Facebook usage for english language learning among english major students at an giang university

2.1.1 Facebook use for out-of-class collaboration 5 2.1.2 Facebook use for academic communication 6 2.1.3 Facebook use for sharing educational information 6 2.1.4 Facebook use for improv

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

AN GIANG UNIVERSITY

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

FACEBOOK USAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AMONG ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

_

July 2020

Lê Ngọc Linh

Firstly, I would like to express the sincere appreciation to Dr Phan Thị Thanh Huyền I am so lucky and grateful to have her as my supervisor who always stands by my side and gives me valuable advice and thorough guidance Without her whole-hearted supports, I would not have finished this thesis

Secondly, I want to say thank you to Mrs Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt, Mrs Nguyễn Thị Ánh Gương and Mr Lê Đỗ Thái for encouraging me to conduct this study I would like to send special thanks to Mrs Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt who helped me come up with the research problem from the very first days and has always motivated me during the whole process

Next, my sincere gratitude goes to An Giang University, the Faculty of Foreign Languages, and my beloved instructors from the faculty for creating a chance for me to conduct the study Also, many thanks go to all the volunteer students in class 17AV, 17TA, 18AV, 18TA, 19AV, 19TA1, 19TA2, 20AV, 20TA1 and 20TA2 who passionately joined in the online survey during the quarantine period against Covid-19 pandemic

Last but not least, I would like to send special thanks to my beloved family for always believing in me and raising me up whenever I felt depressed Also, I would like to thank my close friend, Trần Nguyễn Anh Thư,

my brothers and sisters, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Nhung, Lê Mai Hương, Nguyễn Huỳnh Minh Mẫn, Trần Ngọc Mai, and my schoolmates for their supports and assistance during the research

2.1.1 Facebook use for out-of-class collaboration 5 2.1.2 Facebook use for academic communication 6 2.1.3 Facebook use for sharing educational information 6 2.1.4 Facebook use for improving language production skills 7 2.2 Facebook use in education – Pros and cons 7 2.2.1 Advantages of using Facebook in education 7 2.2.2 Disadvantages of using Facebook in education 9 2.3 Facebook use in English language teaching and learning 10 2.3.1 Using Facebook as an online writing platform 10 2.3.2 Using Facebook to improve English reading comprehension 12 2.3.3 Using Facebook for developing English communicative skills 13 2.3.4 Using Facebook for online English listening practice 14 2.4 Students’ perceptions on the use of Facebook 14

in English language learning

iv

4.1 The reliability of the questionnaire 21 4.2 Facebook usage for English language learning 21 among AGU undergraduate English major students

4.2.1 Facebook usage for academic purposes relating 22

to English language learning

4.2.2 Facebook usage for improving English language skills 24 4.2.3 Facebook usage for English major-related searching 28 4.3 Attitudes of AGU undergraduate English major students 30 towards Facebook usage for English language learning

4.3.1 The effectiveness of Facebook usage as a learning tool 31 4.3.2 The effectiveness of Facebook usage as a self-study environment 32 4.4 Problems of using Facebook for English language learning 33

5.1.1 Facebook usage for English language learning among AGU

5.1.2 Attitudes of AGU undergraduate English major students 39 towards Facebook usage for English language learning

5.1.3 Problems of using Facebook for English language learning 39

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.2 Participants’ demographic characteristics 17

Table 3.3 Category of questions in the third section of the questionnaire 19

Table 4.2.1 Facebook usage for academic purposes relating to ELL 22

Table 4.2.2 Facebook usage for improving English language skills 24 Table 4.2.3 Facebook usage for English major-related searching 28 Table 4.3 Students' attitudes towards Facebook usage for ELL 30

Table 4.4a Problems of using Facebook for ELL 33

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.2.1 Facebook usage for academic purposes relating to ELL 23 Figure 4.2.2a Facebook usage for English vocabulary 25 Figure 4.2.2b Facebook usage for English listening skills practice 26 Figure 4.2.2c Facebook usage for English grammar, speaking and reading 27 Figure 4.2.2d Facebook usage for writing skills 28 Figure 4.2.3 Facebook usage for English major-related searching 29 Figure 4.3.1 The effectiveness of Facebook usage as a learning tool 31 Figure 4.3.2 The effectiveness of Facebook usage as

Figure 4.4 Problems of using Facebook for ELL 34

be adopted for educational aspects including language learning However, the exploration of this social network for education or English language learning and teaching in the context of Vietnam still remains a scare topic There are few surveys carried out to examine Facebook implication as well as the usefulness of this social network in field of education Therefore, this quantitative descriptive study is conducted to discover the usage of Facebook

in English language learning using an online survey questionnaire with 189 English major students at An Giang University

