A case study of using Facebook in an EFL English writing class : The perspective of a writing teacher

Education Department, Hsinchu City Government (Taiwan) cdpsttarng@gmail.com The purpose of this study was to address a writing teacher’s perspective about integrating Facebook, a social networking site, into a university-level English writing course in Taiwan. Data, including interviews with the teacher and class postings on Facebook, were analyzed inductively, qualitatively, and interpretively, resulting in three emerging themes about the Facebook usage: students’ participation, the connection between class and Facebook discussion, and the affordance of Facebook. Each theme’s underlying properties were identified. This study provides language instructors with insights into the adoption of Facebook in an efl context and supports them to better design tasks on Facebook.


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A case study of using Facebook in an EFL English writing class: The perspective of a writing teacher

li-tang Yu
Education Department, Hsinchu City Government (Taiwan) cdpsttarng@gmail.comThe purpose of this study was to address a writing teacher's perspective about integrating Facebook, a social networking site, into a university-level English writing course in Taiwan.Data, including interviews with the teacher and class postings on Facebook, were analyzed inductively, qualitatively, and interpretively, resulting in three emerging themes about the Facebook usage: students' participation, the connection between class and Facebook discussion, and the affordance of Facebook.Each theme's underlying properties were identified.This study provides language instructors with insights into the adoption of Facebook in an efl context and supports them to better design tasks on Facebook.

Keywords: Facebook, Social Networking
Site, Writing Class, efl, Teacher's Perspective introduction Many educational researchers and teaching practitioners have recognized that the application of computer technology can benefit language teaching and learning (e.g., Jamieson, Chapelle, & Preiss 2005;Warschauer & Healey, 1998).Among various applications, computer-mediated communication (cmc) allows learners to participate in and build a learning community to construct knowledge and develop rapport in an online collaborative setting (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998;Peterson, 2009;Shin, 2006;Vinagre, 2005).The application of Web 2.0 tools has the potential to promote collaboration and to increase interaction among users (Wang & Vasquez, 2012).Language learners could develop their autonomy, intercultural competence, and language skills via Web 2.0 tools (Lee, 2011;Lomicka & Lord, 2012;Mak & Coniam, 2008).Because of its powerful social function and easy access, cmc has been touted as a meaningful approach in which language learners can explore and strengthen relationships with others and build learning communities.These learners have more opportunities to practice and use target languages outside and inside of class.
Social networking sites (sns), a Web 2.0 applications, have recently received attention from researchers who have explored their capabilities in language learning and teaching.
Based on McCarthy's (2010) study, sns usage may increase interactions among students and reduce language barriers and social inhibitions.Lomicka and Lord (2012) found that the use of sns could help learners build collaborative communities and provide opportunities for creative language practice outside of class time.Learners could also advance their learning autonomy and develop identity through their interactions on sns (Halvorsen, 2009;Pasfield-Neofitou, 2011).Research has found that Facebook, a widely used sns, has potential to foster language learners' sociopragmatic awareness (Blattner & Fiori, 2011) and has been viewed as a facilitative platform for language learning (Kabilan, Ahmad, & Abidin, 2010).Learners can undertake more collaborative language-learning activities on Facebook (Lantz-Andersson, Vigmo, & Bowen, 2013), which increase their opportunities to practice using target language and to support their language development through interaction (Long, 1985).Integrating Facebook into language learning settings, especially in the efl context, makes it possible for learners to increase their amount of language production even outside of the language classroom.
Most studies have focused solely on students' views of using Facebook without further exploring teacher's perspectives (e.g., Erdem & Kibar, 2014;Mitchell, 2012).It is, therefore, essential to explore how a teacher integrates Facebook into his or her instruction.In an attempt to fulfill the gap, the current paper specifically explicates an efl writing teacher's experience in using Facebook in an efl writing class and exemplifies how he co-constructed a learning community with his students.The central research question that guided the paper is "what was the experience of an English writing teacher using Facebook to support efl students?"The following paper begins by explaining the research methodology, and then reports on the results followed by a conclusion of the research.

