EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL NETS
CONTENTS
Introduction.................................................................................................3
1 Using social nets as one of the main parts in learning
foreign language....5
1.1The evolving role of social nets in learning foreign
language..................5
1.2Principles of learning foreign language through
social networks............7
1.3 Educational benefits of social networking sites....................................11
2 Main techniques and types using social nets for
learning foreign language
2.1 Main techniques of using social nets....................................................15
2.2Types of social nets for learning foreign languages...............................17
2.2.1 Different social nets designed to help learn
and teach foreign
language.....................................................................................................18
2.2.2Edmodo as significant social network for teachers
and students.......22
2.3Approbation.........................................................................................30
Conclusion.................................................................................................41
References..................................................................................................42
Appendix
INTRODUCTION
Education is very essential part of an individual’s
life for every teenager or student education is more important than
anything. [1]
Internet is a very essential part of life from shopping
to electronic mails and education, internet is very big evolution of
technology. It is a very large community which is using internet for
pure education but we have also a very large number of people including
majority of youth and teenager using Internet only for social networks.[2]
Even social networks are a relatively new phenomenon,
they are becoming more popular day after day throughout the world. As
social nets are essential part in lives of many students and educators,
it is important to involve social networks into the process of learning
English and use all their educational benefits. Especially, it can be
very effective for foreign language learners as a form of expression,
community building, developing their skills and an opportunity to improve
their language through communication with native speakers. Also foreign
language teachers can make a use of social nets in and out of the classroom
for getting better results.
The topic of the research is “Educational significance of social nets”. Different
techniques are suggested to be used in order to help children find language
classes more interesting.
The object of the research: the process of foreign language teaching and learning
The subject of the research: different social networks for learning English
The goal of the research: to identify the most effective ways of learning
English through social networks depending on the purposes
The objectives of the research:
- to study goals and significance of learning English
using social networks
- to define strategies and principles for learning
English through new method of using social networks
- to study
1 Using social nets as one of
the main parts in learning foreign language
This perspective seems tempting for
a big amount of nowadays students and educators because of some reasons.
Firstly, modern learners and teachers simply like using computers, mobile
phones, the internet and as a result social nets, too.
Secondly, the “interactivity”
of language exercises can be highly beneficial. Social network activities
are more interactive than paper-based activities.
And finally, such way of communication,
feedback, sharing ideas and information are very appreciated by learners.
1.1 The evolving role of social
networks in learning foreign language
Nowadays, online social networks receive a lot of
attention because they have quickly gained popularity the world. [3;
12] In fact, in recent years, these social networks have been able to
make a revolution in the fields of communication and information and
knowledge sharing. [4; 8] In particular, they have attracted the attention
of the young generation as well as university students because of their
interactive and multidimensional characteristic; Different networks
allow their enthusiastic users, all familiar with the fast growing world
of technology and internet, to freely and quickly share, with their
family, friends and colleagues, the most significant moments of their
lives, in addition to their ideas, opinions and beliefs. [5; 12]
to get good results without using certain tools and
following principles. I included into my course paper some general teaching
principles and social networking principles in teaching foreign language
by some authors.
Figure1. Teaching
principles by H.D.Brown .
Teaching principles by Brown:
- Cognitive principles:
Automaticity. Related to fluency. “Efficient second language
learning involves a timely movement of the control of a few language
forms into the automatic, fluent processing of a relatively unlimited
number of language forms. Overanalyzing language and thinkin Smart people
thought that it would be very productive and interesting if they made
a significant use from growing popularity of social networks. As a result,
today we have a wide variety of social nets. Some of them have additional
sector which offers different activities for learning foreign language
and another type of social nets are completely devoted to learning foreign
language. So, the role of social nets in learning and teaching foreign
language is becoming more and more important. We can also see a growing
number of researches, articles and even books devoted to learning foreign
language through social nets
This
fact can be explained by some reasons:
- Today’s students want to learn this way.
- Social nets make learning more fun, efficient,
interactive and interesting than usual.
- The process of learning foreign languages
transformed into studying something enjoyable by meeting and interacting
with native language speakers from around the world through different
language education social networks
- Networking sites offer students a
chance to practice how to be part of a community by creating and engaging
in group discussions.
- Social nets help teachers to instill in their students
following skills: critical thinking, problem-solving by assimilating
information and making connections, and communicating ideas effectively.
- Social media has transcended language barriers in
previously impossible ways.
- The social experience demands creativity and innovation,
both of which are increasingly important job requirements across all
sectors. [6;1]
In these ways, social nets can be an incredibly effective
foundation for teaching and learning .And this is how social nets are
changing language learning worldwide.
Also, I have found an article about advantages and disadvantages
of social nets in English language learning. So, I thought it
would be useful to include them into my course paper. As I am writing
about the evolving role of social nets in learning foreign language,
it is important to mention about it.
The advantages
of using social networking in language learning
Social networking sites focus heavily
on building online communities bound together with common interests
or activities. Thereby provide them with tools that help them to do
so. In the field of education social networking sites encourage students
to engage with each other and to express and share their creativity.
