Effects of facebook tutoring on learning english as a second language

Social media use has become increasingly embedded in everyday life. Among various social media, Facebook is a highly interactive virtual social communication tool and it has become increasingly popular on college campuses. Research results have indicated that Facebook could be an effective platform for informal learning. However, most of current studies in the educational use of social media seem to pay more attention on college students or adults. This study, however, explored the effects of Facebook tutoring on learning English as a second language for children. 60 elementary students from a supplementary English tutoring program were evenly divided into Facebook tutoring group and traditional classroom teaching group. Instructional strategies of communication, collaboration, and information sharing were given to both groups. The results indicated that children participated the Facebook tutoring generally exhibited a positive attitude toward this new type of learning experience. The learning achievement for the Facebook group was also significantly higher than the traditional classroom group. It is concluded that providing with proper strategies, both student's learning attitude and learning achievement were positively affected by the Facebook tutoring.