Research methodology
The primary goal of this case study was to better understand how a writing teacher integrated Facebook into his class.A case study approach allows researchers to examine a situation analytically and holistically.It refers to "a process of inquiry about the case and the product of that inquiry" (Stake, 2000, p.436).According to Casanave (2010), a case study has three features: including the researchers' interest in the uniqueness of a case, the researchers' interest in the depth and details of a case, and a demonstration of a thorough understanding of the context where a case is situated.Through a close exploration into individuals' experiences, a picture of how a subject sees and experiences his or her world can be drawn.

Contextual background
This research was conducted in a public university located in the central part of Taiwan.
Seventeen efl sophomore students were invited to participate in the study, six males and eleven females.All of the students were registered in the night program and had a parttime job during the day.
The students took a year-long writing course.In the fall 2012 semester, the students took the class in the form of typical face-to-face instruction.They met for three hours once a week.The course content focused on narrative, descriptive, and explanatory writing, aiming to polish students' skills at paragraph writing and to improve their competence with English grammar.It was expected that the students could improve their general writing abilities, make connections with reading and writing, and practice different modes of writing.
In addition to attending the regular face-to-face class, the students were required to attend weekly Facebook discussions as after-class assignments.It was expected that the in-class discussion would encourage students' participation in Facebook discussion, and Facebook discussion would complement in-class discussion.Thus, students could increase the amount of target language contact and production.
For the online discussion on Facebook, the students were required to contribute at least three postings, including one comment on writing prompts provided by their course instructor and two pieces of feedback to other classmates.To give the students more time to familiarize themselves with Facebook, both the teacher and the students started the online discussion one month later after the course began.
There were four components of the class evaluation.Assignment and participation in the class were 50% of the total score, and mid-term and final-term examinations were 10% and 20%, respectively.The Facebook discussion counted for 20%.

Participant
The purpose of this case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of a writing teacher's experience of using Facebook for online writing discussions with his students.Purposeful sampling identified the teacher (Mr Lee, pseudonym) (Patton, 1990), an adjunct assistant professor at the university where the study was conducted.I communicated with the teacher via e-mail and asked for permission to interview him and observe his Facebook class page.Through the e-mail communication, the teacher shared his teaching experience and learning background with me.It was his first time teaching at the university.He previously worked as a part-time lecturer at other universities in Taiwan for three years.He received a Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in the us and a PhD degree in instructional technology from a large public university in the American Midwest.His research interests included technology usage as a means to facilitate language learning, such as Mandarin and English.He had published several articles in international journals regarding computer assisted language learning.
Due to a miscommunication with a curriculum coordinator at the university, he was informed that he was teaching the class shortly before this semester started.However, he did his best to carefully design a course syllabus for the whole semester.It was also his first time to teach students in a night program.
According to Mr Lee, he was a heavy user of Facebook.He regularly logged on to Facebook and checked any new postings made by his Facebook friends.Before the study, he was very familiar with Facebook functions.

Data collection
Within the case study, data were collected using observation of the interaction between Mr Lee and the students on Facebook and semi-structured interviews with Mr Lee.All names in the data were pseudonyms.All postings on Facebook were automatically documented by Facebook.Mr Lee invited me and the students to join a writing page, which was specifically set up for the class at the beginning of the semester.All members on the page were able to initiate new topics, post comments on existing topics, "like" comments, and hide comments as spam.Posting writers and the administrator of the page, who was Mr Lee, were able to delete any posting on the page.Therefore, all postings made by Mr Lee and the students were recorded unless the writers or the page administrator deleted them.
During the semester, I invited Mr Lee to take two interviews.The first interview took place mid-semester; the second one was at the end.These interviews were based on my observation of Facebook discussions in order to seek clarification on what happened in the online discussions and what perspectives Mr Lee had about the efficacy of utilizing Facebook as a discussion platform.Questions in the interviews were loosely connected to the observation of the teacher-student interaction.

Data analysis
The main source of data includes Facebook posts and comments, and Mr Lee's interview responses.Data analysis began with a quantitative and qualitative inquiry of Facebook comments in order to understand the teacher-student and student-student interactions on Facebook.I calculated the number of posts and comments made by students and Mr Lee.
Then I categorized all posts and comments based on the interaction type.Next, the recorded interviews were transcribed.The interviews were analyzed using an inductive analysis approach and a grounded theory data analysis (Corbin & Strauss, 2008).Mr Lee's responses to the interviews were analyzed with initial coding.Based on this initial coding, salient categories and themes emerged via a systematic, comprehensive examination of the data.

