Developing reading skills through pedagogical use of

Facebook in EFL high school students in Ecuador

CARMEN BENÍTEZ CORREA AND ALBA VARGAS SARITAMA

ABSTRACT: This study was done with the aim of discovering if using Facebook (FB) in EFL classrooms
help to develop reading skills. The participants were 180 high school students. This action research was
approached through mixed method. Data was gathered by means of students’ weekly activities and a
survey administered to teachers and students. The study concludes that the pedagogical use of FB favors
the for improvement of reading skills, besides there is a total agreement of participants on the idea that
FB has enhanced the aforementioned skill.

KEYWORDS: Education, EFL Teaching; Social Networks; Web 2.0.

ARTICLE HISTORY: Received: 18–december–2018 | Accepted: 14–january–2019.

High school students’ success depends at a great extent on the exposition and encouragement to read. Reading
skill is one of the fundamental academic skills that every student needs to master, it helps to actually comprehend
contents, to be critical, to easily interpret or infer information, it also helps increase their aptitudes for writing and
for oral presentation. In this respect, high school students need to be trained in this skill in order for them to
become competitive in different fields of knowledge and good users of the language. In order to train students on
this skill, teachers take advantage of technology which is a vital element in education because it makes them better
learners and enhances their motivation to study. In fact, nowadays, Web 2.0 technologies (i.e. blogs, twitter,
podcasts, wikis, social network sites, virtual worlds, video sharing and photo sharing) are greatly influencing
students’ lives to the point that their time used in–line is much more than the one used off–line. Indeed, the internet
has not only changed them socially but also academically. As it is widely known, technology has become a vital
component of everyday life and social networking is second nature to our students.
Being Facebook one of the social networks most used by students —though, not necessarily for academic
purposes— it has become an alternative tool in educational contexts. Due to the fact that, it offers a
great potential to catch students’ attention to foster English learning skills (Espinosa 2015, p. 2207) since
it incorporates elements of computer–mediated communication tools that allows synchronous and asynchronous
discussions, share pictures and videos (Kabilan et. al 2010, p. 179). In the same line, Roblyer et al. (2010, p. 134)
highlight that Facebook is one of the latest social networks that students have widely–adopted; therefore, this
resource can become a valuable tool to favor educational purposes because it supports communications and
collaborations. Besides, the use of FB in education as a new didactic resource, helps personal interaction, which
can contribute to improve learning and the acquisition of basic competences (Gómez, García–Prieto and Delgado–

Carmen Delia Benitez Correa (✉) ARTICLE _

Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador

cdbenitez@[Link]

ANALYSIS 22 (2019), 107–109 | © UNIVERSIDAD TÉCNICA PARTICULAR DE LOJA 2019

108 | CARMEN BENITEZ CORREA Y ALBA VARGAS SARITAMA

García 2018, p. 102). On the other hand, it is said that FB increases communication and human interaction which
makes it a potential platform for language learning to take place.
In fact, FB can be used for involving English language students in authentic language interaction and learning
which, undoubtedly increases motivation and consequently improve their English language performance. Blattner,
and Fiori (2009, p. 8) emphasize that FB can be utilized for authentic language interaction and can be used to
increase motivation and consequently improve the performance of English language learners, assuring safety and
privacy at the same time.
Not much research has been done on the use of FB for teaching English language specially grammar, writing
and vocabulary. One study was carried out at Oklt Al Sqoor College of Science and Arts in Saudi Arabia, its purpose
was to investigate the effect of Facebook on grammar discussion and writing skill in English as a foreign language
for university students. Sixty students participated in it. Results showed that the intervened group outperformed
the control group in the final test of EFL grammar and writing, which lead the author affirm that FB was a useful
tool for teaching purposes. Another study which attempted to investigate the students’ perceptions on the
effectiveness of Facebook (FB) groups for teaching and improving writing. Forty–three students completing their
bachelor’s degree in TESL, in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) participated in
this study. As a conclusion, it was said that ‘Facebook groups’ improves students’ writing skills effectively,
especially when brainstorming ideas for writing.
No research has been found on the use of FB for developing reading skills, this is why our study tries to shed
lights on how effective FB can be for strengthening reading skills, with this purpose, the following research
questions have been proposed:
- How effective is Facebook to improve students’ reading skills?
- What are teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the use of Facebook to enhance reading skills?

This research was conducted in a public high school. One hundred eighty EFL senior students enrolled in the
second year of secondary education participated in this study, additionally, three EFL teachers collaborated as
tutors. Students ages ranged from 16 to 17, most of them have reached an intermediate proficiency level of English
according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). There were also three EFL
teachers collaborating in the intervention.
This research study was an action research type, approached through mixed method. It lasted four months
during which, students were taught reading skills by using Facebook as a complement and reinforcement for their
daily classes at school. The teaching process started with the creation of closed groups in Facebook where students
were included. After students were explained the way they were going to work, they were taught for a period of
four months, during this time they completed weekly activities for developing the reading skill. All the activities
were guided and monitored by the teachers assigned to the groups. The students’ progress was measured through
the completion of certain tasks such as: identifying the main and supporting ideas and summarizing information.
A rubric was used for grading the students´ tasks.
The data collection instruments included the activities themselves and a survey applied to students and
teachers in order to know their perceptions about the pedagogic use of Facebook to develop reading skills in
English as a foreign language.
The results obtained showed that 80 % of students agree that FB is a platform that actually helped them to
improve Reading skills, and they feel comfortable working with it, they also believe that their reading skills are now
 DEVELOPING READING SKILLS THROUGH PEDAGOGICAL USE OF FACEBOOK | 109

better than when they were before the intervention started the study. In addition, all the teachers agreed that if FB
is used pedagogically, it catches the attention of students, consequently, they improve their reading skills. Besides,
the progressive improvement seen throughout the completion of the weekly activities, also shows that FB has been
effective for their learning.
After finishing the study, it is concluded that FB is a tool that has greatly impacted and satisfied students
improving of reading skills, besides there is a total agreement of participants on the idea that FB has enhanced the
aforementioned skills.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank to Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja for their unconditional support in conducting this research
study.

REFERENCES
Blattner, Geraldine, and Fiori, Melissa (2009). Facebook in the language classroom: Promises and possibilities.
Instructional Technology and Distance Learning (ITDL) 6, no. 1: pp. 17−28.
Espinosa, Ligia. F. (2015). The use of Facebook for educational purposes in EFL classrooms. Theory and Practice
in Language Studies 5, no. 11: pp. 2206–2211.
Gómez Hurtado, Inmaculada., García–Prieto, Francisco Javier, y Delgado–García, Manuel (2018). Uso de la red
social Facebook como herramienta de aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios: estudio integrado sobre
percepciones. Perspectiva Educacional 57, no 1: 99–119.
Kabilan, Muhamad, Ahmad, Norilda, and Abidin, Mohamad (2010). Facebook: An online environment for
learning of English in institutions of higher education? The Internet and higher education 13, no. 4: pp. 179–
187.
Roblyer, Margaret. [Link]. (2010). Findings on Facebook in higher education: A comparison of college faculty and
student uses and perceptions of social networking sites. The Internet and higher education 13, no. 3: pp. 134–
140. [Link]

CARMEN BENÍTEZ CORREA ALBA VARGAS SARITAMA

Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja
(✉) cdbenitez@[Link] (✉) abvargas@[Link]
i D [Link] i D [Link]
110 | CARMEN BENITEZ CORREA Y ALBA VARGAS SARITAMA