The way students study languages nowadays is completely different from how our parents were studying languages around twenty or thirty years ago. Everything is very much faster, progressive, innovative and more effective nowadays, and the learning process of languages is not an exception. Currently any person’s life is inevitably connected to social media networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, What’s Up, YouTube Twitter, and many others. Twitter as a part of social media networks that can facilitate the learning process is going to be discussed in this paper. Twitter is known as “microblogging” (Aidyn, 2014) social network where Twitter users share their opinions, information, news, thoughts, and their feelings towards particular topics. In term of the exact definition of Twitter, according to the business dictionary, Twitter is a website that “allows users to publish short messages that are called tweets and can be 140 characters or less” (Businessdictionary.com, n.d.). Twitter was created in “2006, and in 2008 it had five million users around the world” (Businessdictionary.com, n.d.). The reason behind the success of Twitter is its convenience and flexibility. The maximum amount of characters is only 140 words, and that is why tweets are easily readable and not bulky. Tweets can cover absolutely any topics, no matter if it is medicine, news, personal experience, customer service, shopping, restaurant reviews or public events information. People around the world find out the top popular news via Twitter, news in lives of their friends and family via Twitter, as well as they also can create their own news via Twiatter. Nowadays Twitter expanded its area and it is used in the learning process of new languages.
“E-learning tools” (Covie & Sahui, n.d.)
“Teaching approach and roles” (Covie & Sahui, n.d.)
“Institutional issues” (Covie & Sahui, n.d.)
E-learning tools consist of specific software computer programs that can help instructors, teachers and students to communicate between each other. The most popular programs offered by “blackboard, moodle and edmodo” (Covie & Sahui, n.d.) These kind of programs are usually put on automatically and make the learning interaction between students and professors much easier.
According to the official source of information, language-learning process is divided into four divisions: “Sociocultural, technological, ecological and psycholinguistic” (Lomicka & Lord, n.d.). Twitter is a part of technological process of language-learning process where it consists of “explorative and descriptive studies” (Lomicka & Lord, n.d.). The explanation of why technology can be part of explorative and descriptive studies is described in the paragraph below in simple words and explanation for those teachers who find it difficult to adapt into the new learning process style. Twitter allows students to explore beyond their classroom and their limits, as well as to learn the real language, the one that Twitter describes it to them.
The 21st century is a century where social media networks are not seen just for entertainment and social time spending, instead, such social media network, as Twitter is a perfect example of how social media networks can be beneficial for the society in terms of providing exceptional learning experience. Nowadays twitter is seen not just an internet tool where people can share their ideas, knowledge and experience, but it also is developing fast in terms of providing educational tips and inspire as well as encourage students and professors to share their thoughts, ideas, proposals and so many other things between them. The studying process of learning not only new foreign languages, but also the studying process of learning as a whole, is switching from pens, pencils and notebooks to laptops, tablets and smartphones. Laptops, tablets and smartphones are seen as much more convenient and fast, as well as promoting e-business learning activities. Twitter is a part of e-business activities. Twitter allows thinking free, not to be afraid of judgement and to learn how to express feelings and thoughts with the other people. As a person who studied in different educational institutions around the world in different countries, I can surely say that one of the core purposes of education is to make a person more confident, to teach him to express his/her own opinions based on values, theoretical and practical knowledge, experience and own point of view. Teachers and professors teach their students to express their opinions and answers based on the justification via writing different essay, reports, preparing PowerPoint presentations, and so on. Luckily, nowadays Twitter can be used for the purpose of teaching students to express their opinions, to be more brave and independent, not to be afraid of their own thoughts and to provide their justifications based on knowledge and experience. Besides, using Twitter, EFL Saudi students can receive an instant feedback not just from the professors, but also from the peer classmates, and this is extremely important. Sharing tasks, homework and ideas with classmates instantly fastens the studying process not just into faster way, but also into more interesting and integrative way. The good feedback from professors and classmates can encourage student to study more and to be proud of himself/herself, while the bad feedback can motivate student to reach better results and outcomes, and therefore, to work harder in order to achieve success in learning. The described advantages of Twitter that are presented above are not the only ones. According to the research, “participants who viewed only the social tweets rated the instructor significantly higher in perceived credibility than did the group that viewed only the scholarly tweets and that there was an established link between perceived instructor credibility and positive learning outcomes” (Aydin, 2014). As a result, social tweets contribute a lot for the learning environment, makes the learning more convenient and up-to-date, and therefore, it “benefits for the community” (Aydin, 