Workshop for the CIDLV (Centre Interfacultaire de Didactique de Langues Vivantes) at the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles).

1. Shannon Sauro
Malmö University
Shannon.sauro@mah.se
Social Media Needs Analysis for Language Teaching

2. Warm-Up
What do you hope to get out of this workshop?

3. What is Social Media
“Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications
that build on the ideological and technological foundations
of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of
User Generated Content.”
(Kaplan & Haelein, 2010, p. 61).

4. Web 2.0 & User Generated Content
Web 2.0
“a platform whereby content and applications
are no longer created and published by
individuals, but instead are continuously
modified by all users in a participatory and
collaborative fashion”
(Kaplan & Haelein, 2010, p. 61).
UGC
• Created by end users
• Published or publicly accessible
• Exhibit some amount of creative effort
• Created outside of professional routines
and practices
(Kaplan & Haelein, 2010, p. 61).

5. Characteristics of Social Media
• Web-Based
• Collaborative
• Creative
• Shared

6. Social Networking Sites
“…internet-based sites and platforms which facilitate the
building and maintaining of networks or communities
through the sharing of messages and other media.”
(Seargeant & Tagg, 2014, p. 3)

7. Continuity Within & Beyond the Classroom
There is a growing need for technological continuity
between the classroom and the outside world.
(Levy & Stockwell,2006)

8. Step I
1. How many different types of social media do you regularly use,
and who do you use it to interact with?
2. What is the function of each of these? In other words, why do you
use this particular social media tool?

9. Affordances
• “…users’ interpretation of what is made
possible by the technology, based on their
own technical competence and
communicative intent”
(Tagg & Seargeant, 2014, p. 165)

10. Electronic Presence vs. Verbal Presence
1. Jin: hello
2. (1.8)
3. Jin: HELLO
4. (0.2)
5. Sayed: yeah I hello uh-
6. (0.6)
7. Jin: hi are you there?
8. (3.2)
9. Sayed: yes (.) hi
10. (1.3)
(Jenks, 2014, p. 105)

11. Step II
1. Identify 2-3 technical affordances of the social media you are
familiar with. How do these influence the way you interact/the
kind of interaction you can have?
2. If you were to incorporate this social media platform into a course,
how would you need to modify the course/tasks/assessment to
account for these affordances?

12. Virtual Communities
“A long tradition of research into new media
communication … has focused on determining the extent
to which users exploit these structural affordances to form
‘virtual communities’ …(i.e. a shared set of cultural
references, a regular pattern of interaction, some sense of
belonging.)”
(Seargeant & Tagg, 2014, p. 9)

13. An Virtual Fandom Community

14. Tumblr Tags

15. Twitter Tags

16. Step III
1. What communities are you a part of/aware of on a particular
social media platform?
2. Identify 5 ways in which these communities have influenced the
language and affordances of that platform.

17. Communicative Competence
• Linguistic competence
• Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation
• Sociolinguistic competence
• What is appropriate in which situation and with which
speakers
• Discourse competence
• Being able to speak or write for longer periods
• Strategic competence
• What to do when you don’t know how to say something or
you are having communication difficulties.
(Canale & Swain, 1980)

18. Social Media and Language Learning
L2 learners misreported country of origin
and L1 in order to maximize
opportunities for interaction.
Harrison & Thomas (2009))
One L2 Japanese learner reported
avoiding interacting on certain Japanese
SMS due to hostile attitudes some users
expressed toward non-Japanese
attempting to use the site who had poor
Japanese skills or attempted to use other
languages.
Pasfield-Neofitou (2011)

19. Step IV
1. What is the level of proficiency required of participants in this
social media context to support successful interaction and
engagement?
2. What other sociolinguistic norms (accuracy, style, formality, etc.)
are required for successful interaction?
3. What affordances are available for users of this platform that they
can use when they encounter linguistic or technical difficulty?

20. Tasks & TBLT
“an activity in which a person engages in order
to attain an objective, and which necessitates
the use of language”
(Van den Branden, 2006, p. 4)
Task-based language teaching (TBLT), is an
educational framework for language
instruction in which courses are structured
around tasks that reflect learners’ real-world
target tasks for both language and technology
use beyond the classroom context.

21. Guiding Questions for TBLT
1. What particular language learning goals need to be reached
by the learners?
2. How can educational activities be designed and organized
in order to stimulate and support learners into reaching
these language learning goals?
3. How will the students’ learning processes and outcomes be
assessed and followed up?
(Van den Branden, 2006, p. 2)

22. Needs Analysis
“Needs analysis is directed
mainly at the goals and
content of the course. It
examines what the learners
know already and what they
need to know.”
(Nation & Macalister, 2009,
p. 24).

23. Components of a Needs Analysis
Necessities
Lacks
Present Knowledge – what do
the learners lack?
Wants
Subjective Needs – what do the
learners wish to learn?
Necessities
Required Knowledge – what is
necessary in their language use?
Environment Analysis
Constraints & Strengths– what situational factors
(learners/teachers/situation/affordances) are in
place that will affect the
tasks/course/assessment.
Needs Analysis

24. Workshop
1. With your partner or independently, identify a social media
platform that you are considering using for your own
students.
• No tech option – do this from memory
• Full tech option – explore the SM platform through a computer or
smart device you have with you.
2. At the end of time, each will report back highlights:
• One affordance that would enhance learning and interaction.
• One affordance that could inhibit learning and interaction.
• One of your students’ lacks or wants.
• How you would elicit more information about your students’ lacks
or wants.

25. Email shannon.sauro@mah.se / Twitter @shansauro / Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/Shansauro
Thank you