Utilizing Social Networks in Language Classes – Perception, Production, and Interaction

Abstract

The ubiquitous presence of social network sites (SNSs) offers both promises and problems for language teaching and learning today. Between 2009 and 2016 the authors incorporated Facebook into their Chinese curricula in three higher education institutions and subsequently analyzed its affordances and implications. Based on student surveys and language data collected from these pedagogical experiments, this action research paper explores three aspects of the findings: students’ perception, language production, and language interaction. The discussion focuses on not only the utilization of SNSs as educational tools to engage Chinese learners in innovative and collaborative ways but also helpful suggestions for teachers to enhance instructional outcomes through SNSs. Specific attention is given to create a pedagogically effective, privacy-ensured, and userfriendly social network project with Facebook, which is applicable to other SNSs and similar digital platforms