The Impact of Teaching through Twitter on Students’ Vocabulary Learning: A Case Study of Qassim University

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using Twitter on first level bachelors students’ achievement inEnglish vocabulary. The first goal of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of using Twitter toimprove the learners’ L2 vocabulary. To achieve this goal, third-year students of English as a target language weretested on their vocabulary knowledge after treatment. The second goal of this study was to find out if there anysignificant differences between the effect of traditional teaching methods and using Twitter in teaching vocabulary.To achieve this goal, the participants in both groups were tested, and their scores were then compared. The sample inthe study consisted of 160 during the second semester of 2015/1436. Over eight weeks, the experimental groups weretaught by using the social network Twitter, while the control groups followed the traditional way of teachingvocabulary, i.e. explaining the words in simple English, giving hints or gestures, and using pictures or flashcards.The findings show that there is an increase in students’ vocabulary achievement in both groups, but the experimentalgroup seems to perform better than the control group. The researcher concludes with recommendations for furtherstudies on the effectiveness of using Twitter to improve student achievement in other English skills areas.