebook has, actually, been reported to provide students with an ideal opportunity to access a plethora of learning resources and all class-related information and activities. It also allows them to discuss different topics with classmates and peers and enables them to seek help on learning problems they encounter. Despite the significant role that Facebook plays in boosting students’ learning experience, 72.3% of the subjects noted that no interaction occurs with teachers on this platform. Facebook might, thus, be considered to be more useful for informal rather than formal learning.

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Faizi, R., Rudneva, M. (2021). Higher Education Students’ Perceptions Towards Using Facebook as a Learning Platform. In: Huang, YM., Lai, CF., Rocha, T. (eds) Innovative Technologies and Learning. ICITL 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13117. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91540-7_56

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The impact of Facebook usage in education on students’ academic performance at the University of Jordan

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Facebook, as a social networking site, is one of the most important means of communication technologies that have been widely adopted by college students and their professors worldwide. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the impact of Facebook on higher education generally and specifically on the academic performance of the students of the University of Jordan. For the completion of this study, the researchers selected a random sample of students from the University of Jordan and gave them a questionnaire on how Facebook affected their academic performance. The collected data was analyzed and tested by using correlation tests through SPSS, a data analysis program. The independent variable measured: 1- communication among students and communication between them and the faculty members; 2- sharing of resources and materials; 3- and collaboration among students. The academic achievement of students was measured by examinations and/or by continuous assessment such as (their GPAs, overuse or multitasking, and the time they spend on studying). Three pre-determined hypotheses tested are: (H1) Communication through Facebook has no significant impact on students’ academic performance. (H2) The sharing of educational resources and materials through Facebook does not significantly influence students’ academic performance. (H3) Collaboration among students through Facebook has no significant influence on their academic performance.

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Impact of social media on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic

PSU Research Review

ISSN : 2399-1747

Article publication date: 21 January 2022

This research shows how social media has affected learning at present during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has become the largest and most convenient area of communication. In the current scenario, it seems that social networking sites not only had a profound impact on our social structure and intra-social interaction, but also affected education in general and learning English language in particular. It has been proven that these various social media platforms have created a realm of digital environment in today's new-age learning. Social media platforms are social networking sites through which people interact and communicate with each other easily and conveniently. Undoubtedly and unquestionably, social networking has been proven to be a global phenomenon that has caused a vast paradigm shift in the world of Learning and education during the current pandemic. Therefore, the present study aims to reach the extent of the impact of the various social media platforms on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic from the students' point of view.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted at the undergraduate level for English language learners. The sample comprised 166 undergraduate students at Najran University. A survey questionnaire was administered to find out the impact of various social media platforms and social networking sites on learning English language in the academic year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight possible suggestions for improving future virtual language learning.

The findings of the study contributed to the area of online learning of English language during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.

Practical implications

The findings of the study can serve as fundamental indicators to implement prompt pedagogical reformations, for which a number of pedagogical implications can be proposed. Another equally important pedagogical implication is to design and provide professional development and training sessions to both students and educators on the ultimate utilization of social media as instructional technologies in the context of English language teaching and learning.

Originality/value

This research provides insights in developing policies to assist with the integration and utilization of social media platforms as instructional technologies in the context of English language teaching and learning and how institutions can respond to the advent of advancing technology, especially during and after the COVID-19 era. A model to improve online English language learning process is recommended as a guideline for all educators offering online learning.

• Social media in education
• English language learning
• L2 learning style
• COVID-19 pandemic

Muftah, M. (2022), "Impact of social media on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic", PSU Research Review , Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-10-2021-0060

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Muneera Muftah

Published in PSU Research Review . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

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 ( Rieger and Christoph, 2018 ; Bhatti et al. , 2019 ; Amin et al. , 2020 ). 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.

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 ( Wamba and Carter, 2016 ).

Up-to-date data available on Statista (2020) have indicated that there are about 3.96 billion social media users across the world. Social media networking sites range from microblogs such as Twitter and sites and applications such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat. Yet, these different platforms have influenced the individuals' social, educational and personal aspects of life.

In the area of education, a significant number of research studies have been conducted to estimate their effectiveness in different disciplines. Linguistically speaking, the influx of linguistic output on social media represents numerous opportunities for language learners to process language and obtain input, as young users of social media networks spend more than half of their days using and interacting on these networking sites using their language and communication skills ( Al Jahromi, 2020 ).

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 ( Al Jahromi, 2020 ; Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ).

Regardless of the inevitable impact of social media in individuals' lives everywhere, and taking into account that the students of today are insubordinate to old-fashioned instructing methods and learning techniques, there are not many studies that explore their effects in learning and education particularly in the English language context. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the impact of social media on learning English during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this aim, the present work specifically seeks to address the following research questions.