Social media is also one good way for students to gain knowledge which
can be from outside their classroom activities. With, so many social
media they can share and discuss many things related to their need of
particular knowledge with others practically.
With Social networking can create
a better English communicative environment for students. They do not
have to go to the country where the mother tongue of English is; they
just connect to the internet and interact with people from English speaking
countries. And they do not need to meet physically. Improving the efficiency
of class teaching. English teaching can make the lessons more effective
and efficient. [7; 9] Many social networking sites offer the users many
applications that make them easy to get any benefit including in English
language learning. The most important feature of the social networking
site is the ability to give and receive feedbacks. If this feature was
not there, the world of social networking would not what it is today.
Any content that you post instantly starts receiving comments, likes,
reviews, opinions, and additional information on that topic [8; 18].
By doing this, it can create discussions, sharing ideas and other communicative
skills which use English as the language in the discussion. Social networking
can encourage students to upload images or videos related to the courses.
Some teachers even ask their students to upload their essays and assignments
on the net, analyze the feedback, and write a better one for the final
class essay. It is very good activity and the process or learning and
teaching will run smoothly without any barriers of place and time. Disadvantages of Social Networking
in English Language Learning. Beside advantages of social networking
in education, there are also some disadvantages of social networking
in language learning. Networking websites can make people or especially
students become very addictive. People spend more and more time at computer
with makes them isolated from real life. They are wasting time at checking
purposeless posts and information. Thinking just about virtual world
they cannot t focus on anything and have problems at school or work.
In the term of language proficiency, many young people write incomplete
or slang English words which are not found in English dictionary. Some
abbreviations may seem confusing to the others. Such as they use ‘text
language’ in their normal day to day vocabulary, saying things like
‘lol’ (laugh out loud), ‘btw’ (by the way) and ‘atm’ (at
the moment).In most cases, in social networks students use written context
message, so sometimes they face with some problems when they have to
speak correct and professional English. Some of them are not able to
form correct sentences on the spot and after making a mistake, the whole
flow of the sentence and conversation breaks apart. Social networking
sites “can be a potential hazard for teachers as some applications
allow users to communicate” and “the content can lead to discrediting
or defamatory messages”. [9; 13] It can happen to the teachers when
they are not so aware with the threat of social networking to them.
Teachers need to concern and sometimes they are not so well understand
about the use of social media and its advantages in the teaching and
learning. And the teacher should be good at selecting the content materials
if not, the learning process will be just useless. There are some advantages
and disadvantages of using social networks in education including in
English language learning. It can encourage students to engage with
each other and to express and share their creativity and can create
a better English communicative environment for students. On the other
hand, social networks are lack of humanitarian aspects and create confusing
language because of using slang words or abbreviation which are not
found in English dictionary. [10; 2]
1.2. Principles of learning foreign
language through social networks
- For today, we have many ways of learning and teaching
foreign language. When every educator comes to teaching foreign language
he or she should follow certain principles depending on the way which
was chosen. So, it is very difficult or rather impossible g too much about forms, and consciously lingering
on rules of language all tend to impede this graduation to automaticity.”
- Meaningful learning. “The process of making meaningful associations between
existing knowledge/experience and new material will lead toward better
long- term retention than rote learning of material in isolated pieces.”
- Anticipation of reward.Human beings are universally driven to act, or “behave,” by the anticipation of some sort of reward—tangible or intangible, short- term or long-term—that will ensue as a result of the behavior.
- Intrinsic motivation. The most powerful rewards are those that are intrinsically
motivated within the learner. Because the behavior stems from needs,
wants, or desires within oneself, the behavior itself is self-rewarding;
therefore, no externally administered reward is necessary.
- Strategic Investment. Successful mastery of the second language will be
due to a large extent to a learner’s own personal “investment” of time, effort, and attention to the second language
in the form of an individualized battery of strategies for comprehending
and producing the language.
- Autonomy. Successful mastery of a foreign language will depend
to a great extent on learners’ autonomous ability both to take initiative in the
classroom and to continue their journey to success beyond the classroom
and the teacher.
2).Socioaffective principles:
- Language ego. As human beings learn to use a second language,
they also develop a new mode of thinking, feeling, and acting—a second identity. The new “language ego,” intertwined with the second language, can easily
create within the learner a sense of fragility, a defensiveness, and
a raising of inhibitions.
- Willingness to communicate. Successful language learners generally believe in themselves and in their capacity to accomplish communicative
tasks, and are therefore willing risk takers in their attempts to produce
and to interpret language that is a bit beyond their absolute certainty.
Their willingness to communicate results in the generation of both output
(from the learner) and input (to the learner).
- Language-culture connection. Whenever you teach a language, you also teach a
complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feeling,
and acting.
3). Linguistic principles
- Native language effect. The native language of learners exerts a strong
influence on the acquisition of the target language system.
While that native system will exercise both facilitating and interfering
effects on the production and comprehension of the new language,
the interfering effects are likely to be the most salient.