The findings show that the English major students used Facebook for various purposes consisting of improving English competence as well as joining in other activities related to academic life and their field of study The participants strongly believed in the usefulness of Facebook in English language learning; however, they also reported some common problems disturbing the online learning process on Facebook such as students’ neglect

of study, online distraction and concerns about privacy or cyber-bullying

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION



There are five sections in this chapter: (1) rationale of the research, (2) research aims and questions, (3) significance of the research, (4) limitations

of the research, and (5) organization of the study

1.1 Rationale of the research

Amid a variety of available social networking sites, Facebook was chosen in this research for its worldwide recognition Starting from a doom-room network created by Mark Zuckerberg and Edward Saverin in 2004, it has become the world giant dominating the social network market with over two billion users worldwide (Statista, 2020) Following the trend, the number of Facebook users in Vietnam has been considerably increasing and climbed to the seventh worldwide in 2017 with 64 million registered accounts (Statista, 2020) Tuoi Tre News (2015) also reported that Vietnamese users spend two and a half hours a day on Facebook on average The statistics appear as evidence for the popularity of this platform throughout the country The rocketing prevalence of Facebook has triggered studies on the use of this platform in social interaction, entertainment, and education This reveals that Facebook may cross the platform wall accessing to the land of education

Regarding educational field, Facebook has been proved a controversial application On the positive side, Facebook could be used in academic activities as a new way to enhance peer collaboration (Daniel, 2016), and a more open environment for communication either between teachers and students or among classmates (Roblyer, 2010; Venable, 2009) Besides, its multimedia capacity helped students exchange references (Mazman, 2010) as well as establish interpersonal skills and learners’ confidence (Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin, 2010) On the contrary, this application has been criticized

in different studies Especially, Facebook use was believed to be associated with learners’ distraction from their study (Williamso, 2011) and learners’ poor academic performance (Junco, 2015) In addition to the negative impacts

on learners’ study, students figured out other problems while spending time on Facebook such as cyber-bullying risks (Catanzaro, 2011; Willems & Bateman, 2011), verification of information (Lazer, 2008), and privacy issues (Nguyen, 2017) In general, Facebook can be utilized for academic purposes, but it has both benefits and drawbacks

In particular relation to English language teaching and learning, Facebook used as a learning tool has been supported by different scholars As

an online active environment, Facebook has been considered a good writing and reading platform where students could conduct practice, peer correction, and discussion (Boonkit, 2011; Yen, Hou & Chang, 2015) Besides writing and reading skills, Facebook groups gave students chances to not only listen to but also produce authentic English (Blattner, 2012; Galloway & Rose, 2017), which contributed to promoting English listening and speaking skills Although the usefulness of Facebook as an English language learning tool has

been indicated in various studies, students still expressed contrasting thoughts and attitudes towards Facebook application in English language learning Learners agreed that Facebook had high likelihood to be applied in English learning, especially for enhancing the four integrated skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing In contrast, students might be distracted from their study and faced miscommunication while using Facebook (Akbari, Eghtesad & Simons, 2012; Nguyen, 2017)

In short, Facebook can facilitate English language learners in the learning process although it may cause some problems This has been shown

in prior studies worldwide; however, Facebook use for educational purposes and especially English language learning among young people in Vietnam remains a rarely-explored topic (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2015) despite the fact that Facebook is apparently the most popular social networking site among Vietnamese students Therefore, the current research looks into the usage of Facebook in English language learning among undergraduate English majors

in a specific higher education context

1.2 Research aims and questions

1.2.1 Research aims

This study aims to find out undergraduate English major students’ habits of using Facebook for English informal learning activities Also, the study examines their perceptions on Facebook application in educational contexts, giving more insights into the effectiveness and drawbacks of Facebook usage

1.3 Significance of the research

This study will firstly benefit the researcher in her future academic paths The researcher can know students’ attitudes towards Facebook usage for English language learning and the problems they may encounter when using Facebook Thus, she can apply Facebook in the teaching process appropriately and effectively

Moreover, the results of this study will motivate teachers to adopt Facebook as an extra teaching tool which helps enhance students’ engagement Besides, the findings will offer parents and administrators a better understanding of students’ demeanors in Facebook usage for English language learning If lecturers, parents, and administrators acknowledge

students’ needs, they can provide students with practical advice to make good use of Facebook for English language learning, and to avoid as many problems associated with this application as possible

1.4 Limitations of the research

Despites it significance as presented above, this study has some limitations

Firstly, this study involves only English major students in a university

to discover their Facebook usage for English language learning The results and implications from this study may not be applicable to non-English specialized students However they can be generalized in similar contexts of learning English

Moreover, this study lacks a closer look into specific aspects of learning English such as listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills, writing skills, vocabulary or grammar Instead, it combines all these aspects and examines the effectiveness of Facebook usage in learning these aspects in general

Furthermore, the instrument employed in this research is the survey questionnaire with both closed and open ended questions Results of this study were thus drawn only from the participants’ self-reports and lacked triangulated information with other sources of information or data Nevertheless, the survey employed sets of various questions about different aspects in using Facebook, presented in Chapter 3, and was proved to be consistent and reliable

1.5 Organization of the thesis

This thesis includes five chapters

Chapter 1 gives an overview of the matters, the research aims and questions, the significance, and the limitations of the study

Chapter 2 reviews previous studies and theoretical background related

to this thesis’ matters, including the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook application in general education, Facebook usage in English language learning, as well as the perceptions of students towards using Facebook for learning English

Chapter 3 describes the methodology of this study It consists of the research design, characteristics of the participants, the data collection instruments of the study, the data collection procedures and the data analysis method

Chapter 4 discusses the results from the survey questionnaire to answer the research questions about Facebook usage for English language learning among English major students at An Giang University, their attitudes and thoughts toward the effectiveness of Facebook in ELL, and the common problems arising with Facebook usage for learning English

Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of the study, then proposes some implications for teaching and learning, and recommendations for future research based on the results of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW



This chapter includes four sections giving an overview on the use of Facebook in general education and particularly in English language learning and teaching The first part presents the use of Facebook in education and its effectiveness The second focuses on the pros and cons of Facebook application in education Then, the third section reviews the role and the effects of Facebook as a tool in learning and teaching English language The final part discusses students’ perspectives towards Facebook use in English language learning

2.1 Educational use of Facebook

Facebook is not merely used for entertainment; it can be applied as a learning network with structure and flexibility providing a great resource for students and teachers Towner, Van Horn, and Parker (2007) conducted a study revealing that Facebook was an abundant learning resource Findings showed that 56 percent of participants found Facebook a great tool for setting

up classroom-relating activities, out-of-class discussion, updating class notifications, setting up meetings and creating self-study groups

Similarly, Facebook was believed to be useful in educational aspects such as (1) promoting peer collaboration, (2) enhancing communication (3) academic materials sharing and (4) improving skills (Mazman & Usluel, 2010; Shaw, 2016)

2.1.1 Facebook use for out-of-class collaboration

In terms of peer collaboration, students found Facebook groups without teachers’ involvement a good mixture between campus life and social life where they can take advantage of peer learning (Dalsgaard, 2016) Facebook could build up a community sense among users, resulting in greater collaboration and closer learning sharing In addition, community practice was considered a good way for people to share common concerns and interests to have better learning Through group interaction, experience sharing and reflection, learners could set good models for each other (Ractham & Firpo, 2011)

Moreover, students were interested in peer discussions on Facebook and strongly believed that those discussions significantly helped to improve their learning (Daniel, 2016) Learners also enjoyed reacting to their Facebook friends and receiving feedback They were excited to see how different ideas contributed to a problem, which helped them see the issue from various angles

In fact, Facebook can promote cooperation between learners by creating space for online discussions Thus, students have more chances to exchange ideas and contribute to group working By these ways, interpersonal interaction may be enhanced as well

2.1.2 Facebook use for academic communication

Facebook can enhance communication between teachers and students Facebook was thought to be a new environment where people from different places could hold a sharing conversation together (Shaw, 2016) Besides, Facebook created an active environment for users to interactively share interests and concerns with other people (Toker & Baturey, 2019) Therefore, instructors intending to form a relationship with students during the teaching process might find Facebook an effective way to establish connections (Roblyer, 2010) For students, they found it easier and more open to have online talks with their lecturers on Facebook and agreed that Facebook provided an open line of communication between instructors and students (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009)

Facebook is a favorable place for students to have a conversation with their classmates about the course A survey by Roblyer (2010) indicated that participants believed Facebook was convenient for schoolwork and they communicated on Facebook as frequently as by email Another study (Karlin, 2007) reported that 60 percent of students utilized Facebook for academic talks, and 50 percent discussed specific school topics

Teachers can use Facebook as a classroom reminder which helps to keep students in line with in-class activities One of the problems facing teachers was that students might ignore their homework (Parent Institute, 2011) In this case, Facebook could help teachers tackle the matter by creating

a whole-class page and sending reminders about the assignments, tests or lesson preparation (Venable, 2009)

Obviously, Facebook can function as an online environment supporting peer conversations as well as interaction between teachers and students on academic topics Also, through those Facebook-assisted chats, information exchanges relating to school and study inevitably take place

2.1.3 Facebook use for sharing educational information

Facebook allows students to share information about academic topics According to Baturey (2019), 72 percent of the participants in this study used Facebook as a sharing tool They shared learning resources, materials, assignments and documents (Mazman, 2010) Information shared via Facebook had positive impacts on students, helping them to deeply understand lessons (Al-Dheleai & Tasir, 2017) Students shared information in form of texts, files, links, images or videos Likewise, students could use pages or groups to update their course events, send announcements and even learning materials Additionally, Facebook pages could be applied as a school page where all crucial information would be accessed by students and families Schools could post announcement about school events, and current activities

in order to keep learners and their families updated (Hartstein, 2011)

In short, students can take advantage of Facebook to make a quick share of school-related news and learning items Moreover, as discussed in the previous part, Facebook can foster online collaboration and communication

not only among peers but also between teachers and students Both collaborative and communicative works requires learners to interact with one another, which may help improve learners’ interpersonal skills

2.1.4 Facebook use for improving language production skills

Using Facebook helps students acquire better writing and communication skills Students using social networking sites like Facebook were more creative in expressing themselves (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009)

Another survey conducted in Malaysia (Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin, 2010) showed that over 70 percent of 300 involved undergraduates agreed with the likelihood of using Facebook to enhance their confidence in English reading and writing Also, they had a stronger motivation to learn English, especially in enriching vocabulary While going online, the students were motivated to look up more new words

Furthermore, learning might occur incidentally through academic and non-academic activities on Facebook (Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin, 2010) The only condition for learning prevalence was meaningful interactions between users Authentic communication on Facebook permitted users to produce authentic language as well

In summary, besides the use for social purposes, Facebook is believed

to bring tremendous benefits in education corresponding to the enhancement

of collaboration, communication, online exchanges of academic information and language production skills among students However, Facebook usage in academic fields remains an arguable application embracing both advantages and disadvantages

