Date of Award

Summer 8-17-2014

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Higher Education Leadership, Management, Policy

Department

Education Leadership, Management and Policy

Advisor

Eunyoung Kim, Ph.D

Committee Member

Joseph Stetar, Ph.D

Committee Member

Michael Reed, Ph.D

Keywords

EFL students’ writing, Facebook, Social media, Facebook writing, Collegiate Students, Thai students

Abstract

In this technology era, a new trend of using Social Media or Social Networking Sites (SNSs) has been recently highlighted. Social media influences people’s lives in many aspects including education and English language learning. The purpose of this study is to examine whether using Facebook online impacts the type (formal or informal) of English EFL students use for in-class writing or not, as well as to understand the students’ perceptions on how the use of Facebook helps to facilitate or inhibit their English writing skills.

The study was conducted by using qualitative research methods to explore EFL college students’ writing behavior on the Facebook platform and understand the perspectives of students involved in using Facebook. The data collection methods were observation and interviews.

Participants consisted of 32 students, mostly freshmen college students. The site for this study was Center Bangkok University (CBU, pseudonym) in Thailand, a university located in Bangkok. The study took place during a 5-week period from November 11, 2013 until December 12, 2013. The interviews were conducted with 16 students from the 32 and two teachers, each lasting about 45-60 minutes. After the data was coded and analyzed, three major findings that answer the research questions were emerged.

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