In what way did social media platforms impact the learning of English Language during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In order to answer this question, the following sub-question was developed to direct the scope of the study: How do Saudi university students perceive the impacts of using social media platforms on their learning of English language during the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to (1) Positive and negative effect? (2) Number of social media platforms used? (3) Motives for using Social Media platforms? (4) Frequency and time spent in using Social Media? (5) Educational or communicative tools? (6) The Rate of using social media on Learning English Language? (7) Aspects of language Skills improved via social media? and (8) Social media effects on students' studies?

2. Literature review

The COVID-19 pandemic led to shocking and unpredicted experiences for Saudi university students. The precautionary measures followed during the pandemic have had a wide impact on the students' social and educational life aspects ( Alghamdi, 2021 ). Recently, we have seen a radical change in favor of distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemics, therefore, it could be worthwhile to investigate the impact of social media in the foreign language context as they have been used much more now ( Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ). The current COVID-19 situation makes us aware that the impact of social media will increase due to social distancing.

Social media platforms are omnipresent and the research into the use of them in foreign language learning has become immense ( Yurdagül and Öz, 2018 ; Artyushina and Sheypak, 2018 ; Ayers, 2020 ). Today, with 2.95 billion social network users worldwide, social media usage is increasingly attractive and accessible, especially among the younger generation ( Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ). Social network sites have become the main means of communicating and a way to maintain a social life ( Li and Croucher, 2020 ).

Social Media refers to websites, blogs, chats, computer programs, i.e. any content-based form of e-communication that enables users to share information and expose ideas. While social networking sites for language learning represent the corpus of those social media channels and service, mainly designed for specific purposes, devoted to foreign language learning. Furthermore, it is also proposed that English might now be the first truly global language, being the dominant or official language in over 60 countries. The English language as stated is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world ( Akinwamide, 2012 ).

Roelofse (2013) argues that exposure to new literacies found in new technologies definitely impacts the way in which second/foreign language learners perceive the world. Likewise, the amount of contact with these social utilities certainly influences literacy practices by learners. New technologies do not merely alter the way people live, but it influences the way they think. Moreover, Davies (2012, p. 21) in Roelofse (2013) argues that “texts of the new technologies have mutated into complex hybrid systems that have made new demands on reading and writing, viewing, social exchange, and communication”.

Facebook is no exception in that the use of this social network site requires a multimodal approach of embedding and combining words and written texts from many sites. In the same sense, WhatsApp is perceived by the researchers as having the same contaminating effect on learners' writing skills. In this regard, social media is a “dialogue” and “means [of] engaging with people” ( Coons, 2012 , p. 44).

The body of literature reveals a significant number of studies in the area of the impact of social media on the linguistic output of non-native speakers of English. Chomsky (2014) has stated that our language is constantly, inevitably, and naturally changing, transforming and becoming more adaptive to its users due to the changes in our contemporaries. More particularly, the initiation and rapid development of social media networking sites as eminent activity has created a distinguishing language system necessary for practical communication ( Attila, 2017 ).

Baldwin (2012) suggests that social media can be both a friend and a foe for natural language processing. While he considers social media a cause for “spelling inconsistencies, the free-form adoption of new terms, and regular violations of English grammar norms,” he refers to the advantage of “lexical normalization” in the same linguistic setting. In this regard, Thurairaj et al. (2015) examined whether social media networks were “making or marring academic English” and whether infrequent online code-switching and inconsistent spelling affect non-native learners' language learning process. Their findings revealed that the discourse used on social media had not influenced the learners' English language proficiency due to their higher awareness of the deviations between their online informal meta-language and their formal academic language.

Furthermore, simplified online interactions help speakers produce meaningful exchanges whilst using the target language in useful manners ( Mutum and Wang, 2010 ). Another advantage of social media is the reduced communication anxiety. People often exchange and share information and construct new personal and linguistic identities on social media because of being at ease with revealing their preferred identities behind monitors as a result of the anonymity expedited in such situations ( Blattner and Fiori, 2011 ). Lowered anxiety in online settings coined with heightened motivation and self-confidence have been shown to provide L2 learners with anxiety-free zones that enable them to produce language spontaneously and creatively ( Al Jahrami, 2019 ).

Studies conducted by Slim and Hafedh (2019) , Thurairaj et al. (2015) have revealed that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter enhance students' overall language learning process. In connection with particular language skills, a significant number of studies have found that the use of social media enhances learners' grammatical complexity and vocabulary acquisition and learning ( Al Jahrami, 2019 ; Attila, 2017 ; Mills, 2011 ; Stevenson and Liu, 2010 ). Mason and Rennie (2008) notice that vocabulary acquisition on social media has become a phenomenon due to the employment of techniques such as coining and compounding to produce words such as Face + book, Snap + chat and Blog + sphere.

