Using Social Media to Add Interest and Improvement to English Grammar Lessons

Twitter Tuesday

Abstract

This paper discusses the power of using social media as an aid for EFL students to learn and improve their grammar by way of Tweeting student pairs-created, grammatically correct sentences on Twitter as part of a grammar lesson in the university preparatory English program context. This lesson, aptly named “Twitter Tuesday” as it occurred during a Tuesday English language grammar lesson, illustrates how using Internet technology as a learning medium allowed student pairs in an English Preparatory course to write interesting, as well structurally correct, plus sometimes rather humorous sentences to be shared, if the students wished, via the social media app Twitter. After the lesson, a survey was distributed with five yes/no questions, plus one open-ended question which later underwent content analysis which was performed on the responses. Qualitative survey data were analyzed, and several clear themes emerged from the content analyses which were performed. The data revealed resoundingly positive feelings of the majority of those students who worked together to create the Twitter Tweets.