The adoption of Facebook as a virtual class whiteboard: Promoting EFL students’ engagement in language tasks

Facebook as an integrated online learning support application during the COVID19 pandemic: Thai university students’ experiences and perspectives

“…As a result, the relationship between ICT and pedagogy may have become a popular area of research by some education scholars who may be interested in investigating the benefits of integrating technology in classroom pedagogies. Previous studies ( Barrot 2016 ; Sánchez et al 2019 ; Ulla & Perales, 2020 ; Ulla et al, 2020 ) agreed that the presence of the internet and technology plays a significant role in language education. Such presence of different technologies in language education has transformed the classroom’s pedagogical landscape and has offered an opportunity for both teachers and students to have easy access to learning connections and rich information online.…”

“…In fact, a large number of studies in the literature ( Chugh and Ruhi 2018 ; Tang and Hew 2017 ; Wesely 2013 ) have proven that the use of these platforms is beneficial for both teachers and students. Although the use of these social media platforms is limited only to teaching a specific language skill, they still enhanced students’ learning of the language ( Ulla & Perales, 2020 ). For example, Hamat and Abu Hassan, 2019 admitted that the use of social media in teaching the English language can greatly contribute to students’ improvement in writing, communication, vocabulary development, and reading.…”

“…In addition, social media platforms can also enhance vocabulary learning ( Sato et al 2013 ), promote learners’ learning autonomy ( Sato et al 2015 ), and provide students’ the opportunity to become responsible learners ( Bezircilioğlu 2016 ). Lastly, the use of social media in English language teaching can make the students’ language learning experience fun, motivating, exciting, interesting, and engaging ( Henry et al 2020 ; Sánchez et al 2019 ; Ulla & Perales, 2020 ).…”

“…Such popularity motivates scholars and education practitioners to undertake a study investigating the potentials of Facebook as an online teaching and learning platform. For example, Ulla and Perales (2020) conducted a study where they used Facebook as a class white-board in English as a foreign language class. The results revealed that based on the students’ engagement to various classroom tasks, Facebook as a class white-board can promote high students’ participation which can greatly improve effective language teaching and learning.…”

“…The findings from Barrot (2016) , Camus et al (2016) , and Ulla and Perales (2020) , although they contribute to the discussion on the use of Facebook in language classrooms, these studies focused only on the viability of the said platform as an integrated ICT into the language classroom. In other words, the findings did not point to how Facebook is used when there is no university-sponsored LMS and how it is used especially in the context of distance education during the COVID19 pandemic.…”