Trustworthiness
The issue of trustworthiness was addressed by implementing two steps to increase the quality of the data analysis.First, I sent back the interview transcripts to Mr Lee for inspection.Second, the data were triangulated by examining the Facebook postings and Mr Lee's interviews.Doing so helped me gain an understanding of how Mr Lee and the students used Facebook in the writing class and present findings from Mr Lee's perspective.

Results
To grasp how Mr Lee and the students participated in the online discussion on Facebook, the first step was to examine their interaction, inducing types from Mr Lee's and the students' postings.Based on the analysis of their postings, specific questions about the postings were posed to Mr Lee in the interviews so that his view about Facebook utilization could be ascertained.

How the teacher and the students participated in Facebook
Among the 113 postings, eight were Facebook system messages, such as adding someone to a class group and the status of the page.Twelve topics emerged, which were all initiated by Mr Lee.Nine out of 12 topics were about writing prompts that guided the students to reflect on their own writing experiences or what they learned in class.The remaining three topics were about supplements to class material, class management, and a concern for the students.One hundred and three postings responded to the topics.Four categorizations of the postings were formed: the students' responses to other students, students' responses to Mr Lee, Mr Lee's responses to the students, and Mr Lee's responses to himself.It was found that the majority of the responses were made by the students in reply to Mr Lee.The second most frequent type of response was Mr Lee's feedback to the students.The students rarely gave feedback to other classmates and there were only seven examples in this category.Table 1 shows the summary of the postings on Facebook A careful, recursive examination of the interview transcripts was conducted to look for possible themes.Three major themes emerged from the data: (1) students' participation, (2) the connection between face-to-face class and online discussion, and (3) the affordance of Facebook.From Mr Lee's perspective, the adoption of Facebook in class involved three significant considerations.These themes are represented in Figure 1, with "the use of Facebook in class" as a central concern.The following sections outline and discuss in turn the three themes of using Facebook in the writing class from Mr Lee's experience.