Another employed technique is sound imitation resulting in words such as Twitter which comes from the verb tweet, and Boo which reflects the sound of contempt. Similarly, social media have affected the forms of different words. For instance, the proper names of social media applications and websites have become verbs and adjectives (e.g. Google it, I'll Instagram this). Another technique is the change in the negative form of the verb like and the noun friend to become unlike and unfriend. Additionally, the semantic connotations of many words have undergone change on social media (e.g. wall on Facebook, spam, steam, etc.).

As to the writing skill, the fact that social media exchanges are more written than spoken in what is referred to as “text speak”. Attila (2017) argues that the use of logograms, abbreviations, acronyms and paralinguistic features (e.g. b4 = before, Gr8 = great) has made writing easier, faster and more liberated from the normal constraints of traditional writing. However, spelling can accordingly be negatively affected when frequently using logograms and abbreviations (e.g. 2 day = today).

Longitudinal studies have also indicated a significant improvement of oral proficiency with particular reference to speaking and listening ( Chen, 2013 ; Lin et al. , 2016 ). Lin et al. , however, have asserted caution that learners would need carefully planned instructional guidance and tailored activities in order to be able to use social media efficiently to enhance their language learning process.

Despite the positive effects of social media on language proficiency and language learning, many researchers are more concerned with the harmful effects these networking sites might have on L2 learners' interlanguage with particular reference to inconsistent spelling and violated grammatical rules ( Baldwin, 2012 ). Lin et al. (2016 , p. 143) claim that “language use on the Internet is often criticized as being less correct and less coherent than other forms of language use, and as having disrupted adjacency.” Effects of social media on Pakistani students' L2 learning process have also been reported in a study conducted by Tariq et al. (2012) . Similarly, Akram and Albalawi (2016) found Facebook to be a negative learning distraction for their Saudi students.

Amidst these incompatible claims, the present study aims to confirm the possible impact of social media platforms on learning English language during the Covid-19 Pandemic from the perspectives of undergraduate students in the Saudi context. The precautionary measures followed during the pandemic have led the Saudi government to abundantly utilize the World Wide Web and all its facets for different socioeconomic and educational purposes. It is not surprising, then, that social media platforms and social networking sites are heavily used by L2 learners. Consequently, the purpose of the current study is to evaluate the possible gains of the broad use of social media platforms on the learning of the English language during the pandemic and to view the perceptions of the learners in regard to these possible gains, which is a gap in the literature that the current study aims to fill.

3. Methodology

The purpose of the current study is to find out the impact of various social media platforms and social networking sites on learning English language in the academic year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight possible suggestions for improving future virtual language learning.

3.1 Participants

The study was conducted at the undergraduate level for English language learners in the College of Languages and Translation–Najran University, KSA. It was performed after completing a full year of online education and teaching classes and during the final examinations in the second semester of 2020. The sample comprised 166 students: 66 male and 100 female students in all bachelor's degrees with English language majors. Students in the English department form the highest number of students with their ages ranging from below 20 years–23 years old. The participants are native speakers of Arabic. Their interaction outside the classroom is low. That's to say, most of them had very little interaction with native English speakers outside the classroom and in most cases no contact at all.

Most of the students do not have any prior experience with online learning. Requirement courses including Arabic, Religious Culture and other general courses were conducted online on the main campus before the recent crisis, and it was optional. However, the examinations were conducted on campus. The following Figure 1 displays the percentage of the participants.

3.2 Research instrument

The method chosen for this study is quantitative; a more in-depth method was designed to estimate the impact of various social media platforms on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic. The quantitative method was used to conduct more detailed studies of a smaller area using closed-questionnaires. This survey-based questionnaire consists of 10 multiple choice questions, which covered the study objectives. The questionnaire was administered to 166 English language learners. It consists of different parts; the first part is looking at students' demographic information, the second part includes a set of multiple-choice questions about learners' experiences with social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, … etc.), and their effect on learning English during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Social Media platforms they use and have access to, the motives for using social media during the pandemic, the Frequently used Social Media platforms, the extent to which social media is used for educational and communication purposes, The rate of social media use on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic, time spent on social media platforms, language skills improved via social media use and finally the effect of social networking sites Students' Studies. The questionnaire was checked for validity and reliability fulfillment.

3.3 Data analysis procedures

In this study, a quantitative approach to data collection has been employed. A descriptive analysis method was applied to analyze the research by counting the answers for every question to get the percentages. A questionnaire was the tool that was used in order to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions. Thick description and reflective thinking are the two most important elements that have been used while analyzing and interpreting the data. The data were carefully read for possible categories relevant to the purpose of the study. Then, these reported statements were categorized based on the purpose to be achieved.

