SOCIAL MEDIA AS MEANS OF INDIVIDUALIZATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION FOR STUDENTS MAJORING IN PHILOLOGY

Abstract

The phenomenon of virtual reality is being separated and defined with reference to the notion of personal educational space in the virtual reality. It can be justified by the fact that social media has revolutionized young people’s interests and become an essential part of their everyday lives. Modern education requires engaging students in the learning process. Therefore, social media serves as effective means of learning in general, as well as in the process of English language acquisition, moreover, being significantly productive due to the fact that it is connected with learners’ emotions. The process of learning English can be considerably intensified and improved via the use of social media. Taking into account existing social media sites it has been decided to use Twitter.com owing to its popularity and wider options it suggests for English language learners. The research paper will report on the fundamentals of the use of social media to assist in the learning process of ELLs and practices of its use implemented in the Ukrainian educational institution among students majoring in English philology. Twitter.com is used as extracurricular type of activity in the process of English knowledge acquisition. Having Twitter accounts ELLs have possibilities to share content they are interested in, to leave comments and in such a way to interact with each other. Such options definitely contribute to the formation of language competence which is essential for students majoring in English philology. The topics they cover in their posts correspond to the syllabus. With the help of social tools, they can act independently, express their points of view on different issues and find a solution to them. Meanwhile a lecturer plays a role of an observer so it implies that a learner-centered approach is provided. Thus, the implementation of social media in the process of learning English does not serve just as a source of information dissemination, but effective means of knowledge improvement and individualization of the process of the English knowledge acquisition at all levels.