Learners’ Beliefs about Language Learning through Online Social Networks

Abstract

Increasing use of technological tools has affected every aspect of our lives. Language learning and teaching is not exception. In modern times, learners are getting actively involved in learning foreign languages online. A broad variety of voice apps, social networks, video-sharing websites, podcasts, and blogs are available to today’s EFL learners, who are increasingly combining the social web with the conventional book-based methods of language study. In addition, the use of social networking sites enables learners to communicate with many native speakers at once, engage across time and space boundaries, access foreign cultures, and post and share photographs and videos. This article aims to examine secondary school learners’ beliefs towards use of social networking sites for acquiring a foreign language. The findings emphasize the significance of encouraging learners’ involvement on social networking sites in an informal learning setting and offer suggestions for how this encouragement may be accomplished through system design.