The Perspectives of EFL Students towards Social Networking and its Use in ELT

Abstract

One of the necessities of a successful instruction is the interaction and communication
between the teacher and the students. Among all the means of communication, social networking
is regarded as a useful tool that assists communication. As the communication gets easier
through the social networking, the present study tries to discuss the application of the social
networking in an EFL setting from students’ perspectives. Thus the study deals with the
qualitative research design in which a questionnaire was used. The sample of the study was
randomly selected from university students majoring in English at Gonbad University. The
participants were first administered the Oxford Placement Test. Then they joined a social
networking group to share their ideas and to interact with the teacher and other students. Next,
they were administered a survey questionnaire in which they were asked to answer seven
questions based on Likert scale and an open ended question about the advantages of
communication through social networks and face-to-face communication. The data were
analyzed qualitatively and according to the results obtained, the students shared positive ideas
toward the application of the social networking in their usual class activities.