4. Results and interpretation

The results of the present study were structured based on the varying types and length of questions applied in the close-ended questionnaire. In the scheduled questionnaire, the researchers set certain questions to gain a wide range of answers and opinions regarding the impact of social media platforms on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 2 displays the results of the students who think that social media can affect learning English positively during the pandemic. The results indicate that the majority of the participants use social media as a language learning tool. Almost 86.75% of the students believe that social media can affect learning English positively, while 13.25% of them think that it has a negative effect on the language learning process.

As to the number of social media platforms that students have access to and can straightforwardly use, Figure 3 indicates that 25.91% of the total respondents use only one social networking site, 22.29% use two sites and 37.35% of them use three social networking sites. Yet, only 14.45% of the students use more than three social media platforms.

Concerning the reasons and the motives for using social media during the pandemic, Figure 4 below shows that 60.84% of the participants use social networking sites for the purpose of studying. Likewise, the results indicate that 19.27% of them use social networking sites for playing games, while the students who use these sites for making friends and chatting with friends are 28.31 and 31.74% respectively. The remaining 24.09% reported that they use social networking sites for other purposes.

Figure 5 below shows the most frequently used social media platforms. The data indicate that the most popular online networking site was WhatsApp, with the highest percentage of 72.89% of all university students stating that they use it on a typical day. Facebook is the second mostly-used platform, with 53.01% of the students using it daily. It is also reported that only 31.32% use Twitter, another 26.50 and 21.68% use Google+ and Instagram respectively. The least used social media platform was WeChat, with 3.61% of students using it daily. Moreover, 18.07% of the students prefer to use different other social media platforms and no one of them uses LinkedIn.

Similarly, Figure 6 below presents results related to the use of social media as a communication tool during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The results point out that 81.92% of the students prefer to use social media platforms for learning purposes. They believe that social media provide the facility to communicate among the students during the pandemic, i.e. to communicate with their teachers and classmates. On the other hand, 18.07% did not use social media for educational purposes, as they believe that social networking platforms did not support their studies. They believe that these platforms are supposed to make them feel more connected.

Figure 7 reflects the students' perception towards using social media as an educational tool and as a support for their studies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results point out that the majority of the students 84.94% are interested in using social media as an educational tool as it helps them to get more useful information and to interact with learning groups and other educational systems that make the learning process more convenient. However, only a few students, 15.06% mention that social media platforms did not support their own studies.

Results reported prove that the majority of the students are interested in using social media as an educational tool and that almost 51.20 and 18.08% of the students use social media to learn English language at higher rates “good” and “excellent” respectively. Moreover, it is also reported that only 21.09% of the students rate the use of social media on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic as “average”, another 7.23% rate it as “poor” and only 2.40% rate using social media in learning English as “very poor” (see Figure 8 ).

Concerning how much time do students actively spend on social networking sites, Figure 9 shows that 6.02% of the students do not spend a moment on social networking sites during a typical day, almost 21.08% of them spend 10–30 min a day. Most of the students 31.93% spend about one to two hours on social networking sites during their typical day, while 27.71% spend from 2 to 3 h of their time. It is also reported that 4.22% of the participants spend between 4 and 5 h on social networking sites, and only 9.04% of the participants spend more than 5 h on social networking sites daily.

Interactive social media channels to language learning enable students to develop communication and language skills. Regarding the different aspects of language skills the students improve via social media platforms, the results presented in Figure 10 below showed that 40.96% of the students improved their writing skill, 39.15% improved their reading skill, the third skill is listening and vocabulary with a ratio of 31.92%. In addition, their speaking skill was improved with a percentage of 31.32% and only 22.28% of learners improved their grammar.

The last question discusses the effect of social networking sites on students' studies. The results specified that social networking sites have seriously affected students' studies at a ratio of 24.09%, whereas 31.93% of the participants believe that social networking sites have slightly affected their performance and their language achievement.

On the other hand, 18.07% of the learners agreed that social networking sites have no impact on their studies. Moreover, 14.46% of them believed that such sites are seriously helping, while only 11.45% of the total number of students admitted that social networking sites can slightly help them on their studies. The extent to which social networking sites are affecting the learners' studies is presented in Figure 11 above.

5. Discussion and conclusion

The present work attempts to investigate the most important impacts of using social media for learning English language during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The challenges of the digital world are omnipresent, and different options have to be considered so that educators are able to use them to assist the learners.

