An Investigation into the Use of Social Media in Teaching English

Abstract

The importance of using social media for educational reasons is becoming more widely recognized. Social media platforms are proven to be great teaching and learning aids, according to research. The goal of this study was to look at the experiences and perceptions of English teachers when it comes to using social media in the classroom and for English language acquisition. The studied context was a vocational institution in which basic English was taught as a mandatory subject. Data were collected through a survey with 48 English teachers. The results revealed that all the teachers used social media such as You Tube or Facebook in their teaching with high frequency. The most common languages skills that were targeted were speaking, listening and grammar. The primary purposes of the usage of social media in the classroom were communicating with the students and for individual learning activities. Generally, the teachers have positive perceptions towards using social media in teaching English. It is said to improve their teaching practices as well as to promote students’ attention and participation in the tasks. However, preparing the materials from social media is said to be time-consuming and little training on how to make the best use of social media has been reported. This study offers an overview of the present usage of social media in English courses at the studied institution. Therefore, it helps the institution's administrators understand and reinforce efforts to implement more effective adjustments to improve the quality of training.