This research studied the use of Twitter to teach English as a second language to students in China over 7 weeks. The researchers found that Twitter helped develop cultural competence by exposing students to different cultures, but did not significantly improve communicative competence due to character limits and lack of dictionary use. Students reported enjoying the community built on Twitter and interacting with native English speakers, but their posts showed mixing of formal and informal styles. While Twitter provided opportunities for cultural learning, cultural competence requires more than just social media interactions. The study demonstrated that innovative teaching methods using popular platforms can engage students in language learning.

1. COURSE CODE: ENGL 4740
COURSE NAME: COMPUTER APPLICATION IN LANGUAGE STUDIES
NAMES: AHMAD AIZUDDIN BIN AZIZAN
MOHD IQBAL BIN AHAMAT
MUHAMMAD AMZAR ZAMIR BIN ABU BAKAR (0910369)

2. INTRODUCTION
This paper will summarize an empirical research that was done by a group of students from
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, on the use of Twitter as a medium of second language learning.
The research is entitled “Microblogging for Language Learning: Using Twitter to Train Communicative
and Cultural Competence”. The researchers are Kerstin Borau, Carsten Ullrich, Jinjin Feng, and Ruimin
Shen.
The method of using Twitter as a medium of second language learning is used within seven
weeks and two days, and it is applied to several blended classes which differ in terms of the sizes which
range from 80 to 120 students. Blended classes refer to the nature of a class which consists of students
who attend the lecture in a face-to-face setting, and online students who attend the lecture through the
Internet connection, for example, online video and etc. In addition, the use of Twitter is also used as a
boost to increase the participation of the students as the posts of the students will be counted and
graded regardless of the contents.
The focuses of the study are divided into 2 divisions which are: 1) the use of Twitter in language
learning which further concerns with the training of communicative competence and cultural
competence; 2) the analysis of the student community which marks the positive influence on learning
motivation.
METHODOLOGY
In this process, the course instructor creates a new Twitter account. In return, the students will
also create their own Twitter accounts and be friends among themselves and the teacher. After they are
all connected, they will receive messages that their instructor or friends have posted. The teacher asks
them to respond to the particular message by making seven posts a week and read the coming
messages of their friends. Besides, several different sets of questionnaires are distributed to the
students inquiring their opinions on Twitter and other areas which will be presented later in the
summary.
FINDINGS
Communicative competence refers to the focus of communication as one of the means of language
learning and teaching. The research states that it consists of four different areas but their main focuses

3. are on two only, which are sociolinguist and strategic competence. Firstly, sociolinguistic competence
denotes the ability of the students to use language in different situations appropriately. Regarding the
research, the researchers pay attention to the skills of expressing their attitudes and they find that the
students are having hard time in using a consistent style (formal/informal). The following example
portrays the mixture of different styles that they use in Twitter: “due to there will no classes on August,
so I made a plan to visit Hongkong with my family.” Another example: “So I take the responsibility of
buying vegetable”. In social networks, it is somewhat awkward to use formal expression such as “due
to..”, and “I take responsibility..”, since the setting is supposed to be colloquial. For this concern, the
researchers drive the attention to the role of the teacher to take these and a lot of other examples and
discuss in the class about the appropriateness of them.
Another area of communicative competence is strategic competence which concentrates on the
ability of the students to avoid communication breakdowns. The researchers notice that the students
use code-switching in order to get their messages across. For example, “普洱茶’ is useful to lose
weight”, which means “at least, it helps me a lot. Sorry, I don't know how to say it in English”. And
another example: “桂林米粉 how to say in English?”. The researchers then distribute sets of
questionnaires that ask them generally whether they use dictionary or not. Results show that 69.51% of
them sometimes use dictionary when writing messages, while 15.85% answer that they never use
dictionaries, and 14.63% state that they use a dictionary frequently. Similar results were produced
regarding the use of dictionary when reading messages, which show 67.07% sometimes use dictionary,
while 19.51% never use dictionary, and 13.41% often use dictionary.
After the researchers have done analyzing the data, they make a conclusion for their second
point in the use of Twitter in second language learning, which is communicative strategies, that Twitter
is not helpful since a post is limited to 140 characters only and the lack of use of dictionary in
communicative strategies is also the reason why Twitter is seen as not much of a help n training
communicative strategies.
The second main focus of the research is training cultural competence through Twitter. Cultural
competence is one of the branches under sociolinguistics. It is made up of four categories: awareness of
one's own cultural worldview, attitude towards cultural differences, knowledge of different cultural
practices and worldviews, and cross-cultural skills. Relating to the research, Twitter is seen as a tool that
helps to enhance cultural competence since it provides opportunities to speak with native speakers.

