The Role of social media in Developing English Language Writing Skills: Moulay Ismail University as a Case Study

Abstract

The use of social media in the field of education has taken effect for quite some time. Social media applications offer learners good learning opportunities of using the language. The most important thing they provide learners with is that they promote authentic language use making it possible for students to improve their grammar knowledge and writing skills. Social media, as a learning platform, offers online platforms for users to generate and share information with other users and to interact with them synchronously or asynchronously by written and spoken word. Research has indicated that social media apps could be an efficacious platform for language learning. This study, therefore, comes to explore the effects of social media in the development of university students’ English writing skills and see how EFL students perceive social media in terms of usefulness and ease of use.It also examined whether or not there is any correlation between these variables. The sample consisted of 153 EFL university students using the convenience sampling technique. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and descriptive statistical tools were used to gain an in-depth understanding of the research topic. The results reveal that social media plays a key role in the development of EFL university students’ writing performance.