Social media is no exception, as it can provide many opportunities in the foreign language learning process. The technological revolution today, like never before, can be obviously reflected in the L2 learners' wide experience, the independence in exploring digital resources and documents that represent powerful support in enhancing oral, written, listening and reading competence. In this sense, L2 learners do no longer depend directly and entirely on the teacher to improve their skills but on other resources such as Internet and technology ( Al Jahromi, 2020 ; Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ; Slim and Hafedh, 2019 ; Thurairaj et al. , 2015 ).

In other words, social media along with social networking sites have become part of the learners' as well as educators' daily routines, in terms of communication, language experience, practice and exercise, news feed and knowledge sharing. The digital world has seemingly become their way of life inside and outside class settings and that is the reason behind examining their impact on L2 learners.

With the help of social media platforms, L2 learners can learn, read, write, advertise or communicate in a more efficient way. The main questions addressed referred to the impact of social media on learning English language during the Covid-19 pandemic and usage and the degree of facilitation and assistance of foreign language learning by social media, and the findings revealed that students were very positive and felt motivated by social media.

L2 learners do not have to rely on classes or handbooks to get their daily amount of knowledge. It can all be achieved from the social networking sites as indicated in question 2. At least, the learners can use three different types of social media platforms and formats to reach their educational goals and in some cases four types. The learners can follow or get information about their studeis from any part of the world. For instance, Twitter allows a user to get information which is more interactive in nature with the help of embed photo and video. Smartphones are an example of a handheld device through which learners can communicate and exchange information by using any social media platform which is allowed.

The world is getting closer every day and everyone, including L2 learners, needs to be connected. It is moving strongly and more towards “social media”. The information comes to users rather than users have to make effort to get the information. In terms of personal relationships too, social networking is connecting people. Social networking can also be very crucial in educational help. Education support groups can be created from which learners can get information as indicated in question 3 where 60.84% of L2 learners indicated that they use social media platforms for studying and for educational purposes while the rest of them use them for other purposes including chatting with friends, making friends, playing games and for other different purposes.

The kind of interaction a user wants from these social networks depends on the type of information the user is interested in. With reference to question 4, using different platforms depends on users' purposes, for the participants in the study aiming at enhancing proficiency in English language, WhatsApp can be used for chatting or sending many kinds of text-information, assignments or even creating groups for different courses. Facebook was not appealing due to its informal style, while the participants aiming at improving communicating skills found it useful for social and L2 identity construction. Google + can be used for academic purposes, it can greatly enhance the way people learn. Twitter and Instagram have also become popular and integral part of everyday communication. Other platforms such as YouTube, learners can watch videos to understand a topic better or look at photos which might help them to visualize a concept, after all, “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Brick (2011) reported it as the main positive aspect of using social networking sites, adding to it the real-time feedback. The immediate response and real-time conversation are also achieved through live sessions on Instagram or Facebook dedicated pages for L2 learners, such as the Instagram stories that offer quizzes focusing on idioms, phrasal verbs or other lexical related items or lives where learners are invited to write down words that they would like to learn the pronunciation.

The fact that technology including social media and the different networking sites should be part of the educational process is not questionable anymore, the way it finds its scope within it and how and to which extent should educators, as well as learners, use it, had better be delivered by a multidisciplinary methodological framework. Among the numerous potential advantages to using social media, L2 learners have perceived that it can be used as a good communication and educational tool (See Question 5 and 6). The opportunities provided by this medium are immense and many L2 learners are making use of this medium to better their practices. Social networks, unlike the common media, do not have a pattern as to how much information has to be conveyed and where to draw the line. Therefore, learners can obtain much information and better performance. Similar findings were found by Sitthirak (2012) , who acknowledged the attitudinal impact of social media on language from an educational perspective. Similarly, Mutum and Wang (2010) and Blattner and Fiori (2011) have declared that social media provides a smoother, more direct communication tool.

In other words, by maximizing the benefits of social networks, whether it be their role in delivering educational outcomes, or facilitating supportive relationships, identity formation, or a sense of belonging and resiliency, the direct contacts that occur in discussion groups, exercises, conversations, videos and other widgets on linguistic social networks cover various language registers. With the expanding demand of various social media platforms, the growing numbers of users in different parts of the world, it is fair to assume that it impacts second language acquisition, at least by the permanent flow of visuals and text that we access on a daily basis. In the broad context of globalization, all visuals improve not only linguistic skills, but they also build an international culture ( Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ).

