Facebook and the Use of Social Networking Tools

to Enhance Language Learner Engagement

Nicole Mills
October 31, 2009
University of Pennsylvania
Digital Natives

A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology

such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3.
Digital Natives

 By the time a student has graduated from college, he/she has spent:
 10, 000 hours on video games

 10, 000 hours on cell phones

 20, 000 hours watching TV

 Sent and received over 200,000 emails or instant messages

- Pansky, 2001, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Facebook Generation
 In July 2007, Facebook had more registered users than any other high
school or college focused site worldwide…exceeding 34 million
members (Language Educator, 2009).

 In 2009, Facebook is the 3rd most visited website in the United States
(after Google and Yahoo). http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US

 Facebook signs up nearly a million new members a day (NY Times,

March 2009)
Average time spent on Facebook

Growing Up on Facebook, NY Times, March 2009

Internationalization of Facebook

 More than 150 million active users

 More than 700 million photos uploaded each month

 More than 4 million videos uploaded each month

 More than 35 languages (60 more languages in development)

 70% of Facebook users live outside of the US

Statistiques, Facebook Janvier 2009

http://www.marketing20.fr/facebook/statistiques-facebook-janvier-2009/
 International Facebook Use

http://wearesocial.net/fr/blog/tag/envoye-special-planete-facebook/
International Facebook Use

http://www.insidefacebook.com/
Facebook and Education?

 “Conducting class through Facebook? Facebook groups allow more

interaction than BlackBoard, but haven’t caught on yet”
- By Travis Winkler, Daily Pennsylvanian, 2/19/09

 Penn Design Architecture lecturer Andrew Phillips is using

Facebook as an extension of his classroom

 Students can generate content by posting and sharing information

about supplies, images, drawings, and more
 Slogan

« Facebook vous permet de rester en contact

et d'échanger avec les personnes qui vous
entourent. »

Facebook helps you connect and share with

the people in your life.
Enhancing the Standards of Foreign Language
Learning through Facebook?
 Intermediate French & Global Simulation

Global Simulation: Students create a fictive yet culturally grounded

world, assume the role of a self-developed character, and
collaborate with fellow community members (Magnin, 1997)
 Description of Global Simulation Project

“For this project , you will

become the tenants of a Parisian
building, located in the
Montmartre quarter and you will
write a book of your memoirs
of the events in the building. As
such, you are going to pretend
to be a French or francophone
person living in France. You will
develop your own character and
tell the story of his/her life in
the first person.”
French 130 Course Objectives

 By the end of this course, you should be able to communicate

well enough in French to discuss and describe yourself, your
immediate surroundings, your personal life and interests, and
some of your opinions about the world at large. You will also
have the tools to function in a variety of social situations such
as ordering a meal, finding an apartment, giving advice, asking
questions, and making plans. You will have the tools to tell
stories using the past tenses and discuss and analyze films and
literature. You will increase your confidence in understanding
spoken French and can expect to be able to get some of the main
points of conversations by native speakers on familiar topics.
Development of L’immeuble en ligne

Workshop at MultiMedia Services (accompanying handout) (15 students)

 Creation of an email address on www.yahoo.fr for the immeuble character

 Creation of a facebook account for the immeuble character on

www.facebook.fr

 Creation of the facebook profile for the immeuble character

 Completing general information, address, education, experience, job
 Photo
 Updating Status

 Collection of classmates’ French email addresses (list sent via email) and
request that students add their neighbors to their list of friends
Immeuble en ligne project

 As part of their participation and homework grade, students

were asked to interact on Facebook at least 3 times per week
 Status updates
 Wall postings
 Other?

 Every other week, they were also asked to post their revised
compositions (4 chapters from their memoirs from life in the
Immeuble) as “Notes” on Facebook
Supplementary Materials

 Dictionnaire: Langage SMS (textos, Facebook, etc.)