- Interlanguage. Second language learners tend to go through a systematic
or quasi- systematic developmental process as they progress to full
competence in the target language. Successful interlanguage development
is partially a result of utilizing feedback from others.
- Communicative competence. Given that communicative competence is the goal
of a language classroom, instruction needs to point toward all its components:
organizational, pragmatic, strategic, and psychomotor. Communicative
goals are best achieved by giving due attention to language use and
not just usage, to fluency and not just accuracy, to authentic language and
contexts, and to students’ eventual need to apply classroom learning to previously
unrehearsed contexts in the real world. [11]
Figure 2.Principles by Call Brown
Benefits of Call
• opportunity to notice • convenient for written
feedback practice
• individualization • private space for mistakes
• collaboration • multimodal
• self-pacing • distance feedback
• variety of resources • immediate, personalized
[12]
Figure 3
Principles of social networking
in teaching by Mason &Rennie [13]
No panacea
Pedagogy first Initial Induction Need to be serious
Other useful principles:
- Allow students to experience and introduce notions
related to social nets into the lesson
- Do not waste time. Teacher should be very attentive
with deadlines. As one of the advantages of social nets is time saving,
teacher should clear explain his or her students that they have to pass
everything in time (via e-mail, edmodo etc.)
- Allow students to see their progress and mistakes.
Asking about their progress and mistakes will not take time during the
lesson, if they are able to see from certain social net. They will come
to lesson with certain questions about their mistakes.
- Periodically try to change things up on the lesson.
As we have a big variety of different social nets, teacher should change
and show other opportunities for learning foreign language which are
presented by social nets. In this case the process of learning foreign
language will be interesting and productive.
The teacher
builds positive relationships through knowing and valuing each student.
It is also important principle to follow. If
teacher knows his students well, he or
she will be able to offer students social network activities which are devoted
to work with problems which they have in the process of learning foreign
language. Also, they will be directed into developing their skills which
also are difficult for them. And of course all these activities will
be interesting for students, because teacher knows interests of his
students.
1.3 Educational benefits of social
networking sites
Social networking websites are important now to not only keep in touch with
people but also beneficial for educational purposes in many various
ways. Because of their wide reach, social
networking sites are an ideal source to spread knowledge. [14; 2]
There are many educational
benefits of using social networking
sites for both teachers and students. Social networking
sites like Facebook, Multiply, MySpace, etc. are used by all age people
across the world to connect with others and for educational purpose
like online sharing of education-related topics - learning outside of
school, college or college planning, about schoolwork and more.
The attention of academic researchers has been captivated very much
by the rising popularity of social networking sites. Research is mounting
that confirms social networking sites have impacted student learning
positively in different ways. Now social networks focused on sustaining
relationships among teachers and their students are used for educator
professional development, learning, and sharing content.
About social networking sites / Features and services of social networking
sites:
Social networking sites are web-based services that offer us an opportunity
to socialize with others. A social networking site can be used to meet
new friends, search friends that students have forgotten or haven't
been able to get in touch with, also meet new people through their general
interests or frequent hates for a particular object or hobby although
they do not be familiar with the person or have never meet him or her
in real life. Also, learners can join events like parties, reunions
and school events by a digital calendar hence letting them socialize
with others who are also attending the event.
From other web-based services, Social networking sites are distinguished
by their observable personal profiles displaying a public list of connections.
Internet users can advantage from Social Networking sites in social,
educational, economical and other minor means.
Social networking
sites for educational purpose:
50% of teenagers say they talk to their peers regarding schoolwork
online or through text message and 60% specify that they discuss topics
linked to education, as per the survey commissioned by the National
School Boards Association (NSBA). For use in the classroom, Social Networking technologies should
be adapted according to NSBA.
Various studies are noted by Boyd in whom researchers scrutinize the
impact of online professor existence on student-professor relationships,
the correlation between libraries and social networking sites, and the
connection among students' social networking and technical ability and
their intensity of literacy. Students can get educational benefits such
as going further than the classroom to follow interests, developing
creativeness and self expression, coming into contact with varied viewpoints,
and networking online to make decisions interrelated to higher education
like which college to focus or which programs to chase, as per Boule
and Greenhow . [15; 2]
The first-of-its-kind study carried out at the University of Minnesota disclosed the educational benefits of social networking sites and
also finds that low-income students are just as technologically savoir-faire
as compared to not low-income. According to the study found, 94 % of
the students in the study used the net, 82 % go online at home, and
77% had a profile on a social networking site. [16; 15]
Benefits of Social Networking for
Students, Teachers and Schools
For Students: In
an answer to the question what they study from using social networking
sites, students replied that they listed at the top technology skills,
followed by creativity, being open to new or different views, and communication
skills. All the students do not know that internet provides lots of
academic and professional networking opportunities. Actually students
using social networking sites are practicing the kinds of 21st-century
skills required to build up to be successful today is being found by
researchers. Children will be better set to adapt future technology
as children learn to adapt new technologies or new applications of present
technologies.