Summary:
The article
focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of teaching writing in English among students by using social networking
tools. Nowadays, English becomes one of the most important international language in
the world. Facebook and Twitter is widely used in Malaysia, the people
especially the youth are familiar with them. Firstly, it will increase the creativity
of students when teacher is teaching by social network tools. Creative thinking
skill can be formed since students have more freedom to think compared to the traditional
teaching method. Next, collaboration works is needed and each of them needs to
take their own part in every assignment that given by the teacher. Besides that, those who are poor in English
can easily get the encouragement from their classmates and friends or followers
of Facebook and Twitter. This will help them to improve and continue to write
in English. Then, students also will not face the stress and tension problems.
When teacher is teaching by social network tools, students don’t have to face
the teacher. Hence, they don’t know the face impression and body language
between them. Stress can be decreased by this way. However, this also can cause
disadvantages. Vocabulary will become a big problem. Short forms are everywhere
in the social networking world. They might forget the correct spelling of the
words. In addition, students will easily distracted by status update at
Facebook. They cannot concentrate on learning. Parents and teachers need to
check student’s progress from time to time. In conclusion, students need to be
more confident when writing. If one feels confident, improvement of interest in
writing and writing skill will be developed.
My
experience:
For me, I considered
as an active Facebook user. I will try my best to access the internet to open
my Facebook account wherever I go. I can easily distracted by my friend’s status
update at Facebook homepage. Therefore, I don’t think teaching writing in
English by using social networking tools is a good way to encourage the students
to write. I believe that most of the teenagers nowadays are facing stress
problems in school. Social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, Friendster,
Myspace and so on are the places for students to relax their mind. They might
not willing to relate their Facebook or Twitter account to their studies. I prefer the traditional teaching method to
practice my writing skill. My school teachers using the traditional teaching
method, but I still can have fun in my English classes every time. In my
opinion, teaching writing skills by using social networking tools can’t put
into practice.
What will I
do:
Teacher is
playing an important role to help the students to write. As a future English
teacher, I will encourage students to write whether they are good or bad in writing.
A positive comment from teacher means everything for students. Next, teacher should
guide the students during the writing process. I will discuss the topic before
asking students to write. Try to help students to analyze and select the important
points to write an essay. Then, I will also arouse students to read. Reading
can help to improve student’s writing skills by learning new words and
understand the sequence of a story. Besides that, I will ask students to write
once a week. Practice makes perfect. Students can learn from their mistake.
Hence, the writing skills of students can be improved.
