Online Social Networking in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language

The online social networking sites like the Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and WhatsApp are the most widely used platforms for routinely essential communications. However, the role and implications of using online social networking sites in teaching still remain unestablished (Roblyer et al., 2010). In view of the ever-advancing trends in using online social networking, a study of the EFL teachers' extent of using digital social networking is taken up at the University of Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. A group of English language teachers at the university were consulted for the data required for analysis. The study employed a mixed methods research approach that entailed a survey questionnaire on Likert scale distributed to a sample of teachers. The data obtained from the survey questionnaire were subjected to Cronbach's alpha test for measuring the internal consistency of the items. After confirming the internal consistency of the items, the same questionnaire was employed for semi-structured face-to-face interviews that included a discussion on the opinions of other respondents and their responses were again registered for comparison. The resultant final data were analyzed qualitatively in light of Jenness's (1932) conformity theory to establish whether the teachers are comfortably in favor of using online social networking for teaching purposes. And the inferences drawn from the analysis are provided for further insight into the use of social networking in the teaching of English.