The Use of Social Media in Language Learning

Introduction

Due to technological advancements in our current society, social media is rapidly being interwoven into every aspect of daily life, including that of education. In today’s age, students and educators alike are discovering the unlimited opportunities that social media offers to enhance the learning process. As evidence to this statement, a survey conducted by Social Learning Infographics (2013) revealed that 96% of students use social media and approximately 60% are utilizing their social network platforms for educational purposes. However, according to Jarrah et al. (2019), many researchers are still in debate regarding whether social media impacts students positively or negatively, specifically when it comes to learning English language. However, the crucial role of social media in language learning brings far more benefits compared to drawbacks which include providing a platform for self-learning, increasing motivation to learn English and developing language skills.

Social Media and Language Learning

Social Media Language Learning (SMLL) is an inventive strategy for learning and showing English language intelligently, connecting web based life sites to dialect learning. English dialect students are in this way urged and bolstered to create correspondence and dialect aptitudes. This strategy or approach was initially made by a Spanish organization called Idiom plus in addition to from Barcelona. English dialect students can develop however as they could be expected in exercises which require the utilization of English dialect. Utilizing internet based life in enhancing the dialect learning can discover the response to this inquiry, "Would social be able to media influence the understudies' improvement and advance in outside dialect?''

Social media and its distinctive sites share a considerable measure of learning and data about English dialect learning. As indicated by numerous exploration, social influences the improvement of English dialect students in outside dialect. As understudies spend o parcel of hours in web based life and its diverse sites, on the off chance that they like the pages of vocabulary and articulation on Facebook and different sites, they can learn numerous more things and enhance their English dialect learning. They can likewise watch the online recordings about various specialists to find out about English dialect and enhance the vocabulary and elocution capacity of English dialect.

Twitter

Twitter is a social media website and long range informal communication benefit where clients post and connect with messages, known as tweets. These messages were initially confined to 140 characters, yet on November 7, 2017, the breaking points were multiplied to 280 characters for all dialects with the exception of Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Twitter is situated in San Francisco, California, United States, and has in excess of 25 workplaces around the globe. It was first made in March 2006 by Jack Dorsy and Evan Williams and propelled in July of that year. Starting at 2016, there are in excess of 319 million month to month dynamic clients of this site.

It is another and important site of online networking. There are quantities of understudies that are locked in on Twitter site in numerous hours daily. Twitter is utilized to share refresh news of world, imparting thoughts and visiting to companions. It is likewise used to get the hang of something about taking in the language. As there are numerous researchers give their perspectives on Twitter so the students inspire chance to get the hang of something about their language and their instruction.

Skype

It is called to have a talked discussion with somebody over the web and online networking utilizing the product application Skype. It is another important apparatus of web based life. It is likewise called the online site of internet based life. At Skype, individuals can see each other and talk openly.

Skype has broken numerous obstructions to correspondence. While in the past you expected to deal with the minutes and seconds that spend talking on universal calls, now there is never again need to make a fuss over it. Present days, on the off chance that somebody utilizes Skype for correspondence, he will be pay simply the month to month benefit. Understudies can utilize the Skype for their instructive purposes, for instance, in Abroad the students can't go for the meeting of employment, so the students can give the meeting on Skype. Students can likewise take in the data of their language and instruction on Skype in light of the fact that there are numerous researchers that give their online addresses on Skype.

YouTube

Youtube was launched in 2005, denoted as one of the prominent websites favoured by users for the ease of using it (Fleck et al., 2014). Kaplan and Haenlein as quoted by Fleck et al., 2014, reported the rate of video footage posted on Youtube is over 10 to 20 hours per minute. The massive amount of user contribution to Youtube and its ongoing progress enables the users to get endless source of information for various purposes including educational purpose. This leads Youtube to be a rich source of media and plays a vital part in the education system.

YouTube is incredible place to learn English and many more information about their education. There are actually a great many recordings that can find out about the dialect. There are a large number of clients that utilization the YouTube site day by day. Online addresses of various researchers on language and education are accessible for students on this website. Students can learn many a lot of things by utilizing the online YouTube vidoes.

Blogs

Blogs play a very important role for learning many things about language. It is likewise valuable to discover Blogs on diversions or points that the understudies are occupied with that are composed in English. Many information and knowledge are discussed in Blogs. Distinctive Blogs are utilized to get included the understudies by including a remark or asking the creator question.

WhatsApp

Whatsapp is a very important website of social media which plays its role for learning English languages. Students learn many things about their languages on WhatsApp. They share their study notes and online videos about languages on it. In a recent study, it is shown that about 80% students use the WhatsApp website.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is crystal clear that using social media in learning English language is essential for reasons such as it supplies students with an excellent platform for self-orientated learning, it enhances learners’ motivation and it improves language fluency such as vocabulary development and writing skills. Although social media has a lot of positive impacts on English education among students, social media is also capable of hindering English learning without proper guidance and resources. Usage of social media without proper restriction or control will only bring about more harm than good such as it can distract students from learning, makes students feel demotivated and encourages the usage of informal language. Therefore, with the positive impacts social media has, it should be incorporated as an alternative tool alongside traditional classroom teaching methods. Instructors should also be prompted to thoroughly utilize the platform for learning in order to improve the English education quality among their students as well as redirecting and guiding them so that they do not misuse social media and only use reliable resources. Students, educators and even parents should play their own roles to make sure that social media can be safely used to help students to learn better.