research about learning english language

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Investigating the relationship among english language learning strategies, language achievement, and attitude.

• 1 Institute of Education, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
• 2 MTA–SZTE Digital Learning Technologies Research Group, Szeged, Hungary

The main objective of the study was to ascertain whether English as a Foreign Language learners with various levels of English language achievement differ significantly in applying foreign language learning strategies. We also aimed to explore strategy use frequency in connection with attitude toward English language learning. Data were collected from 1,653 lower secondary students in Hungary through a revised version of the previously developed online Self-Regulated Foreign Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire (SRFLLSQ) based on Oxford’s Strategic Self-Regulation (S 2 R) Model. The findings point to statistically significant differences in the frequency of English language strategy use among more and less proficient learners. Quantitative analyses also reported that, in spite of the students stated low or moderate levels of strategy use, it turned out as a statistically significant predictor of foreign language attitude and language achievement. The results draw attention to the relevance of strategy research in foreign language teaching as well as encourages strategy teaching within language instruction.

Introduction

Foreign language learning requires many underlying skills and techniques. Learners have to master a number of complex linguistic, personal, cultural and social skills, and competences and be aware of effective techniques and strategies to help them cope with various challenges during the learning process. The frequent use of learning strategies can help learners to become more competent and effective language users in the classroom and inspire them to achieve higher levels of mastery in the target foreign language ( Wong and Nunan, 2011 ; Oxford, 2016 ). Since the mid-1970s, an immense amount of learning strategy research has attempted to establish the concept and identify strategies that help learners to become more effective language learners ( Oxford, 1990 ; Cohen, 1998 ). It is a widely researched and highly debated area even today ( Thomas and Rose, 2019 ; Thomas et al., 2021 ). The most well-known and widely used taxonomy of language learning strategies (LLS) was developed by Oxford (1990 , 2011 , 2016) . In her recently reconsidered Strategic Self-Regulation (S 2 R) Model based on Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory of self-regulated learning (SRL) and Zimmerman’s three-phase model ( Zimmerman, 2000 ; Zimmerman and Schunk, 2011 ), she identified four main strategy categories: cognitive, affective, motivational, and social, each of them guided by the master category of “meta-strategies.” These meta-strategies are metacognitive, meta-affective, metamotivational, and metasocial strategies, respectively ( Oxford, 2016 ).

Oxford also developed a measurement tool (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, SILL) for investigating LLS use, which is employed worldwide; however, it is based on her original conceptualization. Nevertheless, it is essential to relate the latest pedagogical theories to language teaching practice. Self-regulation theory, which was the basis for Oxford’s new taxonomy, has been dominant since the beginning of this century. It is thus crucial to develop state-of-the-art measurement tools which can be used in the classroom by language teachers. In previous research, we have developed and validated a questionnaire based on Oxford’s S 2 R Model (SRFLLSQ; Habók and Magyar, 2018b ). To obtain a more comprehensive view of the role and possible effect of language learning strategies on certain other factors, such as attitude, motivation, and self-efficacy, it is essential to conduct further research. In this study, we aimed to examine LLS in relation to other crucial factors of language learning; we have investigated the relationships among the application of English language learning strategies, language achievement, and attitude toward English among lower secondary students in Hungary.

Literature Review

The concept of language learning strategies.

Language learning strategies have been a research focus since the mid-1970s, as strategic language learning is a key to successfully acquiring a foreign language ( Rubin, 1975 ). A number of definitions of LLS have emerged, with one of the most influential having proved to be that of Rebecca Oxford, who not only established a conceptualization, but also conducted empirical research. In her content-analytic study, Oxford involved 33 distinct definitions and interpretations of the term LLS and thus determine it as follows:

L2 learning strategies are complex, dynamic thoughts, and actions, selected and used by learners with some degree of consciousness in specific contexts in order to regulate multiple aspects of themselves (such as cognitive, emotional, and social) for the purpose of (a) accomplishing language tasks; (b) improving language performance or use; and/or (c) enhancing long-term proficiency. Strategies are mentally guided but may also have physical and therefore observable manifestations. Learners often use strategies flexibly and creatively; combine them in various ways, such as strategy clusters or strategy chains; and orchestrate them to meet learning needs. Strategies are teachable. Learners in their contexts decide which strategies to use. Appropriateness of strategies depends on multiple personal and contextual factors ( Oxford, 2016 , p. 48).

Strategic language learners select their LLS according to their personal preferences, motivational intentions, and situational circumstances. Therefore, it is especially difficult to identify a system for these strategies. This is one of the reasons why an extremely large number of conceptualizations and debates have emerged ( Thomas and Rose, 2019 ; Thomas et al., 2021 ). Thomas et al. (2021) have pointed out that with the emphasis on self-regulation, the field of strategy research has moved away from formal educational settings toward learner autonomy. They argue that this is a hazardous trend because definitions of LLS minimize teachers’ role and classroom contexts that can also be an influencing factor in strategic behavior among students. Thomas and Rose (2019) have therefore suggested a separation of LLS from self-regulation and introduced the Regulated Language Learning Strategies Continuum to make it clear that self-regulation can be conceptually separated in defining LLS. By interpreting LLS as being both other- and self-regulated, Dörnyei and Skehan (2003) argue that strategy use cannot be regarded as either emotional or cognitive or even behavioral, thus opening up another debated area in the field.

The classification of LLS is another key area of argument. Oxford’s original classification of six major fields (memory, cognitive, metacognitive, affective, compensation, and social strategies) was recently reconsidered and restructured on the basis of self-regulation theories. Her Strategic Self-Regulation (S 2 R) Model was developed based on Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory of self-regulated learning (SRL). In her concept, she identified four main fields—cognitive, affective, motivational, and social strategies—each of them directed by a “master category of meta-strategies.” These meta-strategies are metacognitive, meta-affective, metamotivational, and metasocial strategies ( Oxford, 2016 ). Her taxonomy was again open to a number of debates as some theorists ( Dörnyei, 2005 ; Hajar, 2019 ) argued that success in language learning cannot be assessed through the frequency of strategy use alone.

Research on Language Learning Strategies

Despite the debates, LLS researchers have been devoted to conducting quantitative research on LLS use and its connection with other individual factors, such as gender, learning style, motivation, attitude, and proficiency (e.g., Radwan, 2011 ; Alhaysony, 2017 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018a , 2019 ). The most widespread measurement tool for assessing L2 learners’ strategy use is Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL; Oxford, 1990 ). This questionnaire has been translated into numerous languages and adapted for a vast number of cultures around the world. It is based on her original taxonomy and employs her original six strategy fields. Based on her renewed taxonomy, a number of reconsidered measurement tools have been developed since then, which have approached effective language learning from different perspectives ( Wang et al., 2013 ; Salehi and Jafari, 2015 ; Božinović and Sindik, 2017 ; Köksal and Dündar, 2017 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018b ; An et al., 2021 ).

One major area for researchers has been to find out what set of strategies foreign language learners rely on the most ( Platsidou and Sipitanou, 2015 ; Alhaysony, 2017 ; Charoento, 2017 ; Dawadi, 2017 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018a , b , 2019 , 2020 ; Habók et al., 2021 ). Overall, results have concluded moderate use of LLS among participants. The most frequently used strategies are cognitive, metacognitive, and compensation strategies, while affective and memory strategies are the least preferred. Habók et al. (2021) have pointed out the different strategy preferences in different cultural contexts. Their results reinforced the preferred use of metacognitive strategies in both European and Asian contexts. However, there were statistically significant differences in the affective field with regard to the lower strategy use preference in the European sample.

