Infuence of Digital Social Media in Writing and Speaking of Tertiary Level Student
Infuence of Digital Social Media in Writing and Speaking of Tertiary Level Student
Infuence of Digital Social Media in Writing and Speaking of Tertiary Level Student
Anika Belal
ID: 12263005
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Influence of digital social media in writing and speaking of
tertiary level student
Anika Belal
ID: 12263005
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to thank almighty Allah for his grace in the accomplishment of my
I want to thank Professor Firdous Azim, the Chairperson of the Department of English and
Humanities, for all the inspiration she brings to the department. I would like to express my
gratitude to my thesis supervisor Mahmuda Akhter, for her support and guidance during my
writing of this thesis paper. I am also thankful to my course instructors for helping me in
every step.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my friends for being there during my good and
hard times.
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ABSTRACT
The creation of digital social media has brought a huge change among the people of 20th
century. This new technology carries much weight as a new medium for students and also for
the educators to build social connections. Anderson (2008) says online learning, as a subset of
all distance education, has always been concerned with provision of access to educational
experience that is, at the least, more flexible in time and in space than campus-based
education (p. 53). The purpose of that study is to find out how the digital social media
influence the writing and speaking, how they motivate students to improve their productive
skills, and in what extend SNS is useful for the students to improve English language.
With the aim of exploring the influence of digital social media in writing and speaking of tertiary
level student, this research was conducted at 8 private and public universities in Bangladesh. A
sample of sixteen teachers and one hundred sixty students were respectively selected from five
private universities and three public universities in Bangladesh. Both qualitative and quantitative
methods were applied during data analysis. The results indicated that digital social media has
several influence in the writing and speaking of tertiary level student with the positive effects
outweighing the negative effects. The findings confirmed that students as well as the teachers can
formulate group discussions where they can exchange their ideas, can share course related
materials, appeal to their student about assignments which helping the students to enhance their
writing as well as their speaking. However the findings affirmed that digital social media also has
some negative influence. The students use short form of words, incorrect grammar and sentence
structure in their formal writing and speaking unconsciously, which are the affects of digital
social media as students are now much more familiar with those types of language.
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So the principal conclusion was that the use of digital social media has both positive and negative
influence, but the student has to motivate themselves properly to utilize the use of SNS which
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Table of contents
1 Introduction 1-7
1.0 Introduction
1.5 Delimitation
1.6 Limitations
3 Methodology 16-18
3.0. Introduction
3.3. Sampling
3.4. Setting
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3.5. Instrumentation
4.0. Introduction
5 Conclusion 33-36
5.0. Introduction
5.2. Recommendation
5.4. Conclusion
References 37-41
Appendix A 42-46
Appendix B 47-47
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CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
Once social media was introduced, it enabled a new way for people,
particularly the younger generation, to connect with one another, based
on common interests, goals and even values.
- Raymond Arroyo (2012)
People are living in a global world and everyday they are adopting new
technologies, information, lifestyle, language and so on. And nowadays digital social
media (facebook, twitter, yahoo messenger, google plus,) are very popular among
young generations and they are influenced more by them. They think what they are
pursuing in the digital social media is up to date and if they follow those trends,
people will find them smart. However nowadays there are influences of digital social
media in language acquisition of young learner. Young people are now most of the
time connected with the people through digital social media, so intentionally or
Marshall McLuhan (2003), in his book, The Book of Probes, comments, “All media
exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values” (p.199). In
fact, the Media plays a significant role in people’s everyday routines, actions and
reactions. Digital social media in many ways influencing people’s life as it expands
our social circle and explore new horizon through online connection, though it is
changing the approach of communication. The young generations nowadays often use
facebook, twitter, google plus, skype, yahoo messenger etc. With the prevalence of
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smart phones and popularity of texting, students are able to connect with their friends,
family members, and with others. As people are able to meet different people of
different country, they are learning new language through their conversation in social
media. 80 percent of teen users are now frequenting social media sites, and they are
using many different types of communication in the world of social media, like
Netspeak, overuse of abbreviations or slang. So there is no doubt that our real world
social lives have got some changes. Therefore some parents are worrying about their
It’s slightly less in-your-face, but the Internet is also shifting the words
we use to speak to one another, not just the way we choose to
communicate. Our obsession with the Internet even influences the
simple act of talking – out loud, in real life. Certain acronyms,
neologisms, and abbreviations have infiltrated everyday speech.