 Bonjour : bjr

 Bonsoir : bsr

 D’accord : dak

 Demain : 2m'1

 Message : msg

 Mort de rire : MDR

 Etc…
User Conduct Agreement

 User Conduct

As a member of the “Immeuble en ligne” facebook project, you may ONLY

accept friend requests from your fellow classmates. You are not permitted to
accept friends outside of this French 130 section or misrepresent yourself as
another person outside of your fictional character.

In addition, you agree not to use this Facebook account to:

upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any content
that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing,
abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of
privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise
objectionable;
intimidate or harass another; upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise
make available content that is objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any
other person from using or enjoying the Site, or which may expose its users to
any harm or liability of any type.
___________________________________
Signature of student
Enjoy!
Sample Facebook Profile: Wall
Sample Facebook Profile: Infos
Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal
Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal
Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal
Enhancing Communication: Interpersonal
Enhancing Communication: Presentational
Enhancing Communication: Presentational
 Enhancing Communication: Interpretive

Video postings

Benjamin Biolay - Laisse Aboyer Les Chiens

 Lou Apollinaire Ah, mon chanteur préféré. Comme il est beau, n’est-ce pas? En
fait, il se ressemble à un de mes voisins…

Vanessa Paradis Divine Idylle

 Lou Apollinaire ma folie, mon envie. Vanessa Paradis est mon idylle. mon divine
idylle.

Carla Bruni, Le Toi du Moi

 Lou Apollinaire Voilà une vidéo de Carla Bruni. Je la déteste parce qu'elle est
trop jolie et elle chante mieux que moi...

Follow-up student posting of different Carla Bruni video as status update:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMsGSukA8RQ
Enhancing Culture: Products

Shared cultural products shared by students:

 Images of Paris
 Paintings by French artists
 Caricatures from Montmartre
 Music videos: Mozart l’Opéra Rock, Phoenix, Carla Bruni,
Dalida, MC Solaar
 Videos of sports: Paris St. Germain soccer chants
 Plays: video clip of L’étranger by Albert Camus
 News articles
Images of Paris: Des photos de mon balcon
Caricatures from Montmartre
Enhancing Connections to other disciplines

 Connections to Art
Enhancing Connections to other disciplines
Enhancing Connections to other disciplines
Connections to politics, current events
Enhancing Connections to course content

Connections to French film, Amélie

Enhancing Connections to course content

Connections to concept of “la vie en rose” and Edith Piaf’s song

discussed in class
Enhancing Comparisons

Discussion of “mise en abyme” in class via French art and film/ student
comparison to American TV show advertisement
 Enhancing Comparisons
Following discussion of stereotypes of French in class/ Student posts a video
from an American TV show (HBO) which portrays these stereotypes
Enhancing Communities

 Development of Group Pages, Parties, Events

Enhancing Communities

 Development of Group Pages, Parties, Events

A return to the French 130 objectives…

 By the end of this course, you should be able

to communicate well enough in French to discuss
and describe yourself, your immediate
surroundings, your personal life and interests,
and some of your opinions about the world at large.

 You will also have the tools to function in a

variety of social situations

 You will have the tools to give advice,

ask questions, and make plans.

 You will have the tools to tell stories

using the past tenses
French 130 grammatical objectives

 Question formation : 119 questions formed within status updates

and wall postings

 Past Tenses: 41 sentences with past tenses

 Present tense: 257 sentences in the present tense

 Relative pronouns: 53 relative pronouns

 Adjectives: 128 adjectives

French 130 Functional Objectives

 Expressing opinions: 49 opinions

 “Zoe Vassar apprécie la pluie du printemps”
 “Renée Clément n’aime pas le nouveau facebook”

 Ask questions: 119 questions

 “Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire pendant le week-end?”
 “vous habitez à quel étage?”
 “vous détestez beaucoup de personnes, non?”

