Utilizing SNS and YouTube for CALL

natewynne1982
Feb 10, 2016
4 min read

Having been born in the early 80’s, I would consider myself a first generation digital native. My family had Macs in our house throughout my childhood and I remember my mother (being a teacher herself) buying me educational programs on subjects like math and English.

Additionally, I spent a large amount of time watching educational videos on PBS. Obviously technology has improved considerably since the 1980’s, yet even then my mother saw the emerging potential for CALL. Having had an early experience with CALL as a child, transitioning to SNS (Social Networking Sites) and video sites such as YouTube for educational purposes came naturally to me. Using Prensky’s (2001) terminology, Terantino (2011) describes the affinity today’s digital natives have for watching videos on the Internet and I can vouch directly for that affinity. I regularly use SNS (especially YouTube) for educational purposes including CALL.

I think the use of SNS such as Facebook and YouTube for CALL has enormous potential for both the teacher and the student. However, at the moment, I also think there are many barriers to making these common tools in the classroom. As a digital native, I agree with Prensky that the 21st century U.S. classrooms I’ve experienced are, by and large, antiquated and not well equipped to adequately educate today’s students (2001, p. 1). Additionally, SNS as potential tools have been increasing and evolving exponentially over a short period of time making the selection of the right tool for the right purpose difficult (Sons, 2011, p. 10). Partially, I can link this overall problem to non-digital native teachers who are unfamiliar with these emerging technological systems, but I also think that the classrooms themselves are often not built to accommodate new technologies such as SNS for CALL.

In order to help teachers and classrooms better utilize SNS for CALL, the students who use SNS should be examined to identify their usage habits. This, I believe is crucial in order to develop ideas on how to use SNS in classrooms. In his continued support of Prensky’s argument, Terantino states, “there is a need to modify instructional methods and activities to take advantage of the unique interests of [digital natives]” (2011, p. 11). When looking at the core of SNS web sites such as Facebook and YouTube, I see a key thread that can be tied to both education and the unique interests of digital natives. This thread is the universal focus on collaboration. In SNS, sites such as Facebook and YouTube encourage their members to interact with one another, share information, and contribute to a collective knowledge base. Likewise, good teachers tend to encourage this same behavior. If collaboration is a foundational ingredient in facilitating modern learning environments, then I believe teachers should find creative ways to use SNS as a means to encourage language learning through collaboration.

Collaboration through SNS can involve something like setting up themed classroom groups on Facebook that would encourage group discussions and sharing of information. Students can share information like new words they’ve learned, language acquisition problems, and practice their target language communication skills. Teachers can also use Facebook to encourage their students to have direct contact with native speakers from other SNS groups by joining those groups.

YouTube is quickly becoming a great source of educational material. Shortly after Terantino’s (2011) article was published, YouTube introduced YouTube.com/Teachers and Youtube.com/Education (Barseghian, 2011). Both are portals to a large array of videos geared toward learning and teaching. In the past, I’ve used YouTube for personal CALL purposes such as learning basic Chinese.

The same person who created the content for the linked Chinese language learning video also makes videos to highlight Chinese culture. YouTube educational content creators such as the one mentioned help support Terantino’s argument that YouTube has the ability to satisfy the educational need of being able to “engage meaningfully in the target language” (2011, p. 11). As a language learner, I was able to watch these videos and not only learn words in Chinese, but I was also able to listen to native speakers and see their language use in cultural contexts. Its videos like these that can provide teachers with tools to have their students experience their target language in increased interactive ways. This increased interaction can come from many sources including directly from the educational content creator. Often people who watch these YouTube videos leave comments and questions in the comment sections and the video creator will respond, sometimes in the form of an updated video with additional educational material.

SNS is currently poised provide a rich set of tools for CALL educators and students. However, the literature suggests that educators and policy makers have yet to fully catch up with the increasingly powerful possibilities SNS has to offer the world of education. I concur with the literature and am in full support of the integration of SNS in language learning classrooms so long as the methods used can be shown to be beneficial.

References

Barseghian, T. (2011, September 11). YouTube launches site specifically for teachers. Retrieved

February 9, 2016, from KQED news website: http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/09/21/youtube-launches-site-specifically-for-teachers/

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. In On the Horizon, 9 (5), MCB University Press.

Prichard, C. (2013). Using social networking sites as a platform for second language instruction.

TESOL Journal, 4(4), 752-758.

Son, J.-B. (2011). Online tools for language teaching. The Electronic Journal for English as a

Second Language, 15(1), 1-12.

Terantino, J. (2011). Emerging technologies: YouTube for foreign languages: You have to see this.

Language Learning & Technology, 15(1), 10-16.

Additional Resources

YouTube Education