(Chopra, 2013)
In the digital social media the young generations use some popular terms like LOL
(for “laugh out loud”) which is developed into unique words. It has a meaning greater
than their original abbreviation. LOL is now used like a type of punctuation to add a
Though the young people are using it with their friends informally, unintentionally
they are acquiring these languages, and they use it in their formal writing and
speaking. This types of text shorthand is now becoming a language all its own. As a
result they are using those languages formally in the public place. As a result they are
destroying their language. Digital social media uses require some unique adaptations,
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1.1 Problem statement
With over 100 social networking sites in existence and over a billion registered users
on these sites, social networks today seem to have become a way of life. From this
ever increasing number of networking sites and users emerges a behavior that has
become a part of popular youth culture across continents and is increasingly popular
amongst youth in Asia. According to Hiradhar & Gray (2008) MySpace, one of the
best-known social networking sites now has some 110 million users. Other popular
sites include Friendster (58 million); Hi5 (70 million); Linkedin (20 million);
Facebook, which is now number nine in the top twenty list of web sites in the USA
(over 69 million); Xanga (40 million) and; Flickr (9.6 million). Research by Boyd
(2008) showed that tertiary level students were more likely to access social
networking sites on the internet at their schools than anywhere else. He also states
media reports have suggested that some tertiary schools in Botswana have banned
access to these sites. It is clear that all most all the student of tertiary level is
connected with the digital social media and they spend most of the time in those
social networking sites. Therefore there is no doubt digital social media is influencing
the writing and speaking of the students of tertiary level. “Online social networks
most commonly refer to the way that people are connecting online, as well as the
platform they are using to do this” (Tyson, 2009, p.10). So the students are getting
platform to practice their productive skill (English writing and speaking) in the SNS.
Therefore in the research paper it will find, how digital social media influences the
writing and speaking of tertiary level students, how it motivates and helps the student
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1.2 Purpose of the study
The way of speaking and writing of young generation is changing day- by- day, by the
influence of digital social media. The text which we used for communication in the
digital social media is basically production of our speech. What we try to say, reflect
in or text message.
However the digital social media is not only influencing the thoughts, feelings, and
ideas of people but also the writing and speaking. The purpose of that study is to find,
how the digital social media is influencing the writing and speaking, how they
motivating the students to improve English, and in what extent SNS is useful to
1. How are the digital social media influencing writing and speaking of tertiary
level students?
2. Do digital social media motivate the tertiary level students to improve their
English?
3. What aspects of digital social media are helping the learners of tertiary level to
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4. In what extent teachers find social media useful for their learners? Is there any
It is true that digital social media is playing a great role to connect the people though
they are far away from one another. The young generation likes to follow the new
trend as well they like to follow others. Therefore nowadays the young people follow
what are others are doing in SNS, what activities people appreciate most, and they are
motivated by that. Young generations like to observe others, imitate others, try to
acquire those behaviors and finally show those through their action. According to
from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and
on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action (p 22). People
usually write something in the digital social media what they want to present. Where
writing was once a solitary activity, it has now become a very social way to
communicate (ibid). Before the Internet, most people wrote to communicate with
other person. Now we can reach hundreds or thousands of people with a single post.
Chopra (2013) said we search for laptop deals with an eye to wireless connectivity in
notice. Rather than eroding our writing skills, this has sharpened them. Nowadays
people can easily communicate to each other through the digital social media and they
prefer writing and speaking as the medium of communication. Nowadays the writing
and speaking of young generation is changing. They use short form, poor grammar
and symbols in SNS to express their thoughts and it happens both in writing and
speaking. And these kinds of practices also have an impact in their formal writing and
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speaking. It is not that SNS has only negative impact in writing and speaking of the
people, it also helps the young generation to learn new language, motivates them to
Therefore in this paper the focus is to find out the influence of digital social media in
writing and speaking of tertiary level student, how it motivates them to improve their
writing and speaking, and how it helps them to improve their English language. It also
finds the negative influence of digital social media in English language and in what
1.5 Delimitation
So the research narrows down its area from media to social digital media. Therefore
to construct the thesis concise, this research focuses on two productive skills;
1.6 Limitation
This research was conducted in universities of Dhaka only. Moreover, the research
was limited to very few institutions due to time constraints. Even it was almost
impossible to get in and reach the students of some universities because of the strict
security system, so, it was quite difficult to generalize the influence of digital social
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1.7 Operational Definitions
1.7.1 CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is often perceived, the
search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning
(Levy, 1997).
occurs between humans via some form of computer, such as a desktop, mobile phone
1.7.4: SNS: Social network sites is defined as web based services that allow
individuals to (1) construct a public or semi public profile within a bounded system,
(2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view
and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The
nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site (Kumar et al,
2013).
