Use of Facebook by Foreign Language Instructors

Abstract

Nowadays the widespread use of information and communication technologies in every field, especially in education, brings forward the idea of use of them by teachers and students intensively. Although teachers and students are far from each other physically, they communicate thanks to information and communication technologies, learn new information about their lessons, repeat this information, and reinforce what they learn in class. When taking learning and teaching into consideration, learning and teaching do not happen without communication and interaction. The importance of social media tools in information and communication technologies has been increasing in terms of education. Social media tools are generally called as social networking sites. Facebook is the most used and known tool among them. Facebook is a social network that provides communication and information exchange. People who have Internet connection in every part of the world communicate and interact among themselves via this social tool. In other words, people compose virtual social lives for themselves. People in these virtual lives identify themselves, communicate and get along with people who have the same cultural level via the facilities that the Internet provides. This case tries to find out the use of Facebook by language instructors via a questionnaire which was given to 160 English, French, and German language instructors at the School of Foreign Languages, Basic Languages Department of Anadolu University. Findings emerged related to every aim of the study. Some conclusions were drawn from the findings gained in the study. The results of the study revealed that Facebook has been used widely by instructors. There were some differences in the use of Facebook among English, French and German instructors. It was found that English instructors made extensive use of Facebook. Moreover, some instructors were found to create class pages and have some activities like communication, sharing class events, giving homework and sharing videos. Based on the results, the study was concluded by some implications to use Facebook in foreign language learning.