Facebook Posts as Complementary Teaching Material for a French University Course in Taiwan.

Abstract

A growing number of instructors use information and communications technology (ICT) inside and outside the classroom to teach all kinds of programs, including language courses. In this\nstudy, the instructor used a traditional way of teaching (lecturing, text-book, conversation, no technology in the classroom, no social network) during the first semester of academic year\n2013-2014 (September-January) in a French course for beginners in a Taiwan public university.\nDuring the second semester (February-June 2014), the teacher added the use of multimedia and Facebook to teach the same students. They joined a Facebook learning group, which they could\naccess anytime during the second semester; they could post, view posts, like, and comment in French and sometimes English. They could not use their mother-tongue, Chinese. This study\nanalyzes data from the first and second semester to measure students` learning progress and how the Facebook group might influence their motivation and change their behavior. Students\nwere expected not only to improve their reading and writing skills, but to increase their knowledge of French culture.