Social Media Utilization in English Language Learning and Teaching: Benefits and Challenges

Abstract

Nowadays, social networks are being used for educational purposes apart from their common use for entertainment and communication. During Covid-19 pandemic, social networks started to be used as teaching and learning tools more constantly, so both teachers and students had to get used to them. Thanks to the growth of Web 2.0, distance education and online learning have been implemented with materials adapted to this new method of teaching. Therefore, this study aims to analyze social media platforms that have been utilized in English language leaning, concretely Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Additionally, this review focuses on providing a summary of the benefits and challenges of them. The research method used in this article is in the form of narrative review. Previous studies used as references are from ERIC and Semantic Scholar databases. The findings reveal that social media provide more benefits than challenges in English language learning, such as an improvement of language skills, motivation, collaboration and engagement among students and teachers. However, some of the challenges faced are online safety and distractions. Hence, the results of this study may help language teachers to design more effective and efficient language learning programs with the integration of social media.