A great deal of research has investigated strategy use in connection with other aspects ( Platsidou and Kantaridou, 2014 ; Rao, 2016 ; Charoento, 2017 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018a , 2020 ). One of the most often used factors was language achievement, which has been specified and covered in a multitude of ways. Some studies have focused on level of language proficiency or achievement test results ( Raoofi et al., 2017 ; Taheri et al., 2019 ; An et al., 2021 ; Malpartida, 2021 ), others have relied on self-ratings ( Charoento, 2017 ), and still others have involved language course marks ( Habók and Magyar, 2018a ; Sánchez, 2019 ; Bećirović et al., 2021 ). As a result, most research has pointed out that students with higher proficiency use LLS more frequently than those with less ( Rao, 2016 ; Charoento, 2017 ; Raoofi et al., 2017 ; Sánchez, 2019 ). Charoento (2017) highlighted that successful students mainly used metacognitive strategies and less proficient students preferred to use social strategies the most. Sánchez (2019) reported that the application of social, metacognitive, and cognitive strategies was the highest among high achievers. Some research failed to find any significant differences in LLS use between learners with lower and higher English proficiency levels ( Rianto, 2020 ).

A relatively small number of studies have examined how LLS use predicts language proficiency. Some research has pointed out a positive correlation between strategy use and proficiency. Comprehensive work by Taheri et al. (2019) indicated a statistically significant correlation between LLS and second language achievement. Specifically, they confirmed a statistically significant relationship between cognitive, social, and compensation strategies and second language achievement. Platsidou and Kantaridou (2014) also found that language use is predicted by learning strategy use in a statistically significantly way and that it anticipates perceived language performance. Rao (2016) also reinforced that learners’ English proficiency level determines their strategy use and highlighted that students with high proficiency use strategies more frequently than low-level learners. Habók and Magyar (2018a) stated that strategies have a statistically significant effect on proficiency through attitudes. In addition, these effects reflect general school achievement. Bećirović et al. (2021) observed that LLS can influence students’ English as a foreign language (EFL) achievement. Specifically, cognitive strategies have a statistically significant positive effect on EFL achievement, while other strategies showed negative or no significant impact. An et al. (2021) also reported the positive direct effect of SRL strategies on students’ English learning outcomes. Lin et al. (2021) concluded the direct impact of learning strategies on learners’ performance in literal and inferential comprehension.

Another research direction is the investigation of strategy use in relation to other underlying factors, like affective variables, such as motivation, attitude, self-efficacy, and self-concept. Educational research has pointed out that learners’ attitude toward language learning is crucial since it can greatly impact learning results and language learning proficiency ( Platsidou and Kantaridou, 2014 ). Studies have indicated that learners with a positive attitude toward language learning employ LLS more frequently and effectively. Platsidou and Kantaridou (2014) used confirmatory factor analysis to show that attitudes toward language learning predict the use of both direct and indirect learning strategies. Jabbari and Golkar (2014) reported a more frequent use of cognitive, metacognitive, compensation, and social strategies among students with a positive attitude toward language learning. Habók and Magyar (2018a) demonstrated the reverse effect: learners who apply LLS effectively were more likely to have improved learning experiences and positive attitudes toward foreign language learning.

It can be concluded that strategy research is often related to other vital areas of language learning, among which attitude plays an important role. However, only a limited number of researchers have developed measurement tools for investigating self-regulated foreign LLS and measured it in relation to attitude. In addition, most studies have focused on the strategy use of tertiary samples with relatively high levels of proficiency. This study aims to fill this gap and provides an insightful investigation into the connections among strategy use, attitude, and English language achievement among lower secondary students. Based on the relevant literature ( Jabbari and Golkar, 2014 ; Platsidou and Kantaridou, 2014 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018a ), we hypothesized the statistically significant effect of LLS on proficiency through attitude.

Research Questions

The research addresses the following three research questions:

1. Which EFL strategy was the most frequently used by 11-year-old lower secondary students?

2. Were there statistically significant differences among students in their language learning strategy use on the basis of their English language achievement?

3. Which language learning strategy type has a statistically significant impact on learners’ English language achievement and attitude?

Research Methods

Participants.

In Hungary, students start primary school at the age of six. This lasts 4 year. Then, they continue their studies at the lower secondary level. At the age of 14, they move on to upper secondary school. The participants of the present research were 11-year-old lower secondary students in Grade 5 (N total  = 1,653; N boys  = 827, N girls  = 780, N missing  = 46) from 64 schools in Hungary. Hungarian students take EFL in compulsory courses in school, and they usually start learning a foreign language at the age of nine. However, in some schools, they can start at the age of six. Typically, they can choose between English and German, but recently a preference for English has become more common. In upper secondary school, two foreign languages are compulsory, English and German or Italian or Spanish. The second language depends on curricular choice at the school level.

The English proficiency of the participating students was at beginner/elementary level (A1–A2). As for their engagement in learning, there were 17 students in the sample who spent 2 h or less per week on English. Around half of the learners ( N  = 884) devoted 3 h a week to this subject, and few participants dedicated four ( N  = 303) or five ( N  = 357) hours a week to the language. We also found 67 students who dealt with English six or more hours per week. In addition, we did not receive any answers to this question from 25 students.

The revised and improved version of the Self-Regulated Foreign Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire (SRFLLSQ) was employed after our first measurement and validation ( Habók and Magyar, 2018b ). We reviewed the new findings on the theoretical background to foreign LLS research and continued revising the affective field. In addition, based on the relevant literature, we included the field of motivation in the questionnaire. We thus completed the measurement tool with motivational and metamotivational factors based on Oxford’s Strategic S 2 R Model. Finally, the questionnaire covered four strategy areas: metacognitive (eight items), cognitive (six items), meta-affective (eight items), affective (eight items), metasocial (eight items), social (six items), motivational (four items), and metamotivational (four items; see Appendix ). The fifth-grade students provided their responses on a five-point Likert scale, which ranged from 1 (“Never or almost never true of me”) to 5 (“Always or almost always true of me”). The measurement tool was also complemented with a background questionnaire, which asked students about their foreign language school marks, which indicated students’ English language achievement (1 = fail, lowest school mark; 5 = excellent, highest school mark). Students also self-reported their attitudes toward English learning on a five-point Likert scale, which again ranged from 1 to 5.

First, the research was accepted by the IRB at the University of Szeged Doctoral School of Education. It was concluded that the research design follows IRB recommendations. The participating learners’ parents were asked for written informed consent, which was handled by the participating schools. Second, an invitation was sent to schools to register for the measurement. In the call, schools were given information about the purpose of the measurement. Once the schools accepted the invitation, they received further instructions on data collection and a link to log into the Online Diagnostic Assessment System (eDia), which is developed, supervised, and operated by the University of Szeged Centre for Research on Learning and Instruction ( Csapó and Molnár, 2019 ). Students’ participation was voluntary in the research. They logged into the system with an official student assessment code (developed by the Hungarian Educational Authorities), which provided complete anonymity for them. The researchers could not identify the respondents on this basis. The identification code was handled by the school administrators, but the students’ results were not available to them. Thus, complete anonymity was guaranteed. The eDia system is familiar to students because they regularly use it for diagnostic purposes during official school hours. The students had already acquired the necessary ICT skills at primary level, further improved through remote learning. For the present questionnaire, the participants indicated their responses by clicking on radio buttons. The learners were given a school lesson in a personal classroom environment provided by the school. After logging in, the respondents filled in the questionnaire in Hungarian, which is their native language, because they do not yet have the foreign language skills to provide reliable answers in English. This took 20 min to complete the instrument. Teacher assistance was not required while the questionnaire was being completed, but it was available. The students had the option to ask for assistance on any technical problems.

Data Analysis

First, we employed classical test analysis and examined reliability, means, and standard deviations for the questionnaire fields with SPSS Statistics 23.0. In the case of frequency of strategy use, we aimed to find out how strategy use was perceived by our sample. We also compared the students’ strategy use vis-à-vis their English language achievement and attitude using an independent sample t -test. To interpret effect size, we followed Wei et al.’s (2019) and Wei and Hu’s (2019) benchmark: under 0.005 is small, 0.01 is typical or medium, 0.02 is large, and is 0.09 very large. We used R 2 unsquared; thus, the benchmark for the effect size index is 0.07, 0.10, 0.14, and 0.30, which, respectively, represents small, medium, large, and very large cut-off values. We applied path analysis to map the possible relationships and effects of our variables. We studied the goodness-of-fit indices by applying various cut-off values for many fit indices, including the Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), the normed fit index (NFI), the comparative fit index (CFI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and Chi-square values ( Kline, 2015 ). TLI, NFI, and CFI were regarded as eligible with a cut-off value of 0.95, and RMSEA values indicated an acceptable fit of 0.8 ( Kline, 2015 ).

