Implementing ‘Social Media Language Learning’ to Teach English as a Second Language

Implementing ‘Social Media Language Learning’ to Teach English as a Second Language
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I. Introduction
Social media language learning refers to the use of social media platforms, for example, Facebook, Instagram, and Tweeter in the learning of language. According to Collins (2013), the growth of social media as an online resource has changed the practice of using the traditional practice of using classrooms in language learning. Social media has enabled the evolution of the traditional classroom into settings that are more modern than the traditional classrooms. In addition, social media has improved the ease of learning languages because learners do not have to travel to the physical schools for them to learn. They attend online classes at their convenience in terms of location. The specific effect of social media on language is learning is that it has influenced the growth of “online language learning” in the sense that students or language learners are able to connect with friends from all over the world. The students meet friends of different linguistic backgrounds and they are challenged to learn other languages, for example, for integration purposes- using language for social interaction.
II. Statement of the problem
The growth computer use, especially the emergence of the internet has created diverse opportunities of learning language online (Waschauer and Grimes, 2007). However, since this is an emerging and developing area of research interest, not much research has focused on studying how the emergence of social media affects the learning of foreign language or second languages. On the other hand, institutions are implementing the use of social media in teaching second language. Before institutions implement such programs, they need proper research information on the opportunities and risks they face by using social media in teaching second language.
Many people understand the social media as a tool of online interaction. However, what many people ignore that they interact using language as the ingredient of communication. Social media brings people from different linguistic backgrounds, enabling them to meet and interact socially through the online social media platforms (Waschauer and Grimes, 2007). There is the need for a study that evaluates how the social media has changed the learning of second language as people no longer rely on the traditional school settings to learn languages that are foreign to them.
III. Research questions
The main question for this study is: What is the effect social media language learning on the teaching of second language?
The study shall use different variables towards answering the main question. The following questions are important for the research to get findings for the main question:
a) What is the effect of social media on motivation of teaching/learning second language?
b) How does the use of social media language learning affect learners’ frustrations in the process of second language learning?
c) How does social media language learning relate with the challenge of de-motivation in teaching second language?
IV. Literature Review
a) Social media language learning and motivation
Motivation plays a crucial role in the learning and teaching of foreign languages. It refers to the learner’s interest to learn the second language. This interest can depend on the reason for which the learner wants to know the target second language. The learner may want to learn the second language for transactional or integration purposes. In transaction motivation, the objective of the learner is to use the second language for communication within official settings, for example workplace or for conducting businesses. The second aspect of motivation, integration, entails learning the second language to form identity with other linguistic groups (Stockwell, 2007). The social media brings people from different linguistics backgrounds together to socialize on the same platform. Language could be the main barrier and as such, no communication can take place between the interlocutors who want to interact on the social media platforms. This kind of a barrier creates the motivation in the learner to know the other language for ease of communication (Stockwell, 2007).
However, the social media also creates the motivation for teaching second languages. According to Stockwell (2007), technological development through the social media provides advanced and better pedagogical ideas for teaching second languages. Second language teaching and learning faces various challenges and lack of motivation is among these challenges. However, through the use of social media in teaching second language, teachers can get more effective pedagogical or methodological ideas that can improve the delivery of second language lessons. Through the social media, Stockwell (2007) explains that teachers can access a wide array of materials that discuss the ideas of the best pedagogies for teaching second language. The teachers of second languages also get the opportunity of meeting and interacting with teachers from other regions. They can share their challenges concerning some of the obstacles they face while teaching second languages. If the challenge is lack of motivation or slow mastery of the language among the learners, they can share ideas on some of the technologies that can improve such experiences. In the long run, Stockwell explains that the teaching staffs become motivated because of the knowledge they gain when they interact with their fellow teachers on social media. They also gains the knowledge of the styles they can use to ensure that their learners are motivated and get to understand the second languages within the shortest time possible (Stockwell, 2007).
Livemocha is a method that many studies use in determining how social media affects learners’ motivation to learn second language. In Livemocha, the approach involves speaking on social media and recording to students’ voice. The record is them given to another student who learns the same language to assess it and make comments. Stockwell (2007) is a study that uses the method of Livemocha. The researcher finds that learners become more motivated when they interact on social media with their fellow learners (peers) and record their voices and provide comments. They are motivated because this kind of learning is highly interactive and has some level of informality because friends teach each other the second language. Stockwell (2007) explains that in the methodology of Livemocha, the teacher’s role is facilitative. Apart from making the learning of second language student-centered, social media language learning can occur in the absence of the teacher, especially when one of the interlocutors is a native speaker of the learned language (Stockwell, 2007).
