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Iranian EFL Learners' Perceptions of Clubhouse as a New Social Media Platform for English Language Learning
Abstract
Social media, nowadays, has provided a considerable opportunity for English language learning improvement. Accordingly, this study was aimed to investigate the perception of EFL learners toward the role of a very novel social media application called Clubhouse in English language learning. For this purpose, 134 Iranian learners using Clubhouse for learning English answered a three-part questionnaire containing 31 items. The first part of the questionnaire included six questions through which the learners were supposed to say how they perceived Clubhouse as a platform useful for educational purposes. The second part dealt with the items arising learners'perceptions toward Clubhouse as a platform useful specifically for English language learning. The last part, then, was aimed to find out what language skills are better learned through using Clubhouse based on learners'perceptions. The results for the first part of the questionnaire exhibited that participants almost agreed that Clubhouse could be regarded as a useful platform applicable for educational purposes. Based on the second part of the questionnaire, participants agreed that Clubhouse could be applied as a social media platform for language learning specially because of the opportunity it provides for their direct interaction with teachers and peers. Furthermore, it was perceived by language learners using Clubhouse that it helped them improve the language skills related to oral interaction including listening and speaking. Reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar, on the other hand, were not percieved to be influenced significantly through using Clubhouse.
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Being a combination of the conference call, talkback radio, audio podcast, and an online video chat, Clubhouse is a new social networking app that gained over 10 million users and over $100 in valuation in just 8 months. Unlike other social networks, it offers a real-time streaming audio chat that does not ask users to share any unnecessary information like exchanging text messages, conducting video calls, or sharing photos. Instead, Clubhouse users can listen to real-time conversations, contribute to these conversations and create their own conversations for the others to listen and to interact with. Often nicknamed a “Silicon Valley’s hottest start-up”, Clubhouse positions itself as an “exclusive” and “alternative” social network that attracts various celebrities and people who just want to talk to each other. Launched in March 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic with its social distancing and lockdowns, Clubhouse offered its users a space for the digital group psychotherapy where people could solve their problems by talking them through with strangers. However, it is unclear what is going to happen to this new social network in the post-pandemic world after all of its hype eventually evaporates. This paper discusses the possible underlying motives for the Clubhouse creation and its real purposes. Moreover, it looks at the three possible scenarios of its further development.
The use of social media across the educational setting is on the rise. Subsequently, the body of research on this topic is vivacious and rising. Recent study has discussed the chances associated with the use of social media instruments in the classroom but has not examined students' own views on the role of social media in enhancing their educational experience. This study explores students' perception of social media as an effective teaching instrument. The respondents, undergraduates from the University for Development Studies, took a banking and finance course and were asked about their social media usage, their preferences, and their perception concerning the use of social media in tertiary/higher education. Other qualitative data on students were collected to explore the motivations for using social media in education and the views of teachers and universities. The results divulge the openness of using social media in education, uncover the interaction and information motivation of its use, and provide theoretical and pedagogical significance. Notably, we offer understandings into how educators can strategically incorporate social media tools into the classroom as well as how the use of social media can potentially affect students' views of the instructor and the university.
The present study investigated the effect of teaching vocabulary using auditory input enhancement via whats app on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and retention. For this purpose, 85 students were participated and those 56 students whose scores were one standard deviation above or below the mean on Preliminary English Test (PET) were selected and they were assigned into one experimental and a control group. Then they were given a 40 multiple choice vocabulary test as their pretest. The 10-session treatment followed by teaching vocabulary using auditory input via Whats app in one experimental group and the control group had their conventional way of teaching. After the treatment, a vocabulary posttest was administered to groups in order to compare the participants' performance and to examine if or not the given instruction had any meaningful effect on their vocabulary achievement. After about 10 days after the posttest, the same vocabulary posttest was administered again to check the learners’ vocabulary retention. The analysis of the test scores through an independent sample t-test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that auditory input enhancement through Whats app had a statistically significant effect on vocabulary learning and retention of Iranian EFL learners.
This qualitative study, using a case study design, aimed to explore the impact of social media in English language learning here in Northern Iraq. The 10 members in this examination, having been chosen purposively, included secondary school learners, language educators, and teachers in both private and non-public schools and colleges, ESL instructors, and a practitioner of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Results depend on the information assembled from the participants through written interviews using Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) matrix. Information on this research has uncovered that social media possess several strengths or opportunities in English language learning at large. Be that as it may, their couple of traps and dangers have likewise become possibly the most important factor and caused obstruction in language learning. As appeared in this research, these internet-based social media sites could be effective platforms that provide up-to-date information, a significant measure of language input, communication with native language speakers, and front line learning. By and by, these social media could divert language students to deception, unscholarly and ungrammatical contents, obscenities, and generic collaborations. This research likewise remembered some useful uses of social media in English language learning. Suggestions for further research opportunities about this topic were also included by the researcher.