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CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW
Social networking sites (SNS) are popular among the young generation all over the
world now. Social networking sites are an online platform where people can create
their own profile and can interact with the people all over the world. According to
enables its users communicate with other members to establish social relations to
life.
new relationships, and maintain old relationships” (Gremu & Halse, 2012).
People can now access important information and the trendy online
culture to learn about things that were un-known to them before, as
well as new values and symbols for communication developed for
learning in an online environment that gives rise to new cultural cues.
(Quader, 2014, p. 6)
According to Asad et al (2012), people can share their thoughts, knowledge with each
other which also help them to increase their knowledge about the world and life.
Asad et al (2012) further say social networking sites have become gradually more
integrated into the way many people today act, think, and relate to each other and
therefore social networking sites has a huge number of implications in the field of
education and these impacts on students, educators, administrators, and parents also
(p. 499).
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According to Quader (2014) in SNS people can discuss about any subject or any topic
they like to and they feel free to communicate or discuss in SNS rather then classroom
discuss in the formal classroom but they feel free in SNS to discuss which also
enhance their learning and these sites have become very trendy as more and more
people are leaning towards SNS to share their everyday happenings with friends
online, rather than through face-to-face encounters. Asad et al. (2012) state “SNSs
provides a platforms for the students to learn and discuss outside the formal classroom
setting, therefore it also encourage students not to use materials only for the academic
purpose, it also encourage them to use it in their everyday life ( p. 500). Many
researchers like Quader (2014) found that there are positive relations between the use
of SNSs and academic performance of the student who uses SNS and the students
who used SNSs scored higher on reading skills test and had higher grades. He also
states that nowadays students are connected with their teachers in SNSs and
sometimes they discuss about academic topic and come out with new information
which helps them to enhance their knowledge. He also says that people learn about
The social learning theory is one of the most important theories of learning and
(1977), direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning. He also says
in his social learning theory that people can learn new behavior and information by
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observing, imitating, and modeling. Therefore he also states in social learning theory
that there are three core concepts which are, people can learn through observation,
mental condition is an essential part of process, and the last concept is, it doesn’t
mean that it will change the behavior because something has been learned.
According to Bandhura(1977) “in the social learning system, new patter of behavior
He also says a person can not learn much by observation if he does not attend to, or
recognize the essential features of the model’s behavior. Ginsburg et al (2006) argues
that most participant learning experience on SNSs is associated with social learning
outcomes. Ginsburg et al (2006) further say cognitively, they learn how to creatively
Bandhura’s theory (1977) has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and
motivation. However the young generation feels motivated when others appreciate or
like their activities (status, interesting posts) in the SNS. According to Bandhura
(1977) “within any social group some members are likely to command greater
attention then others”. He further said some people in the SNS are very active to
command on others status or posts and it makes others motivated to be active in the
SNS and to explore new information and knowledge, and on the basis of this
informative feedback, they develop thought or hypotheses about the type of behavior
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2.2 Use of SNS in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh the accessibility of internet and use of internet is still limited. Most of
the young people in the major cities use SNS. In a country like Bangladesh, internet
accessibility and usage capacity is still limited to the residents of major cities and
some suburbs (Quader, 2014, p.2).In Bangladesh Tertiary education takes place in
(ibid).
According to Akhter (2011) in Bangladesh the students use internet mostly for social
networking and entertainment and the reasons behind these are, lack of appropriate
content from the field of education and absence of research based activities and
assignments from schools. She also says “inquisitive students often feel lost in the
humongous sea of information available on the internet”. But if the student could find
something that was close to their school syllabus, they could find it useful and
relevant to them and was most interested to use it (ibid). Akhter (2011) further state
that the educational institutions understand this and they are already making use of
this functional medium in various aspects of their day-to-day activities like from
technology, and more importantly the internet, is being embedded into the very core
of the educational system. According to Asad et al. (2012) not every university but
some universities in the Bangladesh are now using SNS for academic purpose so the
student-student and teacher-student can keep in touch through SNS and they can share
important information, can discuss about any important issue or topic in SNS. Asad
et al. (2012) also state that it can not deny the impact of online social networking on
academic learning outcomes though the students do not explicate the academic
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learning outcomes from online social networking and for junior students, they might
first experience social learning and social integration into the university, and then feel
Students are however, keen to use SNSs for academic purposes and
this presents an opportunity to engage them to learn informally by
seeking, exploring and testing ideas with other students within their
own social network.