Descriptive Analysis

The questionnaire was reliable in all the fields ( Table 1 ). As regards the whole sample, moderate strategy use was observed. The lowest strategy use was noted in the field of metasocial strategies, and the most frequent strategy was found in the affective field. As regards the corresponding factors, the most frequent use was observed in the motivational field (see Table 1 ).

Figure 1 . The path model for EFL strategies on English language achievement through attitude.

Table 1 . Frequency of language learning strategy use in Grade 5.

We also identified the frequency of strategy use among the more and less proficient learners. Students were divided into two categories based on their English language achievement ( Table 2 ). Those with excellent and good school marks were placed in the more proficient learners’ category, while learners with average, fair, or unsatisfactory school marks were grouped into the less proficient learner category. Students ( N  = 810) who received excellent school marks met the requirements of the English language curriculum and performed at a high level. Learners ( N  = 500) with good marks had minor gaps. Those ( N  = 229) with an average school mark had major gaps in their knowledge, and those ( N  = 65) with unsatisfactory school marks had difficulty following the curriculum and varying levels of difficulty in all areas of language learning. Finally, students ( N  = 9) who received an unsatisfactory school mark are at a disadvantage which is difficult to overcome. No data were received from 40 students. Students’ EFL achievement could be regarded as good with a mean of 4.2 (SD = 0.89). As a result, the more proficient learners employed strategies with greater frequency in all of the fields, a statistically significant finding. The affective factor indicated above medium effect size, while the other factors reported small effect sizes.

Table 2 . Frequency of language learning strategy use among less and more proficient learners.

Multivariate Analyses

Finally, we investigated the effect of strategy use on English language achievement and attitudes. As Oxford’s Strategic S 2 R Model considers strategies as being closely directed by their corresponding meta-strategies, we have regarded the strategies and their meta-strategy counterparts as common factors. The correlation coefficient was statistically significant between every strategy factor ( r  = 0.45–0.25, p  < 0.001). Our model showed acceptable fit indices (Chi-square = 35.574, df = 5, p  = 0.000, CFI = 0.995, TLI = 0.977, NFI = 0.994, RMSEA = 0.061). We therefore concluded that English language achievement and attitude are statistically influenced by strategy use ( Figure 1 ).

We found that the meta-affective and affective and metasocial and social categories directly influenced students’ attitude toward English. A direct effect of attitude was observed on English language achievement. In addition, the metacognitive and cognitive categories had a direct effect on English language achievement, while English language achievement was indirectly affected by meta-affective and affective and metasocial and social factors. We could not confirm any significant effect of metamotivational and motivational factors on attitude or English language achievement.

We investigated the strategy use of 11-year-old lower secondary students in Grade 5 in connection with their language achievement and attitude toward the English language. Our first research question asked which LLS was the most frequently used by the sample. We found moderate strategy use with regard to a slightly modest application of the metasocial field, and the most frequent strategy use was observed in the affective field. These aspects of our findings partly correspond with most of the recent research with respect to moderate use of strategies; however, there are profound differences in the strategy preferences of the sample ( Platsidou and Sipitanou, 2015 ; Alhaysony, 2017 ; Charoento, 2017 ; Dawadi, 2017 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018a , b , 2019 , 2020 ; Habók et al., 2021 ). Raoofi et al. (2017) also pointed out the low level of social strategy use in their research. Another important statistically significant finding is that higher proficiency learners used learning strategies with greater frequency than their less proficient peers. This applies to every strategy field in agreement with Charoento’s (2017) results.

Our second research question concerned differences in the use of LLS based on English language achievement. As concerns the sample, we regarded the EFL school mark as an indicator of English language achievement. The mean indicated that a considerable portion of the sample was grouped as more proficient. As a result, these students used LLS with greater frequency in all of the categories, which is a statistically significant finding. These results correspond with other research, which also reinforces this ( Rao, 2016 ; Charoento, 2017 ; Raoofi et al., 2017 ; Sánchez, 2019 ). However, we also found that less proficient learners employed motivational strategies the most frequently, while their more proficient peers most often preferred the affective field, a result which is not reinforced by any previous findings. Apart from this, the strategy uses of both subsamples followed the same order, with social and metasocial strategy use being the least preferred type for both. This may be due to the fact that our sample was mainly at the beginner/elementary level (A1–A2), so they cannot yet initiate conversations with others, even with native speakers. They also cannot understand many words and grammatical structures that are used by more proficient speakers, so social interaction is more difficult for them, even for the more advanced ones.

Our results on the role of LLS in English language achievement and attitude confirmed the statistically significant effect of LLS on background variables. English language achievement was directly influenced by the metacognitive and cognitive fields and attitudes and indirectly affected by the meta-affective and affective fields, as well as the metasocial and social fields. Our model could not confirm any direct or indirect effect of the metamotivational and motivational fields on attitude or English language achievement. This may be because motivational components form distinct factors and their role differs somewhat in predicting language achievement. These results are in line with previous findings ( Platsidou and Kantaridou, 2014 ; Habók and Magyar, 2018a ), which also concluded the outstanding role of attitudes, which is an important predictor of language achievement and reinforces the role of strategy use. In summary, strategy use influences English language achievement through attitude to language learning in a statistically significant way.

The main objective of the study was to find evidence for the role of strategy use in students’ achievement at the beginner/elementary level of English language learning. As a result, the strategy use preferences of the sample differed somewhat from the findings of previous research, as the affective and motivational fields were the ones the students preferred the most. This may be due to the fact that young children are more likely to use strategies that are rather emotional and related to their personality traits than strategies that require deeper understanding, specific learning techniques, and awareness, such as cognitive strategies. The use of social strategies was also quite low, probably owing to the low level of foreign language communication skills in the sample. As regards the different proficiency levels, more frequent strategy use was observed among the more proficient learners, a statistically significant finding. However, the patterns of strategy use were almost the same across the groups. The only difference was that the more proficient learners mostly preferred the affective field, while the less proficient ones mostly employed motivational strategies. This indicates that students at a higher level have more confidence to speak up and show how they feel about learning English. Learners with lower proficiency at this age often try to show that they are motivated, that is, that they are trying and want to achieve good results and present a good image of their own performance. The study also highlighted the importance of attitude; from the results, it can be concluded that, even at the beginner/elementary level, strategy use can affect language achievement and that a student’s attitude is an important predictor and plays an important role as mediator between strategies and language achievement. This can have a positive impact on classroom performance and highlights the importance of teaching students about learning strategies.

Limitations

There are some limitations to consider in the study. First, the questionnaire was administered to fifth-grade students, who were at the beginner/elementary level of their English language learning. Thus, generalizability cannot be confirmed, and more research is needed across higher grades and higher proficiency learners. Second, we had difficulty identifying the affective domain in the first version of the questionnaire. For the fields in the present measurement tool, we have succeeded in identifying the affective and meta-affective domains of LLS. However, they still have to be optimized. Additional research is also called for with regard to the motivational components. Third, other underlying factors should be included in the investigation, such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-concept.

Pedagogical Implications

The study points out that the role of learning strategies is substantial for the students in their language learning. Learning English is a complex process for Hungarian fifth graders. English pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar are very different from those of Hungarian. For these learners, grammatical rules are often abstract phenomena, and it is difficult for them to associate meaning with the words they say and write. Furthermore, reading and listening comprehension are also influenced by many factors. The results draw attention to the paramount importance of teaching LLS, which can promote greater success among language learners. In addition, it is essential how consciously strategies are employed. Teachers are strongly urged to include strategy training in their courses. Strategy training can be conducted either in the form of an embedded sub-course in any of the subjects or in an independent form as an individual course. Strategy courses integrated into a school subject provide specific help for students learning that specific course material. For example, language learning strategies paid students in learning grammatical formulae or vocabulary in a foreign language, while general strategy courses help students to learn strategies that can be used in other school subjects, such as reading and writing strategies.