2014). Regarding the particular language learning, Twitter is engaging and that is why it is successful in language learning for students in the United States and in France. Twitter also gives the opportunity to practice language outside of classroom, without feeling like studying, but actually studying and engaging into learning a new language. Taking into consideration that Twitter was founded in English language, as this social media network was first created in the United States, there are a lot of useful tweets and language phrases that may be extremely helpful for those who are learning English as a second language. The uniqueness of twitter is that it also uses different slang words that are not taught in the books, but are used in everyday life. Not everyone has the opportunity to travel outside home for living in host families abroad and learning the informal casual language, but thankfully, Twitter gives this opportunity for language students. The only disadvantage of Twitter as a learning tool is that as a part of social media network, it has violent, sexual and inappropriate contents that may significantly affect the learning process. However, those student who know what they want, are not going to be affected by inappropriate comments distraction. From my own experience of learning English, I can say that e-business activities, such as social media language learning activities on Twitter or YouTube, speed up the learning process, make it interesting and promoting students to learn more, because the learning process is not dull and boring like it used to be. Couple of years ago, any language learning process consisted of the mandatory writing, listening comprehension activities, reading and retelling the texts. Nowadays, it is also consisted of fun and integrative apps, Twitter usage, the real language phrases and words, and the constant feedback from peers and professors.
As a result, Twitter, Computer Mediated Communication, diffusion of innovation theory, motivation theory, and constructivist theory are tools that promote the engagement in the language learning process. Computer Mediated Communication, Diffusion of Innovation theory and Motivation theory were discussed in the detail in the previous paper.
Based on the assumption that was made on the chat picture below on the last page, the learning progress is changing into the electronic form and the usage of social media marketing programs such as Twitter.
In the conclusion, the learning world and environment is rapidly changing and the usage of the technology has become an inevitable part of the language learning process in the 21st century. Teachers and instructors who are used to the old teaching and learning style that excludes any usage of technology, have to understand the Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) where the information is shared with the help of computer systems. Social media networks such as Twitter that was explained in detail above is not just an entertainment social media; it is an essential tool for learning process. Teachers of English in Saudi Arabia can take examples from teachers in France and in the United Kingdom who already implemented the usage of Twitter in language learning process and have been successful so far.
Summarizing all research that was founded and analyzed for this paper, the conclusion results regarding the usage of Twitter as a learning tool for preparatory year for EFL first year Saudi students are:
Twitter encourages learning languages more
It is real and interactive
Changing the learning process in a faster way
Allows to share with opinions and feedback instantly
Promotes language learning outside home
Involves the language engagement
In my opinion, it is great that things are changing into technology that significantly improves our lives. First of all, via computer mediated communication, technology entered our lives and made the communication and sharing process more accessible and easier. When it comes to the language learning process of English as a foreign language, it is very important for Saudi students to find the learning process interesting and engaging, but not dull and boring. Taking into consideration that Arabic language is completely from English, students from Saudi Arabia find it difficult to adapt to completely new letters, alphabet, grammar and the language structure. Most students feel boring using traditional ways of learning new languages, doing the obligatory homework, receiving the grades and feeling bad in front of parents in case if the grade is bad. All of these factors lead to disappointment and cause many things that the student may find it boring to learn English and just gives up, or learns English just to get a satisfying grade in order to pass exams. Twitter, on the contrary, suggests a real English learning, where the learning process is interconnected with the world’s news and with the classmates and the professors’ feedback and recommendations. Students can read the tweets of their favorite musicians, actors or politicians, and at the same time, they feel engaged and learn new English words or phrases. Also, by using twitter as a language learning process, students share their news with classmates and people they know, and at the same time they learn and practice English.
References
Lomicka, L., & Lord, G. Social Networking and Language Learning. Retrieved 26 February
2016
Aydin, S. (2014). TWITTER AS AN EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT. Retrieved 26 February
2016
BusinessDictionary.com,. (2016). What is Twitter? definition and meaning. Retrieved 27
February 2016, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/Twitter.html
Norris, A. (2012). Computer-Mediated Communication and Globalization: Considering Social,
Academic, and Business Factors. Student Pulse, 4(02). Retrieved from
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/617/computer-mediated-communication-and-
globalization-considering-social-academic-and-business-factors
Covie, N., & Sahui, K. It's never too late: an overview of e-learning. Retrieved 27 February 2016