Digital social media like Facebbok, Twitter, and Google Plus, “all these are impacting
upon education far more dramatically than the conventional word-filled web page”
(Eastment, 2007). Boyd (2007) says teenagers and young adults have especially
embraced these sites as a way to connect with their peers, share information, reinvent
their personalities, and showcase their social lives According to Flad (2010) now
communication is instant as teens have their own cell phones that enable them to
access social networking sites throughout the day. Livingstone (2008) says being
commenting on photos that have been posted, sharing music or movie preferences,
responding to journal entries, and much more. While Krashen (1981) asserts that
comprehensible input was both a necessary and a sufficient condition for the
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acquisition of language, Ellis (1985) conducted an analysis of various studies and
theoretical treatments of the subject and concluded that both input and interaction
including any misconceptions that the learner starts with in their construction of new
instructors can show they are engaged in students’ Facebook learning by simply liking
class to an interesting discussion that has occurred on the page. They further say SNS
demonstrate to the students that the class tutor is present and interested in what is
happening online, and that he/she values their contributions. According to Harwood &
Blackstone (2012), this kind of support is very important to motivate the less
confident learners to feel interested to participate in the discussion. And as the teacher
is involved in the discussion the student are aware of their writing. They do not want
to do any mistakes in their writing. Moreover the students want to be more creative in
their writing because they know teacher is observing them and if their comment is
resourceful, teacher will like his/her comment or will response to that (ibid).
contexts in which students are active in their own learning. To achieve this, Vygotsky
(1978) advises that the traditional roles of the instructor and student are altered to
enable the instructor to collaborate with students in order to facilitate the construction
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One dimension that distinguishes written from spoken language is
explicitness—written language is more explicit, whereas spoken
language is more implicit because it uses both verbal and nonverbal
contexts to complete its messages.
(Greenfield, 1972)
According to Bunce (2010) “CMC provides conditions for language use, through
output, and collaborative dialogue. Kern (1995) states, it helps the student to reduce
the anxiety and feel free to participate and help them to improve their language
and reducing anxiety. Pellettieri (2000), Toyoda and Harrison (2002) have found that
and output pushed towards target-like language as the student are aware about their
According to Bunce (2010) chatroom interaction was less effective for language
learning than face-to-face oral interaction as “slow typing can considerably hinder
important characteristic of online chatrooms is that they are inherently visual. Chat
2002). According to Herring (1996), chat takes place in the written medium (typing
words on a keyboard and reading words on a screen), but like spoken language,
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grammatically simple, and often incorrect (grammar and typographical errors)
norms and tools, some of which are not be appropriate to an educational online
context” (p. 48). Therefore (Crystal, 2001) reports that 80% of the utterances in
published log data were five words or fewer in length. Therefore Hezili (2010) found
in his research, chat users omit copulas, subject pronouns, and articles. The use of
misspelled words and spellings by replacing normal words and terms in the language
is a definite cause for alarm hindering the ability of students and children to
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CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter of dissertation discusses the influence of digital social media in writing
and speaking of tertiary level student and how it motivates them to improve their
language, helps them to improve their English language. It also finds out the positive
and negative influence of digital social media in English language and in what extent
The research survey was done both in private and public universities in Dhaka.
Among those there were 5 private universities and 3 public universities. There were
The theoretical framework of the research study focuses on Social Learning Theory
which is introduced by Albert Bandura (1977). This theory demonstrated that people
Bandura (1977) says “mans superior cognitive capacity is another factor that
determines, not only how he will be affected by his experience, but the further
direction his action may take”. In social learning system people acquire new pattern of
Bandura (1977) people can represent external influences symbolically and later use
such representation to guide their actions. During the period of learning people not
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only perform response, they also observe the differential consequences accompanying
their various actions on the basis of informative feedback and they develop thought or
hypothesis about the type of behavior which most likely to succeed (ibid).
3.3 Sampling
There were qualitative and quantitative questions for 160 students and 16 teachers.
The students and the teachers were chosen from 5 private universities and 3 public
universities in Dhaka.
3.4 Setting
The researcher did students survey in 5 private and 3 public universities. The survey
was done in the classroom of the universalities. The researcher also took interviews of
the teacher. Most of the interviews were taken in the cubical of teachers in the English
department of the universities. But for some limitations some interview were taken
via phone.
