Abstract

Social networking services (SNSs) are a much-touted technology for improved learning, yet very little research goes beyond the classroom-level controlled application of SNSs. This paper provides a look at reported usage and application of SNSs beyond the classroom, where data is scarce. The paper describes an investigation on whether Malaysian university students think SNSs are helpful for learning English, and the areas of language proficiency that these students perceived to benefit the most from their usage of SNSs. A total of 6,085 students participated in the online survey. Results indicate that an overwhelming majority (99.7%) make use of SNSs to learn English outside the classroom and 97.4% of these believe their use of SNSs helps improve their proficiency. The respondents indicated that the areas of proficiency that benefitted the most from their use of SNSs are writing, communication, vocabulary development and reading. In contrast, grammar as well as listening and speaking benefitted the least. The results presented a much needed, and currently lacking, view into the actual utility and use of SNSs for the purpose of informal learning of English among students in Malaysian universities. Keywords: informal language learning; social media; language skills; language acquisition

Highlights

  • The popularity and pervasiveness of social media or social networking services (SNSs) such as Facebook and Twitter among young adults have attracted the interest of educators

  • The results showed that all the students who responded to the survey owned at least one SNS account

  • Many of the other studies on SNSs and language learning have investigated how SNSs can be used in the English language classroom to support development of writing, reading, communication skills and vocabulary development (e.g. Kabilan et al 2010; Yunus et al 2012; Blattner & Fiori 2009; Gamble & Wilkins 2014)

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Summary

Introduction

The popularity and pervasiveness of social media or social networking services (SNSs) such as Facebook and Twitter among young adults have attracted the interest of educators. Do students in Malaysian institutions of higher learning perceive use of SNSs as helpful in improving their English language proficiency?

Results
Conclusion
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