This study is an attempt to examine the application and usefulness of social media and mobile devices in transferring the resources and interaction with academicians in higher education institutions across the boundary wall, a hitherto unexplained area of research. This empirical study is based on the survey of 360 students of a university in eastern India, cognising students’ perception on social media and mobile devices through collaborative learning, interactivity with peers, teachers and its significant impact on students’ academic performance. A latent variance-based structural equation model approach was followed for measurement and instrument validation. The study revealed that online social media used for collaborative learning had a significant impact on interactivity with peers, teachers and online knowledge sharing behaviour.
Additionally, interactivity with teachers, peers, and online knowledge sharing behaviour has seen a significant impact on students’ engagement which consequently has a significant impact on students’ academic performance. Grounded to this finding, it would be valuable to mention that use of online social media for collaborative learning facilitate students to be more creative, dynamic and research-oriented. It is purely a domain of knowledge.
Nowadays, social media are dominating the life of people. Facebook has become noticeably widespread among the youth, and students in particular. Research has indicated that Facebook could be an effective platform for language learning. This study, therefore, comes to explore the effects of Facebook-assisted teaching on learning English for specific purposes by students at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. A sample of 64 students from the Faculty of Business Administration, taking a Business Letters course in English, were divided into a Facebook-tutored group and a traditional classroom tutored group and were given the same vocabulary content. The two groups were given pre-and post-tests to measure their vocabulary learning, and were subjected to an interview to gauge their attitudes towards the instructional methods which were put to use. However, no significant difference between the two groups was found in terms of achievement in spite of the positive response and the high satisfaction level the Facebook-tutored students showed towards the use of such a platform.
Engage is a new form of mobile application that connects students studying English with teachers in real-time via their smartphones. Students receive target language through preparation dialogues, and then apply it to a role-play with a teacher. The conceptualization and development of Engage follows the user-centred design approach; and the product was built through multiple iterations: in the first iteration, students were invited to try out a paper mock-up; in the second iteration, students tried out a mobile prototype; in the external test, a fully functional application was released to App Store between October 25 and November 20, 2012, and 326 users downloaded it. The application was well-received by these test users, reflected in the post-study survey, student ratings, and students’ usage records. The external tests proved that the technical environment of the application was feasible for production; and the operationalization of the teacher service and cost model were also proven to be feasible and scalable.
There is a strong need to investigate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ perceptions of Facebook as a language-learning environment, as their perceptions that directly influence their language development and achievement have not been examined within the EFL learning context. Thus, this study aims to investigate EFL learners’ perceptions of Facebook as a language learning environment. The sample group of the study consisted of 174 EFL learners at a state university in Turkey. After administering a background questionnaire and a survey that assessed their perceptions, the frequencies, mean scores, standard deviations were computed. The results showed that Turkish EFL students perceive Facebook as an environment for communication, interaction, socialization, language learning and cultural interaction. It was recommended that further research should focus on the variables and determinants that may affect their perceptions to understand the theoretical and practical aspects regarding cultural differences.
This study explores the use of educational technology for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) at 10 state schools in the South of Ecuador. It aims to find out the current state of the use of technology in English classrooms. The research combines both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather information about the use of technology in the teaching-learning process. The main instruments applied were teachers' and students' surveys and observation sheets. One hundred and fifty students and fifteen teachers took part in the surveys and were observed once a week during a period of four months. The findings confirm that technology is not commonly used in state schools of the south region of Ecuador or, if used, it is not adequately applied. For this reason, in order to develop students' performance of all four language skills it is necessary to integrate technology tools combined with appropriate teaching strategies in EFL classrooms.
A definition of social media as well as an overview of common types.
A growing amount of research focuses on learning in group settings and more specifically on learning in computersupported collaborative learning (CSCL) settings. Studies on western students indicate that online collaboration enhances student learning achievement; however, few empirical studies have examined student satisfaction, performance, and knowledge construction through online collaboration from a cross-cultural perspective. This study examines satisfaction, performance, and knowledge construction via online group discussions of students in two different cultural contexts. Students were both first-year university students majoring in educational sciences at a Flemish university and a Chinese university. Differences and similarities of the two groups of students with regard to satisfaction, learning process, and achievement were analyzed. © International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS).
Online interaction is considered to be a key aspect of effective e-learning and improved academic achievement. However, few studies have examined how effectiveness varies with the degree of interaction intensity. Using data for 17,090 students from three Catalan universities, in this paper we study the productivity associated with five different levels of interaction intensity in learning. We also compare the results obtained for fully online education with those for face-to-face learning. The analyses show that interaction in online education has diminishing returns, while in face-to-face learning it does not do so in a pure way. These results have implications for determining the optimum level of interaction that should be sought when designing courses and educational policies.
The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term “Social Media” exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarification. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this definition, we then provide a classification of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media.