Another implication of the study is that motivation and attitude also influence language achievement in a statistically significant way. Creating a learner-friendly and encouraging atmosphere is therefore essential. The findings from our research have provided important insights into these issues for classroom practice.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the datasets are confidential and cannot be shared with third parties. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to AH, [email protected] .

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by IRB at the Doctoral School of Education, University of Szeged. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

AH and AM designed the study and implemented the data collection, as well as analyzing the data and participating in completing the manuscript. GM supervised the research and provided support. All the authors contributed to the editing and revision of the study and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

This research was supported by the Research Programme for Public Education Development, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (grant KOZOKT2021-16) and a Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Fund grant (under the OTKA K135727 funding scheme).

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Keywords: self-regulated foreign language learning, language learning strategies, foreign language attitude, language achievement, lower secondary students

Citation: Habók A, Magyar A and Molnár G (2022) Investigating the Relationship Among English Language Learning Strategies, Language Achievement, and Attitude. Front. Psychol . 13:867714. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.867714

Received: 01 February 2022; Accepted: 15 April 2022; Published: 13 May 2022.

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*Correspondence: Anita Habók, [email protected]

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Cognitive Linguistics: Fostering English Language Proficiency in Higher Education

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Theoretical linguistics, particularly within the domain of cognitive linguistic (CL) theories, serves as a comprehensive framework for understanding language interpretation and addressing fundamental questions about its nature. Within the framework of theoretical linguistics, this study focuses on linguistic theories that delve into cognitive processes. Specifically, it explores how CL theories contribute to the development of English language (EL) skills in college students. To achieve this goal, a well-structured questionnaire method was employed to gather insights from 190 college students, and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS. The study adopts a quantitative descriptive research approach with a cross-sectional research design. The chosen methodology involves a questionnaire survey method, specifically utilizing a closed-ended 5-point Likert scale for participant responses. The corpus linguistics-focused curriculum enhances college students’ writing complexity over traditional methods. This research contributes to the field of cognitive linguistics by not only emphasizing its role in EL development but also by addressing the integration of a corpus-based approach in English teaching. The study findings indicate frequent corpus-based language exploration correlates positively with students’ confidence in written and spoken English. Furthermore, the analysis results highlight the effectiveness of integrating CL techniques into EL teaching materials, showcasing improvements in students’ practical language skills and proficiency.

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Tang, C. Cognitive Linguistics: Fostering English Language Proficiency in Higher Education. Asia-Pacific Edu Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-024-00833-6

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Impact of social media on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic

PSU Research Review

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Article publication date: 21 January 2022

This research shows how social media has affected learning at present during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has become the largest and most convenient area of communication. In the current scenario, it seems that social networking sites not only had a profound impact on our social structure and intra-social interaction, but also affected education in general and learning English language in particular. It has been proven that these various social media platforms have created a realm of digital environment in today's new-age learning. Social media platforms are social networking sites through which people interact and communicate with each other easily and conveniently. Undoubtedly and unquestionably, social networking has been proven to be a global phenomenon that has caused a vast paradigm shift in the world of Learning and education during the current pandemic. Therefore, the present study aims to reach the extent of the impact of the various social media platforms on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic from the students' point of view.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted at the undergraduate level for English language learners. The sample comprised 166 undergraduate students at Najran University. A survey questionnaire was administered to find out the impact of various social media platforms and social networking sites on learning English language in the academic year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight possible suggestions for improving future virtual language learning.

The findings of the study contributed to the area of online learning of English language during the COVID-19 pandemic. Final results confirmed that the utilization of social media has been significantly perceived to have positively impacted learning English language in terms of writing style, reading skills, listening and lexical variation, communication skills and grammar usage.

Practical implications

The findings of the study can serve as fundamental indicators to implement prompt pedagogical reformations, for which a number of pedagogical implications can be proposed. Another equally important pedagogical implication is to design and provide professional development and training sessions to both students and educators on the ultimate utilization of social media as instructional technologies in the context of English language teaching and learning.

Originality/value

This research provides insights in developing policies to assist with the integration and utilization of social media platforms as instructional technologies in the context of English language teaching and learning and how institutions can respond to the advent of advancing technology, especially during and after the COVID-19 era. A model to improve online English language learning process is recommended as a guideline for all educators offering online learning.

• Social media in education
• English language learning
• L2 learning style
• COVID-19 pandemic

Muftah, M. (2022), "Impact of social media on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic", PSU Research Review , Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-10-2021-0060

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Copyright © 2022, Muneera Muftah

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1. Introduction

Social media is constantly changing the way people live in different aspects. Nowadays, various social media platforms are affecting communication, information delivery, knowledge exchange, commerce, education and all different aspects of life ( Rieger and Christoph, 2018 ; Bhatti et al. , 2019 ; Amin et al. , 2020 ). With the vast spread of various social networking sites on the Internet, researchers from different fields have started to direct their attention and shed more light on the importance and impact of social media on different aspects of life including social as well as educational aspects.

To pursue their constant efforts and to look at those aspects as an area of concentration that needs to be investigated further, Language learning professionals and instructors specifically have attempted to investigate the effect of social media and social networking sites in second language acquisition and second/foreign language learning. In one of the researches, it was found out that the group who got learning, commitment and inspiration through social media sites has indicated higher results in an English proficiency test compared to the other one that got training on an eye-to-eye premise ( Wamba and Carter, 2016 ).

Up-to-date data available on Statista (2020) have indicated that there are about 3.96 billion social media users across the world. Social media networking sites range from microblogs such as Twitter and sites and applications such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat. Yet, these different platforms have influenced the individuals' social, educational and personal aspects of life.

In the area of education, a significant number of research studies have been conducted to estimate their effectiveness in different disciplines. Linguistically speaking, the influx of linguistic output on social media represents numerous opportunities for language learners to process language and obtain input, as young users of social media networks spend more than half of their days using and interacting on these networking sites using their language and communication skills ( Al Jahromi, 2020 ).

Consequently, online chats and discussions, whether oral or written, have replaced conventional face-to-face dialogues, leading to substantial changes in the users' daily language and language skills. The extensive use of smartphones, laptops, and tablets along with prosperous social media applications has perhaps availed rich linguistic input at the fingertips of their users and has contributed in the production of comprehensible L2 output ( Al Jahromi, 2020 ; Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ).

Regardless of the inevitable impact of social media in individuals' lives everywhere, and taking into account that the students of today are insubordinate to old-fashioned instructing methods and learning techniques, there are not many studies that explore their effects in learning and education particularly in the English language context. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the impact of social media on learning English during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this aim, the present work specifically seeks to address the following research questions.

In what way did social media platforms impact the learning of English Language during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In order to answer this question, the following sub-question was developed to direct the scope of the study: How do Saudi university students perceive the impacts of using social media platforms on their learning of English language during the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to (1) Positive and negative effect? (2) Number of social media platforms used? (3) Motives for using Social Media platforms? (4) Frequency and time spent in using Social Media? (5) Educational or communicative tools? (6) The Rate of using social media on Learning English Language? (7) Aspects of language Skills improved via social media? and (8) Social media effects on students' studies?

2. Literature review

The COVID-19 pandemic led to shocking and unpredicted experiences for Saudi university students. The precautionary measures followed during the pandemic have had a wide impact on the students' social and educational life aspects ( Alghamdi, 2021 ). Recently, we have seen a radical change in favor of distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemics, therefore, it could be worthwhile to investigate the impact of social media in the foreign language context as they have been used much more now ( Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ). The current COVID-19 situation makes us aware that the impact of social media will increase due to social distancing.

