The Role of Social Media in Improving EFL Learners’ Speaking Skill: A Teachers’ Perspective

Abstract

Social media have gained much respect and popularity among EFL teachers who are in need to go beyond the traditional methods of teaching that teachers use to accomplish most parts of the job. Traditional classrooms still emphasize writing and reading at the expense of speaking. This study aimed to find out if there is a positive influence of social media on EFL learners’ speaking skills, explore the learners’ attitudes that develop EFL speaking skills towards using social media, and demonstrate the impact of social media on EFL learners who may quietly absorb information and knowledge without typically engaging with the information received or the learning experience. The study adopted the descriptive-analytical method. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The sample consists of a randomly chosen sample subjects of (30) EFL teachers at the secondary level from Wad Medani Locality in Sudan.  The data were analyzed with the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) Program. The findings provided that learners do not communicate with native speakers to develop their speaking skills. Also, social media have not implemented as a strategy in teaching oral courses. Furthermore, teachers do not use social media in preparing classroom speaking activities. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that learners should communicate with native speakers to develop their speaking skills. In addition, social media should be implemented as a strategy in teaching oral courses. Also, teachers should be trained and encouraged to use social media in preparing classroom speaking activities.