FROM FACE BOOK TO CELL CALLS: AN INVESTIGATION OF TAIWANESE COLLEGE STUDENTS' USE OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH

Electronic communication technologies (ECTs) have become essential components of adolescent peer relations, and yet there has been little effort to ascertain which types of ECTs are most useful in a learning English. Our study drew on theory from Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to understand comments from focus groups with Taiwanese college students about when various ECTs— such as Facebook, MySpace, Instant messaging (IMing), and cell phone—would be appropriate to use in learning English. The research aims to use the real-time online communicative system to teach students’ English based on sociocultural theory and communicative language teaching approach curriculum. A real-time online English instruction was designed and delivered by all teachers. The teachers were come from Kainan University. The learners were the full-time college students in Taiwan. Multiple approaches were used to collect data: in-depth, semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and course evaluation. Qualitative inductive data analysis techniques were adapted for data analysis. Through in-depth understanding of instructors’ principles and students’ feedbacks of using ECTs, the findings are expected to provide suggestions for Taiwanese college students to effectively use various ECTs in learning English.