CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
The generation nowadays is indeed greatly influenced by computers and
technologies, from child to teen agers to adults to even of old ages and at a very early
stage, even toddlers. All of us are greatly influenced by the developing technologies and
from technologies, people learned to invent new ways to use this to communicate and
to keep in touch with others. One of these brilliant ideas is social media. Social media is
a way of interacting, creating, sharing or exchanging information through virtual
communities and network. There are many effects that stem from internet usage.

According to Nielsen, internet users continue to spend more time with social
media sites than any other type of site. (Shi, Zhan; Rui, Huaxia; Whinston, Andrew B.
(forthcoming). "Content Sharing in a Social Broadcasting Environment: Evidence
from Twitter". MIS Quarterly.) As Shi, Zhan; Rui, Huaxia; Whinston, Andrew In their
study states that Social media technologies take on many different forms including
magazines, Internet

forums, weblogs, social

blogs, microblogging, wikis, social

networks, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking.

Technologies

include

blogging,

picture-sharing, blogs,

wall-posting,

music-

sharing, crowdsourcing and voice over IP, to name a few." By applying a set of theories
in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes
(self-presentation, self-disclosure), Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification
scheme in their Business Horizons (2010) article, with six different types of social media
namely collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs (for

example, Twitter), content communities (for example, YouTube and DailyMotion), social
networking sites (for example, Facebook), virtual game-worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft),
virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life). (Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users
of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business
horizons, 53(1), 59-68.) Having social media in the classroom has been a controversial
topic for the last several years. Many parents and educators have been fearful of the
repercussions of having social media in the classroom. (Kist,W. (2012). Class get
ready to tweet: Social media in the classroom. Our children. Retrieved
from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ991339.pdf) As result, cell phones have been
banned from classroom and schools have blocked many popular social media websites.
However, despite adults apprehensions, students are (or will be) using social media.
Because of its easy access, students spend more time facing their computers,
cellphones and tablets using social media and getting more addicted to it. Previous
studies have stated that social networks has a significant influence in the academic
performance of students. ( Saba Mehmood & Tarang Taswir, 2013 pp. 112)
Malissa (2014) stated that The advent of Web 2.0 technologies has altered the
pedagogical approaches employed by the educators and it has created an avenue for a
collaborative and hybrid learning environments. Educators have joined the bandwagon
and utilized the social networking sites (SNS) to draw interest among the current
generations, often described as Net Genres and one of the popular trends nowadays is
the Internet memes that is rapidly gaining popularity through websites like 9gag,
Facebook and Twitter. However, the prevalence of social media may lead to the
potential of language deterioration and positive attributions towards social media may

increase the tendency to overlook the implications it has on students language

acquisition; semantically and syntactically. We cant erase the fact that what Malissa
said in her study is true since theres no limitations in social media and people have a
chance to post whatever they want even if it deviates the Grammar rules. However, this
was not the side of Godwin-Jones, (2008). He said that social media as a tool "enhance
communication and human interaction can potentially be harnessed for language
learning" In this statement, it can be said that social media is not just for communication
or having interaction to others but it also helps an individual to enhance his or her
language learning. Meaning through communicating and interacting with others we can
use these to contribute in improving ones skill in language. Shah et al. (2001) proposed
that student users are affected by the internet and this impact is determined by the type
of internet usage. They are positively affected by the informative use of internet while
having drastic impact of recreational use of internet on them. Also, Oskouei (2010)
proposed that internet is advantageous to both students and teachers if used as a tool
of knowledge creation and dissemination. The two opposing sides, positive and
negative effect, shows the influence brought by the social media.
This paper studies the students and teachers views on their vocabulary
acquisition under the influence of social media by the selected students of Pamantasan
ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

VIEWS ON THE INFLUENCE OF
SOCIAL MEDIA IN
VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

SOCIAL MEDIA
(Facebook, Twitter,
memes, photos,
web blogging, etc.)

VOCABULARY

VOCABULARY
ACQUISITION

Learning vocabulary is an ongoing

process that takes time and practice. Nakata
(2006) acknowledged that vocabulary acquisition
requires continual repetition in order
for effective vocabulary learning (p. 19).
Vocabulary acquisition is not something a
student can spend time learning or memorizing,
like grammar, and be successful. Acquisition

requires the learner to be disciplined,

spending time each day working on
words he/she does not know in order for
4
learners to remember high frequency words
and put them into their long term memory,
Nation and Waring stated that learners need
to encounter the word multiple times in authentic
speaking, reading, and writing context

at the students appropriate level (p. 8).

- Murphey and Arao (2001) pointed out that
students felt more relaxed and learned more
from peers since they saw that making mistakes
is acceptable, having goals is good,
and learning English can be fun (p. 2). So,
even though vocabulary acquisition is a
learner-centered activity in regards to studying
and being disciplined to set goals, when
done in collaboration with peers students
may enjoy the activity more, learning more

vocabulary in the end.

- Nakata
(2006) acknowledged that vocabulary acquisition
requires continual repetition in order

for effective vocabulary learning (p. 19).

vocabulary is presented to the students, like
all materials, it must be in appropriate situations,
giving them the chance to use (Developing Vocabulary in Second Language Acquisition: From
Theories to the Classroom)

- Internet-based
tools can facilitate communication, interaction, and collaborative learning in ways that were not
possible before (The Node, 2001).
- Furthermore, as technology is now an inevitable component of the 21st century
society, there is a critical need for educators to use it with students as a cognitive tool
for creating the knowledge workers who can think critically, analyse and synthesis
information to solve problems in a variety of contexts and work effectively. As a
result, integration of technology is a societal necessity that may no longer be able to be ignored due
to its potential to impact education.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study attempts to investigate the opinions and views of selected students and
teachers on the influence of social media in vocabulary acquisition in the Pamantasan
ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela. It aims to answer the following questions:

1. Is social media beneficial in acquiring the right vocabulary the learners need?

2. How can social media be a way in acquiring vocabulary?

3. Since student use social media more often, how does this reflect their
language in terms of their vocabulary?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY

Students nowadays are quite addicted to social media, this study will find out the
opinions of the teachers and the students themselves on what can social media do to
their vocabulary acquisition, whether it positively or negatively affects the acquisition of
a student. Since students in PLV implements the integration of technology in teaching
such as using computers, laptops, projectors and more, one of the ways of the teacher
in communicating, giving tasks and instructions to the students is through the use of
social media like posting their activities and reports in Facebook and letting them watch
helpful videos for their study in YouTube. But the hours spent in using social media
mostly are not used in academic purposes. Students sometimes, or most of the times
surf for memes, posts, tweets, videos and many more. Social media displays a wide

usage of the secondary language which is English, and since this is the case, it plays a
big role in influencing students vocabulary, consciously or unconsciously. This study
will help and contribute ideas on how social media influence vocabulary acquisition.
Further researchers can study about the integration of social media in learning the
English language. This study may lead to discoveries of solutions or new ways of
developing or improving the students vocabulary performance in the midst of the social
medias influence.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

Previous researchers focused more on the advantages and disadvantages of social

media in language acquisition, syntax and grammar. It was mostly done using
quantitative method, measuring the effects of social media in the performances,
language attrition and acquisition of a student. All of the studies parallel to this was
done outside the Philippine setting. This study, however, will use a qualitative method in
investigating and discussing the opinions of the teachers and the students on how
social media influence vocabulary acquisition excluding the grammar, language attrition
and the syntax. This study will only choose participants inside the PLV campus.