The Effects of Peer Interaction-Based Learning Community Through Facebook on Students’ English Learning Attitude and Motivation(EI)

The present study aims to investigate how teaching integrated with Internet multimedia affects college students’ English learning attitude and motivation in EFL classrooms. Of particular interest to this study is the use of social network Facebook to engage students in the process of language learning. Peer Interaction-Based Learning Community through Facebook (PIBLCF) was developed in the study to assist learners of English as a foreign language. The usage of PIBLCF provides learners with opportunities to develop a sense of group, and maintain the idea of a community as a unit that can interact and learn collaboratively. The results of this study indicate that PIBLCF can help students improve English learning performance and elevate students’ English learning attitude and motivation as well. Students in this study highly valued PIBLCF as a helpful learning method allowing them to have more opportunity and less pressure to interact with peers in group work online.補正完畢GB

Developing second language confidence: The effect of videoconferencing on L2 and HL learners of Spanish

Second language confidence (L2C) is considered a central component in language learning as it can affect the processes and outcomes of second language acquisition (Dörnyei, 2005). According to the functional model proposed by Sampasivam and Clément (2014), the two determinants that build towards L2C are self-involvement and richness of the contact experience. This study adds to previous research (e.g., Soyoof, 2018; Vincze & Joyce, 2018) by investigating, for the first time, the role of interlocutor type in the context of videoconferencing on the development of L2C in L2 and HL learners of Spanish. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) Does interlocutor type (i.e., a peer on Zoom or a native speaker on Talk Abroad) play a role in the development of L2C in L2 and HL learners? Also, do these results vary over the course of the semester? (2) Are there differences in the participants’ perception of interlocutor type in terms of richness and self- involvement of the language contact? Also, do these results vary over the course of the semester? Both the L2 learner (n= 32) and HL learner participants (n= 7) were students enrolled in a fifth-semester Spanish conversation course at a large, public U.S. university. Throughout the 16- week semester, they completed eight 30-minute videoconferences, four with a peer (L2-L2, HL- HL) on Zoom alternating with four with a trained and paid native speaker on Talk Abroad. The participants were provided instructions for each conversation, with the topics directly corresponding to course themes. In addition to the conversations, data also comes from the participants’ responses to an initial 29-item L2C questionnaire and eight post-conversation questionnaires including the original 29 items, 15 additional Likert-scale items, and 6 open- ended questions. The results of this study suggest that the participation in multiple peer videoconferences promotes both L2 and HL learners’ Self-Perceived Linguistic Ability and Self-Assurance over time. These outcomes can be explained, to an extent, by the integrated model of L2C proposed by Sampasivam and Clément (2014) given that both communicative contexts (i.e., HL-HL and L2-L2 peers) were perceived by the participants as prompting self-involvement, although they were not rated highly in richness. Regarding the virtual interactions with NSs on Talk Abroad, they were rated highly in both richness and self-involvement by both participant groups. In line with the theoretical framework, the L2 learners showed longitudinal increases in both factors of L2C as a result of interacting with NSs. However, interacting with NSs did not affect the HL learners’ L2C development, which cannot be explained by the existing model. Overall, the findings of this research indicate that videoconferencing can pique language students’ interest and increase their exposure to linguistic forms, and, thus, is recommended as a course component to promote gains in L2 and HL learners’ L2C. Also, the intermediate-level participants in this study reported other benefits of the intervention such as its capacity to provide a context for practicing the target language and extensive reflection on course unit themes. Whereas the functional model of L2C was found to accurately explain the results for the L2-L2 peer dyads, NS-L2 learner dyads, and HL-HL peer dyads, it did not suitably apply to those of the NS-HL learner dyads. Thus, future research should ascertain the qualities of a contact experience that most effectively facilitates the HL learners’ L2C development, especially given that fostering HL learners’ confidence is critical for the heritage language’s vitality (Sánchez-Muñoz, 2016). Provided that remote learning is more commonplace than ever, this research is particularly relevant as it investigates the impact of technology on L2C development with the objective of informing pedagogical practices, however more research is needed to affirm these results and to answer the questions that remain

The use of social media platforms for foreign language learning in adult and community education

The ubiquity of digital technologies in everyday life have transformed the landscape of education. Emerging digital tools are often used to facilitate teaching and learning in a range of ways, arguably providing opportunities for inclusion and access to diverse sources of information and knowledge. The advent of social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp has attracted scholarly attention both in terms of the ways in which people communicate in everyday life as well as in their potential in language learning settings. Although a lot of research has been conducted on the use of social media in higher education, there is no evidence on the impact of these digital platforms in the Adult and Community Learning (ACL) context. This thesis contributes to the under-researched field of ACL by investigating the use of Facebook and WhatsApp by two groups of language learners in an adult education centre in the UK. It explores the opportunities that social media (in this case, Facebook and WhatsApp) can provide in terms of student-to-student and teacher-to-student interaction and also points to their limitations. Following a case study design, pre- and post-questionnaires, online observation, and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit data for the study. A key methodological contribution of this thesis is the systematic combination of two analytical frameworks (i.e. the Community of Inquiry framework, and the framework for the analysis of sharing practices) to analyse teachers’ and learners’ online contributions. This study examines students’ perceptions of using these digital platforms for language learning purposes and provides an empirical account of the extent to which (and how) learners and teachers interact with each other in these online environments. The analysis pointed to a mismatch between students’ perceptions of the benefits of digital platforms for language learning and their online behaviour and foregrounded the importance of a set of contextual factors in the effective use of social media affordances for language learning