3.5 Instrumentation
A survey questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data from the students.
The teachers were interviewed while collecting the data. A semi structured interview
questionnaire was formed for that purpose. Mobile phone was also used to record the
A major portion of the data was collected from students' responses by distributing
questionnaires to them. However, due to time constraints and schedule problem, some
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of the data were collected through email. The teachers’ responses were collected by
face to face interview, but due to their busyness, some of their interviews were taken
over phone.
Initially the raw data were counted using tally. Later, Microsoft Excel was used to
In some universities it was hard to get in the reach of the teachers. Some
administrative were not cooperative and they were reluctant to give permissions to
take the interviews. And as it was the month of Ramadan, many universities mainly
the public universities were closed early so it was difficult to reach in to the teachers
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CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.0 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to develop and analyze the research data that was
collected from the survey of the students and form the response of the teachers’
interviews to find the influence of digital social media in writing and speaking of
To find out the influence of digital social media in writing and speaking of tertiary
level students’ survey were conducted among 160 students from 5 private and 3
Question1: Which Social networking Site (SNS) do you use the most?
Majority of the students (96%) responded that they use facebook most, followed by
Figure 1 below shows the findings of the use of different social networking sites.
Facebook
100% Twitter
Google Plus
80% Hi5
60%
40%
20%
0%
96%
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Question 2: How much time do you daily spend on the Social media (Facebook,
twitter etc.)?
Regarding the use of social networking sites the students were asked how much time
they spend in the social networking site. Figure 2 indicates that 36% students spend
three-four hours in the SNS, followed by 34% spend one-two hours, 30% few minutes
Question 3: Do you use English language when you chat with your friends?
The findings show that 66% students use English language when they chat with their
friends. 30% students stated that sometimes they use English language and 4% said
they do not use English language while chatting with their friends. The student
admired that they use English language most but sometimes they also use Bangla, but
it depends on the situation and conversation. The students also added that they type in
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Question 4: Do you use English language when you chat with your teacher?
Most of the student (97%) said they use English language when they talk with their
teacher though they do not chat with their teachers that much. They just chat with
their teacher when the students have any query regarding academic issues.
Question 5: When you give a status/ comment on SNS which language do you
mostly use?
When the students give any status or comment on SNS 87% students use English
language but 36 % students sometimes use both English and Bangla language. 7 %
correct it?
Most of the students, 79% responded that their friends usually do not correct their
mistakes because they do not want to feel their friends down towards other people.
But 19% students said sometimes they do correct their mistakes but it is very rare.
Question 7: If there are any mistakes in your status/comment, does your teacher
correct it?
52% student said their teachers use SNS for communication and discussion, so the
teacher do not correct if they do any mistakes in status or comment. 48% students
mentioned that they do not have contact with their teacher in the SNS, so there is no
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Question 8: When you chat or give a status are you conscious about grammatical
Most of the students (95%) are very conscious about grammatical structure, spelling
etc most when they give any status in SNS because they want to make their status
perfect and interesting so that others give more likes and comment.
Question 9: Do you think online chatting helps you to improve your speaking?
How?
86% students responded that online chatting helps a lot to improve speaking as
speaking is a matter of practice. Though they type in chatting it helps them to improve
their speaking by practicing more as they are using SNS in daily basis. The students
stated that if any of their friends use vocabulary, idioms, which they do not know,
they would get accustomed to that. Online chatting also helps the students to improve
their sentence structure. However, 14% students gave different opinion. They said that
writing does not help much to improve the speaking. It is more of speaking which
helps to improve ones speaking because the barriers are hesitation, lack of confident.
Question 10: Do you think SNS (writing status, comments) helps you to improve
Majority of the students (80%) think that SNS (writing status, comments) helps them
to improve their writing. When the students give any status or comment mostly status
they try to write proper sentence and they are conscious about their grammar which
help them to improve their formal writing. Therefore some students (10%) stated SNS
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does not help to improve ones writing as the students write in short forms most of the
time in SNS.
Question 11: Does the language of SNS influence your formal writing
The findings shows 89% students mentioned that the language of SNS does not
influence their formal writing (exam script, assignment etc). 6% students said it
influences their formal writing as sometimes they unconsciously use short form in
Question 12: Do you use short form in formal writing, like you use in chatting/
status /comment?
