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ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING

Questions:
1. What is social networking and what modern social networking sites can offer their users?
2. How can one use social networking sites for language teaching and learning?

Social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, My Space or Odnoklassniki, have recently become widely popular among active Internet users. Such sites do not just enable one-on-one communication as it is with email, but they also let the user express personal identity through creation of personal profiles (real or fictional), making friends with people they have met in real life or in the virtual space, participation in different site activities, and sharing media (photos, videos and music). Such sites usually unite people based on common interests, or association with some community (school, location, business, etc.), or common characteristics (nationality, age, etc.). Facebook, for example, was first meant to connect college students in the USA but then opened up to everyone (boyd & Ellison, 2007). So far Facebook has attracted about 37 million users, while another giant site My Space, which caters more to younger audience, has gained interest of 115 million users (Glaser, 2007).

According to Wikipedia, nowadays there are over 200 social networking sites on different languages and some of them could serve needs of language learners. There are sites, such as Ning at http://www.ning.com/, that offer free services for creating ones own online community with personalized visual interface and selection of available features. One of the Ning sites, the Socially Speaking, is a global virtual community that unites language learners, including English language speakers, with the ultimate goal “to create a global community of language learners who work together towards an era of global citizenship, free of language, cultural and social barriers”. Recently launched VoxSwap (http://www.voxswap.com)/is also promoted as a social networking site that matches language learners according to their target language. Of course, any English language social site could well suit interests of more advanced learners as these sites offer computer-mediated communication services in the form of private and public message exchange and chatting and unite many native speakers of English. There are also numerous sites that help to find a partner to “exchange” languages, i.e. to teach someone your own native language in exchange of his/her help with the language of your interest.

Social networking sites could be used to:
- create social communities as a space for collaboration among language learners. This could be a class site or a site that unites partner schools or pen pals. Such social communities could be organized by the instructor or students themselves and help "semi-formalise" students' online communications and "document discussions and milestones as they go" (Facebook, 2008).
- to find English-speaking friends, both native speakers and language learners. Informal chats and message exchange on the target language with virtual (but existing in reality) friends could be very beneficial for building vocabulary and developing language skills, particularly informal writing skills.
-to create personal profiles and do site activities in a target language. Meaningful real-world tasks are engaging and therefore may help increase learner’s motivation to study the language and continue regular practice. Social sites could be used as a platform for students “e-portfolios” (Facebook, 2008), i.e. the electronic collection of their academic and non-academic work, description of achievements and future goals.

SNS and Language Exchange Communities
Englishforums http://www.englishforums.com/
Inlingua http://www.inlinguapenpals.com/
Italki http://www.italki.com/
LiveMocha http://www.livemocha.com/
Mixxer http://www.language-exchanges.org/
My Happy Planet http://www.myhappyplanet.com/index.php
My Language Exchange http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/
Palabea http://www.palabea.net/
Polyglot http://www.polyglot-learn-language.com/
SharedTalk http://www.sharedtalk.com/
Socially Speaking http://sociallyspeaking.ning.com/
Student Letter Exchange http://www.pen-pal.com/
VoxSwap http://www.voxswap.com/

REFERENCES
boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
Facebook a Valid Educational Tool, Teachers Told. Education Guardian, Wednesday 25 June 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2009 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jun/25/schools.uk2
Glaser, M. (2007, August 29). Your guide to social networking online. PBS MediaShift. Retrieved April 6, 2009 from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/08/your-guide-to-social-networking-online241.html.
Social Netwoking. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking.


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