2.2 Facebook use in education – Pros and cons

With regard to the discovery of Facebook usage in scholastic aspects, its involved benefits and drawbacks have been revealed in recent studies

2.2.1 Advantages of using Facebook in education

Facebook has been mentioned as an adoptable platform with infinite sources of materials and a new-style job market Besides, Facebook application in education not only encourages students’ engagement but also stimulates the development of interpersonal skills (Towner, Horn & Parker, 2007; Osborne, 2012; Ellison, 2007; Gafni & Deri, 2012)

• Easy adoption

Facebook is an easily-adoptable teaching platform It is well-designed with multi-functions Teachers and students who have not used Facebook before can learn to use it easily from others or via online instruction (Towner,

Horn & Parker, 2007)

• Information availability

Facebook provides endless sources of learning materials and forums Through the function of news feed flow, public figures following and share

groups, classroom debates, projects or other activities could be conducted easily (Osborne, 2012)

• Job search

According to Ellison (2007), Facebook could be utilized for jobs and internships seeking This suggestion is potentially practical because the job board feature was created on Facebook in February 2017 This feature allows employers to post recruitment announcement either on their business page or any specific job pages to attract potential employees By this way, companies can promote their staff need and job seekers can apply for suitable positions (Topresume, n.d) Statistics revealed that there were 65 million business pages, and recently a study by Jobvite considered Facebook as the second most popular social network for employment (Jobvite, 2012)

• Enhancement of student engagement

Facebook also can be applied in a learning management system (LMS),

a tool for teachers to enhance students’ engagement As the definition given

by Yueh & Hsu (2008, p 59), LMS is a cyber-tool assisting teachers to design and set up “instructional activities such as presenting information, managing course materials, and collecting and evaluating student work” In fact, Facebook usage as an LMS has become more and more popular Findings from a study by Wang (2012) in Singapore indicated that students were satisfied with the application of Facebook in LMS

Facebook-based learning environment was said to involve beneficial functions helping to enhance students’ engagement such as instant interaction through comments and group setting (Towner, Horn & Parker, 2007) With these functions, learners could conduct online discussions via Facebook to help one another with their assignments without meeting in person Especially, Facebook usage was considered the most useful in case any learners missed in-class lessons because the platform helped them contact a classmate for class-related information fast and simple Therefore, students were better engaged in their learning

Using Facebook, students tended to look up learning materials more usually than going to traditional classes Moreover, unlike a traditional oral lesson in which teachers delivered instructive speech and students were listeners, Facebook groups could help to involve more students to interact with the instructors and form lessons jointly This improved students’ engagement

in the subject and their confidence (Meng, 2015)

• Improvement of interpersonal communication

Peer communication was promoted on Facebook (Gafni & Deri, 2012) Via Facebook, students could have chats to get information on lectures or join

in cyber discussion to complete their homework or projects Also, based chatting could be useful in urgent situations For example, a student could go online and immediately got assistance from classmates to solve the exercises in preparation for the upcoming exams This way was not only cheap but also time-saving

Facebook-In addition to the connection among students, Facebook stimulates the communication between teachers and students Teachers’ openness is an effective way to communicate with students Students felt more comfortable to communicate with teachers online when they became friends on Facebook (Mazer, 2007)

In the same vein, Ferdinand James and Foogooa (2017) stated that Facebook allowed students to communicate with lecturers by comments and, give and receive feedbacks from lecturers and peers Particularly, freshmen found themselves confident enough to make questions for the teachers online, assisting them to gain clarification about unclear points of the lessons For instructors, Facebook not only helped them post comments to inform their students but also was a great method to give instruction (Meng, 2015)

2.2.2 Disadvantages of using Facebook in education

Although Facebook usage appears advantageous to educational activities, students may face noteworthy drawbacks While using Facebook for academic purposes, students may suffer learning distraction, confusion owing

to the richness of information as well as cyber safety and privacy

• Distraction and poor academic performance

Facebook was created as an online platform functioning to serve people

in social interaction and recreation (Tang, 2015) Therefore, while conducting learning activities, students could be distracted by numerous entertaining attractions shown up on Facebook such as music, videos, images and news (Cassidy, 2006)

Another negative impact that Facebook has on students refers to poor academic performance (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010) The more time students spent on Facebook, the worse they performed at school (Junco, 2012) For learners spending more than 100 minutes using Facebook daily, they gain lower marks compared to others spending less than 80 minutes (Junco & Cotten, 2011) Also, Facebook usage negatively affected learners’ academic achievement if they joined in entertainment activities available on the platform like playing games, posting and chatting rather than do self-study More recently, students who stayed on Facebook for more than an hour a day got far lower marks on memory test (Frein, 2013) Giving explanation for this finding, reading posts and news on Facebook was believed to cause students to memorize irrelevant items rather than their study-related information

• Cyber-bullying risks

Cyber-bullying is a type of bullying occurring via electronic technology such as mobile texting, email, online chatting, social networking sites, or other electronic devices (US Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.)