Students' participation
Under this theme, "students' participation," there are four properties: students' characteristics, Mr Lee's scaffolding, his attitudes towards the students' writing, and the students' perception of using Facebook in the writing class.These properties are explained further below.Students' characteristics.Mr Lee mentioned that the students registered in the night program and worked during the day.Their limited time influenced their involvement in coursework.He noted, They were a special population of learners.Unlike students in the daytime program who have much time to do homework or review their learning, almost all of the students worked during the day and had a break at 5:00PM.They rushed to the class and arrived at sixish in the evening.….They rarely had time to do their coursework.
The students' low proficiency pushed Mr Lee to change his class activities and to rely on Facebook to extend his class activities.Therefore, the students could have more chances to review the learning materials by participating in the discussion on Facebook.He explained, [a]t the very start of the semester, I spoke only English in class to discuss writing ideas, then I realized it did not work.I changed to use more Chinese.Plus, if the conversation in class is "synchronous" and "simultaneous," they may carry more pressure on themselves.So if they have more time to ponder some writing ideas, that will be better.They prefer to do it at home without much pressure.If I ask them to answer me immediately, they will freak out.
The students' learning beliefs and goals also influenced their participation.For example, Mr Lee especially indicated one student who had good writing skills but seldom contributed to the discussion on Facebook.He did not post his comments until he was certain that his grammar, vocabulary, and content were perfect.Furthermore, the students just aimed to fulfill the assignment requirement (i.e., three postings).Once they achieved the requirement, they did not want to linger more on the writing page.He illustrated, [o]ne student was very special.Actually, his writing competency was good.But he would not post his comments until the comments looked really perfect.I just told him it's OK to post whatever you have.Don't be so self-conscious.You can write whatever you want.
But he was not willing to do so.
Most of the students seemed to just "care" about the quality of their own writing and if they "fulfilled the assignments".
Additionally, the students took most of the classes together in the night program.Their frequent in-class interaction decreased their motivation to do the online interaction since face-to-face communication was more efficient.It might explain why the students had little feedback for each other but tended to respond to the teacher's writing prompts on Facebook.As Mr Lee pointed out, They got together every day because they took same classes.If they wanted to interact with each other, it's quicker for them to do an "oral communication" instead of doing it on Facebook.
The teacher's scaffolding.To cope with the students' initial low participation in the discussion on Facebook, Mr Lee used a variety of ways to encourage the students.He reminded them to complete the work on Facebook every class.Further, he used grades to push the students to join the discussion and designed a summary sheet for them to record what they did in the online discussion.Before the mid-term examination, he held a teacher-student conference to motivate the students to participate in the online discussion.He found that the conference had a big impact on the students, … because they got the teacher's feedback in the conference.I would focus on their problems and tell them how to better improve their writing.Then they would also ask me how to write better in English.
When giving feedback to the students on Facebook, Mr Lee would focus on the students' ideas by giving a range of responses.He would sometimes quote from famous people's articles, insert multimedia links, or provide explanations about linguistic issues troubling the majority of the students.He said, I usually focused on the macro level of their postings, so they can see that I have read their postings.The purpose was to keep the online discussion going on in these backand-forth responses.Because few students would give feedback to each other, at least I had to do so.
I found the students had a lot of questions about punctuation.They also asked the punctuation questions in class.So when I can "address" their questions, I will "address" them on Facebook.
Mr Lee swiftly adjusted his role in the online discussion from being an observer to a primary discussant.As an active discussant, he could lead the discussion and connect the course content with the discussion.He noticed, [i]n the beginning, I just thought I slightly moderated the discussion.But I realized that I need to play a key role in the discussion.I had to "proactively lead" the discussion.Furthermore, I had to include what we talked about in the online discussion in the faceto-face class.So the online discussion was a part of my class instruction.
Teacher's attitudes towards feedback to the students' postings on Facebook.From the summary of the postings in Table 1, it was found that Mr Lee was the most active discussant on the writing page.He initiated writing prompts and frequently gave feedback in response to the students' comments.According to Mr Lee, he was devoted to the online discussion not only to be a model for the students but also to establish a rapport with the students.He said, I hoped to give each of them responses "equally."Then, the students would feel that the teacher was paying attention to what they wrote.I think s/he would notice my response if I did it.If s/he noticed the feedback, s/he would feel happier and participate more seriously in the discussion.
[W]hen someone demonstrates that he or she is a reader in the discussion, at least writers "emotionally" feel better.They would think that what they did was more than just handed in assignments and made some postings on Facebook.I hoped I can be their loyal reader.But it's public "readership".
Students' perception about using Facebook in the writing class.The students did not fully favor the online discussion on Facebook when they began this semester.Furthermore, they had doubts if the online discussion was helpful to their writing.Mr Lee recalled a question from one student about the purpose of having the online discussion as their homework.Their uncertainty stemmed from the inexperience of doing online discussions in their writing class.The students' doubts were reflected in their passive participation in the discussion.He pointed out, [o]ne student with good writing skills came to me and said that this approach might not fit us.He wanted me to reconsider doing activities on Facebook, such as peer feedback.
In the beginning, the students were puzzled as to why they were required to do this stuff because they had no relevant experiences about online discussion.
However, with Mr Lee's promotion and devotion to the online discussion, the students gradually accepted it and became more favorable and willing to contribute to the discussion.From the feedback given by the same student who questioned the purpose of the online discussion, Mr Lee concluded that the students needed time to experience the online discussion on Facebook before they could get involved.He noted, After several weeks, he felt using Facebook was good.So the use of Facebook needs some time to let students get used to and experience this online learning community.So time is important.

