This is a descriptive survey that sampled the opinion of 60 regular users of facebook among students of a Federal government College in Lagos, Nigeria. The purpose was to determine the effect of facebook on learners of English; the official language of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Facebook as a social media provides a template for learners to discuss, interact, write, speak and exchange messages. The study focused the possible effect of staying long on facebook and the students’ consequent writing interest and fluency. Facebook messages (120 in all) were downloaded and analysed on the basis of language features. The students’ sheets totaling sixty — written in an examination condition were considered. These sheets were content-analysed to determine to what extent “social speak” as observed in their Facebook messages also occurred in the students’ answer sheets.The findings show that there is a gross influence of the emerging social media media language on students writing skills. Recommendations were made on how to control students’ exposure to siciual media and the damaging effects such may have on their language learning.
Keywords: English Second Language, Facebook, Learning, Users’ Perception, Writing Skills