95% students said they do not use short from in their formal writing. 3% said most of
the time they write in short form in SNS, so when they write any formal paper
sometimes unconsciously they use short form in their writing. Mostly they use short
form in their exam script because there is no spelling checker. But when they do any
assignment they do not use short form as they are privileged to have spelling checker
in the computer.
Question 13: Do you feel comfortable to practice English in SNS with your
friends? Why?
95% student responded that they feel comfortable to use English in SNS as the
students do not need to interact face to face and also it is easy to write in short form
and faster .But 3% admitted that English is not a matter of practice in SNS.
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Question 14: Do you sometimes pronounce some informal words/phrases
Most of student 95% said the language of SNS does not influence their presentation as
presentation is formal and the students are not allowed to use any informal word in
the presentation. 2% students said sometimes they pronounce informal words in their
presentations.
Question 15: Do you find it prestigious to use English language in SNS? Why?
Most of them (86%) said no, they do not find it prestigious to use English. According
to them as SNS is to connect with friends, there is no prestige issue about using the
English Language, but they also admired that English language is easy to read. 14%
students said, the use of English language in SNS may be prestigious for the new user
or the youth. They also said it is prestigious to use English in SNS as English is an
international language.
Question 16: Does your teacher use SNS for communication and discussion?
52% students said their teachers use SNS for communication and discussion. If the
teachers need to give any information to the teacher they communicate with them
through SNS. However, the teachers also discuss about academic topic, assignment
with the students in SNS as nowadays students are very active in the social
networking sites.
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Question 17: Do you think SNS is improving your overall writing/ speaking
Most of the student (54%) responded that as they write formally with the family
member and teacher in SNS, it is improving student’s writing. But it does not help to
Therefore 46% student stated that it gives negative impact as the students sometimes
Table 1 shows overall response of the student regarding different issues of social
networking sites.
give status
class/presentation
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It prestigious to use English language in SNS 14% 86%
This table represents the overall response of the student regarding different issues of
social networking sites which reflects the influence of the digital social media in
For the enhanced finding of the influence of digital social media in writing and
public universities were conducted. There were different response of the teachers of
47% teachers collect materials to prepare their class lecture and also give activities
based on that. The teachers encourage students to read blogs. 36% teachers give
assignment through internet. However if there are any query about academic purpose,
the students asked teachers in SNS. On the other hand if the teachers need to share
any information with the students they Share it in SNS so that all the students can
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universities teacher are not that much connected with internet. They give assignment
and class lecture in the server and the students have to collect it from the server.
Question 2: Do your learners use short forms of words in their exam scripts or
assignments?
In the social networking sites people usually use short form in their writing and some
times it reflects in their academic writing and the teachers agreed with that fact. 67%
teacher said the student use short form in exam script most then the assignment
because in the assignment they can correct it through spelling checker but in exam
92% teachers affirmed that SNS obviously has an effect on students writing. The
quality of the writing is decreased. The students use simple sentence in their writing
and there are no good improvements in their writing. There are no literary writings
and sometimes it is monotonous to read their writing. They use short forms of words
as ‘u’ for ‘you’, ‘by the way’, ‘btw’ etc. And there are lots of spelling mistakes
73% teachers said SNS also influence the speaking of the students. In the presentation
the students use informal words like hi, opps. The teachers do not correct it in
between the presentation; they correct it after finishing the presentation. 34% teachers
said they repeat the sentence and stop before from where the student did mistakes and
the students correct the mistakes by themselves. But again the students make mistakes
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unconsciously. 28% teachers affirmed that the students mix words from different
languages and use some popular words which they are found using in the social
networking sites.
SNS?
The students are not also conscious about the grammar. In the social networking sites
they also use short form of grammar like “are” (r) and sometimes they don not bother
about the grammar. Most of the teachers stated that as the students are not careful
about their grammar while talking to their friends in the social networking sites and
there are abundant uses of the social sites for communication, so it creates a greater
How?
depends on the student to motivate them. 90% teachers said as the use of English has
How?
92% teachers said there are also some negative influences on English language as the
students use informal words, short form of words in formal writing and therefore the
28
Question8: Do you correct your student’s English in online chatting/ text/ status/
comments?
The teachers agreed that the students sometimes do mistakes in online chatting, in
status or comments. 38% teachers said sometimes they correct those mistakes but in a
positive and humorous way. 49% teachers correct the mistakes but not directly. They
write the correct word and expect that the students will correct it by themselves.