Social media platforms are omnipresent and the research into the use of them in foreign language learning has become immense ( Yurdagül and Öz, 2018 ; Artyushina and Sheypak, 2018 ; Ayers, 2020 ). Today, with 2.95 billion social network users worldwide, social media usage is increasingly attractive and accessible, especially among the younger generation ( Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ). Social network sites have become the main means of communicating and a way to maintain a social life ( Li and Croucher, 2020 ).

Social Media refers to websites, blogs, chats, computer programs, i.e. any content-based form of e-communication that enables users to share information and expose ideas. While social networking sites for language learning represent the corpus of those social media channels and service, mainly designed for specific purposes, devoted to foreign language learning. Furthermore, it is also proposed that English might now be the first truly global language, being the dominant or official language in over 60 countries. The English language as stated is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world ( Akinwamide, 2012 ).

Roelofse (2013) argues that exposure to new literacies found in new technologies definitely impacts the way in which second/foreign language learners perceive the world. Likewise, the amount of contact with these social utilities certainly influences literacy practices by learners. New technologies do not merely alter the way people live, but it influences the way they think. Moreover, Davies (2012, p. 21) in Roelofse (2013) argues that “texts of the new technologies have mutated into complex hybrid systems that have made new demands on reading and writing, viewing, social exchange, and communication”.

Facebook is no exception in that the use of this social network site requires a multimodal approach of embedding and combining words and written texts from many sites. In the same sense, WhatsApp is perceived by the researchers as having the same contaminating effect on learners' writing skills. In this regard, social media is a “dialogue” and “means [of] engaging with people” ( Coons, 2012 , p. 44).

The body of literature reveals a significant number of studies in the area of the impact of social media on the linguistic output of non-native speakers of English. Chomsky (2014) has stated that our language is constantly, inevitably, and naturally changing, transforming and becoming more adaptive to its users due to the changes in our contemporaries. More particularly, the initiation and rapid development of social media networking sites as eminent activity has created a distinguishing language system necessary for practical communication ( Attila, 2017 ).

Baldwin (2012) suggests that social media can be both a friend and a foe for natural language processing. While he considers social media a cause for “spelling inconsistencies, the free-form adoption of new terms, and regular violations of English grammar norms,” he refers to the advantage of “lexical normalization” in the same linguistic setting. In this regard, Thurairaj et al. (2015) examined whether social media networks were “making or marring academic English” and whether infrequent online code-switching and inconsistent spelling affect non-native learners' language learning process. Their findings revealed that the discourse used on social media had not influenced the learners' English language proficiency due to their higher awareness of the deviations between their online informal meta-language and their formal academic language.

Furthermore, simplified online interactions help speakers produce meaningful exchanges whilst using the target language in useful manners ( Mutum and Wang, 2010 ). Another advantage of social media is the reduced communication anxiety. People often exchange and share information and construct new personal and linguistic identities on social media because of being at ease with revealing their preferred identities behind monitors as a result of the anonymity expedited in such situations ( Blattner and Fiori, 2011 ). Lowered anxiety in online settings coined with heightened motivation and self-confidence have been shown to provide L2 learners with anxiety-free zones that enable them to produce language spontaneously and creatively ( Al Jahrami, 2019 ).

Studies conducted by Slim and Hafedh (2019) , Thurairaj et al. (2015) have revealed that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter enhance students' overall language learning process. In connection with particular language skills, a significant number of studies have found that the use of social media enhances learners' grammatical complexity and vocabulary acquisition and learning ( Al Jahrami, 2019 ; Attila, 2017 ; Mills, 2011 ; Stevenson and Liu, 2010 ). Mason and Rennie (2008) notice that vocabulary acquisition on social media has become a phenomenon due to the employment of techniques such as coining and compounding to produce words such as Face + book, Snap + chat and Blog + sphere.

Another employed technique is sound imitation resulting in words such as Twitter which comes from the verb tweet, and Boo which reflects the sound of contempt. Similarly, social media have affected the forms of different words. For instance, the proper names of social media applications and websites have become verbs and adjectives (e.g. Google it, I'll Instagram this). Another technique is the change in the negative form of the verb like and the noun friend to become unlike and unfriend. Additionally, the semantic connotations of many words have undergone change on social media (e.g. wall on Facebook, spam, steam, etc.).

As to the writing skill, the fact that social media exchanges are more written than spoken in what is referred to as “text speak”. Attila (2017) argues that the use of logograms, abbreviations, acronyms and paralinguistic features (e.g. b4 = before, Gr8 = great) has made writing easier, faster and more liberated from the normal constraints of traditional writing. However, spelling can accordingly be negatively affected when frequently using logograms and abbreviations (e.g. 2 day = today).

Longitudinal studies have also indicated a significant improvement of oral proficiency with particular reference to speaking and listening ( Chen, 2013 ; Lin et al. , 2016 ). Lin et al. , however, have asserted caution that learners would need carefully planned instructional guidance and tailored activities in order to be able to use social media efficiently to enhance their language learning process.

Despite the positive effects of social media on language proficiency and language learning, many researchers are more concerned with the harmful effects these networking sites might have on L2 learners' interlanguage with particular reference to inconsistent spelling and violated grammatical rules ( Baldwin, 2012 ). Lin et al. (2016 , p. 143) claim that “language use on the Internet is often criticized as being less correct and less coherent than other forms of language use, and as having disrupted adjacency.” Effects of social media on Pakistani students' L2 learning process have also been reported in a study conducted by Tariq et al. (2012) . Similarly, Akram and Albalawi (2016) found Facebook to be a negative learning distraction for their Saudi students.

Amidst these incompatible claims, the present study aims to confirm the possible impact of social media platforms on learning English language during the Covid-19 Pandemic from the perspectives of undergraduate students in the Saudi context. The precautionary measures followed during the pandemic have led the Saudi government to abundantly utilize the World Wide Web and all its facets for different socioeconomic and educational purposes. It is not surprising, then, that social media platforms and social networking sites are heavily used by L2 learners. Consequently, the purpose of the current study is to evaluate the possible gains of the broad use of social media platforms on the learning of the English language during the pandemic and to view the perceptions of the learners in regard to these possible gains, which is a gap in the literature that the current study aims to fill.

3. Methodology

The purpose of the current study is to find out the impact of various social media platforms and social networking sites on learning English language in the academic year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight possible suggestions for improving future virtual language learning.

3.1 Participants

The study was conducted at the undergraduate level for English language learners in the College of Languages and Translation–Najran University, KSA. It was performed after completing a full year of online education and teaching classes and during the final examinations in the second semester of 2020. The sample comprised 166 students: 66 male and 100 female students in all bachelor's degrees with English language majors. Students in the English department form the highest number of students with their ages ranging from below 20 years–23 years old. The participants are native speakers of Arabic. Their interaction outside the classroom is low. That's to say, most of them had very little interaction with native English speakers outside the classroom and in most cases no contact at all.

Most of the students do not have any prior experience with online learning. Requirement courses including Arabic, Religious Culture and other general courses were conducted online on the main campus before the recent crisis, and it was optional. However, the examinations were conducted on campus. The following Figure 1 displays the percentage of the participants.

3.2 Research instrument

The method chosen for this study is quantitative; a more in-depth method was designed to estimate the impact of various social media platforms on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic. The quantitative method was used to conduct more detailed studies of a smaller area using closed-questionnaires. This survey-based questionnaire consists of 10 multiple choice questions, which covered the study objectives. The questionnaire was administered to 166 English language learners. It consists of different parts; the first part is looking at students' demographic information, the second part includes a set of multiple-choice questions about learners' experiences with social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, … etc.), and their effect on learning English during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Social Media platforms they use and have access to, the motives for using social media during the pandemic, the Frequently used Social Media platforms, the extent to which social media is used for educational and communication purposes, The rate of social media use on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic, time spent on social media platforms, language skills improved via social media use and finally the effect of social networking sites Students' Studies. The questionnaire was checked for validity and reliability fulfillment.

