Can Twitter help teaching?

Introduction:

This post aims at educators of middle schools or higher levels students. There are six parts:

1.What does Twitter do?

2.Advantages of using Twitter to teach English

3.How Twitter supports English teaching

4.Limitation of using Twitter for English teaching

5.My thought and ideas on using Twitter to teach English

6.Sources of information

A small poem on this ICT class

Tweet on Twitter

Friend on Facebook

Like or dislike

Retweet or share  

Alike but not quite like

Tweet can hashtag 

Face can tag 

Tweet on the Twitter

Broaden on the blog

Keep track of days

Follow by faiths

Alike but not quite like

Blog brags longer

Tweet talks shorter

Before the ICT class last Friday, I had never used Twitter. The reason is simple. Why use Twitter while I am already in the ocean of social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Blog?  As a result, I didn't even start an attempt. However, that class offered me an insight into the world of Twitter.

Unarguably, teacher is never an easy occupation. After teaching, they have to prepare for the next class, talk to students and go through homework. Sparing time for teaching development can be very challenging. However, twitter provides a shortcut for teachers.

What does Twitter do?

As a microblog, Twitter allows users to follow others' tweets and get updates whenever they log onto their account. Users can tweet about their life just like they do on most social medias. Intriguingly, more people see Twitter as a tool to keep track of whatever they are interested in. For example, fashionmongers might be who I will follow. By following them, I intend to obtain information about matching of clothes. As you can see below, I could see others' tweets after I follow them.

Can Twitter help English teaching?/ Advantages of using Twitter in English Teaching

I believe when I ask "can twitter help teaching", there must be some people thinking that I mean "letting students use Twitter in class." I believe most people would be shaking their heads at the screen just like this student.

Giving students the freedom to tweet in class is the last thing I will do.  But I have to admit that twitter can help teachers in some ways.

For self-development

Twitter provides a convenient way for teachers to keep in touch with other educators as well as keep informed of the effective teaching methods. 

Assist teaching 

1. Twitter can be used as Moodle if the school doesn't have one. Teachers can remind students of what they have covered that day or inform students of what will be cover the next day. Recommended readings or websites can as well be tweeted before or after class. What's more, instead of sending emails to each student, educators can update students with the latest class time and the due day of assignment.

2. Using Twitter as moodle can also help engage parents. Parents are able to know what their kids have learned through reading teachers' tweets. By @the teachers, parents can initiate a conversation with the teachers online.

I was just addressing to myself. Normally you should @ someone you want to address.

3. Write concisely and precisely. Due to the word limit, we can only tweet up to 140 words every time. On one hand, it can be a drawback, However, it can be an advantage. Teachers can ask students to tweet a poem or a description about a story or incident as homework. Constrained by the word count, learners have to be precise about the wordings they use. Through this practice, students are trained to be straight to the point when required.

4. Creative and collaborative writing. This is another game created under the influence of word limit. A teacher created a tweet called "@Manyvoices" with a beginning of a story (within 140 words), then she invited students from home and abroad to write a sentence to keep the story going. Surprisingly, this game has attracted attention from students from 6 countries and the story ended in 140 tweets. 

This story starts with the sentence at the bottom of the picture.

How Twitter supports English teaching

1. Following English educators: As I mentioned above, Twitter assists language learning because teachers can share materials or experience by following others, for example BBC Learning English.

2. Feedbacks from classmate promote English language use: When students respond to one another Tweet in English, they have no doubt promote their use of English. This might be one of the main ways to have learners use English after class.

3.English in Twitter reduce learners' anxiety: When teachers use informal English in Twitter talking to students, it reduces the anxiety of students. Even when teachers are giving out assignment, due to the relexing environment, learners are less likely to get anxious about the English use.

Limitations of using Twitter for English teaching

Every coin has two sides. Even though Twitter provides a great help in English teaching, there are still some drawbacks:

1. Distract from study: Teachers cannot ensure students are using Twitter for English learning all the time. Especially when it is used in class, Twitter is a huge distraction as a social media.

2.Informal language use: Internet terms have sprout in our everyday language.The word counts limitation of Twitter increases the use of informal English. It seems handy for youths to use informal English just like Twinglish.  If they don't distinguish the two, Twitter will jeopardize their English learning. See the video below to see how people use Twinglish in real life.

My thought and ideas on using Twitter to teach English

O’Neal, an instructional technology coordinator in Charlottesville, VA, said," Twitter can provide many of the same benefits as other social media, but much, much faster"(2016). I agree that Twitter has a huge circle with people providing certain information, which is apparently very at a high speed. However, I can't say it is definitely faster than others as I do think that these social medias are interweaving in some ways. For example, Twitters will link their tweets to blogs or other social medias.

My idea of using Twitter to practice creative writing:

Inspired by "Manyvoices", I would suggest instructors use Twitter as a writing tool. This activity is designed for middle school students in Hong Kong. Educators can adjust the activity in accordance with their own need.

1. Put students into groups of 4-5 and give them a theme, for example, thriller, family, love etc.

2. Ask each of them to write a sentence of a story in a twitter page where groupmates can access. The story  should be ended when everyone have written a sentence.

3. After that, another group take over the account and continue the seemingly "ended" story. 

My Twitter: @Tsoicindy

Shorten the URL when tweeting: bitly.com

Sources of information

Chris O’Neal,(2016) is retrieved on  Feb 22nd, 2016  from http://www.nea.org/home/32641.htm

The video of 'Twinglish" retrieved on Feb 22nd, 2016 from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfEyL7DqIIw

Website of "Manyvoices" is  https://twitter.com/manyvoices

Website of "BBC Learning English" is https://twitter.com/bbcle