Twitter and Implications for Its Use in EFL Learning

Abstract

This study explores the use of microblogging in language learning for three different grade levels (i.e., Grade 5, Grade 7, and Grade 11) of Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) students through one of the most popular social networking sites, Twitter (http://twitter.com). Subjects for the study consisted of 45 students, 15 from each group. The patterns, purposes, and features of the students’ Twitter use in EFL learning were analyzed based on the collected students’ tweets for three weeks to compare different aspects in them according to the grade levels. From the findings, each grade group of students tweeted with different purposes, and their tweets showed different patterns and distinctive features. Also, the updated tweets provided convincing evidence that Twitter stimulates EFL learners to promote their foreign language output and helps them maintain social interaction with other users using target language regardless of grade levels. In other words, Twitter provided a venue for communicating in the target language with other people even outside of classrooms by participating in a second language (L2) community. As a result, therefore, it is expected that Twitter can shed light on the possibility for Korean EFL learners to be members of L2 society as well as to boost their L2 output process.