3.3 Data analysis procedures

In this study, a quantitative approach to data collection has been employed. A descriptive analysis method was applied to analyze the research by counting the answers for every question to get the percentages. A questionnaire was the tool that was used in order to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions. Thick description and reflective thinking are the two most important elements that have been used while analyzing and interpreting the data. The data were carefully read for possible categories relevant to the purpose of the study. Then, these reported statements were categorized based on the purpose to be achieved.

4. Results and interpretation

The results of the present study were structured based on the varying types and length of questions applied in the close-ended questionnaire. In the scheduled questionnaire, the researchers set certain questions to gain a wide range of answers and opinions regarding the impact of social media platforms on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 2 displays the results of the students who think that social media can affect learning English positively during the pandemic. The results indicate that the majority of the participants use social media as a language learning tool. Almost 86.75% of the students believe that social media can affect learning English positively, while 13.25% of them think that it has a negative effect on the language learning process.

As to the number of social media platforms that students have access to and can straightforwardly use, Figure 3 indicates that 25.91% of the total respondents use only one social networking site, 22.29% use two sites and 37.35% of them use three social networking sites. Yet, only 14.45% of the students use more than three social media platforms.

Concerning the reasons and the motives for using social media during the pandemic, Figure 4 below shows that 60.84% of the participants use social networking sites for the purpose of studying. Likewise, the results indicate that 19.27% of them use social networking sites for playing games, while the students who use these sites for making friends and chatting with friends are 28.31 and 31.74% respectively. The remaining 24.09% reported that they use social networking sites for other purposes.

Figure 5 below shows the most frequently used social media platforms. The data indicate that the most popular online networking site was WhatsApp, with the highest percentage of 72.89% of all university students stating that they use it on a typical day. Facebook is the second mostly-used platform, with 53.01% of the students using it daily. It is also reported that only 31.32% use Twitter, another 26.50 and 21.68% use Google+ and Instagram respectively. The least used social media platform was WeChat, with 3.61% of students using it daily. Moreover, 18.07% of the students prefer to use different other social media platforms and no one of them uses LinkedIn.

Similarly, Figure 6 below presents results related to the use of social media as a communication tool during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The results point out that 81.92% of the students prefer to use social media platforms for learning purposes. They believe that social media provide the facility to communicate among the students during the pandemic, i.e. to communicate with their teachers and classmates. On the other hand, 18.07% did not use social media for educational purposes, as they believe that social networking platforms did not support their studies. They believe that these platforms are supposed to make them feel more connected.

Figure 7 reflects the students' perception towards using social media as an educational tool and as a support for their studies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results point out that the majority of the students 84.94% are interested in using social media as an educational tool as it helps them to get more useful information and to interact with learning groups and other educational systems that make the learning process more convenient. However, only a few students, 15.06% mention that social media platforms did not support their own studies.

Results reported prove that the majority of the students are interested in using social media as an educational tool and that almost 51.20 and 18.08% of the students use social media to learn English language at higher rates “good” and “excellent” respectively. Moreover, it is also reported that only 21.09% of the students rate the use of social media on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic as “average”, another 7.23% rate it as “poor” and only 2.40% rate using social media in learning English as “very poor” (see Figure 8 ).

Concerning how much time do students actively spend on social networking sites, Figure 9 shows that 6.02% of the students do not spend a moment on social networking sites during a typical day, almost 21.08% of them spend 10–30 min a day. Most of the students 31.93% spend about one to two hours on social networking sites during their typical day, while 27.71% spend from 2 to 3 h of their time. It is also reported that 4.22% of the participants spend between 4 and 5 h on social networking sites, and only 9.04% of the participants spend more than 5 h on social networking sites daily.

Interactive social media channels to language learning enable students to develop communication and language skills. Regarding the different aspects of language skills the students improve via social media platforms, the results presented in Figure 10 below showed that 40.96% of the students improved their writing skill, 39.15% improved their reading skill, the third skill is listening and vocabulary with a ratio of 31.92%. In addition, their speaking skill was improved with a percentage of 31.32% and only 22.28% of learners improved their grammar.

The last question discusses the effect of social networking sites on students' studies. The results specified that social networking sites have seriously affected students' studies at a ratio of 24.09%, whereas 31.93% of the participants believe that social networking sites have slightly affected their performance and their language achievement.

On the other hand, 18.07% of the learners agreed that social networking sites have no impact on their studies. Moreover, 14.46% of them believed that such sites are seriously helping, while only 11.45% of the total number of students admitted that social networking sites can slightly help them on their studies. The extent to which social networking sites are affecting the learners' studies is presented in Figure 11 above.

5. Discussion and conclusion

The present work attempts to investigate the most important impacts of using social media for learning English language during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The challenges of the digital world are omnipresent, and different options have to be considered so that educators are able to use them to assist the learners.

Social media is no exception, as it can provide many opportunities in the foreign language learning process. The technological revolution today, like never before, can be obviously reflected in the L2 learners' wide experience, the independence in exploring digital resources and documents that represent powerful support in enhancing oral, written, listening and reading competence. In this sense, L2 learners do no longer depend directly and entirely on the teacher to improve their skills but on other resources such as Internet and technology ( Al Jahromi, 2020 ; Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ; Slim and Hafedh, 2019 ; Thurairaj et al. , 2015 ).

In other words, social media along with social networking sites have become part of the learners' as well as educators' daily routines, in terms of communication, language experience, practice and exercise, news feed and knowledge sharing. The digital world has seemingly become their way of life inside and outside class settings and that is the reason behind examining their impact on L2 learners.

With the help of social media platforms, L2 learners can learn, read, write, advertise or communicate in a more efficient way. The main questions addressed referred to the impact of social media on learning English language during the Covid-19 pandemic and usage and the degree of facilitation and assistance of foreign language learning by social media, and the findings revealed that students were very positive and felt motivated by social media.

L2 learners do not have to rely on classes or handbooks to get their daily amount of knowledge. It can all be achieved from the social networking sites as indicated in question 2. At least, the learners can use three different types of social media platforms and formats to reach their educational goals and in some cases four types. The learners can follow or get information about their studeis from any part of the world. For instance, Twitter allows a user to get information which is more interactive in nature with the help of embed photo and video. Smartphones are an example of a handheld device through which learners can communicate and exchange information by using any social media platform which is allowed.

The world is getting closer every day and everyone, including L2 learners, needs to be connected. It is moving strongly and more towards “social media”. The information comes to users rather than users have to make effort to get the information. In terms of personal relationships too, social networking is connecting people. Social networking can also be very crucial in educational help. Education support groups can be created from which learners can get information as indicated in question 3 where 60.84% of L2 learners indicated that they use social media platforms for studying and for educational purposes while the rest of them use them for other purposes including chatting with friends, making friends, playing games and for other different purposes.

The kind of interaction a user wants from these social networks depends on the type of information the user is interested in. With reference to question 4, using different platforms depends on users' purposes, for the participants in the study aiming at enhancing proficiency in English language, WhatsApp can be used for chatting or sending many kinds of text-information, assignments or even creating groups for different courses. Facebook was not appealing due to its informal style, while the participants aiming at improving communicating skills found it useful for social and L2 identity construction. Google + can be used for academic purposes, it can greatly enhance the way people learn. Twitter and Instagram have also become popular and integral part of everyday communication. Other platforms such as YouTube, learners can watch videos to understand a topic better or look at photos which might help them to visualize a concept, after all, “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Brick (2011) reported it as the main positive aspect of using social networking sites, adding to it the real-time feedback. The immediate response and real-time conversation are also achieved through live sessions on Instagram or Facebook dedicated pages for L2 learners, such as the Instagram stories that offer quizzes focusing on idioms, phrasal verbs or other lexical related items or lives where learners are invited to write down words that they would like to learn the pronunciation.