The current Covid-19 pandemic has posed some challenges, and like any emergency event, it has some inherent risks. Through increased social media literacy as an educational tool– ensuring all students can utilize these media to develop the skills and to critically understand, analyze and create content – these challenges can be overcome and risks mitigated in a way that ensures the many benefits for both learners and educators. The findings shown in questions 7 and 8 corresponded with the aforementioned ones related to L2 learners' views on the particular effects of social media on the enhancement of these language learning skills. Results have asserted that approximately 69.28% of the frequent users of social media platforms for learning purposes have rated them as excellent and good mediums to enhance language skills, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is in line with Li (2017) study. Li argued that students' comfort with online class design, structure, level of interaction between students and faculty, the quality and amount of class content and overall experience with online class delivery impact the overall learning experience and determine the ultimate success or failure of online mode of education. Haque and Al-Salem (2019) have also found that social media is a good platform for students as it provides opportunities for learners to study foreign languages.

The intensity of using English-language social media content is positively and significantly related to students' perceptions of their ability to speak English including reading, writing, listening and speaking aspects. Hence, social media is needed to be learning media for learning English language as a Foreign Language ( Anwas et al. , 2020 ). Online socialization according to Slim and Hafedh (2019) seems to have positively affected the production of an acknowledged linguistic repertoire independent of age or gender.

With reference to the last question, results show positive perceptions of the respondents of the effects of using social media on their L2 writing (see Figure 11 ). In addition to improved English language learning, these effects included enhanced writing style, quality and quantity. Al Jahromi (2019) and Li (2017) have similarly found that online interactions on social media networks and online facets significantly develop L2 learners' writing accuracy and complexity. These findings could also be related in this regard to the influence of the projection of authorial and social presence and identity practices facilitated on social media due to the increased linguistic input and output on these platforms in comparison to the less-advantageous classroom settings ( Chen, 2013 ).

In addition, L2 learners who acknowledged the positive impact of social media on their English learning reported that their L2 Reading skills are also enhanced. This is due to the improvement of the L2 learners' vocabulary as well as listening skills. This is similar to the findings obtained by Mutum and Wang (2010) , Thurairaj et al. (2015) and Slim and Hafedh (2019) . However, online communication of students raises another important issue discussed by the great majority of authors, that of the nonacademic purposes of social media usage of students. Given that the majority of the students were using written-based social media networks such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram, speaking, grammar and pronunciation skills were perceived as the least enhanced. However, Al Jahrami (2019) has claimed that language accuracy is concerned, extensive reading and writing online can enhance L2 learners' grammatical competence (see also Attila, 2017 ; Mills, 2011 ; Stevenson and Liu, 2010 ).

In sum, the research study investigated the impact of social media platforms on learning English language during the Covid-19 pandemic from undergraduate Saudi users' perspectives. The aforementioned findings suggest that Saudi L2 learners find social media platforms effective in enhancing their L2 proficiency, with particular reference to how positively they influence L2 writing, vocabulary learning and communication skills. They also reported that they use various social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc., and that they find social media as both educational and communicative tools. Based on these findings, it is safe to conclude that social media can be appreciably helpful in enhancing English language learning.

6. Research implications and recommendations

The findings of the study can serve as fundamental indicators to implement prompt pedagogical reformations, for which a number of pedagogical implications can be proposed. Social media can be implemented to make teaching more student-centered through the facilitation of interactive collaboration and exchange of information, resulting in an enhancement of syntactic and lexical complexity.

L2 teachers in particular need to use social media to aid their teaching strategies and amplify their material with interactive and innovative activities on social media such as online debates and group discussions. Another equally important pedagogical implication is to design and provide professional development and training sessions, workshops, seminars to both students and educators on the ultimate utilization of social media as instructional technologies in the context of English language teaching and learning.

Social media networks can be employed in this regard to provide authentic extensive reading tasks that can facilitate intentional and incidental vocabulary learning and writing complexity. Furthermore, awareness campaigns can be conducted by e-learning educationists to recognize the benefits of online learning and teaching and validate the acceptability of social media learning, mobile learning and mixed teaching via learning management systems.

For implementing the positive findings of different studies and for educational technology to be used effectively, educators must be ready for a paradigm shift: from traditional education to pedagogy enhanced by the new technology. Further research is needed into the current realism and prospects of the utilization of digital media in connection with the wellbeing of the learners, increased levels of depression and anxiety, and some other negative psychological, social and economic aspects of the use of social media. This paper is the starting point and should be an impetus for further research into the topic of utilization of social media, especially during and after the COVID-19 era.

To offer online learning, English language undergraduate students require assistance. The following model is recommended as a guideline for all educators offering online learning. The proposed model is demonstrated in Figure 12 .

Participants distribution

The effect of social media platforms on learning English

The use of social media

Motives for using social media platforms

Frequently used social media platforms

Use of social media platforms as a communication tool

Using social media platforms as an educational tool

The rate of social media use on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic

Time spent on social media platforms

Language skills improved via social media use

Social networking sites effects on students' studies

Procedure to improve online English language learning process

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Further reading

Bhatti , A. ( 2018 ), “ Sales promotion and price discount effect on consumer purchase intention with the moderating role of social media in Pakistan ”, International Journal of Business Management , Vol. 3 No. 4 .

