INVESTIGATING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING FACEBOOK GROUP IN IMPROVING WRITING SKILL
AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY
Nguyen Thi Thuong Huyen*, Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Vu Kieu Hanh University of Agriculture and Forestry - TNU
ABSTRACT
The study aimed to find out the students’ perception on the effectiveness of using Facebook group in improving writing skill at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry by using a mixed method of the survey, consisting of quantitative and qualitative method. The close-ended questions of the questionnaires were used to get the results of data using a five point Likert scale analyzed by SPSS, version 17 and some open-ended questions were also utilized to get further detail. The results of the study revealed the effectiveness of using Facebook group in writing skill and posed some challenges the teachers may face when integrating Facebook group in the classroom. Hopefully, the use of Facebook group will be widely implemented in the classroom in the age of Internet and mobile learning.
Key words: Facebook (FB), Facebook group, writing skill, perception, effectiveness, Thainguyen University of Agricuture and Forestry.
INTRODUCTION*
Information technologies have come to play a very powerful role in society, influencing the way people communicate, work, entertain and learn. The way of technology has discretely made its way into practice, it cannot improve the teaching style, but it also aids students learning by attending to their needs and way of life. Currently, social networks are used by millions of users, most of whom are students and adolescents, for a variety of purposes but with a heavy emphasis on social needs. Some of the examples of social networking sites are MySpace, Friendster, Twitter and Facebook.
Although Facebook started out in early 2004 as Harvards-only social networking site as Boyd, D.M. & Ellison, N.B. (2006) [1] cited, the Facebook phenomenon is currently happening all over the world. According to the Facebook statistics, its users spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
According to Lenhart, A. (2009) [6], in America, 42% of teens of ages 12-17 communicate via Facebook, replacing landline phones and email. In Vietnam, some
*Tel: 0904851928, Email: nguyenthithuonghuyen@tuaf.edu.vn
newspapers have claimed that the number of facebook users is ranked seventh among the countries in the world in 2018, with a number of 58 million Facebook users.
Undeniably, the young generation now is spending more and more time online, especially on Facebook. With the growing amount of time the youth is spending on social networking sites like Facebook, teachers should consider this issue for educational purposes. Moreover, of all the four skills, writing is one of the most complex activities as Dion, M.N. (2011) [3] stated.
Learning writing causes learners a lot of problems and consumes teachers a lot of time because learning writing requires learner’s competency to receive the information, process it, and then, produce it. Hence, it requires more time, more effort, as well as more guidance. Seriously, learning writing is inadequate if only it relies on the -two hours or four hours- learning in the classroom.
Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that FB group will benefit the students in learning writing process. In order to facilitate the study, the following research questions are conducted:
- How effectively can FB group help students in the writing process?
- What are challenges teachers might face in integrating FB group into teaching writing?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes in 2004. The name of the social networking site stems from the colloquial name for face and book.
Bull, G. et al. (2008) [2] stated that language learning has grown beyond the boundaries of the four walls of the classroom; in fact, most language learning occurs outside and informally. Therefore, informal learning through a medium like ICT is a significant alternative environment for language practice and use, which should not be taken lightly.
Kabilan M.K. et al. (2010) [5] displayed that FB groups provide a space where ideas are posted in view of all, to be open to criticism as well as praise. Higher order thinking skills are put into play in organizing, synthesizing and analyzing these ideas both by oneself and peers in constructing knowledge. This makes up for meaningful learning when the members of the group are able to generate ideas that are shared by, and built upon through the response and feedback given by peers. While sharing views, exchanging messages and comments on FB, students certainly develop confidence in writing in English through online socialization. Moreover, FB groups provide ample opportunities for students to practice and improve their writing skills.
Studies show that students feel obliged to respond to their peers’ comments or opinions posted, thus are actively “posting” and
“commenting” on the application. They take every opportunity to practice their writing skills. Students also discover new sentences or writing structures by reading the comments
and posts from their peers. These show that writing skills are very much emphasized in FB group participation and thus has a high potential of enhancing and improving students’ writing skills.
