Social Media Use in English Language Learning and Teaching

The rapid developments in technology have brought along new tendencies, one of which is social media. Today, social media are used for various purposes by many people around the world. The present study investigates into the attitudes of the students and instructors in the Foreign Language Education Department of Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus towards the use of social media tools, Facebook and YouTube, in language learning and teaching. It also seeks to identify the students’ and instructors’ attitudes on integrating social media into English language learning and teaching. A mixed method approach was used in this case study. The quantitative data were collected from the students’ and instructors’ questionnaires, while the qualitative data were collected from the interviews with the instructors and the open-ended questions from the questionnaires. The study sample consisted of 125 students and four instructors, 129 participants in total, in the Department of Foreign Language Education of Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus. The results indicated that both the students and the instructors had positive attitudes towards the use of social media in language learning and teaching. The results also indicated that the participants were of the same mind in general regarding the function of each social media tool, namely, Facebook and YouTube in language learning and teaching. Most of the participants agreed on certain contributions of Facebook and YouTube to language learning and teaching. As perceived by them, YouTube contributes more to listening and speaking skills as well as pronunciation, while Facebook contributes more to writing and reading skills. Furthermore, the general idea was that social media can be used as a supportive tool to the curriculum. The results showed that YouTube and Facebook enhance learners’ certain language skills, communication skills, and cultural awareness as perceived by the participants. Keywords: Social media, Facebook, YouTube, language skills, communication, culture, language learning and teaching