Habermas , J. ( 1979 ), “ What is universal pragmatics? ”, in McCarthy , T. (Ed.), Communication and the Evolution of Society , Beacon , Boston, Massachusetts , Vol.  2 No.  5 , pp.  1 - 68 .

Corresponding author

About the author.

Dr. Muneera Muftah is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts, Thamar University, Yemen. She is currently working in the Department of English Language at the College of Languages and Translation, Najran University, KSA. She earned PhD in English Language Studies from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. She teaches courses in linguistics, applied linguistics and translation. Her main research interests are in the areas of translation, syntactic and morphological mental representation and development, and vocabulary development in SLA, generative syntax and morphology, discourse studies and second language assessment.

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Nevada Today

Sanford center for aging reflects on community impact during older americans month, sanford center shares data and programs in the community.

As Older Americans Month begins, Sanford Center for Aging reflects on the profound impact of its work in enhancing the lives of older adults in Nevada. Throughout May, the organization celebrates the resilience, wisdom and contributions of elders, and reaffirms the commitment to supporting them in living fulfilling and independent lives.

Of Nevada’s 17 counties, 10 have a 65 years and older population exceeding 19%. Despite this demographic shift, the 2021 Nevada physician workforce profile reveals a scarcity of geriatricians, with only 57 actively working in Nevada, translating to a ratio of one physician for every 11,984 individuals aged 60 years or older. In light of these increasing demands, the Sanford Center continues its mission to enhance the well-being of older adults through education, translational research and community outreach. Through a diverse array of programs and services, the organization addresses the unique needs and challenges faced by elders, ensuring they receive the support and resources necessary to thrive.

During Older Americans Month, Sanford Center is proud to highlight the following initiatives and accomplishments from fiscal year 2023:

• Community Wellness: 294 participants joined free, evidence-based health and wellness programs including Fit & Strong, Chronic Pain Self-Management and Diabetes Prevention. One participant from Fit & Strong noted that the class helped improve leg strength, making it easier to navigate stairs.
• Medication Therapy Management: 127 medication reviews completed by the Sanford Geriatric Pharmacist and in the past year alone, the reviews have helped 44 individuals (35%) discontinue at least one prescription medicine, 31 individuals (24%) discontinue at least one over-the-counter medicine, and 55 individuals discontinue at least one supplement.
• Geriatric Specialty Care Center: 131 appointments completed including comprehensive assessments and follow-up visits, with one patient sharing “The information and recommendations were presented factually with compassion. We left feeling supported and relieved that we were not alone on our journey. Alzheimer's can be very isolating, especially in a world that is already so divided and isolating."
• Transportation: 1,446 rides completed by both volunteers and the Sanford Center van for elders attending doctor’s appointments, going to the grocery store and much more. A brief success story from the director of Community Services, involves two new clients, a brother and sister who currently live with their niece. “Between Sanford volunteers, a van driver and minimal reliance on UBER, this client has been able to make their appointments without worrying about reliability or cost. While we are glad we are getting the client to the important appointments, this situation in particular was a great reminder that our services impact those who don’t directly use our services. The relief, worry and stress we have been able to alleviate from the niece of this client is felt through her gratitude for our services.” 
• Senior Outreach Services: 89 older adults in Washoe County were paired with a volunteer to provide companionship. One of our volunteers has been with her client who suffers from memory loss for over two years. The volunteer is mindful that memory loss triggers frustration with her client, so she is careful not to ask too many questions that require a recall in memory. The volunteer and client have built a strong rapport and look forward to their weekly visits together. They share favorite cooking recipes and although the client has family members in town, she enjoys the volunteer’s companionship and friendship.
• OLLI at University of Nevada, Reno: 1,223 members enjoyed lectures, interest groups and much more at the lifelong learning institute. One OLLI member said, “It’s better than school. There are no tests or grades, and the only prerequisite is curiosity.”
• Nevada Geriatric Education Center: 2,191 learners attended our educational offerings for both healthcare providers and caregivers. One participant who is a caregiver said, “I have greatly appreciated this class. It is very difficult living with a person who has dementia. I often do my self-checks to see where my body language is, and my voice tone is. Still, it is hard. My mom is a runner and often I walk behind her for safety. I liked the options that were given on how to speak with a person and how to offer directions.”
• Gerontology Academic Program: 26 enrolled in the minor program and 28 enrolled in the certificate program at the University of Nevada, Reno. One student shared, “I found the curriculum to be the most helpful. All of the knowledge provided has been extremely useful in both my professional and personal life.”

