Social media and English language writing performances of a Ghanaian ESL class: The nexus

Abstract

The nexus among social media usage and the English language writing performances of a Ghanaian English as Second Language (ESL) class was investigated in this enquiry. The simple qualitative case study design was used, and the data was collected from a co-educational government secondary school Form 2 General Arts One class in Ghana. A focus group discussion (FGD) guide was employed to elicit the data, and the data were synthesised and analysed using the Data Analysis Spiral. It was evidenced that social media has adversely impacted the students’ English Language learning, as oblivious and non-standard contents have been smuggled into the students’ academic writings and have negatively affected their performances. We recommend that teachers and parents regulate students’ access to social media to restrict them to confined times to prevent them from wasting time on unproductive and non-academic-related activities. Also, stakeholders in education should consider integrating pedagogical practices that leverage social media to engage students.