Does the Use of Twitter Improve 'Communicative Competence' of Saudi Higher Education Students?

Abstract

The world has seen the emergence of social media, and it has wider implications for all aspects of human life. This has consequently led to the emergence of research on various aspects of life such as knowledge, well-being and emotions. This research looks at how the frequency, quality and duration of Twitter use affect the English language communicative competence of Saudi higher education students. Communicative competence was estimated across four different measures: Linguistic, Discourse, Strategic and Sociolinguistic competence. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaire surveys with students studying in Saudi universities. Data were analysed using regression analysis. This research finds that the use of Twitter has a positive and statistically significant impact on all four aspects of communicative competence of Saudi higher education students. Keywords: Communicative competence, Twitter and communicative competence, Twitter and language competence, Linguistic competence, discourse competence, strategic language competence, sociolinguistic competence. DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/91-02 Publication date: June 30th 2020