Facebook and the Use of Social Networking Tools to Enhance Language Learner Engagement

Nicole MillsOctober 31, 2009University of Pennsylvania

Digital Natives

A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3.

Digital Natives

By the time a student has graduated from college, he/she has spent: 10, 000 hours on video games 10, 000 hours on cell phones 20, 000 hours watching TV Sent and received over 200,000 emails or instant

messages

- Pansky, 2001, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Facebook Generation

In July 2007, Facebook had more registered users than any other high school or college focused site worldwide…exceeding 34 million members (Language Educator, 2009).

In 2009, Facebook is the 3rd most visited website in the United States (after Google and Yahoo). http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US

Facebook signs up nearly a million new members a day (NY Times, March 2009)

Average time spent on Facebook

Growing Up on Facebook, NY Times, March 2009

Internationalization of Facebook

More than 150 million active users

More than 700 million photos uploaded each month

More than 4 million videos uploaded each month

More than 35 languages (60 more languages in development)

70% of Facebook users live outside of the US

Statistiques, Facebook Janvier 2009http://www.marketing20.fr/facebook/statistiques-facebook-janvier-2009/

International Facebook Use

http://wearesocial.net/fr/blog/tag/envoye-special-planete-facebook/

International Facebook Use

http://www.insidefacebook.com/

Facebook and Education?

“Conducting class through Facebook? Facebook groups allow more interaction than BlackBoard, but haven’t caught on yet”

- By Travis Winkler, Daily Pennsylvanian, 2/19/09

Penn Design Architecture lecturer Andrew Phillips is using Facebook as an extension of his classroom

Students can generate content by posting and sharing information about supplies, images, drawings, and more

Slogan

« Facebook vous permet de rester en contact et d'échanger avec les personnes qui vous entourent. »

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.

Enhancing the Standards of Foreign Language Learning through Facebook?

Intermediate French & Global Simulation

Global Simulation: Students create a fictive yet culturally grounded world, assume the role of a self-developed character, and collaborate with fellow community members (Magnin, 1997)

Description of Global Simulation Project

“For this project , you willbecome the tenants of a Parisian building, located in the Montmartre quarter and you will write a book of your memoirs of the events in the building. As such, you are going to pretend to be a French or francophoneperson living in France. You will develop your own character and tell the story of his/her life in the first person.”

French 130 Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to communicate well enough in French to discuss and describe yourself, your immediate surroundings, your personal life and interests, and some of your opinions about the world at large. You will also have the tools to function in a variety of social situations such as ordering a meal, finding an apartment, giving advice, asking questions, and making plans. You will have the tools to tell stories using the past tenses and discuss and analyze films and literature. You will increase your confidence in understanding spoken French and can expect to be able to get some of the main points of conversations by native speakers on familiar topics.

Development of L’immeuble en ligne

Workshop at MultiMedia Services (accompanying handout) (15 students)

Creation of an email address on www.yahoo.fr for the immeuble character

Creation of a facebook account for the immeuble character on www.facebook.fr

Creation of the facebook profile for the immeuble character Completing general information, address, education, experience, job Photo Updating Status

Collection of classmates’ French email addresses (list sent via email) and request that students add their neighbors to their list of friends

Immeuble en ligne project

As part of their participation and homework grade, students were asked to interact on Facebook at least 3 times per week Status updates Wall postings Other?

Every other week, they were also asked to post their revised compositions (4 chapters from their memoirs from life in the Immeuble) as “Notes” on Facebook

Supplementary Materials

Dictionnaire: Langage SMS (textos, Facebook, etc.) Bonjour : bjr Bonsoir : bsr D’accord : dak Demain : 2m'1 Message : msg Mort de rire : MDR Etc…

User Conduct Agreement

User Conduct

As a member of the “Immeuble en ligne” facebook project, you may ONLY accept friend requests from your fellow classmates. You are not permitted to accept friends outside of this French 130 section or misrepresent yourself as another person outside of your fictional character.

In addition, you agree not to use this Facebook account to: upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make

available any content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

intimidate or harass another; upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available content that is objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Site, or which may expose its users to any harm or liability of any type.

___________________________________ Signature of student

Enjoy!

Sample Facebook Profile: Wall

Sample Facebook Profile: Infos

Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal

Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal

Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal

Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal

Enhancing Communication: Presentational

Enhancing Communication: Presentational

Enhancing Communication: Interpretive

Video postings

Benjamin Biolay - Laisse Aboyer Les Chiens Lou Apollinaire Ah, mon chanteur préféré. Comme il est beau,

n’est-ce pas? En fait, il se ressemble à un de mes voisins…

Vanessa Paradis Divine Idylle Lou Apollinaire ma folie, mon envie. Vanessa Paradis est mon

idylle. mon divine idylle.

Carla Bruni, Le Toi du Moi Lou Apollinaire Voilà une vidéo de Carla Bruni. Je la déteste

parce qu'elle est trop jolie et elle chante mieux que moi...