Social media together with social networking sites was reported as a common space for violence, harassment and cyber-bulling to happen between adolescent and their peers (Patton, 2014)

Cyber-bullying among college students has been disclosed in different studies Social networks, particularly Facebook was said to trigger an intensification of cyber-bullying among female teenagers in England, Scandinavia and North America (Catanzaro, 2011) Also, in the study by Willems and Bateman (2011), Facebook was said to be a pitfall hiding danger

of cyber-bullying in higher education

• Privacy

Privacy can be conceptualized as the right to control access to one’s personal profile (Fuchs, 2011; Guo, 2010) In 2018, Facebook was involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal for its failure to safeguard users’ information From then on, data privacy has centered into the concerns of online users (Winder, 2019)

Cyber security was considered as one of the biggest concern of Vietnamese undergraduate learners (Nguyen, 2017) Accordingly, participants revealed that a combination of social life and academic activities was created

as a result of using Facebook for scholastic purposes Reacting to this mixture,

32 percent of the participants felt annoyed and 17 percent showed a high level

of irritation

• The spread of misinformation

The widespread misinformation on social networks, such as Facebook, has caused an alarm in recent years (Flynn, 2017; Lazer, 2018) In fact, information could be updated on Facebook without being reviewed or verified

in advance Therefore, it may lead to confusion and misusage among students

(Klomsri, Grebäck, & Tedre, 2013)

On the whole, in spite of entailing some notable drawbacks, Facebook

is a functional and beneficial invention Also, thanks to the functions of setting

up an online interactive and collaborative learning environment, Facebook can

be applied in field of education In particular, this interactive scholastic space can be exploited for English language learning

2.3 Facebook use in English language teaching and learning

It is said that a successful English learner is the person capable of using English for communication (Davies & Pearse, 2000) Whenever a person uses language to communicate, he or she employs the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing Therefore, the integration of these skills is of extreme necessity to reach the objective of communicating in English With Facebook usage for English learning and teaching, the four integrated skills can be improved altogether

2.3.1 Using Facebook as an online writing platform

Previous studies considered Facebook as an online writing platform (Dizon, 2016; Mislaila, 2015; Rodliah, 2015; Shukor & Noordin, 2014) Via private groups on Facebook, students could create an English-using community where they had the opportunities to discuss on writing

assignments, sharing ideas and giving feed-back to each other Facebook closed groups were chosen owing to privacy settings allowing only group members to see the posts and comments to interact with one another Every single item posted in the group would appear on members’ news feed to make sure that information would not be missed (MeisharTal, Kurtz, & Pieterse, 2012) Besides, users found Facebook convenient because they could join the groups without adding friends with other members or the administrator, which allowed them to keep their profile private

Demonstrating the effectiveness of Facebook groups in developing writing skills, Shukor and Noordin (2014) recommended Facebook as an ideal learning environment where English learners could be fully immersed in the language In their study, 33 English second language sophomores engaged in a Facebook cooperative group to practice writing altogether The finding revealed that online interaction was an effective way for students to produce authentic language Similarly, students joining in discussions and feedback exchanging on Facebook obtained a higher writing competence compared to students attending traditional classes only

In a Facebook group, students could benefit from Facebook functions, especially post comments to enrich vocabulary, brainstorm and get ideas for writing essays, and peer-to-peer correct spelling to improve their writing skills (Mislaila, 2015) As a result, those students could complete the essays easier and more quickly because they were supported by their peers Also, debates and feedbacks fostered students’ analytical thinking skills

Furthermore, Rodliah (2015) investigated the use of Facebook in English language teaching via a closed group for e-dialogue journal writing The study involved fifteen English Education majors voluntarily joined a Facebook closed group during four months Their online interaction including journal contents and their reaction in this closed group was analyzed to identify the nature of the students’ journals, the patterns of interaction, and their responses to e-journaling through Facebook The findings showed that the students had a positive response to this online activity and acquired improvement in their writing, especially in lexical richness and fluency

In the same vein, Yen (2015) conducted an extensive investigation of the effects of online discussions on Facebook private groups and via Skype The study involved 42 college students learning English communication in Taiwan and used a pre-test and a post-test to evaluate the influence of online discussions on writing and speaking competence The study was divided into three stages In the first step, the participants attended conventional lessons in two weeks to gain more vocabulary preparing for online discussions Afterward, the students divided into teams of 5 - 6 students with a leader took part in Facebook-based discussion and Skype calls Finally, a questionnaire was exploited to explore students’ perspectives of the course The results highlighted the significance of Facebook and Skype, in enhancing the students’ speaking and writing performance For further explanation, the students reported that the combination of self-correction and peer- correction

helped them practice speaking and writing better, resulting in a positive attitude towards learning

Substantiating the effectiveness of using Facebook for writing practice, Dizon (2016) made a comparison between the effects of Facebook-based writing and paper-based form Thirty English foreign language (EFL) undergraduates in Japan were divided into two groups: a manipulated group (n

= 16) and a control group (n = 15) During the research, both of the two groups had extra free writing lessons in 15 weeks (2 periods/ week) in addition to the usual amount of in-class English lessons However, the experimental group attended free writing online instructed by the researcher using Facebook while the other group was taught in the traditional classroom associated with papers

by other teachers Students were not allowed to get help from any resources like references or dictionaries during the research duration To measure the improvement of participants in lexical items, writing accuracy and fluency, a three-cycle test (a pre-test, a mid-test, and a post-test) was employed The findings showed that the experimental group were more fluent in their second language writing compared to the control group

Obviously, students could not only upgrade their writing skills in terms

of brainstorming competence, fluency and vocabulary but also improve analytical skills through interactive activities on Facebook groups such as discussion and peer correction