Despite the advantages and recommendation of integrating ICT and FB group into teaching, there are some distinguishable challenges that must be taken into account before applying it into actual teaching. One of the disadvantages for this type of ICT is the absence of face-to- face communication and immediate feedback. Walther & Bunz (2005) [9] elaborated that by the exchanging of ideas and opinions via Internet and computer, it is difficult for FB users to convey some complex and abstract ideas. This might lead to misunderstandings or misleading of ideas which is not beneficial for students’ learning.
According to Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005) [4], some of the negative impacts mentioned are wasting or overspending of time, promoting negative attitudes among students.
Queirolo, J. (2009) [7] also added these negative impacts affect students’ development destructively. Stern & Taylor (2007) [8]
stated that one factor that contributes to the distraction and procrastination is due to the accessibility of FB. Nowadays, students can easily get instant access to FB by using their cell phones. With the aid of technology, the unhealthy habit of constantly checking their FB for new updates and notifications becomes an inevitable routine or an obsession in some extreme cases.
While there is an immense hype on the benefits of incorporating Web 2.0 and popular social networking sites like FB into the education scene, these potential learning benefits are not exactly clear-cut. The study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using FB group on teaching and learning writing skill and offered some ways to limit the challenges of integrating FB into classroom.
SUBJECT AND METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry. A mixed method of the survey, consisting of quantitative and qualitative method was used to investigate the perception on the effectiveness of using FB group on teaching and learning writing skill. Thirty four students were collected and grouped in a FB group called “Learning Writing Group” to get the data of the study. Twenty five of them are the first year students and the rest are the second year students who are studying the Advanced Program at TUAF. All of these students have not achieved the IELTS score 4.5, so they wanted to join the group to improve their English, especially writing skill. It is confirmed that each respondent had a FB account. 89% respondents logged in ‘2-3 hours a day’ and ‘more than 3 hours a day’.
The rest of the respondents, 11% selected the options of ‘one or twice a week’ and ‘less than an hour daily. All them are familiar with
FB groups and are involved in more than one FB group other than “Learning Writing Group”. After four weeks of learning writing through FB group, they were each required to respond to a 14-item questionnaire to explore respondents’ perceptions of how FB groups can be used in enhancing their writing skills in terms of the overall impact of FB groups in writing process.
For the analysis of the data, mean and standard deviation were employed to describe the students’ views on FB groups as a means for teaching and improving writing, shown in the following form of range: 3.5-5.0: high degree; 2.5-3.4: medium degree; 1.0-2.4: low degree. As for the 2 open-ended items, the students’ views were categorized into emerging themes and analyzed accordingly.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Students’ perception of using FB group and learning writing
Table 1. Students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of FB group in improving writing
No. Items Mean SD
1 Using FB group helps me brainstorm and organize my ideas before writing.
4.34 1.146
2 Using FB group helps me get better ideas through ideas and opinions posted by friends in the group.
4.52 1.117
3 Using FB group helps me reduce errors about spelling, punctuation, capitalization, subject-verb agreement... by the spell-check feature on computers and friends’ in group.
3.86 .885
4 Using FB group helps me get new vocabulary from reading the comments of others to use in my writing.
4.62 .843
5 I find it easier to complete my essays after participating in FB group discussion.
4.85 .994
6 I feel comfortable when posting my ideas or opinions on FB group.
4.55 .884
7 I feel encouraged when my friends like my ideas or comments.
4.53 1.098
8 I prefer discussing issues or topics on FB group instead of in a classroom session.
3.24 1.021
As can be seen from Table 1, it can be inferred that students’ perception on the use of FB group on writing skill was mostly at high degree. First of all, items 1 to 5 were used to explore the effectiveness of FB group in the process of writing skill. The highest result of item 5(M=4.85, SD= 0.994) revealed that the students asserted that they could complete their writing easier after participating FB group for learning writing. The second highest result (M=4.62, SD=1.117) displayed students could learn and enhance their vocabulary when participating FB group by
reading the others’ ideas or comments. In addition, FB group could help them in getting better ideas before writing as can be seen the mean score from item 4, M=4.52; SD=0.843. Besides, they highly agreed that FB group helped them a lot in organizing their thoughts or ideas before actual writing (M=4.34; SD=1.146). It can be deduced that the flow of ideas and opinions by all members in the group discussion on FB was quite important to the students in brainstorming, exchanging, organizing, getting the ideas and vocabulary in order to complete the essay better.