"As we celebrate Older Americans Month, we are reminded of the invaluable contributions that elders make to our community," said Peter Reed, director of the Sanford Center for Aging. "At Sanford Center, we are honored to serve and support older adults in Nevada, and we remain dedicated to promoting their health, happiness, and independence."

Throughout Older Americans Month and beyond, Sanford Center will continue its mission to empower older adults and ensure they can age with dignity, respect and joy. To learn more about our programs and services, please visit Sanford Center's webpage . To learn more success stories, please follow Sanford on Facebook .

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India: Pledging to RiseUp4Peace, young people and educators work on promoting peace and lawfulness beyond classroom walls

New Delhi, India/30 April 2024: "I pledge to promote peace, justice and fairness in my school and beyond." In the bustling corridors of the Sarla Birla Gyan Jyoti school in northeast India’s Guwahati (Assam), over 1200 students stand shoulder to shoulder in the morning assembly, their voices echoing with a pledge for peace, justice, and inclusivity.

Among them is Khyati Baruah, a spirited 15-year-old with a passion for creating positive change.

“Being a part of the RiseUp4Peace project has enhanced my leadership skills to a new level,” says Khyati. “As a student leader in my school, I have been collaborating with students from different classes and feel a new spark of excitement in the students for SDG16.”

With UNODC's RiseUp4Peace initiative, Khyati and thousands of young minds like her are actively learning about--and advocating for--peace, justice, and inclusivity with education. This pioneering educational initiative, spearheaded by UNODC in collaboration with Kamla Nehru Public School (KNPS) Phagwara and educator partners across India and beyond, focuses on empowering young people and educators on creating a culture of peace, the rule of law and integrity.

With the support of dedicated educators, the initiative has evolved into a coalition of empowered 'Partners4Peace,' a network of networks dedicated to fostering a more just and inclusive society--—core elements of Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG16).

This month, RiseUp4Peace organized five interactive capacity-building dialogues, bringing together over 1,095 educators and young people. These dialogues aimed to demystify SDG 16 and related themes, encouraging the co-creation of student-led activities and fostering cross-learning among educators. The focus was on innovative classroom interventions to educate, engage, and empower young learners on peace, the rule of law, and integrity.

“With RiseUp4Peace, I am able to spread awareness about the impact we as students can make to build a just and peaceful world. This project has also  helped me to develop my leadership and communication skills,” says Lekisha Jain, aged 14. 

"Working for this cause has enabled me to harness digital tools for meaningful social impact. It's a journey that not only amplifies my voice but also deepens my understanding of the challenges surrounding SDG16," says 15-year-old Srishti Sen, a student of the Funlish online education platform.

At the core of the initiative is also an emphasis on capacity-building for educators and fostering cross-learning opportunities. Over 150 educators participated in the 5th monthly RiseUp4Peace capacity-boosting dialogue in April, where UNODC's youth mainstreaming specialist Paloma Munne presented the Youth Empowerment Accelerator (YEA) framework to promote youth mainstreaming. Educators from around the world shared practical ways to strengthen SDG 16 education, highlighting the importance of a “collaborative spirit."

"With this network, the idea is to foster cross-fertilisation of expertise and ideas between educators and educational institutions, and enable young people to sharpen their skills," said Ms. Paramjit Dhillon, Principal (Admin and Innovation), KNPS Phagwara.

Knowledge support was also provided to 316 educators, 5,100 young people and 12 educational institutions directly on SDG 16-related themes and youth mainstreaming on the rule of law. This resulted in the co-creation of a range of school-led initiatives engaging and empowering over 14,000 young people—including a students’ ‘Run4Peace’ campaign driven by the Little Kingdom School (Madhya Pradesh), virtual student assemblies on SDG16 conducted at the Funlish language school, setting up of a 'peace tree' with messages on SDG 16 at the Sri Seshaas International Public School Salem (Tamil Nadu), interactive dialogues held at the Schiller Institute (Uttar Pradesh) and other institutions, pledge drives, posters and artwork activities, among others.

"In today's interconnected world, the significance of SDG16 education cannot be overstated. RiseUp4Peace recognizes this urgency and provides a unique platform for educators and students to come together in dialogue and action,” says Samarth Pathak, UNODC Communications Officer for South Asia. 

"I have always wanted to make a difference in the society, but didn’t know where to start," says Anubhab Siddhanta, aged 13. "Engaging with UNODC has made me realise that small acts too can have a big impact.” With RiseUp4Peace paving the way, young people are not just dreaming of a better tomorrow—they're actively working towards it, one pledge and one action at a time.

Join the initiative:   t.ly/lh9T7

This activity contributes to SDG 4, SDG 5, SDG 16 and SDG 17:  https://sdg-tracker.org/

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