2.3.2 Using Facebook to improve English reading comprehension

Reading skill was believed to be the most integral skill that EFL learners need to acquire (Levine, Ferenz & Reves, 2000) However, EFL reading materials were such a limitation around commercial textbooks and articles (Boonkit, 2011) Therefore, extensive reading which allowed students

to apply the in-class reading skills such as scanning and skimming to read informal papers was in need To promote extensive reading, EFL learners should experience authentic reading beyond classroom wall and Facebook was

In a nutshell, Facebook could provide English learners with more authentic reading activities which contributed to the improvement of the comprehension and the extension of vocabulary

2.3.3 Using Facebook for developing English communicative skills

It was said that the lack of speaking chances could result in the less participation and unwillingness to talk (Liu & Littlewood, 1997) In other words, learners’ confidence in English communication and oral proficiency were closely relative to the frequency of English speaking activity (Zhou, 2013) Specifically, the more English speaking opportunities students had, the more confidently and better they performed English speaking competence Besides, speaking English in front of other classmates was a big challenge to students who were not good at English and not confident enough to give it a try As the last resort, they decided to escape from oral participation in order not to make fool of themselves

To help students overcome their in-class shyness and anxieties in speaking English, Facebook is a possible solution Particularly, online communication on Facebook could create more opportunities for English learners to communicate (Al-Sofi, 2016) By this way, learners who were too shy to join in speaking activities in traditional class could be more confident to express themselves A learner may feel too nervous and too shy to talk in front

of the class whereas Facebook-assisted interaction allows students to gradually brainstorm ideas and speak in their private space without the presence of anyone Moreover, Facebook allowed students to befriend with native speakers who not only communicated with them in English but also gave feed-back on their oral such as grammar, word choice or spelling mistakes

Giving a closer look on second language communicative skills, daily usage of Facebook was considered pedagogically useful to students’ language acquisition (McBride, 2009) In fact, frequent interaction between learners on the platform enabled them to practice pragmatic ability and consequently progressed in second language communication Similarly, Facebook could be exploited as a new learning platform in the context of English language classes (Blattner, 2012) Via posting and commenting activities on Facebook, the participants were enjoyably engaged in authentic and meaningful language exchange with their classmates and native speakers in France, which contributed to upgrading communication competence

In the context of Vietnam, Facebook private groups can be recognized

as an effective tool for English speaking practice An investigation on 204 tenth graders by Le (2018) showed that the recording activity on the Facebook group enabled students to carefully brainstorm ideas and correct pronunciation, especially final sounds, before uploading their own voice on the Facebook private group As a result, they perceived progress in lexical density and fluency in speaking

All in all, interactive activities and enclosed groups on Facebook are likely to function as an extensive learning environment for English speaking practice

2.3.4 Using Facebook for online English listening practice

In comparison with traditional listening practice items (videos or only recordings), Facebook live videos brings more notable benefits such as authentic interaction, active and motivating reaction and content diversity In

voice-2018, Chris Kobylinski conducted a study with 24 Korean EFL learners involved in different listening activities (CD-based recordings and Facebook live videos) Findings showed that Facebook live videos were more favorable compared to CD recordings This type of visuals was considered as a source for real-time and authentic connection Students could either basically focus

on the live video contents or interact via messages while watching those videos, which would form an authentic listening experience In case students could not catch up with the video content, they were able to replay the video and recheck for comprehension Contributing to the benefits of using live videos on Facebook, Barseghian (2011) claimed that Facebook Live created

an active environment for listening activities where students were not forced

to passively listen to the teachers In contrast, they were more motivated to activate their brain to analyze the video content, then passionately reacted to the speakers

In agreement with Chris, the investigation in the context of Vietnam by

Le (2018) also revealed the effectiveness of using of Facebook in English listening practice The study employed 204 tenth graders to complete a questionnaire at the first phase Then, seventeen of them attended the online course which includes lessons, pre- and post-course interviews and tests to explore not only their experiences during the course but also the effects of online practicing The results indicated that after a six-week online course requiring students to listen to uploaded audio and listening exercises, 88 percent of them progressed in listening

In short, Facebook live videos appear a useful source of English listening materials and the platform can be an online space for listening practice Together with listening skill, Facebook has been considered to help improve students’ competences of English writing, reading and speaking, as discussed in previous parts For all that mentioned, Facebook with a high likelihood can be exploited as a supplemental tool for English language teaching and learning However, research about the effectiveness of using Facebook for English language learning in Vietnam is scarce, and thus, is worth exploring

2.4 Students’ perceptions on the use of Facebook in English language learning

The usage of Facebook both in general education and in English language learning involves notable advantages disadvantages, as discussed in previous section Especially, these negative influences of Facebook may hinder students’ academic performance Clearly, students may be directly

affected by changes in teaching methods and learning activities; moreover, those effects can be reflected through their perceptions Therefore, it is necessary to review students’ perspectives toward any initiatives, including Facebook application in English language learning, to find out the embraced effectiveness Responding to Facebook use in ELL, mixed perceptions were shared by students (AbuSa’aleek, 2015; Akbari, Eghtesad & Simons, 2012; Nguyen, 2017)