Follow-up student posting of different Carla Bruni video as status update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMsGSukA8RQ

Enhancing Culture: Products

Shared cultural products shared by students:

Images of Paris Paintings by French artists Caricatures from Montmartre Music videos: Mozart l’Opéra Rock, Phoenix, Carla

Bruni, Dalida, MC Solaar Videos of sports: Paris St. Germain soccer chants Plays: video clip of L’étranger by Albert Camus News articles

Images of Paris: Des photos de mon balcon

Caricatures from Montmartre

Enhancing Connections to other disciplines

Connections to Art

Enhancing Connections to other disciplines

Enhancing Connections to other disciplines

Connections to politics, current events

Enhancing Connections to course content

Connections to French film, Amélie

Enhancing Connections to course content

Connections to concept of “la vie en rose” and Edith Piaf’s song discussed in class

Enhancing Comparisons

Discussion of “mise en abyme” in class via French art and film/ student comparison to American TV show advertisement

Enhancing Comparisons

Following discussion of stereotypes of French in class/ Student posts a video from an American TV show (HBO) which portrays these stereotypes

Enhancing Communities

Development of Group Pages, Parties, Events

Enhancing Communities

Development of Group Pages, Parties, Events

A return to the French 130 objectives…

By the end of this course, you should be able to communicate well enough in French to discuss and describe yourself, your immediate surroundings, your personal life and interests, and some of your opinions about the world at large. You will also have the tools to function in a variety of social situations

You will have the tools to give advice, ask questions, and make plans.

You will have the tools to tell stories using the past tenses

French 130 grammatical objectives

Question formation : 119 questions formed within status updates and wall postings

Past Tenses: 41 sentences with past tenses

Present tense: 257 sentences in the present tense

Relative pronouns: 53 relative pronouns

Adjectives: 128 adjectives

French 130 Functional Objectives

Expressing opinions: 49 opinions “Zoe Vassar apprécie la pluie du printemps” “Renée Clément n’aime pas le nouveau facebook”

Ask questions: 119 questions “Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire pendant le week-end?” “vous habitez à quel étage?” “vous détestez beaucoup de personnes, non?”

Make plans: 37 invitations “Pouvons-nous aller déjeuner demain?” “Est-ce que tu veux avoir un autre rendez-vous avec moi?

Samedi soir, peut-être?” “Veux-tu aller au concert avec moi? J’aime les concerts! Et

après le concert, nous pouvons danser dans la discothèque! Est-ce que tu as déjà prévu quelque chose ce week-end?

Tell stories in the past tense: 41 descriptions of past events

Student Questionnaire

1. How did you interact on Facebook during this course? Please indicate the two Facebook tools that you used the most often.

2. When posting on Facebook did you pay attention to grammatical accuracy and vocabulary choice? Why or why not?

3. Did you enjoy using Facebook in this course? What did you like about it? What didn’t you like about it?

4. Do you feel that the use of Facebook was a valuable French learning experience? How?

How did you interact on facebook during this course?

Notes/ compositions - 15 wall postings -14 Status updates -13 Uploaded images/ photos -12 Uploaded news stories- 8 Uploaded video- 6 Group pages -4 Uploaded music -1 Facebook chat -1

*Comments on status updates/ Comments on photos

When posting on Facebook did you pay attention togrammatical accuracy and vocabulary choice? Why or why not?

Yes -12 To make my message clear (2) Message was to be seen publicly (2) I wanted to be entertaining My classmates would correct me It was a class assignment (2) It (grammatical accuracy) fit the personality of my

character I would write the post before hand to ensure

accuracy and then post it

Some browsers didn’t allow for accents (6)

Did you enjoy using Facebook in this

course? Yes -11

It was familiar It was fun (2) Great way for me to get to know the rest of the people in the

building and in the class(5) Great way to interact with others It’s a creative, interactive, relaxed method of using

conversational French A way to ask about homework I had a blast with it. I was able to share ideas, interact with

others, plus learn about other people’s lives and hobbies. Good way to practice French outside of class

No – 2 Difficult to keep up with. (4) “It sometimes was tedious to have to be your character” I wish we were given more topics to post about I don’t really use facebook so it wasn’t that helpful for me.

Do you feel that the use of Facebook was a valuable French learning experience?

How?

It allows you to practice French in a familiar way. Most students can’t go without facebook so it was easy to do.

Yes, It’s culturally relevant and makes the class more fun and applicable.

Yes, I was motivated to use accurate French. It also enhanced class discussion.

Yes. But, much of the interaction was similar to in-class exercises. Yes, it made French more interesting. Yes, we were able to practice our French and learn about other

people’s opinions and ideas. Yes, because it made us think in French outside of class. Yes, it gives a glimpse of how “real life” in France is. It’s very cool

to read and see the same words in French as we do in English (Connections).

It can be. Using French informally. Yes, because we were able to visit French websites, listen to

French music groups, and watch French TV shows. In addition we could learn about Montmartre from our friends’ shared notes (compositions).

It felt somewhat less useful than the other course work. It was fun and interesting but limited as far as how much it actually offered to help with skills in French.

Only if students use facebook. It is innovative but I feel like it wasn’t written on the homework.

“Facebook as Online Community Theater”

“I’ve always thought of Facebook as online community theater. In costumes we customize in a backstage makeup room – the Edit Profile page, where we can add a few Favorite Books or touch up our About Me section – we deliver our lines on the very public stage of friends’ walls or photo albums. And because every time we join a network, post a link or make another friend it’s immediately visible to others via the News Feed, every Facebook act is a soliloquy to our anonymous audience.”

“We log into the website because it’s entertaining to watch a constantly evolving narrative starring the other people in the library”

- The Fakebook Generation, NY Times, October 2007

Alice Mathias, 2007 graduate of Dartmouth College