Facebook-Based Language Learning: Vietnamese University EFL Students' Attitudes and Practices

Introduction

Facebook, a new form of computer-mediated communication (CMC), has emerged and gained immense popularity (e.g., Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Nham & Nguyen, 2013). With its exclusive features, Facebook has proved to be one of the most powerful social networking sites (SNS) in the field of education as it embraces the interactivity of the Internet by allowing educators and learners to use various features for teaching and learning communication (e.g., Bosch, 2009; Kalelioğlu, 2017; Munoz & Towner, 2009). Accordingly, Facebook has been seen to have positive effects on general education and English language education. Furthermore, Facebook-based language learning (FBLL) activities have been applied in ESL/EFL teaching and learning in various contexts. In the context of Vietnam, Facebook has emerged as one of the educational tools which can help teachers and learners in both general education and foreign language acquisition (e.g., Le, 2018; Tran & Ngo, 2020). More and more teachers and learners tend to use Facebook and adapt it for educational purposes as it is free and contains different features of a learning management system (LMS). They can make use of educational features embedded in Facebook (e.g., posting and sharing the teaching and learning materials, discussing, watching video clips, and giving comments) to boost the teaching and learning quality.

It is seen that the study on the employment of Facebook as a language teaching and learning platform has attracted different researchers’ attention (e.g., Camus et al., 2016; Godwin-Jones, 2008; Kalelioğlu, 2017; Le, 2018; Tran & Ngo, 2020; Ulla & Perales, 2021). Camus et al. (2016), for example, examined the effects of the Facebook based online discussion on student engagement and learning achievement. Another focus is EFL students’ attitude towards Facebook-based activities for English language learning conducted by Tran and Ngo (2020) in the Vietnamese context. Recently, Ulla and Perales (2021) studied students’ perspectives and experiences in using Facebook as a tool for online learning during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Thai EFL context. Nevertheless, it is likely that there has been a scarcity of research on FBLL activities.

This current study highlights the application of Facebook as a learning platform to enhance EFL students’ language proficiency, and it aims to scrutinize the English majors’ attitudes towards FBLL activities, their employment of FBLL strategies, and their relationship between the attitudes towards FBLL activities and the use of FBLL strategies at an institution of higher education in Vietnam. This study endeavors to answer the research questions as follows:

• 1.

  What are tertiary English majors’ attitudes towards FBLL activities?

• 2.

  To what extent do tertiary English majors employ FBLL strategies?

• 3.

  Is there any significant correlation between tertiary English majors’ attitudes towards FBLL activities and their use of FBLL strategies? If yes, what?