MIR SADIA SIDDEQUA -

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A HELPING TOOL FOR LEARNING ENGLISH : ELT AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Students in the English Fundamental and Communication Programs at Fareast International University (FIU) in Bangladesh have limited time inside the classroom. Most of them are working full time in different sectors. Sometimes they even skip the classes due to works. In order to keep them in track with the other students and to provide additional language practice outside the classroom their teacher has taken help from technology and social media. Most of the FIU students have smartphones. So she has decided to make the best use of this device for their language learning. She has created Facebook groups with them and uploading her lectures on it. She is also giving them assignments over there and monitoring them as well as giving them feedback. Facebook is very active social media in Bangladesh and all of her students are comfortable with it. They are overcoming their fear of learning and practising English through these activities. After a brief description of her Facebook groups she will demonstrate the progress of her students and how the activities are helping her students to develop their skills in English.

Mir Sadia Siddequa is a lecturer in English at Fareast International University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She earned her B.A in English and M.A in ELT from Daffodil International University in Dhaka. She is a practitioner of ‘LiveCode’. She is very interested in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and research in CALL.