The connection between face-to-face class and online discussion
The second theme was concerned with the association between face-to-face meeting and virtual discussion activity.Mr Lee emphasized that the focus of the class should be on English writing.Facebook was only a support tool assisting students to better learn course content.He observed, [b]ecause our goal was to learn a language, Facebook became a facilitative tool.The core of teaching was still about how to make students engaged in and willing to participate in learning.After all, Facebook is a discussion-based platform.It must be connected with class instruction…..The class instruction still played an important role in the online discussion.
This theme, the connection between face-to-face class and online discussion, involves three properties, including the class material, the use of Facebook, and the teacher's perspective on technology use.These properties are explained in the following sections.
The class material.The class content was very multifaceted.Mr Lee's writing prompts and comments on the writing page on Facebook presented various topics concerning, for example, picture books, education, movies, and food.This diversity of discussion content was associated with his class.He explained, I had a variety of topics in my class.…The content of our class was "multi-cultural" and had different perspectives.My students came from all walks of life.Their opinions were interesting and respectful.We would discuss topics from fair and objective viewpoints but not from a single perspective.
Mr Lee considered that the three-hour face-to-face meeting time with the students per week was insufficient.He wanted more opportunities to interact with the students because most of the class time was used for writing lectures to fulfill the students' needs.Thus, he relied on Facebook to extend his class, and kept in contact with the students.He explained that "I think if we did not use Facebook, our interaction would become much limited.Now using Facebook allows the interaction to 'expand'." Mr Lee would adjust the number of weekly writing prompts on Facebook in terms of the students' learning situations.For example, when the students did not catch up with the weekly discussion or they had to prepare for the mid-term examination, Mr Lee would postpone new writing prompts so that the students could keep up on their missing postings.This time allowance was considered a way to help students.He indicated, [a]fter Question 3, I just gave them more time to 'make up' the postings they were required to finish in previous weeks.And I stopped and did not assign new topics on Facebook because I found that the student can't afford the workload anymore if I kept assigning new topics.Before the mid-term exam, the students had two weeks to "catch up" with the postings.Maybe when they had more time, they could "generate" their own 'ideas'.
The integration of Facebook.For Mr Lee, the adoption of Facebook in his class empowered the students to have more opportunities to refresh what they learned in class.All writing prompts on the writing page came from the learning material Mr Lee covered in class.In his opinion, Facebook was a great platform for the students to review course material.They could learn class content without the time and space limitation.He noted, I think that all content had to "link" to the class instruction when I posted something in the writing page.That is to say, the students would be able to review what they learn in class if they went to the writing page after class and completed after-class activities.They had to review what they learned and digested the learning materials again because the writing prompts were "related" to the textbook or clips played in class.
However, Mr Lee did not over-rely on Facebook.He used it cautiously based on its features and teacher's and students' needs.For example, when addressing announcements to the whole class, he preferred to use his school e-mail rather than a message function on Facebook because e-mail could more securely deliver the information he sent.
Although he spent much time on both his personal page and the class page on Facebook, he made a clear distinction between the two.Unlike his personal page where he socialized with his Facebook friends, the class page never became a social place for him and the students.The writing page confirms that all postings he made rarely concerned socializing with the students.He claimed, [w]riting page was learning-oriented.After all, the page was separated from my "personal" page on Facebook.I think I had a specific role in the page.I'm a teacher and hope that the students were learning from the page.We fulfilled the learning goals via technology tools.Therefore, the "social" part was minimized.
The teacher's perspective on technology use.Mr Lee specialized in learning technology.However, the generalization cannot be made that he firmly supported technology usage in language instruction.His experience of technology utilization changed along with the students' participation and learning outcomes.He pointed out, [l]ike using technology, I must create a balance between curriculum and technology use in class.But I'm not sure how much technology can do to support language learning.It's important to consider students' individual differences and teaching/ learning goals.
Mr Lee wanted to conduct research about computer-enhanced language learning, which was one of the reasons that he used technology in his class.He agreed that technology was not a panacea to overcome all problems that students encountered in language learning.It must be used appropriately in order to have a positive effect.He remarked, [h]onestly speaking, I don't think it's good to have too much or too little technology in class.We need to find a balance regarding technology use in class.It's impossible to say technology can solve everything.But we have to face it and explore its potential.After all, it is the trend to deal with technology in our life.Computer-aided teaching and learning is worthy of more research.
Mr Lee had a big concern about using Facebook for discussion activities.The students with low English proficiency were unable to differentiate wrong English usage from right and so a vicious cycle of using erroneous words or incorrect grammar was spread out among students' comments.He recalled, [i]f the information in the online learning platform is incorrect, it might be possible that you would learn the incorrect word use but consider it right.After all, you are immersed in this environment.And the proficiency levels of the students fell between basic and intermediate.Furthermore, throughout the semester, the students did not explicitly express any negative opinions about the online discussion to him again.Mr Lee worried that the students might reveal their dissatisfaction in his teaching evaluation survey at the end of the semester.The writing class was small.Even though few students gave low scores in the evaluation, this could have had a big negative impact on the overall result.He expressed, I'm afraid they did not directly speak out their complaints to me because they might think their grade would be affected by their negative opinions about the Facebook use.But they would reveal their unhappiness in the "teacher evaluation" form when the semester was going to end.It's a small class.Even one student can extremely lower my evaluation result.