Additionally, the students also agreed that the spell-check feature and their friends’ comments helped them reduce errors about spelling, punctuation, capitalization and subject-verb agreement… (M=3.86; SD= 0.885). It means that using FB group can help them write more effectively when their errors or mistakes are avoided. Besides, items 6, 7 and 8 were used to find out the students’ feeling when using FB in learning writing, in which items 6 and 7 were also in high degree with the scores of mean between 4.53 and 4.55 which showed that the students felt comfortable when posing their ideas or opinions on FB group. Actually, they felt encouraged when their friends pressed “like” or commented which motivated them a lot in writing process.
The only item 8 was at medium degree (M=3.24; SD=1.021) but it still showed that they appreciated FB group and accepted the usefulness of FB group in terms of writing. It can be said that using FB group can motivate and encourage the learners in learning writing.
Table 2. Students’ perceptions of challenges of using FB group for writing
No. Items Mean SD
9 6. I don’t have enough time to follow others’ posts or responses in FB group.
3.34 1.105
10 7. While on FB group, I tend to be distracted by other features of FB like checking notifications, pictures, videos… from others.
3.53 1.131
11 8. There are inappropriate comments in FB group. 2.47 1.098 From Table 2, the students highly agreed that
when using FB group for learning writing, they were easily to be distracted by other features of FB like checking their notifications or pictures, videos… updated by their friends. This can be a reason for item 9 at medium degree (M= 3.34; SD=1.105) when they expressed that they did not have enough time to follow others’ posts or responses in FB group. The last item with mean score at medium degree, M= 2.47, displayed that one of the challenges the teacher might also face was the inappropriate comments in FB group. It is recommended that the teacher as the administrator of the group have to follow and remove the comments or updates that are not relevant to the topic discussed.
For further details, the three open-ended questions were used to elicit the effectiveness and challenges of using FB in learning writing skill, including: (12) In what way do
FB groups help you in the writing process the most? How?; (13) Does Facebook help you motivate or encourage after learning writing through FB group? If yes, how?”; and (14) In your opinion, what is the main challenge of using FB groups for writing?;
From question 12, some comments emerged including: FB helps students in “getting tips on the format of writing”, “correcting spelling and mistakes by their friends”,
“getting ideas from friends for writing”, and“brainstorming ideas”. It can be understood from all the comments that there is a form of acknowledgment from the respondents that FB group really helps in their writing process, especially in the pre- writing stage which includes the process of brainstorming for ideas and the proper organization of thoughts, as well as spelling error checks from peers. From question 13, many of them stated that they feel “motivated when getting their teacher or friends’
comments or feedbacks”, especially
“encouraged when they get positive comments”. They also expressed that they feel encouraged because they can “learn at home” or “interact with friends even when they are not in class”. From the last question, they confessed that “the internet connection is sometimes not good”; “writing’s difficult”;
“they are interrupted by others on FB while learning”. Some respondents added on to the challenges of using FB groups for writing through the third questions: “There are redundant or relevant comments”; “when there are too many ideas given, it’s difficult to choose”; “waiting feedback from others is tiring”.
CONCLUSION
The results of the study displayed the effectiveness of using FB group in teaching and learning writing skill from students’
perception. Most of the respondents agreed that FB group helped them in their process of writing, such as brainstorming and organizing ideas; enhancing vocabulary; getting better ideas for writing; checking mistakes and spellings; therefore they can get easier to complete their writing. Besides, FB group motivated and encouraged them to write because they can get feedbacks or comments from their teacher or friends. However, when discussing topics on FB group, there is still a connection between teacher and students because they can get the ideas or feedback quickly from the teacher or their friends. The study also posed some challenges for teacher to take in consideration when applying FB group in teaching writing, such as time management, redundant comments, anxiety of learning writing, internet connection and other distractions of FB. Therefore, some suggestions are highly recommended to improve students in learning writing by using FB group such as: (1) set the daily specific time for learning through FB group; (2) help students simplify the request of learning and
remove the redundant comments or updates which are not relevant; (3) give the deadline so that students can concentrate and spend time to complete the task. To sum up, the study revealed that the implementation of FB group can help students learn and improve their writing effectively, however it still posed some challenges. Therefore, further researches could be focused more on the challenges of integrating FB groups for teaching and improving writing, and look into the perception of teachers as well.