On one hand, students showed positive perspectives towards the usefulness of Facebook as an English language teaching and learning tool (AbuSa’aleek, 2015; Akbari et al., 2012; Le, 2014; Nguyen, 2017) Akbari, Eghtesad and Simons (2012) discovered students’ perspectives towards Facebook use for language learning through an online course The collected data showed that most students, who first thought of Facebook as a social interaction tool, after the course, stated that Facebook in all likelihood could facilitate students’ formal learning

AbuSa’aleek (2015) explored attitudes of 65 EFL undergraduates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards the effectiveness of Facebook use in English learning The findings indicated a general agreement among participants on the use of Facebook as an online environment to promote students’ motivation In more detail, the number of students acknowledging the provoking role of Facebook in English reading, writing and communicating activities was 75.38%, 63.07 %, and 61.52 % respectively

In Vietnam, Nguyen (2017) investigated the insights of 394 undergraduates in Ho Chi Minh University of Education on Facebook use for English learning and teaching The findings indicated that the majority of students (69.8%) found Facebook useful in education, in which 27.4 percent of the students highly agreed with the usefulness of Facebook The students agreed that the effects of Facebook were distributed into three main functions, namely communication and school-related information interchange (87.3%), learning resources sharing (81.7%) and team-work and collaboration enhancement (79.4%) However, the informal educational application appeared to dominate formal educational activities In fact, 72.3 percent of the students used Facebook in informal education while formal education took only 52.8 percent In another study, Facebook was highly recommended as a language learning tool thanks to the interactional and collaborative features (Le, 2014) Those features included English music, visual items, posting and commenting, which allowed students to interact with each other Also, EFL learners in Ho Chi Minh City University of Education who took part in the study found more motivated and interested in learning English on Facebook

On the other hand, students’ negative thoughts and attitudes towards Facebook application in ELL have been disclosed with a set of encountered difficulties such as distraction, resource credibility, miscommunication, the mix of private and campus life and other minor problems (Nguyen, 2017) Referring to online distraction, 77.7 percent out of 394 surveyed students reported often interruption by other activities or contents on Facebook Thus,

participants lost concentration on study-related activities Also, 40.6 percent of students suffered confusion owing to the mass flow of education-related materials without clear information of authorship uploaded on Facebook Another notable problem stemming from the survey was miscommunicating in which 62.4 percent of students missed urgent notification unless they kept their Facebook accounts connected Last but not least, the combination of personal and academic lives was inevitable while students apply Facebook as

an online learning environment This combination annoyed almost half of the participants (Nguyen, 2017)

In general, Facebook has been mentioned as a practical network providing users with social benefits and educational assistance Especially, Facebook can be applied as a tool or a supplementary environment in English language teaching and learning to enhance the four English integrated skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing However, the application of this platform in foreign language learning has both pros and cons While Facebook has been widely explored in other educational contexts, studies about its use in English language learning in Vietnam are still limited Therefore, this study explores the utilization of Facebook in the language learning process among English major students and their perspectives towards this application in the context of An Giang University in An Giang province

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY



This chapter describes the research design, participants’ characteristics, research instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis in this study

3.1 Research design

Quantitative descriptive research design which “provides an accurate picture of characteristics of a phenomenon” (Johnson & Christensen, 2012, p 547) is employed in this study because the nature of the study requires a large number of participants to discern the habits of using Facebook and the perspectives of AGU undergraduate English major (EM) students toward the effectiveness of Facebook usage in English language learning (ELL) For quantitative data collection, the study employed a survey questionnaire which was completed by undergraduate English major students in An Giang University to explore their usage of Facebook in English language learning and their perceptions towards this application In the current study, there was

no manipulation to the variables and the results relied on the quantitative data collected from the questionnaire with English major students

3.2 Participants

Purposive sampling techniques enable researchers to locate participants with characteristics suitable to reach the research purposes (Johnson & Christensen, 2012, p.231) This present study used purposive sampling because the study focuses on AGU undergraduate English major students All EM students in the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) were invited to participate in the project The participants specialized either in English linguistics (EL), which focuses on English usage in economy and tourism, or in English language teaching education (ELTE), which trains students to become teachers of English Both programs take four year to complete and mainly consist of English language subjects (listening, speaking, reading and writing) as well as content-subjects taught in English

189 out of 678 full-time EM students voluntarily took part in the survey They used smartphones, laptops, desktops or tablets to log in Facebook and their general usage was described with the following statistics:

- 187 participants (98.9%) connected with their university friends on Facebook while only 133 students (70.4%) got connection with their lecturers

on this platform

- The students spent from 1- 8 hours daily on Facebook Regarding the proportion, 36 percent of the surveyed students stayed active on the platform from 2 to 4 hours, followed by 1 to 2 hours with 21.7 percent of the participants The students who spent less than 1 hour or 4 to 6 hours on the social network shared the similar percentages with 15.3% and 16.9% respectively while only 9.5 percent of the participants kept connected with Facebook for more than 6 hours

- The time for using Facebook in learning also varied among the respondents Over a half of the students spent less than 1 hour to do online learning 34.9 percent of the participants learnt online from 1 to 2 hours Markedly, only 6.3 percent of students reported using Facebook for learning for more than 2 hours