The affordance of Facebook
The third theme is the affordance of Facebook, which is concerned with what functions and features Facebook can provide for the class.It is comprised of six properties.

Multimedia presentation.
Considering the fact that students are inevitably late for class, Mr Lee would play videos at the beginning of the class for two purposes: to wait for the late students and to warm up upcoming class activities.Therefore, Mr Lee took advantage of many multimedia resources on the Internet and presented them alongside various topics for class discussion.Facebook provides a function of embedding multimedia in postings.
[T]he videos were a "warm-up" activity.It was also a time for them to prepare themselves for the class and to finish their dinner.After class, I uploaded the videos to Facebook for the students.The videos on Facebook were also a connection between the class and the online discussion.
A platform for submitting homework.Unlike most people using Facebook to seek interpersonal interactions, the students had little private communication on the Facebook writing page because they frequently met with each other in many classes.They viewed the writing page as a place to hand in their assignment.Mr Lee observed, [t]hey just viewed this writing page as a platform for turning in their assignments.So even though they encountered learning difficulties, they didn't want to use Facebook as a means for communication and discussion of possible solutions.
Ease of use.One motivating factor of Facebook usage in the class is its "ubiquity."At the beginning of the semester, Mr Lee made a background survey about how frequently the students used Facebook and found that the majority of the students often used it.Therefore, Facebook was not a new tool for them and the students could easily adopt it without difficulty.

Timeliness.
Another feature of Facebook is its timeliness.Mr Lee highly praised Facebook because it automatically notified him when any student made new comments in the writing page.Then, he would go to the page and read the comments.He stated "[i]f there was a new posting on the writing page, the Facebook system would notify me.Then I would go and see.So I checked the page almost every day and saw who posted what." Uncertainty if students read postings or not.Mr Lee reported one disadvantage of using Facebook: the incapability of checking whether or not the students read the postings on the writing page.Although he posted English writing rules on the class page, he still had to create handouts and go over the rules again in class.According to Mr Lee, this was the only way to make sure that the rules were actually presented to the students.He said, When I found some writing mistakes the students made in their postings, I would 'address' them on Facebook.But I'm not sure how many students read my postings.I still needed to make a handout and explain correct writing rules in class.I'm not sure if the students actually read posts in our page when they log on Facebook….It's hard to get this information because reading is voluntary.

summary and conclusion
This study sought to answer the question: What was the experience of an English writing teacher using Facebook to support efl students?Based on the analysis of the postings on the Facebook class writing page as well as the interview transcripts, the following three themes emerged as the features of the classroom adoption of Facebook: students' participation, the connection between class and Facebook, and the affordances of Facebook.
The identified themes and respective underlying properties in the study were to provide us with a lens through which to understand how the teacher made use of Facebook as a learning platform and encouraged his students to increase their Facebook participation.
The study focused on one teacher, and needs to be replicated with a larger teacher sample.Nevertheless, the fact that the study was carried out in an intact classroom offers an ecologically valid perspective on incorporating social networking sites (Facebook in this study).It also highlights the teacher's perspective on the value and mechanism of using Facebook in his classrooms, describing how he designed class tasks based on students' needs.Taking individual students' learning situations into consideration, the teacher took advantage of Facebook affordance to connect between the inside and outside of the class for creating more opportunities of language use.
In future studies, researchers might include voices from students by interviewing them, and could investigate if both instructors and students have similar opinions about Facebook usage in their class.Also, researchers can measure students' English writing abilities and attitudes towards English writing before and after Facebook discussion so as to confirm the efficacy of Facebook use in students' writing development.Thus, a more comprehensive blueprint for the integration of Facebook in language class can be delineated.
Figure 1.Three themes of the use of Facebook in class