The findings also represent the use of SNS for teaching purpose. 15% senior teachers
does not use SNS and do not discuss any topic related to that. However, 47% teachers
stated that using SNS for teaching purpose is quite helpful and easy and liked by
student as the new generation can relate to the phenomena quite easily and readily.
38% teachers give assignment/ activities or open any discussion board for the student
where they can share their thoughts which enhance their learning.
Question 1: How are the digital social media influencing writing and speaking of
There were mixed responses regarding this question. 89% students mentioned that the
language of SNS does not influence their formal writing (exam script, assignment etc)
or speaking. But 6% students said it influences their formal writing as sometimes they
unconsciously use short form in their writings and in formal presentation like oops, hi
29
According to 73% teachers, SNS influence the writing and speaking of the students.
92% teachers affirmed the quality of the writing is decreased. The students use simple
sentence in their writing and there are no good improvements. As well as there are
lacks in literary writing and sometimes it is monotonous to read their writing. They
use short forms of words as ‘u’ for ‘you’, ‘by the way’, ‘btw’ etc. And there are lots
of spelling mistakes because while chatting they do not care about misspelling of
words. In the presentation the student use informal words like hi, opps. 28% teachers
affirmed that the students mix words from different languages and use some popular
66% students use English language when they chat with their friends and 97% said
they use English language when they talk with their teacher. It motivates students to
improve their writing as they find English important in their daily communication
with friends and teachers. 87% students use English when they give any status or
comment on SNS and (95%) are very conscious about grammatical structure, spelling
etc most when they give any status in SNS because they want to make their status
perfect and interesting so that others give more likes and comment. 95% student
responded that they feel comfortable to use English in SNS as the students do not
need to interact face to face with others in SNS. However 14% students said it is
30
Question 3: What aspect of digital social media is helping the learners of tertiary
According to Quader (2014) there are positive relations between the use of SNS and
academic performance of the students as who uses SNS scored higher grades.
speaking is a matter of practice. Though they type in chatting it helps them to improve
their speaking by practicing more as they are using SNS in daily basis. The students
stated that if any of their friends use vocabulary, idioms, which they do not know,
they would get accustomed to that which improves their writing and speaking as well.
Online chatting also helps the students to improve their sentence structure. According
to Kern (1995) SNS reduce student’s anxiety as they do not need to interact face to
face there. So they feel free to participate and help them to improve their language
production.
Question 4: To what extent teachers find social media useful for their learners?
Quader (2014) states social networking sites have become very trendy nowadays as
many people are using it and leaning towards SNS to share their everyday happenings
with friends online, rather than through face-to-face encounters. According to 89%
motivation. 90% teachers said as the use of English has been increased than before,
students become fluent in speaking. 92% teachers said there are also some negative
influences on English language as the students use informal words, short form of
words in formal writing and speaking, therefore the language are losing its real form
in a way.
31
Finlay it can be said digital social media is influencing student’s writing and speaking
develop their English language but the student has to use it in proper way.
32
CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION
5.0 Introduction
Social networking sites are becoming popular among the young generation these days.
Not only the youth but also the educators are connected in the SNS. SNS have played
a vital role to connect the people all over the world and to communicate easily. The
aim of this study was to investigate the influence of digital social media in tertiary
level student’s writing and speaking, how it motivates students to improve their
English, in what aspect it is helping to develop students writing and speaking, and in
The findings show that majority of them use Facebook as their favorite SNS and most
of the students usually spend there-four hours on social networking sites. The findings
also show that students use SNS for both academic and non-academic purposes. The
tertiary level student’s are connected with their friends and teachers in the SNS and
they can formulate group discussions where they can exchange their ideas, thoughts,
can share course related materials, information and the teacher can give assignment,
so that it is easy for all the student to know. However, there are some drawbacks that
SNSs come with. The students write in short form in SNS when they chat with their
friends, when give any status or comments and it reflects in their formal writing and
media motivate the tertiary level students to improve their English as the findings
show that the students are very conscious when they give any status because they
want to present themselves as a perfectionist in the SNS. They try to write in proper
33
grammar structure, correct spelling and appropriate sentence structure and therefore it
motivates them to improve their English language as well. The findings also highlight
that social media help students to improve their writing and speaking as the students
are able to learn new word/ idioms /phrase from their friends in SNS and later they
use those in their formal writing (assignment, exam script) and speaking
(presentation) which enhance their writing and speaking. Their responses indicate that
digital social media have influence on tertiary level student’s writing and speaking.
