Tutorial 1: Article Review Exercise

INTEGRATING SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS INTO ESL WRITING CLASSROOM:

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES

This article focuses on the strength and weakness of integrating social networking tools into the ESL writing classroom. Integrating SNSs enhances one’s creative thinking skills through the collaboration of students and peer encouragement. Students are able to write and voice out their opinion on a certain topic the teacher offers. The comfort and familiarity of SNS builds up the student’s confidence in writing. Not only that, it also fosters a better relationship among the teacher and the students. However, the students’ lack of concentration while using SNSs is a problem that will be experienced by many. Not forgetting the use of informal short forms and the automatic correction in one’s spelling, which leads to the deterioration in one's language skills.

Through my experiences of being a student, it is almost impossible for a student to focus on a task when SNSs are being used. Students will be busy updating their statuses on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, searching for the latest gossips online, and looking up the latest videos on YouTube. Distractions will definitely be present while using SNSs. Besides that, many schools have limited, if not, no access to the Internet. Students who live in rural areas are bound to struggle with no Internet access. Not to mention, not everyone is financially capable to even own a computer, let alone get Internet access at home. With the world of the Internet being so unsafe, the private lives of teachers and students will be affected, if the usage of SNSs is not guarded. When students are able to access the profiles of their teachers and vice versa, one’s privacy will clearly be disturbed.

In my opinion, integrating social networking tools into the ESL writing classroom is irrelevant in many ways. SNSs are meant for socialising and interacting amongst people, it is not a place for students to develop or improve their writing skills. With all the distractions on the Internet, SNSs are definitely not suitable for academic purposes. Teachers should encourage their students to step out of their comfort zone and to be courageous to learn and improve their writing skills, especially through their mistakes. Also, when given topics they are able to relate to, students will be able to improve their writing skills and, at the same time enhance their creative thinking skills. The ESL writing classroom can definitely improve out of the world of SNSs, it only depends on how we use an alternative media to achieve it.