Along with the gaining popularity of Facebook among adolescents, the research on its influences on this specific age group also blooms. Although some research emphasizes that Facebook benefits adolescents by fostering their communication skills, and offering them opportunities to make new friends, to express their ideas, and also to build their evolving self-identitythrough a series of activities, such as interacting with others. Despite these benefits, the majority of the research inclines to reveal the nurture of self-presentation, narcissism and comparison among adolescents through presenting and creating Facebook profile features, such as status update, social network size and photo count. As an adult with relatively stable emotion, at times I couldn’t help but to compare with my friends in Facebook, which results in the distorted perception of my own life. And browsing Facebook daily has become my unchangeable habit. To incorporate Facebook into the realm of teaching and learning as a means to enhance foreign language acquisition, and to build adolescents’ media and technology critical literacy would not just significantly reverse its notorious influences, but also strengthen and enlarge its positive effect.
Lacking in the need to communicate in Chinese is what I consider the top hindrance to foreign language teaching and learning in middle and high schools. The quantity and the diversity of people having Facebook provides an extensive web ideally for encouraging communication in different languages. First of all, students should create a Facebook account in Chinese, which means with the help of Chinese teacher’s step by step guidance, students are required to use the learned Chinese phonetic symbol input system for typing Chinese. Designing their own profile features in Chinese allows differentiation, since the lengthy writing is not a requisite, and students can even use some simple words or captioned pictures to identify who they are. The ultimate purpose is to connect Chinese learning to their daily life, by which Facebook can surely fulfill the purpose. Then, connecting students with a designated learning partner, who could speak both English and Chinese, is essential in creating the communication needs. Students are required to videotape their personal introduction and other appropriate events in Chinese for sharing with their learning partner in Facebook periodically. Their partner’s feedback in video and written form will also be posted to enhance listening and reading skills. By doing so, listening, speaking, reading and writing, the four skills crucial in language learning and teaching are getting full attention in the process of interaction through Facebook. Scrolling back to previous posts provides good opportunity for reviewing and further clarification from Chinese teacher. And the feature of posting abundant pictures could effectively function as a scaffolding technique, as pictures could significantly enhance comprehension, which is particular true for visual learners and less-abled students. After building up confidence in using Chinese in daily life, students could “make more Chinese-speaking friends” through Facebook, which realizes the ultimate goal of foreign language learning: communication.
In regard to counteracting the negative influences, critical literacy definitely sheds light on it. And adolescents’ cognitive, and self-identity development could also be benefited. Case study is a great way to start critical literacy, as students’ personal experiences and behavior in Facebook won’t be directly involved in discussion and analysis. Through intensively studying several cases related to the negative side of using Facebook, students will be challenged cognitively. The well-thought questions posted by teacher should be bias-free, and aim to stimulate critical thinking, for instance, what is so special about his/her presentation in personal profile? what does he/she want to be seen by others by using the presentation? do you agree with him/her? and why? After thinking, discussing and sharing among a group or a whole class, students would be more aware of the previously unconscious negative impact of browsing Facebook. The terms, such as self-presentation, narcissism and comparison, could also be used for brainstorming their positive and negative implications. Personal consultation station, such as email, letter and chat room, should be opened to help students deal with Facebook related issues.
For sure, media and technology tools are here to stay. Wisely incorporating them into teaching and learning is the only way to nurture adolescents to be users with etiquette and critical mindset.
Dear Sze, I happened have the same idea with yours! I think except for Facebook, we can also introduce Google Translator (GT) in language classroom to ask students practice correcting errors of a sentence. I will ask students to put forward six sentences they feel useful for communication in every class, and then to use GT to translate to target language. Students will have chance to translate by themselves. It could be possible that both GT and students make mistakes, and we reveal answers step by step based on students’ discussion. Instead of giving right answers without any strategy, we explain why GT translate incorrectly (GT usually mechanically translate all target language), and why students translate incorrectly (they may confused about how to place words in right place and which word is appropriate in the context). With much confidence accumulated, students can do peer review activity to help peers correct errors, which will be very helpful to establish a learning community!
Dear Nancy, the Case Study idea enlightens me. I agree that since media is hear to stay, wisely incorporating it into teaching and learning is the only way. We have heard too many comments on negative impact of myriad media. As adults, we cannot help checking Facebook, Wechat, Line or other social medias from time to time, not mention adolescents. It dooms a failed battle if we keep prohibiting students from using these media. In Case Study, we stop avoiding this topic, but instructing students to openly talk about the pros and cons by themselves. Only when they realize these unconscious impacts, they can begin to handle social media consciously and critically. Besides Case Study, we need to try other ways to instruct adolescents to use social media well. For example, set and comply rules with them together. In my design of official account on Wechat, I propose to post, respond and handle assignments in specific time. It’s possible that these ways are still no use for adolescents, but it deserve to try comprehensively.