DIGITALAPPLYING FACEBOOK AND ROLE-PLAYING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY TO ENHANCE LEARNERS’ WRITING SKILLS IN AN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSE
1 National Taiwan Normal University (TAIWAN)
2 National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (TAIWAN)
2 National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (TAIWAN)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN12 Proceedings
Publication year: 2012
Pages: 4920-4927
ISBN: 978-84-695-3491-5
ISSN: 2340-1117
Publication year: 2012
Pages: 4920-4927
ISBN: 978-84-695-3491-5
ISSN: 2340-1117
Conference name: 4th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 2-4 July, 2012
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Dates: 2-4 July, 2012
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
Facebook and other social networking service (SNS) have gained in not only popularity, but also in utility in the past few years. Its popularity as an educational tool has also been on the increase. Despite this trend, research and development in this area is only in its infant stages. Facebook, with roughly 850 million active users, is a fairly familiar platform for most Internet users with functions, which allow users to connect with their entire social networks instantaneously and coordinate individual meetings or group discussions – ideal for the application of situated learning and role-playing. Role-playing has been shown to be an effective English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching tool as it allows learners to be task focused while immersed in a virtual language interaction and not focused on the mechanics of the process. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of utilizing the role-playing instructional strategy in EFL teaching of writing, with Facebook as the medium through which it is conducted. The effectiveness in terms of writing skill improvements and motivation will be looked at.This study was conducted on 12 students registered in an English Business course in a university from northern Taiwan. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, this paper discusses the students’ performance and experience relative to their learning results. It will also discuss the effectiveness of this strategy and give further suggestions. The findings of this study indicate that the use of role-playing strategy in combination with Facebook as the platform result in meaningful improvements in the students’ language acquisition and learning experience. It is suggested that the same concept of SNS and role-playing combinations can be further investigated. In particular, the further investigation of the use of Skype and role-playing strategies may prove valuable in regards to the speaking skills of EFL learners.