ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY - Essay Example

The use of social media, specifically Twitter has encouraged EFL/ESL learners to openly express themselves in their acquired language without fear of reprimand or ridicule from those around them, or their teachers (Junco, 2011). Students are more at home in this virtual environment and find themselves openly using the written English language to express themselves in an atmosphere where they can double check their grammar and spelling before sending out any message. The ability to ensure that communication is fluent as well as making sure that that the social posts are conveying some important messages makes Twitter an effective teaching tool for written English.

The aim of this of this paper is to review current findings regarding the possible benefits of using Twitter as a written English teaching tool. The technology allows for a greater vocabulary acquisition among students through the effective use of Twitter in the practice of their written English skills (Junco, 2011). In this paper, a detailed review of the six articles is done. The articles define the reasons as to why Twitter makes for an effective teaching tool for written English with respect to EFL and ESL learners.

Borau, K, et al. (2009). Micro-blogging for language learning: using twitter to train communicative and cultural competence. Advances in web-based learning - icwl. Berlin/New York: Springer Berlin Heidelberg Borau's article begins with an introduction to the fact that most English learners use Twitter as an active way of learning rather than a passive version. The author goes on to explain that students taught using various types of technologies have shown a remarkable improvement in their grasp and usage of the English language due to their ability to constantly practice the written version of the language online via Twitter.

The specific mention of Twitter in the study was done in relation to a specific study done at the Shanghai Jiao Tong Distance College where ESL students were taught via online correspondence for a whole summer term in 2007. The article is very interesting as far as Twitter effect on written English is concerned. It is easy to agree with the article because the results of the experiment were quite successful and pointed towards the ability of Twitter to allow students to learn how to express themselves in effectively in English using only 140 characters. Cano, E. (n.d.).

Mobile learning with twitter to improve linguistic competence at secondary schools. The New Educational Review, 134 -147. This article entails a study that was done within three school districts in Spain. In each school district, Twitter was used as part of the interdisciplinary program to develop linguistic competence among learners. Twitter was used as the main communication tool in this instance and it proved to be highly promising as a teaching tool for written English. In the article, Cano concluded that Twitter managed to promote a substantial improvement in terms of teaching and learning for both teachers and students respectively.

This happened especially when the language is studied from a reading and writing perspective. It is agreeable with the author in the sense that he made mention of the ready availability of Twitter through various mediums such as tablets, laptops, and mobile phones which encourage students to practice their ESL writing skills during