HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH MAJOR
Using Social
Improving NetworkSkills
Listening For
Student: Nguyễn Thế Công – TA 22.11
Student code: 17104675
Hanoi, August, 2020
Abstract
Today, learning English involves much more than studying a textbook, doing tests, and
putting dictums into practise. With the advent of the Internet and its attendant technology,
hosts of options exist for improving listening English skills. These options involve
interacting with others online via social networks – communicating in order to learn
about other cultures, especially learning English. The purpose of this review is to
consider social networks, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram which are
proven to be effective to increase students’ learning English out of the classes. Social
networks facilitate students’ interaction to share their ideas, and provide an opportunity
for learners to experience online tools to foster their learning skills. People are
increasingly conversing online using diverse social sites. They enjoy the immediacy and
convenience of engaging in discourse any time, any place, anywhere. This paper would
conclude that social interaction via social networks is a kind of stimulus to learning
English.
I. Introduction
1.1 Background and Rationale
Along with the advancement of technology, many social environments have provided
technologies to facilitate second language learning. Social networks are kinds of social
environments which have been made for learners who want to have interaction with
people from other countries to learn language easily (Godwin-Jones, 2008; Sturgeon &
Walker, 2009). The Internet provides wide international resources of language learning. It
enables second language learners to communicate directly with native English speakers.
Generating language is the most important item for making interpersonal relationships for
self-expression and social interaction.
Developing listening skills comes “naturally” for some students, but with great difficulty
for others. Web based interaction areas like Facebook, as a popular social network, helps
learners to use large amounts of information which is always available. Language learners
can keep in touch with people specially, with their family, friends and even their teachers
whenever they want to. Therefore social networks are being used as a method to improve
listening skills for everyone.
1.2 Aims of the research
Why not draw on technology? Learners can use Social Networks in developing and
improving their language skills, in particular listening comprehension. In this review we
will take a look at a number of online resources for developing listening skills (e.g. audio
and video, podcasts, video clip tools),a survey “ Using Social Network For Improving
Listening Skills ” and suggest some strategies for improving listening ability.
1.3 Research questions
(*) How does Social Networks help to improve listening skills?
(**) What kind of Social Network will be suitable to improve listening skills?
(***) What are the implications of the research for HUBT students?
II. Development
2.1 Theoretical Background
A social network is a website that allows people with similar interests to come together
and share information, photos and videos. There are lots of different types of social media:
social networking sites, online forums, sharing photos and videos, writing reviews, blogs
and vlogs.
Social media tools not only increase motivation for learning (Clark and Grube, 2010,
Stevenson and Lin, 2010) but facilitate authentic language learning environment which is
essential to achieve high communicative competence in a foreign language (Karpati,
2009).
2.2 Methodology
For this paper, my main purpose is to state the status, situation and opinion about students
using the Internet to learn English. Therefore, I designed the research paper in the
direction of qualitative and quantitative models, the questionnaire are 5 questions which
consist of multi-choice questions and opened questions.24 copies of the questionnaire
were delivered to the thirst-years students in Faculty of English. The data is analyzed in
this part of the study in the below tables and charts show the responses to the questions in
the questionnaires.
2.3 Outcomes
Current university students have been characterized as the “Net Generation” (Oblinger &
Oblinger, 2005; Barnes, Marateo, & Ferris, 2007; Prensky, 2001) and “native speakers” of
the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet (Presnky, 2001). Learners
today have high expectations when it comes to technology and they expect a language
school or program to offer opportunities to use technology in their courses, for example
via a well-equipped self-access center (Sharma & Barrett, 2007). The use of technology
outside the language classroom or in the self-access center can make learners more
autonomous. One key feature of using technology in learning is that it allows language
practice and study away from the confines of the classroom at your own pace anywhere: a
hotel room, the office, an Internet café, at home or, of course, in the self-access language
center. While listening to digital audio or watching a video clip, learners have the
opportunity to pause at will, and listen and read a transcript. Moreover, learners can get
instant feedback on what they have done (e.g. you watch a video clip/listen to audio and
check answers immediately after watching/listening). Moreover, social networks create
multiple opportunities for authentic communication. There is almost no cost to start
listening to English (excluding internet charges), all learners need is a headset, or built-in
computer speaker, and an attached device network (laptop, computer, smartphone) or
simply turn on TV to foreign channels and listen. There are a lot of channels on YouTube
that can help learner improving listening skill like:
- BBC Learning English (https://www.youtube.com/user/bbclearningenglish). A very
useful thing about the BBC audio/video is that it contains recordings of individual
stories which are one to two minutes long. Learners can choose which topic they
would like to listen to. There is a wide variety of different categories – Business,
Technology, World News, UK News, Technology, and so on. The BBC site is
predominantly British English.
- CNN News (https://www.youtube.com/user/CNN ). Similarly to the BBC site, learners
can listen to clips of individual news items or to whole programs. The CNN site is
predominantly American English.
And a lot of other channels that will make the process of practicing students’ listening
skills easier than ever.
III. Conclusion
Listening comprehension is often the most difficult task for learners of English as a
foreign language. Listening in the real world and listening to authentic texts is more
complex than listening to non-authentic texts in the classroom environment. Effective
listening does not just happen. Access to up-to-date materials via the Internet gives the
students opportunities to develop and improve their listening skills by using materials in
the self-access language learning center or outside the classroom. With the appropriate use
of technology, learning can be made more active, motivating, and learner-centered,
especially with such internet-based resources as Youtube, podcasts, and Facebook.
References
[1] Godwin-Jones, R. (2008). Mobile computing technologies:
Lighter, faster, smarter. Language Learning & Technology, 12(3),
3−9
[2] Oblinger, D. G., & Oblinger, J. L. (Eds.). (2005). Educating the Net
Generation. EDUCAUSE. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101.pdf
[3] Barnes, K., Marateo, R., & Ferris, S. (2007). Teaching and learning with the Net
Generation. Innovate, 3(4). Retrieved from
http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol3_issue4/Teaching_and_Learning_with_the_Net_Generation.pdf
[4] Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).
[5] Sharma, P., & Barrett, B. (2007). Blended learning: Using technology in and beyond
the language classroom. Oxford: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
