OPTIMISING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY IN GHANAIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Rebecca Arthur

Abstract


The present study qualitatively investigates how to optimise social media for language learning from the perspective of students. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 80 first-year students from a university in Ghana. Harasim’s (2012) Online Collaborative Learning Theory (OCLT) is adopted as the theoretical framework. The findings show that there are seven (7) social media platforms mostly patronised by students, with Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube being the top three most patronised. It also shows that while students usually use social media to communicate with family and friends and for entertainment purposes, education is the least important reason they use social media. The results also reveal that social media improves learners’ speaking, reading, listening and writing skills, as well as their vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and reduces their language anxiety. The data show that there should be a supervised/directed learning, sharing of language materials on the platforms, conduction of language activities on social media, mitigation of automated distractions and support in the cost of the internet. The study recommends that social media can also be a very addictive and distractive tool. Hence, when used pedagogically, language instructors should guide and supervise the students well.

 

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social media; language skills; language pedagogy; education; Ghana

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v7i2.562

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