3.3 Data collection instruments

Data were collected by means of a questionnaire grounded on the survey items designed by Mazman (2010) and Nguyen (2017) to explore the usage of Facebook for academic purposes in higher education The questionnaire was chosen in this study because “a questionnaire is a self-report data-collection instrument” from which researchers can benefit to “obtain information about the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, personality, and behavioral intentions of research participants” (Johnson and Christensen, 2008) The questioning items were modified and redesigned to suit the purpose of this study which focuses on the Facebook use in ELL in the context of AGU

The questionnaire (see Appendix 1) consists of four sections:

1) The first section is to collect the background information of the participants including respondents’ class and gender

2) The second section contains 5 questions to find out the general usage of Facebook mentioning the devices used to access Facebook by students, the connection with their classmates/university mates and their teachers on Facebook and the frequency of Facebook use

3) The third section is divided into two parts using the Likert questionnaire’s scale divided into five levels corresponding to (1) Strongly disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Neutral, (4) Agree, (5) Strongly agree In the first part, 19 questions were used to explore students’ actual usage of Facebook for ELL The second part included 11 items regarding respondents’ thoughts and attitudes towards Facebook application in ELL and the problems they encountered while using Facebook

The questioning items in the third section of the questionnaire were categorized as shown in the table below

A bilingual survey questionnaire in English and Vietnamese was used

in this present study to help the participants understand and answer the questions as clearly and quickly as possible

3.4 Data collection procedures

The data collection procedures followed two steps:

(1) Pilot test: the English questionnaire was delivered in form of a Google Docs link via Facebook to three AGU alumni who studied English language teaching educator and graduated in 2019 The pilot test was done to measure the average time to complete the questionnaire and to find out if the questions were understandable The survey questions were then revised and turned into the bilingual version to help the students understand the questioning items better

(2) Data collection: the questionnaire was formatted using Google Docs form and was delivered online to undergraduate English major students at AGU via Facebook, Zalo and personal emails from the 12nd to the 29th of March, 2020 There were 189 replies to the survey questionnaire

3.5 Data analysis

Data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Studies software (SPSS) version 20.0 to give demonstration in terms of frequency and percentage via charts and tables

3.6 Summary

This chapter has presented the research methodology for this quantitative study Using purposive sampling method, the study involved only English major students to find out how they used Facebook for English learning, their thoughts about the effectiveness of Facebook for English learning and the problems they encountered To answer the research questions, the researcher used online survey delivered via social media or email and the results were then processed using the Statistical Package for Social Studies software (SPSS) version 20.0

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION

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This chapter analyzes the data collected from the questionnaire and makes clarification to the three aspects: (1) students’ usage of Facebook for English language learning, (2) students’ attitudes towards Facebook usage for English language learning and (3) difficulties encountered by students while using Facebook for English language learning

4.1 The reliability of the questionnaire

Case Processing Summary

4.2 Facebook usage for English language learning among AGU undergraduate English major students

The first research question discovers how AGU undergraduate English major students used Facebook to learn English Their usage was categorized into three groups including: academic purposes relating to English language learning, activities for improving English skills and special searching for English majors

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

4.2.1 Facebook usage for academic purposes relating to English language learning

Table 4.2.1

Facebook Usage for Academic Purposes Relating to ELL

I use Facebook to communicate with my classmates

about study-related topics 189 3.63 1.171

I use Facebook to facilitate group tasks/projects by

creating interactive space (public/private groups or

group chat)

189 3.77 1.151

I use Facebook to share learning materials 189 3.85 1.171

I join in English language learning communities on

Facebook such as follow pages and join in groups 189 3.98 1.151

I download learning materials (books/handouts)

from English language learning communities on

Facebook

189 3.78 1.139

I download practice tests (IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL

N: total of participants M: mean SD: standard deviation

Data from the table 4.2.1 indicates that the English major students highly used Facebook for scholastic purposes relating to English language learning (M= 3.52 – 3.98) The activities conducted by the students mainly referred to communication, downloading and sharing materials

For interaction, the students joined in school-related conversations or chats with their classmates on Facebook Also, Facebook was utilized to create cyber group-working space via Facebook where members could exchange ideas and collaborate to accomplish the academic work It is in line with the findings in studies of Daniel (2016) and Roblyer (2010) which gave supports

to Facebook usage as a communication tool connecting peers and boosting teamwork

Besides, Facebook allowed the students to become members of English language learning pages where they were able to download reference materials, mock-tests and share these things with each other Such usefulness

of Facebook has been documented in the literature (Baturey, 2019; Mazman, 2010)

The students showed different levels of involvement in each activity, which is described in the chart below

Figure 4.2.1 Facebook usage for academic purposes relating to ELL

The figure 4.2.1 reveals that the percentage of students’ agreement in Facebook usage considerably varied in each activity relating to ELL The largest percentage went to the usage of Facebook to follow English learning pages and groups (82%), followed by the application of Facebook to share materials (78.3%), getting online books/handouts (76.2%), creating interactive space for group working (76.2%) and communicating with university-mates about school work (70.4%) In contrast, the participants showed the least favor

78.3%82.0%76.2%

61.4%

I use Facebook to communicate with

my classmates about study-related

topics

I use Facebook to facilitate group

tasks/projects by creating interactive

space (public/private groups or group

I download practice test (IELTS,

TOEIC, TOEFL …) on Facebook

Agree andStrongly agree

Neutral Strongly disagree

and Disagree