This study was aimed at finding out: (1) the significant difference in speaking achievement between the students who were trained with Instagram activity and those who were not; (2) the significant difference in motivation toward English Speaking between before and after the students were trained using Instagram Activity technique; (3) the interaction between teaching strategies and motivation toward students’ speaking ability; and (4) the students’ feedbacks concerning the Instagram Activity shown by the difference in students’ speaking achievement. This study applied a quasi experimental study. The instruments used to find out the data were questionnaire and tests. The calculation of the study was applying descriptive and inferential analysis. The study result showed that Instagram activity in English speaking class was applied during the process of the teaching and learning in the classroom. It showed significant different on students` English achievement from pre-test to post-test between the students with low and high motivation. It means that Instagram activity could improve students` English speaking skill and could also motivate students to learn more.
This study investigates the impact of Social Media (SM) on students’ attitudes towards the process of learning EFL from the learners’ perspectives. The hypothesised model is developed through social learning theory proposed by Vygotsky (1978). The sample population of this research consists of 228 undergraduate students (153 females and 75 males) enrolled in the Department of English Language at Najran University in Saudi Arabia. The instruments used to gather data from the participants included a self-designed online electronic survey and semi-structured interviews. Results show that Najran University students believe that SM positively improves their understanding of English. Moreover, students agree that SM is a good platform to improve their proficiency in English. They also reported that SM changes their attitudes towards English positively. The findings also indicate that SM is a good platform for students as it provides opportunities for learners to study foreign languages. As SM tools grow and new generations get attached to them, additional studies on the adoption of these tools must be conducted to support students’ learning.
Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning synthesizes the existing body of research on the role of peer interaction in second language learning in one comprehensive volume. In spite of the many hours that language learners spend interacting with peers in the classroom, there is a tendency to evaluate the usefulness of this time by comparison to whole class interaction with the teacher. Yet teachers are teachers and peers are peers – as partners in interaction, they are likely to offer very different kinds of learning opportunities. This book encourages researchers and instructors alike to take a new look at the potential of peer interaction to foster second language development. Acknowledging the context of peer interaction as highly dynamic and complex, the book considers the strengths and limitations of peer work from a range of theoretical perspectives. In doing so, Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning clarifies features of effective peer interaction for second language learning across a range of educational contexts, age spans, proficiency levels, and classroom tasks and settings.
Recent research has discussed the opportunities associated with the use of social media tools in the classroom, but has not examined the perceptions students themselves hold about its usefulness in enhancing their educational experience. This research explores students’ perceptions of social media as an effective pedagogical tool. Undergraduate students in a midsized, private university taking a marketing course were surveyed about their social media usage and preferences as well as their perceptions regarding the use of social media in higher education. Additional qualitative data collection with students probed into motivations for social media use in education as well as instructor and university perceptions. Findings reveal openness to using social media in education, uncover interactive and information motives for its use, and offer theoretical and pedagogical implications. Importantly, we offer insights into how educators can strategically incorporate social media tools into the classroom as well as how the use of social media can potentially affect students’ views of the instructor and the university.
For the "always connected" generation, multi-tasking, hand-held devices and nearly constant communication are normal. Millennials, the generation born after 1980, are far less likely to have land-line phones, but they have Facebook profiles, a Twitter presence and send and receive as many as 50 texts everyday (according to a recent Nielsen Report). Their involvement with technology exceeds any other generation and presents an enormous challenge for those targeting this hyper-connected group. For US institutions of higher education, the competition for these students is fierce and survival ultimately depends on engaging them through the use of social media and new communications tools. In 2007-2008, fascinated by the dynamic created by all the new tools and habits of Millennials, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research conducted the first statistically-significant studies on the usage of social media by US colleges and universities. The study explored this fundamental question --How does a college or university recruit in this new, highly networked, constantly "on" world? That study has been repeated every academic year since and now provides a longitudinal look at adoption of social media by colleges and universities. This latest study (2010-2011) analyzes the most recent trending of social media adoption among four-year accredited institutions in the United States. As in all previous studies, the colleges and universities were identified using a directory compiled by the University of Texas.
The ubiquity of social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) is no more apparent than at the university. Social media are increasingly visible in higher education settings as instructors look to technology to mediate and enhance their instruction as well as promote active learning for students. Many scholars argue for the purposeful integration of social media as an educational tool. Empirical evidence, however, has lagged in supporting the claim. Most of the existing research on the utility and effectiveness of social media in the higher education class is limited to self-reported data (e.g., surveys, questionnaires) and content analyses. This paper summarizes the scholarly writings as well as reviews the findings of empirical investigations. Some limitations are discussed, and future areas of research are proposed.
This study examined the role of a social network site (SNS) in the lives of 11 high school teenagers from low-income families in the U.S. We conducted interviews, talk-alouds and content analysis of MySpace profiles. Qualitative analysis of these data revealed three themes. First, SNSs facilitated emotional support, helped maintain relationships, and provided a platform for self-presentation. Second, students used their online social network to fulfill essential social learning functions. Third, within their SNS, students engaged in a complex array of communicative and creative endeavors. In several instances, students' use of social network sites demonstrated the new literacy practices currently being discussed within education reform efforts. Based on our findings, we suggest additional directions for related research and educational practices.
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