 Make plans: 37 invitations

 “Pouvons-nous aller déjeuner demain?”
 “Est-ce que tu veux avoir un autre rendez-vous avec moi? Samedi soir, peut-
être?”
 “Veux-tu aller au concert avec moi? J’aime les concerts! Et après le concert,
nous pouvons danser dans la discothèque! Est-ce que tu as déjà prévu quelque
chose ce week-end?

 Tell stories in the past tense: 41 descriptions of past events

 Student Questionnaire
1. How did you interact on Facebook during this course? Please
indicate the two Facebook tools that you used the most often.

2. When posting on Facebook did you pay attention to

grammatical accuracy and vocabulary choice? Why or why not?

3. Did you enjoy using Facebook in this course? What did you
like about it? What didn’t you like about it?

4. Do you feel that the use of Facebook was a valuable French

learning experience? How?
How did you interact on facebook during this course?

 Notes/ compositions - 15
 wall postings -14
 Status updates -13
 Uploaded images/ photos -12
 Uploaded news stories- 8
 Uploaded video- 6
 Group pages -4
 Uploaded music -1
 Facebook chat -1

 *Comments on status updates/ Comments on photos

When posting on Facebook did you pay attention to
grammatical accuracy and vocabulary choice? Why
or why not?

 Yes -12
 To make my message clear (2)
 Message was to be seen publicly (2)
 I wanted to be entertaining
 My classmates would correct me
 It was a class assignment (2)
 It (grammatical accuracy) fit the personality of my character
 I would write the post before hand to ensure accuracy and then post
it

 Some browsers didn’t allow for accents (6)

 Did you enjoy using Facebook in this course?

 Yes -11
 It was familiar
 It was fun (2)
 Great way for me to get to know the rest of the people in the building and in
the class(5)
 Great way to interact with others
 It’s a creative, interactive, relaxed method of using conversational French
 A way to ask about homework
 I had a blast with it. I was able to share ideas, interact with others, plus learn
about other people’s lives and hobbies.
 Good way to practice French outside of class

 No – 2
 Difficult to keep up with. (4)
 “It sometimes was tedious to have to be your character”
 I wish we were given more topics to post about
 I don’t really use facebook so it wasn’t that helpful for me.
Do you feel that the use of Facebook was a valuable
French learning experience? How?

 It allows you to practice French in a familiar way. Most students can’t go

without facebook so it was easy to do.
 Yes, It’s culturally relevant and makes the class more fun and applicable.
 Yes, I was motivated to use accurate French. It also enhanced class discussion.
 Yes. But, much of the interaction was similar to in-class exercises.
 Yes, it made French more interesting.
 Yes, we were able to practice our French and learn about other people’s
opinions and ideas.
 Yes, because it made us think in French outside of class.
 Yes, it gives a glimpse of how “real life” in France is. It’s very cool to read and
see the same words in French as we do in English (Connections).
 It can be. Using French informally.
 Yes, because we were able to visit French websites, listen to French music
groups, and watch French TV shows. In addition we could learn about
Montmartre from our friends’ shared notes (compositions).

 It felt somewhat less useful than the other course work. It was fun and interesting
but limited as far as how much it actually offered to help with skills in French.
 Only if students use facebook. It is innovative but I feel like it wasn’t written on
the homework.
 “Facebook as Online Community Theater”
“I’ve always thought of Facebook as online community theater. In
costumes we customize in a backstage makeup room – the Edit Profile
page, where we can add a few Favorite Books or touch up our About Me
section – we deliver our lines on the very public stage of friends’ walls
or photo albums. And because every time we join a network, post a link
or make another friend it’s immediately visible to others via the News
Feed, every Facebook act is a soliloquy to our anonymous audience.”

 “We log into the website because it’s entertaining to watch a constantly
evolving narrative starring the other people in the library”

- The Fakebook Generation, NY Times, October 2007

Alice Mathias, 2007 graduate of Dartmouth College