Teachers' perspectives on their experience of using social media for English language teaching

Alharbi, Latifah Mohammed A (2024) Teachers' perspectives on their experience of using social media for English language teaching. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates English language teachers' perspectives and experiences using social media technologies, particularly Instagram, to support English language teaching and learning. Little is known about using social media technologies to enhance English language learning from the perspectives of English teachers, or about the factors that could influence how these tools are used and the need for them to be used effectively. This study provides the Saudi Ministry of Education with a clear understanding of certain potential functions that social media might fulfil toward enhancing the English language teaching and learning environment. The study's participants are teachers of English. The data was collected using a qualitative approach (interviews and online observation). With a total of sixteen English language teachers, semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain an insight into their perspectives and experiences, and to enable them to express their opinions on using such technology tools to support English language teaching. This qualitative research reveals that teachers had positive experiences with Instagram. It enables them to socialise and engage with English teachers from around the world to share knowledge, helping them to support learners outside the foreign language curriculum. They stated that, because social media is a medium with which most students are already familiar, adopting it can help make teaching and learning English more enjoyable. However, a number of potential issues were highlighted, including social media and copyright literacy, as well as lack of time on the part of teachers. The teachers believed that certain teachers may find it difficult to use social media to help their English teaching because of their lack of digital literacy. They also stated that the lack of regular administrative support that they experience may act as an obstacle to utilising social media as a teaching aid. Future recommendations offered by the teachers for successfully adopting social media to help English language teaching included employing social media as a set of supportive tools in English learning and integrating some activities from social media to support the English curriculum. In general terms, the present study provides teachers with a possible model for how to use social media in their teaching and learning practices.