4. Also, English speaking-Web service facilitates in generating cultural awareness. All of these add up to the
English language skills. The researchers have done a survey on the frequency of the use of the Internet.
The results show that 90% use it daily. On the other hand, 10% use it weekly. Unfortunately, it is also
reported that the websites that are mostly visited are administered in Chinese. Specifically, 37% of them
visit mostly Chinese websites, 57% on the other hand show a little bit of balance when they visit more
Chinese that English websites, 4% visit more English that Chinese websites, another 2% more visit
mostly English websites.
In addition, there is a huge number of students answering that they live in a strong bond of
Chinese communicative environment that make it much more difficult for them to train cultural
competence. However, it is interesting to know that nearly half of the students answer in the
questionnaire that they communicate with native speakers on Twitter. But these responses are
questionable since there is a possibility that the students are giving false answers. Only a little number
of updates or posts show clear proofs that they are talking to somebody that are not in the class by
typing the addressee’s user name.
In conclusion, the researchers state that it is impossible to develop cultural competence only
through social networks. However, due to the fact that Twitter does provide opportunities to
communicate with people from different countries which have different cultural backgrounds. This will
lead to the awareness of the strategies that the students need to employ in order to interact with them
effectively.
After successfully analyzing the data, the researchers add something which can be considered as
additional finding since it is not really related to the topic of the research which concerns with the use of
twitter in second language learning. This finding is under the sub-heading entitled “Motivation through
Community”. It is stated that there are evidences that show those learners who participate in the
project using Twitter in second language learning construct a community. The first evidence is the
questionnaire whereby when they are asked whether the use of Twitter instills the sense of community
or not, 40% of them answer that they totally agree, while 32% of them somewhat agree, another 23%
were neutral, and the last 4% disagree.
In addition to that, another evidence shows that there is a number of linguistic markers that
illustrates association such as greetings, group reflective observation (comment on a group or identity),
and also comical posts as shown is the following example:

5. “Good morning everyone.”
“ Morning!” .
And also (comment on the community)
“This "TWITTER" same as schoolyard~~~”
Plus the evidence of funny post when a teacher is spending time checking the exam paper, a student
makes humorous comment:
“@kerstinlaoshi I volunteer to proofread the exam paper for you!”
Our personal view on this research is that, it is important for universities or schools to apply
teaching method like this because it is really attractive since the teaching method uses an element
which is closely related to the students or teenagers. This avoids the possibility of the lesson being dull
and boring. Regarding the language lesson, by learning the second language in this way, the students
will easily grasp not only the intended lesson, but indirectly learn about the use of the target language in
other societies. This will also lead them being aware of what is right and wrong in the use of the
language, and eventually produces students with good communicative manners. Al-Qur’an has
mentioned:
“And when they hear ill speech, they turn away from it and say, "For us are our deeds, and for
you are your deeds. Peace will be upon you; we seek not the ignorant”. (Surah Al-Qasas: 55)
This verse can be related to the importance of learning sociolinguistics because not only we
gain benefits from the knowledge, but it also helps us to live our life in the right path and keeps us safe
from any harm due to linguistic misunderstanding between people from different cultural background.

6. APPENDICES:
Table 1:
No. of students Total updates/posts
35 1-19
39 20-99
12 +100
10 Between 100-162
2 449 & 236
*total update within the stated period is 5574 which equals to 796/week or 113/day.
Table 2:
No. of students Experience (have ever used Frequency
Twitter or not)
82 yes once
14 no -
*75% of the students were female, while 25% were male
*50% of the students were aged 20-25; 40% were aged 25-30; 10% were aged over 30

7. REFERENCE:
http://www.carstenullrich.net/pubs/Borau09Microblogging.pdf