Collins (2013) discusses the motivational effect of social media by explaining that students can complete their language assignments on Facebook. The students also join educational groups on social media where they hold interactive group discussions as a way of learning foreign languages. They form such groups with or without the instruction of their language teachers (Collins, 2013). Although the social media creates the advantage of such flexibility in second language learning, it reduces the role of the teacher to levels that may be dangerous. When students join peer groups for learning language without the teacher’s direction, they miss the important guidance that the teacher should provide in the process of second language learning. This is a risk that affects the quality of learning because certain mistakes may go without the correction of the teacher. Also, the risk of learning second language in the absence of the teacher is that the students can use the wrong methodologies. Pedagogies play an important role in language learning. Pedagogy, for example, sets the order of learning second language (Stockwell, 2007). In the absence of the teacher, therefore, students run the risk of learning second language in a random manner, and such wrong approaches affect the outcome whereby the student learns the language with a lot of gaps and using the wrong procedures.
b) Social Media Language Learning and Learner-Frustration
The social media, if not used appropriately, can cause frustrations in the learners of second language. According to Hampel (2006), there are certain factors in the process of second language learning that require the presence of the required materials in the process of learning. In addition, there is need for designing the models of second language learning and incorporating them into the online lessons. Although online lessons can adapt certain features of face-to-face communication, certain online lessons may not incorporate the required models of language learning. The design and implementation of the tasks that are used in teaching second language on social media, therefore, requires the incorporation of the models of language learning. But what happens when such models are not part of the implementation? It means that language learning lacks the focus because there is no model to guide the process of learning it on social media. Hampel’s study concludes that such risks have a lot of negative effects on the quality of the second language that the learner masters.
Hampel’s study too used the Livemocha method where the learners recorded their sounds during learning and their peers commented on the sounds. However, Hampel (2006) found that the use Livemocha had a negative impact of frustrating the learners because it did not use physical presentation and the available modes of communication to make the learning experience. Livemocha is a method that according to Hampel (2006), only uses the audio aspect of the technology. The study found that aspects of communication, for example body language, which play crucial roles in language learning, were eliminated through the use of voice recordings, and such elimination caused frustration in the process of language learning. The study also found that the participants just received input but did not participate in the process of developing the input as they do through the traditional classes. Lack of explicit instructions in social media language learning also causes frustrations on the student’s side (Hampel, 2006).
c) De-motivation in social media language learning
When students or learners of foreign language experience the challenges that make them frustrated, they become less motivated (de-motivated) to learn the languages. Social media uses the internet for language learning. In situations where there is lack of stable internet supply, the students cannot continue with their lessons on the social media. Jams in the network can also slow down communication through social media. Such structural problems create frustrations that de-motivate students from using the social media for learning foreign languages (Hampel, 2006). All the challenges explained under the issue of frustration also cause de-motivation of the learners.
Another challenge that makes the learners less motivated to use the social media is lack of translation software. When social media teaching of language does not incorporate the translation software, the learners find it a frustrating experience, for example, to transcribe the texts that they use in second language learning. They become less motivated because ESL learners are not perfect in the languages they are learning. They experience lapses between the target language and their L1 (native languages). In the absence of translators, learning of L2 in the social media environment becomes difficult, frustrating, and de-motivating, hence low quality of L2 education occurs on the social media (Hampel, 2006).
The students in the social media environment spend a lot of time in de-contextualizing the texts, a factor that also creates less motivation to learn second languages. Although textual de-contextualization also happens in the traditional classroom, not all the time is spent in this activity. Furthermore, in the social media environment, there is lack of the physical presence of the teacher yet he plays a crucial role in motivating students. The learners may form the perception that the second language they are learning has a higher level of difficulty compared to their native language(s). The physical presence of the teacher, however, has an important role in motivating students to change such attitudes (Hampel, 2006).
Hampel concludes that although many institutions may implement to social media in teaching second language due to the perceived benefits, it is necessary for the institutions to think about the risks of social media language learning and develop the effective remedies. In addition, institutions must ensure that as they implement the use of social media in teaching L2, the role of the teacher should not be understated. Teachers must ensure that their social media L2 lessons incorporate the necessary models among other observations that improve the quality of learning L2 using the social media. Teachers must also monitor and evaluate the process to ensure that learning meets its goals (Hampel, 2006