Integrated Social Media into Mobile-Assisted Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

In today's college campuses, having a smartphone and being active on social media has become a fashion. Though many mobile apps have been designed for learning languages, there are few studies on applying social media based mobile apps to promote the effective learning of foreign languages. As an emerging social media mobile app, WeChat is the most popular social tool in Chinese community around the world. The WeChat app has many communication functions: live chat, group chat, and multimedia input and document transmission, which are essential for language learning. In this research project, we integrate WeChat into a mobile-assisted Mandarin learning app that we have designed. WeChat and the mobile app allow effective communication among instructors and students, and student groups. It offers a variety of communication methods, including voice, text, graphic (abundant icons) and video, which fits the needs of language learning and practices. This integration between WeChat and the mobile app helps to expand the traditional language teaching and learning outside the classroom. Instructors can provide students instant instructions and feedback, and students can learn and practice the exercises anywhere. We have piloted this new approach and conducted various experiments in two sections of Chinese level I in a US college to assess its effectiveness.