Japanese Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Facebook in the EFL Classroom

  • Dizon G
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Abstract

Facebook is the most widely used social networking site in the world. However, little is known of the views that Japanese students have towards its use to enhance language learning. This paper reports on a survey of students in Japan to determine their perceptions of the use of Facebook in four EFL courses. The participants were 41 students who were a part of the Faculty of Foreign Studies at a university in Japan. Students were divided into separate Facebook groups according to their class and were required to participate in weekly discussions through the site. The results revealed that the survey respondents had moderately favorable views of using Facebook to learn English. In particular, the site’s ease of use, convenience, and low-stress environment were seen as distinct advantages. These findings illustrate that Japanese students perceive Facebook as a beneficial tool for language learning. Facebookは世界中で最も広く利用されているSNS(ソーシャルネットワーキングサービス)である。しかしFacebookの言語学習への利用について、日本の学習者がどんな認識を持っているかはほとんど知られていない。本論では4つのEFLクラスでの、Facebook利用に関する日本人英語学習者の認識調査を報告する。対象者は大学の外国語学部に属する英語学習者41名で、クラスごとに別のFacebookグループに分けられ、週に1度Facebookを通じたディスカッションに参加した。その結果、英語学習のためのFacebook利用に関して、学習者は概ね好意的な認識を持っていることが示された。特に、サイトの使いやすさ、便利さ、ストレスの低い環境といった要因が大きな利点として挙げられた。これらの結果から、EFL学習者がFacebookを言語学習の有益なツールとして捉えていることが明らかになった。

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APA

Dizon, G. (2015). Japanese Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Facebook in the EFL Classroom. The Language Teacher, 39(5), 9. https://doi.org/10.37546/jalttlt39.5-2

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