Are They Learning Language through Social Media Interaction? Exploring EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Usefulness of Social Media in Enhancing their Language Skills (Published)
This paper highlights the role of social media in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) among Kuwaiti pre-service EFL teachers. The participants involved in the study are female undergraduate students majoring English language at the College of Basic Education (CBE) in Kuwait. The data is collected via a questionnaire designed to explore the usefulness of social media in developing language skills, as perceived by pre-service teachers. The findings demonstrate that social media plays a significant role in learning English, revealing that the participants use social media to enhance their vocabulary development, reading, and listening skills, which consequently improves their English language ability. Their writing and communication skills are also moderately developed. This paper therefore argues that interacting via social media is extremely beneficial for learning languages, although both teachers and students require guidance concerning its use.
Keywords: Pre-Service EFL Teachers, Social media, Sociocultural Theory., language skills