Virtual social network communities: An investigation of language learners’ development of sociopragmatic awareness and multiliteracy skills

Department

Modern Languages

Document Type

Article

Publication Source

CALICO Journal

Publication Date

2012-01-01

Volume

29

Issue

1

First Page

24

Last Page

43

Abstract

© 2011 CALICO Journal. Although often neglected in language textbooks and classrooms, sociopragmatic and multiliteracy skills are crucial elements in language learning that language educators should not disregard. This article investigates whether a social networking community (SNC) website such as Facebook can be exploited in the context of an intermediate foreign language class to promote competent, literate L2 learners. Intermediate language learners had to search groups in Facebook that were linked to the course themes and conduct a linguistic analysis focusing on greetings, leave-takings, and vocabulary se-lection in order to identify the language typically used in this electronic environment. Findings suggest that over the course of a semester, learners honed in on and identified socio-pragmatic elements in this medium and that observation-based awareness-raising tasks are indeed beneficial for the development of socio-pragmatic competence.

Keywords

Facebook, Language learning and technology, Mul-tiliteracy, Sociopragmatic awareness, Technology integration

DOI

10.11139/cj.29.1.24-43

https://doi.org/10.11139/cj.29.1.24-43

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