The fact that technology including social media and the different networking sites should be part of the educational process is not questionable anymore, the way it finds its scope within it and how and to which extent should educators, as well as learners, use it, had better be delivered by a multidisciplinary methodological framework. Among the numerous potential advantages to using social media, L2 learners have perceived that it can be used as a good communication and educational tool (See Question 5 and 6). The opportunities provided by this medium are immense and many L2 learners are making use of this medium to better their practices. Social networks, unlike the common media, do not have a pattern as to how much information has to be conveyed and where to draw the line. Therefore, learners can obtain much information and better performance. Similar findings were found by Sitthirak (2012) , who acknowledged the attitudinal impact of social media on language from an educational perspective. Similarly, Mutum and Wang (2010) and Blattner and Fiori (2011) have declared that social media provides a smoother, more direct communication tool.

In other words, by maximizing the benefits of social networks, whether it be their role in delivering educational outcomes, or facilitating supportive relationships, identity formation, or a sense of belonging and resiliency, the direct contacts that occur in discussion groups, exercises, conversations, videos and other widgets on linguistic social networks cover various language registers. With the expanding demand of various social media platforms, the growing numbers of users in different parts of the world, it is fair to assume that it impacts second language acquisition, at least by the permanent flow of visuals and text that we access on a daily basis. In the broad context of globalization, all visuals improve not only linguistic skills, but they also build an international culture ( Pikhart and Botezat, 2021 ).

The current Covid-19 pandemic has posed some challenges, and like any emergency event, it has some inherent risks. Through increased social media literacy as an educational tool– ensuring all students can utilize these media to develop the skills and to critically understand, analyze and create content – these challenges can be overcome and risks mitigated in a way that ensures the many benefits for both learners and educators. The findings shown in questions 7 and 8 corresponded with the aforementioned ones related to L2 learners' views on the particular effects of social media on the enhancement of these language learning skills. Results have asserted that approximately 69.28% of the frequent users of social media platforms for learning purposes have rated them as excellent and good mediums to enhance language skills, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is in line with Li (2017) study. Li argued that students' comfort with online class design, structure, level of interaction between students and faculty, the quality and amount of class content and overall experience with online class delivery impact the overall learning experience and determine the ultimate success or failure of online mode of education. Haque and Al-Salem (2019) have also found that social media is a good platform for students as it provides opportunities for learners to study foreign languages.

The intensity of using English-language social media content is positively and significantly related to students' perceptions of their ability to speak English including reading, writing, listening and speaking aspects. Hence, social media is needed to be learning media for learning English language as a Foreign Language ( Anwas et al. , 2020 ). Online socialization according to Slim and Hafedh (2019) seems to have positively affected the production of an acknowledged linguistic repertoire independent of age or gender.

With reference to the last question, results show positive perceptions of the respondents of the effects of using social media on their L2 writing (see Figure 11 ). In addition to improved English language learning, these effects included enhanced writing style, quality and quantity. Al Jahromi (2019) and Li (2017) have similarly found that online interactions on social media networks and online facets significantly develop L2 learners' writing accuracy and complexity. These findings could also be related in this regard to the influence of the projection of authorial and social presence and identity practices facilitated on social media due to the increased linguistic input and output on these platforms in comparison to the less-advantageous classroom settings ( Chen, 2013 ).

In addition, L2 learners who acknowledged the positive impact of social media on their English learning reported that their L2 Reading skills are also enhanced. This is due to the improvement of the L2 learners' vocabulary as well as listening skills. This is similar to the findings obtained by Mutum and Wang (2010) , Thurairaj et al. (2015) and Slim and Hafedh (2019) . However, online communication of students raises another important issue discussed by the great majority of authors, that of the nonacademic purposes of social media usage of students. Given that the majority of the students were using written-based social media networks such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram, speaking, grammar and pronunciation skills were perceived as the least enhanced. However, Al Jahrami (2019) has claimed that language accuracy is concerned, extensive reading and writing online can enhance L2 learners' grammatical competence (see also Attila, 2017 ; Mills, 2011 ; Stevenson and Liu, 2010 ).

In sum, the research study investigated the impact of social media platforms on learning English language during the Covid-19 pandemic from undergraduate Saudi users' perspectives. The aforementioned findings suggest that Saudi L2 learners find social media platforms effective in enhancing their L2 proficiency, with particular reference to how positively they influence L2 writing, vocabulary learning and communication skills. They also reported that they use various social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc., and that they find social media as both educational and communicative tools. Based on these findings, it is safe to conclude that social media can be appreciably helpful in enhancing English language learning.

6. Research implications and recommendations

The findings of the study can serve as fundamental indicators to implement prompt pedagogical reformations, for which a number of pedagogical implications can be proposed. Social media can be implemented to make teaching more student-centered through the facilitation of interactive collaboration and exchange of information, resulting in an enhancement of syntactic and lexical complexity.

L2 teachers in particular need to use social media to aid their teaching strategies and amplify their material with interactive and innovative activities on social media such as online debates and group discussions. Another equally important pedagogical implication is to design and provide professional development and training sessions, workshops, seminars to both students and educators on the ultimate utilization of social media as instructional technologies in the context of English language teaching and learning.

Social media networks can be employed in this regard to provide authentic extensive reading tasks that can facilitate intentional and incidental vocabulary learning and writing complexity. Furthermore, awareness campaigns can be conducted by e-learning educationists to recognize the benefits of online learning and teaching and validate the acceptability of social media learning, mobile learning and mixed teaching via learning management systems.

For implementing the positive findings of different studies and for educational technology to be used effectively, educators must be ready for a paradigm shift: from traditional education to pedagogy enhanced by the new technology. Further research is needed into the current realism and prospects of the utilization of digital media in connection with the wellbeing of the learners, increased levels of depression and anxiety, and some other negative psychological, social and economic aspects of the use of social media. This paper is the starting point and should be an impetus for further research into the topic of utilization of social media, especially during and after the COVID-19 era.

To offer online learning, English language undergraduate students require assistance. The following model is recommended as a guideline for all educators offering online learning. The proposed model is demonstrated in Figure 12 .

Participants distribution

The effect of social media platforms on learning English

The use of social media

Motives for using social media platforms

Frequently used social media platforms

Use of social media platforms as a communication tool

Using social media platforms as an educational tool

The rate of social media use on learning English language during the COVID-19 pandemic

Time spent on social media platforms

Language skills improved via social media use

Social networking sites effects on students' studies

Procedure to improve online English language learning process

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Bhatti , A. ( 2018 ), “ Sales promotion and price discount effect on consumer purchase intention with the moderating role of social media in Pakistan ”, International Journal of Business Management , Vol. 3 No. 4 .

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Corresponding author

About the author.

Dr. Muneera Muftah is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts, Thamar University, Yemen. She is currently working in the Department of English Language at the College of Languages and Translation, Najran University, KSA. She earned PhD in English Language Studies from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. She teaches courses in linguistics, applied linguistics and translation. Her main research interests are in the areas of translation, syntactic and morphological mental representation and development, and vocabulary development in SLA, generative syntax and morphology, discourse studies and second language assessment.

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Academic literacy is more than language, it’s about critical thinking and analysis: universities should do more to teach these skills

Associate professor, University of Pretoria

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Pineteh Angu is a member of the English Academy of South Africa (EASA), European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW) and the newly formed South African Association of Academic Literacy Practitioners (SAAALP)

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Making the adjustment from school to university is no easy task. For instance, there’s a big difference between writing a high school essay and crafting an academic paper which meets university standards.

In the decades since formal apartheid ended, South Africa’s universities have become increasingly accessible to students from different socioeconomic, schooling and linguistic backgrounds. But many of these students do not have the language or literacy skills to succeed at university level.

When I talk about “language”, I don’t mean that their level of fluency in English is the problem. In my long experience as a researcher and practitioner in the field of academic literacy, I have seen time and again that not only non-native English speakers struggle to transition from school to university. Many students, no matter what language they speak, lack the skills of critical thinking, analysis and logical reasoning.