However, in the recent time the educators are also the users of SNS. According the
findings of this research, teachers have included social networking sites into their
teaching methods. Nowadays teacher of different universities use SNS to share course
related materials with their students, communicate to their students regarding their
coursework’s, assignments or any upcoming event. The findings show that according
to teacher SNS sometimes influence student’s writing and speaking. According to the
educator SNS provide scope to improve English language but it is the students who
has to motivate themselves to learn new things from there as the students can learn
new words, can improve their writing style and can be fluent in speaking. But there
are also some drawbacks as sometimes they use short form in their formal writing and
formal presentation and day- by- day there are less literary writings as they are used to
monotonous to read their writings. Considering the findings of this study, teachers
think besides some negative influence in students writing and speaking, there are also
positive influences. In the SNS the students discuss about their coursework’s,
assignments, course materials and any different topic related to the course. And as
they know their teacher is also going to participate in the discussion or will monitor
34
them, they always try to write proper English because they do not want to do any
mistakes in their writing as it is also about their prestige issue. Therefore when they
discuss all those in their class they also try to speak properly. So according to the
educators SNS is also helping the students to improve their writing and speaking.
5.2 Recommendations
There are great influence of SNS in writing and speaking of tertiary level student. The
students can take advantage to improve their productive skill if they use it in proper
way. There are potential improvements in student’s writing and speaking if the
teachers as well as the students motivate themselves precisely. Teachers can be very
innovative while using SNS for teaching purpose and can make lessons interesting
and varied.
According to Gremu & Halse (2012) nowadays students are keen to use SNS for
academic purpose. So the teachers can provide an opportunity to the students to learn
informally by seeking, exploring and testing ideas with other students within their
own social network. The teacher can open a discussion board in SNS where the
teacher and the student can post different articles, can discuss in different issue. The
teacher has to recommend highly for using proper sentence structure, correct word
and grammar. Harwood & Blackstone (2012) say SNS exhibit to the students that the
class tutor is present and he/ she is observing what is happening on online. So they
will be conscious about their writing and as a result it will enhance student’s writing.
Therefore the teacher can talk about the issues and topic in the classroom which they
discuss in the open discussion board in SNS. The teachers can give the students
35
instant role play on any topic which they discussed in the SNS the previous day.
According to Harwood & Blackstone (2012) the support of the teacher is very
important to motivate the less confident learners to feel interested to participate in the
discussion. And as the teacher is also involved in the discussion the student are aware
This entire literature review is practically a schema for future research. This research
is a pathway for further research. As it was a Dhaka based study but researching in
more than one place can help us to get more information. Above all, researchers in
this field can do in depth research on the influence of digital social media in other
context.
5.4 Conclusion
Digital social networking sites have played a crucial role in founding a bridge among
networking sites can be a great way to stay in touch with a large group of people. The
students of tertiary level have embraced this new way of communication to connect
with their classmates and to keep in touch with their friends. Communication is
rapidly changing, as now the educators and the students communicate through social
networking sites. Therefore it is important to emphasis on how the educators can help
their students to utilize the benefits of social networking sites to improve their
productive skill. Therefore this research study suggests that if the teachers as well as
the students utilize the digital social media in proper way it will be beneficial for them
36
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Appendix A
1. Which Social networking Site (SNS) do you use the most? (If other, please mention
it)
1. Facebook 2. Twitter
2. How much time do you daily spend on the Social media (Facebook, twitter etc.)?
• Few minutes
3. Do you use English language when you chat with your friends?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
42
4. Do you use English language when you chat with your teacher?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
5. When you give a status/ comment on SNS which language do you mostly use?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
6. If there are any mistakes in your status/comment do your friends correct it?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
7. If there are any mistakes in your status/comment does your tacher correct it?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
43
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
8. When you chat or give a status are you conscious about grammatical structure,
spelling etc?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
9. Do you think online chatting helps you to improve your speaking? How?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
10. Do you think SNS (writing status, comments) helps you to improve your writing?
How?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
44
11. Does the language of SNS influence your formal writing (assignment etc)? how?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
___________________________________
12. Do you use short form in formal writing, like you use in chatting/ status
/comment?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
13. Do you feel comfortable to practice English in SNS with your friends? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
45
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
16. Does your teacher use SNS for communication and discussion?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
17. Do you think SNS is improving your overall writing/ speaking positively and
negatively? How?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Thank You
46
Appendix B
1) Do you use internet/ CALL for teaching productive skills in your class? How?
Thank You
47