Experimental studies regarding this research topic could also be done to see how the affective influences of FB and FB groups help in improving students’ writing skills.
REFERENCES
1. Boyd, D.M. & Ellison, N.B. (2006), Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship. 2006. Retrieved from http://mimosa.pntic.mec.es/mvera1/textos/redesso ciales.pdf [16th March 2011].
2. Bull, G. et al. (2008), Connecting Informal and Formal Learning: Experiences in the Age of Participatory Media. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education 8, pp. 100- 107.
3. Dion, M.C. (2011), Tools to Enhance Second Language Writing Autonomy: can we do things better? In Gardner, D.(Ed.), Fostering Autonomy in Language Learning (67-75).Gaziantep:
Zirve University.
4. Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005), Information revelation and privacy in online social networks.
Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES).
5. Kabilan M.K. et al. (2010), Facebook: An Online Environment for Learning of English in Institutions Of Higher Education? Internet and Higher Education, pp.179–187.
6. Lenhart, A. (2009), Teens and Social Media: An Overview. Pew Internet and American Life
Project. Retrieved from
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic786630.fil es/Teens%20So
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%20NYPH%20Dept%20Pew%20Internet.pdf [16th March 2011].
7. Queirolo, J. (2009), Is Facebook As Good As Face-To-Face? Learning & Leading with
Technology 37, pp. 8−9.
8. Stern, L.A. & Taylor, K. (2007), Social Networking on Facebook. Journal of the Communication, Speech & Theatre Association of North Dakota, pp. 9-20.
9. Walther, J. B. & Bunz, U. (2005), The rules of virtual groups: trust, liking, and performance in computer-mediated communication. Journal of Communication, pp. 828-846.
TÓM TẮT
QUAN NIỆM CỦA NGƯỜI HỌC VỀ HIỆU QUẢ CỦA VIỆC
ÁP DỤNG FACEBOOK GROUP NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG VIẾT CHO SINH VIÊN CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIÊN TIẾN
TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG LÂM – ĐH THÁI NGUYÊN
Nguyễn Thị Thương Huyền*, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương, Vũ Kiều Hạnh Trường ĐH Nông Lâm - Đại học Thái Nguyên Nghiên cứu được thực hiện nhằm tìm hiểu quan niệm của người học về hiệu quả của việc sử dụng Facebook group trong việc cải thiện kỹ năng viết cho sinh viên chương trình tiên tiến tại ĐH Nông Lâm - ĐH Thái Nguyên qua sử dụng các câu hỏi định tính và định lượng trong khảo sát. Các câu hỏi khảo sát được thiết kế theo thang đo 5 bậc Likert và được phân tích bằng phần mềm SPSS, phiên bản 17, kết hợp cùng với một số câu hỏi mở để lấy thêm thông tin tin cậy cho kết quả của nghiên cứu. Kết quả của nghiên cứu đã chỉ ra hiệu quả của việc sử dụng Facebook group trong việc cải thiện kỹ năng viết cho sinh viên. Bên cạnh đó, nghiên cứu còn đưa ra một vài thách thức, trở ngại trong việc áp dụng Facebook group trong giảng dạy kỹ năng viết. Qua đó, một số đề xuất được đưa ra nhằm nâng cao hiệu quả của việc sử dụng Facebook group trong việc dạy và học tiếng Anh nói chung và kỹ năng viết nói riêng trong thời đại công nghệ hiện nay.
Từ khóa: Facebook (FB), Facebook group, quan niệm, hiệu quả, kỹ năng viết, Đại học Nông Lâm- Đại học Thái Nguyên.
Ngày nhận bài: 22/8/2018; Ngày hoàn thiện: 13/9/2018; Ngày duyệt đăng: 28/12/2018
*Tel: 0904851928, Email: nguyenthithuonghuyen@tuaf.edu.vn