IMPROVING ENGLISH SKILLS BY USING
SOCIAL NETWORK
A.
BACKGROUND
In
this new era, all have been developing very quickly, from the people,
technology even the languages that human are used to communication. Language is
one of them, which has an important role for many people. Queensland Indigenous
Language Audisory Committee, (2006) states “We
cannot have one without the others. We cannot describe our culture and our land
if we do not have language.”
The
above statement indicates language is very important for many people, without
language people will find the difficulties when they want to communicate with
foreign people. Therefore, one of the languages that some people used to
communicate is English. English is an International language which is used many
people to interact with people that have different language. Thus, English
usually become a second language for some countries such as Singapore and
Malaysia.
Every
students want to study English, although only can speak in English. But, in the
fact, some of the students that have learned English cannot develop their
language because they do not know how to improve their ability. Tarun Patel (2009)
states “The biggest problem with the ESL students is the correct usage of
English language. They are not able to use correct English as they ‘do not’ use
enough of English everyday”.
Sometimes,
in daily or in the class, teacher still found some students who have problem to
speak in front of their friends, whereas they have skill or competence. The
students also do not have opportunity to express their English skill. Actually,
they can use many ways to improve their ability, but the teacher rarely to give
methods that can make motivation for students who learn English. Harmer
(1991:7) in Rahmatia G (2008:9) states, “Children need constant changes of
activity. The need activities which are exciting and stimulate their curiosity
they need to be involved in something active.”
In
line to the above statement, the teacher should have a technique or media that
can help the students to improve their language especially in English. Basically,
there are many ways that can improve student’s English skill such as listening
western songs, watching movies, reading short stories, etc. One of the media
that the teacher can use to teach the students by using social network or
social media. David (2011) states “Social media is a fantastic resource for
language learners who want to get to know a language from the inside out.”
Based
on the above quotation, social network can help the students’ ability to
improve their English skill. Such as listening, speaking, reading even writing,
not only language skill but also language components such as pronunciation. The
objective of this study is to find out the most appropriate model of using
social network to improve the ability of students in English.
B.
LITERATURE
REVIEW
English
is an International language that is used by almost people in the world. Some
countries have become English as their second language, but it is different
with Indonesia. English in Indonesia is become as foreign language. For
teaching English now, teacher has many treatments to improve their students’
ability especially in language skill, such as listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. One of the solutions to develop students’
ability is by using social network. It is stated one website in London Teachers-Languages
Out There (2012) the best way to learn to speak English by talking to real
people in the real world or online. Therefore, using social network is one way
to help students to improve their English skill.
Use Social Network
Social
network is network that can connect someone with other people without go out
from home or meet them. Social network can help people who want to study about
anything especially English. Improving English through social network has used
by many people. For example, people who want to talk with native speaker can
use video call or chatting with them and join with a group that study about
English. According to British Council research (Tarun Patel, 2009), ‘69% of
learners around the world learnt most effectively when socializing informally’.
It means that, social network is effective manner that is used by teacher in
English teaching learning process.
The advantage
of Using Social Network
Social
media includes any kinds of website that people use to connect with each other.
That include sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Yahoo, Google+, blogs,
forums and anywhere else people talk to each other online in English
especially. Every sites has same function is to communicate with people in the
outside. They allow language learners to talk to each other, with native
speakers, and often include language-learning exercises to try. What all-social
media platforms have in common is that they allow people to create informal
networks that are not bound by geography. That is what makes them so useful to
language learners: they are informal, fun, easy to use, and allow access to a
far broader range of experience than would be possible without them.
Teacher
have to be able apply these sites as the media to teach English as foreign
language. According to Chun, Wong, Cheah, & Wong (2009, in JURNAL ELTS
Anjar 2011: 131)
...
“Email allows teachers to communicate with other students or teachers of other
schools even in the different areas in cheaper ways. They can gather many
colleagues and friends and they can also share ideas, assist each other, and
receive the latest news of educational issues”.
Teacher
can use internet or use social network to communicate with students. Students
will feel easy to learn about English because they can share their ideas with
other friends that they got from Facebook or Twitter. Allen Teng (2011) states “With
social networking, they share their work with a whole class. They care a lot
more about it and are willing to do things to make it special.”
In
California’s North Country, middle school students at San Marco Unified School
District, teacher apply social network for the students such as Facebook and
Twitter to share and showcase their writing. This media improve students’
ability in English especially in writing from 64.6 percent in 2008-2009 to 80.3
in 2009-2010.
Kinds of
Social Network
Facebook
is a social networking service whereby users can create a personal profile, add
other users as friends, and exchange messages. This includes automatic
notifications when they update their personal life. Facebook users can also
join common interest groups that they find useful. Wayan Vota (2010) states “By
engaging with ‘friends’, Facebook users are honing the ways in which they can
collaborate with others in groups.” Facebook can connect students to find
native speaker and can talk with them without feel afraid to make mistake. It
also can build students English reading skills. Students can read an assortment
of messages from those you allow into your pages. Not only improve reading
skill but also writing skill. Students gain writing experience through
composing various messages and they are not limit such as Twitter.
Twitter
is a social networking that demands precision of expressions. K. Borau et al.
