Pull Your Students to the Target Language: Facebook

for Language Learning

April 4, 2014Technological Tools for Successful Teaching and Learning - Roundtable

Fabrizio FornaraFlorida State University

Social Networking Sites in

Education• Web 2.0 technologies for language-learning: blogs,

wikis, virtual worlds, podcasts, and social networking sites (SNS) (Wang & Vásquez, 2012).

• Social networking sites:o student-student networkso social and collaborative learningo individual control o online and blended learning settings

• Social networking sites enhance students’o attitude (Antenos-Conforti, 2009)o engagement (Junco, Heibergert, & Loken, 2011)o performance (Shih, 2011)o autonomous learning (McBride, 2009)

Facebook in Education

• Most popular SNS among American college students (Junco, Heibergert, & Loken, 2011)

• Familiar, informal learning environment• Constant exposure to the target language• Desktop and mobile• Target language part of students' daily life • Interactions similar to class’ interactions (McBride,

2009)

• Student-instructor, student-student, and student-material interactions

• Instructor: facilitator of information• Learners actively involved (Wang, Woo, Quek, Yang, &

Liu, 2012)

• Material: authentic, contextualized, retrievable from the Internet

• Privacy: Users are not reciprocally connected,

Facebook in Education (cont.)

Facebook Page

Facebook Page (cont.)• Students are not mutually connected • Students “like” the course page personal

account• New material posted students’ news feed• Integrate other language learning activities• Graded activity participation, not correctness• Daily new activities: Text, multimedia resources,

questions• Two main sections:

o Wallo Events

Wall - Home Page

Wall - Home Page (cont.)

Wall - Home Page (cont.)

Wall - Home Page (cont.)

Events

Events

Events

Events

Limits

• Students may perceive the Facebook activities as an extra task in addition to the workload of the course

• Students may be uncomfortable with using Facebook for class activities, not wanting to mix leisure activities and spaces with formal instruction

• Instructors may have to obtain institutional approval to use Facebook in a formal learning setting

Questions?Thank you!@ffornara

April 4, 2014Technological Tools for Successful Teaching and Learning - Roundtable