Academic literacy is a mode of reasoning that aims to develop university students into deep thinkers, critical readers and writers. Many universities in South Africa offer academic literacy programmes to support struggling undergraduates. On paper, these programmes are an opportunity for students to read and analyse different academic texts. Ideally they should provide students with the academic tools to cope in an ever-changing university landscape and the broader South African economy.

But, as my research and that of other academic literacy practitioners shows , many South African universities’ academic literacy programmes are still promoting what researchers in this field call a “ deficit model ”. Here, lecturers assume that academic literacy is about teaching generic skills that can be transferred across disciplines. These skills include note-taking, structuring an academic essay and constructing sentences and paragraphs. There’s also a big focus on the rules of English grammar.

While these are all useful skills, academic literacy is about so much more.

This approach does not equip students with skills that can transform their minds : critical and logical reasoning, argumentation, conceptual and analytical thinking, and problem solving.

Without these skills, undergraduate students come to believe, for instance, that disciplinary knowledge is factual and truthful and cannot be challenged. They don’t learn how to critically assess and even challenge knowledge. Or they only see certain forms of knowledge as valid and scientific. In addition, they believe that some (mainly African) languages can never be used for research, teaching and learning. Pragmatically, they also don’t develop the confidence to notice their own errors, attempt to address them or seek help.

I would like to share some suggestions on how to produce university graduates who can think critically.

The deficit model

Why does the deficit model still prevail in South African universities? Research ( including mine ) offers some clues.

First, academic literacy still suffers from confusion around the definition. Not everyone in higher education agrees on what it is. So, disciplinary experts and some academic literacy practitioners misrepresent it as English language support. They assume that reading and writing in English with grammatical correctness is more important than critical thinking and argumentation.

They assume that a semester or year-long academic literacy course can “fix” students who lack these basic English skills. This approach tends to target and stigmatise people whose home language isn’t English, most often Black South Africans, Afrikaans speakers and students from other parts of Africa.

Another issue is that some academic literacy lecturers are not familiar with or are unconcerned about new research. They don’t follow national or global scholarly debates about the discipline. That means their teaching isn’t grounded in research or in new theoretical shifts.

Moreover, academic literacy practitioners and disciplinary experts do not always work together to develop the courses. This entrenches misleading views about the field, and it means academic literacy lecturers are not always aware of what’s expected in different disciplines.

Doing things differently

These problems can be overcome.

Academic literacy programmes at South African universities should focus on providing students with empowering academic literacy skills that can transform their minds.

The starting point is to understand that academic literacy is a cognitive process. It helps students to think, read and write critically.

For this to happen, disciplinary boundaries and hierarchies must be disrupted. Academic literacy programmes should be designed collaboratively with disciplinary experts . This will guarantee contextual relevance. Academic literacy departments or units need to be staffed by academics who keep abreast of new research in the field. They should be familiar especially with research that focuses on the South African context.

• Critical thinking
• South African universities
• English langauge
• African languages
• Academic writing
• Undergraduates
• Language of instruction
• South African languages
• Study skills

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Can You Really Learn a Language While Sleeping?

It’s a time to relax and recharge.

It’s a time to dream about showing up in your high school math class wearing nothing but an octopus and a smile.

But can it also be a time to learn a language?

What Does the Science Say About Sleep Learning in General?

What does the science say about language learning and sleep, why try learning a language while you sleep, how do you learn a language while you sleep, eko languages, sleep learning (audio programs).

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The idea of sleep learning, also called hypnopedia, first became popular in the early 20th century and really took off with Soviet studies of the subject in the 1960s.

In fact, a  1965 study  suggested that it could be possible to learn during sleep and noted that language learning could be one possible application.

A subsequent study clarified that sleep is important for memory consolidation and is therefore useful for language learning. Likewise, a study from the International Journal of Psychophysiology also indicated a correlation between efficient language learning and quality sleep.

In other words, if you’re learning a language or doing anything else that’s mentally taxing, you need your sleep.

There’s ample evidence that having consistent quality sleep improves your ability to retain what you learned while you were awake. But what about what you learned while getting that much-needed shut-eye?

A few recent studies suggest that you might be able to improve your language skills by listening in your sleep.

• A 2015 Swiss study had students listen to new vocabulary words in a foreign language. Then, half the group went to sleep while the words were played back. The other half stayed awake and listened to the words. The group that slept remembered more of the vocabulary words.
• Another study from 2019 published in Current Biology (also conducted by a Swiss team, interestingly enough) found that those who learned words during sleep were able to give more correct answers regarding these words (upon waking up, of course) than chance could explain. It’s worth noting, however, that these benefits didn’t extend to the more complex aspects of language such as grammar and conjugations.
• In a Digital Trends article published in 2021 , Rebecca Crowley (a research associate from Royal Holloway, University of London) suggested that it may be possible to learn from audio material while you slept, as long as you already had some familiarity with the material.
• A study published in 2022 also supported the idea that you may be able to learn new languages in your sleep, but only if the new material was absorbed during the “trough” phases of sleep (the periods when you’re at your most relaxed).

So far, the research suggests that you can pick up a language during sleep, but only under the very specific conditions outlined above.

Regardless, learning a language while you sleep is still worth a try for a couple of key reasons.

One of the best reasons to try learning a language while you sleep is that you won’t be wasting time . Even if you end up learning nothing, you would have been sleeping regardless, so you won’t have wasted any valuable time that you could have used for something else.

Additionally, sleep learning might improve vocabulary retention —as you’ve seen, the science seems to support this. Any little leg up helps! This is all the more reason to use sleep learning as a supplement to another language learning resource .

To recap, the science says that, in order to learn a language while you sleep, you need to be already familiar with the material you’re studying—i.e., you should review those foreign language textbooks before you hit the hay. You’re also more likely to absorb vocabulary than other aspects of language when you’re in a somnolent state. Finally, the importance of good, quality sleep can’t be overemphasized—if you feel agitated and restless in the middle of the night, you’re not likely to retain much of what you listened to.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the specific resources that can help you learn languages while you get your precious zzz’s.

Eko Languages is a YouTube channel that focuses primarily on helping people learn world languages. Videos include general lessons like vocabulary lists and pronunciation guides, but there are also a number of sleep learning videos.

Each video uses a tranquil tone that will help ease you into slumber. Then, a word is spoken in English and repeated three times in the target language. If you happen to be staring at your screen, you’ll also see the word appear in both English and your target language. Videos focus primarily on common words and phrases.

Language lessons available for aspiring sleep learners include Chinese ,  French ,  German , Hindi , Italian ,  Russian  and  Spanish .

There are also sleep learning videos to teach English to native speakers of a variety of languages.

Additionally, there are sleep learning videos to help Spanish speakers learn German , Italian ,  Russian  and more.

Finally, while they’re not marketed as a sleep learning platform, their videos that contain a lot of vocabulary may also work well for sleep learning since the main focus is listening.

FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons .

With FluentU, you hear languages in real-world contexts —the way that native speakers actually use them. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:

FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It’s already hand-picked the best videos for you and organized them by level and topic. All you have to do is choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started!

Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.

You can use FluentU’s unique adaptive quizzes to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions and exercises. Just swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're studying.

The program even keeps track of what you’re learning and tells you exactly when it’s time for review, giving you a 100% personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

The Sleep Learning programs offer sleep learning CDs and MP3 downloads. The goal of each program is to teach you the 850 most common words in your target language, equipping you with the most essential vocabulary—which matches up with the research!

There are eight languages available on these programs: Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic and Thai.

It’ll teach you the basic words and phrases you need to communicate with native speakers in your target language. What’s unique about this program is that it gradually builds on your prior knowledge (instead of slinging new vocab at you in isolation), ensuring that you intuitively retain the new material.

For a more comprehensive review of this program, look here .

Whether or not sleep learning actually works, it couldn’t hurt to give it a try. Maybe you’ll at least have cool foreign language dreams—as long as there are no octopi involved!

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