To Comment or Not to Comment: Exploring the Engagement Levels of ESL Learners in Facebook Groups

Abstract

Phenomenal changes have taken place in English Language Teaching (ELT) in the last few decades. With e -Learning being the norm, Technology has become an integral part of education and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has revolutionized human communication. Proving to be a very useful tool with its abundance of input, authentic materials, and interaction opportunities the positive influence of CMC has been documented. Lately, the immense popularity of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) such as Facebook and Twitter have reshaped the pedagogical landscape of ESL as more ESL practitioners are adopting SNSs as learning platforms. Its potential as a learning tool in L2 is being widely researched. Facebook has become the way the 21st century communicates and especially the young adults worldwide whose primary medium of communication is Facebook. The advantage of using Facebook as a tool is its unchallenged popularity and the array of options such as uploading, tagging, comments, personal information sharing, connecting with other users, creating groups with common interests offered. This paper examines the impact a Facebook group has on the engagement levels of a class of young adults in a General English Course at a private institute. In a one-year course, the researcher who is also the teacher created a private Facebook group for the students. Incorporated with the regular classroom activities, the students were assigned scaffolding activities, which could be done online. Further, this paper discusses the levels of engagement and the features of interaction observed in the participants’ Facebook Page behavior. In addition, the study provides insights for ESL practitioners regarding the usage of Facebook activities in order to enhance their learners’ engagement levels.