THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Many theories have been explained what motivates students to get better in English

learning processes in different contexts; also teachers have tried to look for variety of

methodologies to know how to teach better and make students feel comfortable in their

classes and the theoretical framework shows the advantages and disadvantages of using

social networks for learning and teaching English.

The Role of Social Networks in English learning and teaching

The social networks play a decisive role, not just in the daily life, but especially in

the current learning and teaching process, disciplines that, as it was already said, required

an extensive use of all the technological resources, but especially the social networking

since these are the ones that implied a major and faster interaction in real time. Even when

it could seems that pedagogy and technology have an obvious few linking, since “the

decisions related to the incorporation of the TIC in academic contexts are more focused in

political, personal and administrative issues, which means that pedagogy doesn’t have a big

influence in the collegiate decisions” (Cabrero, 2005, Gafni y Deni, 2012; Ramírez,

Casillas and Contreras, 2014, p. 136) this is one of main problems which appear at time to

learning real English trough Social Networks, for that reason the incorporation of the

pedagogy in Social Networks is a factor that has been had a real increasing according to the

management of the professionals.

Social Networks

It is very important to have in account the spaces and the context where social

networking are more used, which leads to the social networks a definition as “the range of
applications that augments group interactions and shared spaces for collaboration, social

connections, and aggregates information exchanges in a web-based environment.” (Bartlett,

2006 and Devi and Nayak 2013, p. 3) and also the different kinds of benefits that offer to

the users, in general and in the classroom, specifically, which give the definition of

“applications and services that facilitate collective action and social interaction online with

rich exchange of multimedia information and evolution of aggregate knowledge”

(Parameswaran and Whinston, 2007, p. 2) the way in which English is being added to this

applications has had a variation in the recent years. Nowadays there exist amount of people

who are online in order to learn English but there is an empty hole at time to teaching,

apparently the benefits are being acquired just in the learners.

Internet, since the early nineties to the present day, has becoming an indispensable

tool to study and work, and as is seen “the Internet’s potential to include and connect the

masses as never before, weighed against the statistical and practical reality that Internet-

based communication currently excludes more people than did older forms of

communication” (Castells, 2001, p. 1) a clear sign of the importance that internet and

technology in general had acquired since then to now, the XXI century and is also

important to point out that “although internet is not the definitive service, we should have in

account that a person linked to the cyberspace is linked to the contemporary society too”

(Castells, 2001, p. 35) which is a main characteristic, not just of our daily lives, in general,

but specially in the work and study places, which are spaces where the internet has a

prominent influence by becoming the essential tool to perform a notable number of daily

activities, most of them using social networking and, most of all, in the classroom.
 As it has been said, pedagogy has few relation with Social Networks and the global

connection, however one application that has led to a further growth in the web in recent

years is SNSs (Social Networks). This is a technological tool that facilitates social-publish,

share and disseminate digital content that encourage online collaboration and social

interaction through a set of tools (e.g. chat, blogs...) that facilitate online information search

and organization (García, Novo and Varela, 2017, p. 23) this definition is complemented

with Abhyankar’s (2011) who says that “a ‘Social Network’ is an online community where

people across the globe (irrespective of demographic and geographical differences) can

develop network with different organizations or individuals for a specific purpose.”

(Abhyankar, 2011, p. 3) nonetheless, those specific purpose which Abhyankar describe

have shallow interaction or relation with pedagogy or English learning and teaching.

Finally, it is very important to point out the security issue of the social networking

use having in account that these applications “allow users to create public or semipublic

profiles in a space where they can restrict other users or members access” (Boyd and

Ellison, 2008; Vásquez and Cabrero, 2015, p. 210) something that is essential if we think

about all the risks and the dangers that the users are exposed to, which, at the same time,

implies some advantages as well as some disadvantages that will be discussed later in this

report. In consequence, social networks connect people or organizations, leading to a big

chain of linked groups or individuals. Therefore, a social network creates bonds or

represents relationships between people, either academic, professional or interpersonal

relationships. To conclude, tools not only sharing information, but to share it in an

amazingly speed rhythm which makes even faster the learning process and have

transformed applications that started being used as a simple way to recreate, amplify the
personal social circle and sharing different kind of contents into a powerful tool to teaching

and learning different English disciplines, but having a special impact in the languages

teaching.

having always in mind that “Some methods are totally dependent on the teacher as a

source " I knowledge and direction; others see the teacher's role as catalyst, guide, and model for

learning; still others try to test the teacher ” (Richards and Rodgers, 2014, p. 23) and, for this

same reasons, teachers must use the ones more likeable for the students in order to make

easier and nicer the learning process, taking advantage of all the resources that the

technological advances offer day by day.