The Impact of Social Media on Motivation Toward Learning English as a Global Language

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of social media on motivation toward learning English, the manner in which they were imparted, and the most effective social media platform for English learning. The first five most used social media in Thailand as of January 2021 were considered. These were YouTube, Facebook, Line, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. The descriptive research adopted a mixed methods design with a questionnaire and semi-structured interview as research instruments. By random sampling, 270 undergraduates of the Department of English in a Thai private university were recruited via an online survey and 12 of them participated in an online semi-structured interview. The quantitative data were statistically analyzed using frequency and percentage with the aid of SPSS 21, while the qualitative data underwent content analysis according to Lichtman’s three Cs of data analysis. Findings were similar across the methods and they revealed that social media both initiates and facilitates motivation, boosts learners’ self-confidence, competence, and language skills, and promotes relatedness and autonomous learning. These were feasible through social media’s actual affordances of connectivity, interaction, and collaboration. There was a significant efficiency of YouTube over other platforms with regards to students’ motivation and learning of English. The study recommends the integration of social media with proper guidelines into the English learning process.