A Social Learning Program Facilitated by Facebook for Developing Some Creative Writing Skills and Motivation to Learn English Among Secondary-One Students

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of using a social learning programme facilitated by Facebook to develop some creative writing skills and motivation to learn English among secondary-one school students. Seventy students in secondary-one grade were chosen as the study participants and were divided randomly into two matched groups (a control group and an experimental one). The researcher adopted the two-group quasi-experimental design. A creative writing pre-post test was administered to the participants of both study groups to assess students’ development in the specified creative writing skills before and after the experimental treatment. A motivation scale was administered to the experimental group participants before the experimental treatment, and it was re-administered to the participants of both the study groups after the experimental treatment to assess the programme's effectiveness in enhancing the students’ motivation to learn English. The data collection process included both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results were analysed, and the outcomes were demonstrated. The findings of the study assured that there were statistically significant differences at the (0.05) level between the mean scores of the two research groups in the pre-post administration of the creative writing skills test and the motivation scale in favour of the post-testing in the experimental group. The study revealed that using activities based on Social Learning Theory (SLT) that were facilitated by Facebook proved to be effective and have considerable contributions to developing English creative writing skills of secondary-one school students. Future research should focus on integrating Social Learning Theory and the virtual educational environment of Facebook in the English language content and curriculum. Research should also be conducted to investigate the use of Social Learning and Facebook in other language skills (i.e., listening, reading, and speaking).