INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON ESL LEARNERS

Abstract

This paper explores the role of social media regarding the English language proficiency of ESL (English as a Second Language) students in Sindh, Pakistan. As the use of digital platforms in everyday life continues to rise, the study will focus on how digital platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Google, assist in the development of language, especially in their communication, vocabulary, and other incentives, in addition to the perceptions of learners on the platforms as teaching tools. The study implements a quantitative method that entails a structured online survey questionnaire modified by Mufti (2023), which is a design proven by credible professionals in the field of English language teaching. The survey was conducted through WhatsApp on a convenience sample of 60 undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students in different public and private universities in Sindh.

In the demographic analysis, it was found that most of the participants were between 18 and 27 years old (58 percent were male respondents). The platform that was most widely used was Instagram (50), then YouTube (43), and then Facebook (30). YouTube has been utilized mostly in vocabulary building and educational materials, whereas Instagram has been mostly used to develop better communicative skills. The research also concluded that students are encouraged to use the English language by communicating via interactive and audiovisual platforms.

The findings of the survey reveal that 85 percent of respondents consider social networks as an effective means of education, 82 percent believe social media helps to develop creativity, and 75 percent consider social media to hasten the process of acquiring English. Nevertheless, certain issues were voiced. 76 percent of the respondents admitted that excessive use of social media could have a harmful outcome on mental and physical well-being, whereas 36 percent thought that academic performance could be affected. However, most of them did not agree with the fact that social media is time-wasting.

Twitter was consistently voted the least effective platform, possibly because it has much reduced multimedia and its content is limited to short messages. The results indicate that language learning can occur best through a multimedia-rich platform because learners get more interactive and even more productive exposure to the English language. Although the research found support in the claim that social media has a significant educational potential, it does admit certain weakness as to the methodology applied, involving both the application of the non-probability sampling technique and the restriction of the target population to a geographically limited age group, which might reflect on the insufficient generalizability of the study results. It is suggested that future research studies should have a wider geographic representation and mixed methods so that there is a deeper understanding