(2009:2) states “Twitter is a social network in which the members of a
community share their current activity by answering the question ‘What are you
doing?’”. Twitter seems to be perfect
tool to support learning English. Students can improve their language skill
such writing and reading and language component for
example, the students try to choose a topic
and grammatical structures based on their level.
Skype
is one of the social networks that can improve students’ ability in English.
Inma Alcazar (2009) indicates, “Social networking can be an excellent reading
and writing practice which can be completed with other communication tools like
Skype.” Skype allows students to speak with a real native speaker and directly
it can improve their speaking and listening skill.
Based
on the explanation above teacher can use those sites to teach the students for improving
their ability in English. Not only improving language skills but also language
components.
C.
METHOD
This
study tried to find out the benefits of using social network as program
teaching English to students. This research used library research that is done
without make the researcher should did experimental to the location. The
researcher asked some student to use some site such as Facebook, Twitter, or
Skype to improve their English. The writer asked to the students to looking for
friends who has different language (native language) with them and tried to
join in international groups that contain people from different country.
Then
students will study about language skills directly by using these sites. For
instance, from Twitter students would read a message from their friends that
lived in different country. Through this site, students would study about
language skills independently; among these skills is reading skill. Tarun Patel
(2009) states
“Ask
your students to answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ on Twitter 15 times
a day. Review all their answers every day and offer corrections as and when
required. Your students will answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ in these
manners. When he / she are reading, he / she would write ‘I am reading my
textbook now’. When he / she are chatting, he / she would write ‘I am chatting
with my friend on Yahoo! Messenger’. When he / she is about to close the
Internet connection, he / she would write ‘I am shutting down my computer
now’”.
In
terms of criteria success, there were two major indicators used as the criteria
of success in this research. (1) The students’ can know the other benefits from
social network. (2) The students’ can improve their
ability through social network, either language skills or language component.
The students’ improvement was obtained from the developing of students’ skill
such as pronounce the words correctly.
D.
PRESENTATION
AND DISCUSSION
One of the ways to do in order the students be
familiar with English is to do much practice. Not only in the school but also outside
the class, for example, at home and when the students play with social network.
Social network will improve students’ ability in English. If the students feel
bored with the situation in the class, they can use social network to improve
their speaking skill by using video call. For example, teacher can utilize
Twitter to make students’ English and improve upon their English ability. As
Tarun Patel (2009) indicates
“Teachers
can utilize Twitter in several ways: 1. we can make timely announcements
without need for reliable Internet service. It hardly takes a second for a
message to appear on Twitter. 2. We can have batter connections with our
learners. 3. It can prove a big time saver for the students as they don’t have
to visit the blog / website on a daily basis".
Based
on the statement above, teacher would get easy to control their students, and
students would not feel boring again. Students would kept their writing and
with the correct usage they are bound to make mistakes. Teacher also would give
some suggestion or gave them the correct posting, when the students wrote
something in their wall.
The
other social network that students could use is Facebook or Skype. By using Facebook
students can join in International groups which are talking about English such
as join in VOA group. Skype could use
for video call or chatting and it is similar with Facebook. Teachers used Skype
as informal teaching and teachers could talk with the students by using this
site, as in one website told. Thus, by using these sites students will always
practice by their self, because they have media to improve their skill.
E.
CONCLUSION
English
refers to language that is used by many people as their second language or even
as their foreign language. Some student who studies English as foreign
language, sometimes confused how to improve their English skill, they do not
know where should use their English. To have a good ability, it is important to
develop students’ skill not only in the class but also outside the class. But,
if the teachers do not want to study in outside, they can use social network as
program in teaching English. It is can improve students’ skill to speak with
foreign people and native speaker. It is also can help students to improve
their writing and reading skill through read the status of their friend who has
different language with them. Teachers also give a good way to the students, in
order to make the students do not feel bored.
F.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adam, D. 2009. Teaching Learning through Social Networks, Retrieved on April 05,
2012 from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/teaching-learning-through-social-networks
Alcazar, I. 2009. Language Social Networks Don’t Stop Learning.
Retrieved on April 04, 2012 from http://myeslcorner.blogspot.com/2009/08/language-networks-dont-stop-learning.html
Borau, K. et al. (2009). Microblogging for Language Learning: Using
Twitter to Train Communicative and Cultural Competence. Retrieved on April
05, 2012 fromhttp://www.carstenullrich.net/pubs/Borau09Microblogging.pdf
Cooper-Taylor, C. 2008. 50 ideas on using Twitter for education.
Retrieved on April 05, 2012 from http://cooper-taylor.com/blog/2008/08/
50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-education/
David. 2011. Use Social Media to Improve Your Language Skill. Retrieved on February
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social- media to improve-your-language-skill.
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Universitas Tadulako.
Patel,
Tarun. 2009. Social Networking Sites for
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Queensland
Indigenous Language Audisory Committee, 2006
Rahmatia. 2000. Improving Vocabulary of the Seventh Year Students of SMP Negeri
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Teng,
A. 2011. English Classes Use Facebook,
Social Media to Teach Writing. Retrieved on April, 05 2012 from http://www.educationnews.org/ ednews_today/157355.html
Vota,
W. 2010. 4 Reasons why Facebook is an
Educational Tool for Schools. Retrieved on April 05, 2012 from http://www.ictworks.org/news/ 2010/12/03/4- reasons-why-facebook-educational-tool-schools.
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