The Impacts of Social Media on Kurdish EFL Students' English Language Proficiency

Advances in technology have resulted in increasing the number of internet users among students. They use social Medias for several purposes. The Internet as a means of advanced technology has had an enormous influence on the English language in less than two decades changing it to a considerable extent. The crucial purpose for this is the effectiveness of the internet communication and easy accessibility of the world wide net. Nowadays, one of the key questions is with social Media commerce and its impact on students' language proficiency. Many researches have been implemented to find out how it impacts students' language and in most of the cases encouraging results are greater than negative ones. Thus, this study addressed the effects of social media on Kurdish students' English language competence, whether it touches their language knowledge in a negative or positive way. This study is implemented by conducting quantitative and qualitative research with bachelor degree students studying at Salahaddin University, Colleges of Education, Basic Education and Languages. Close-ended questionnaire and an interview are availed for adopting the study. This study focuses on grammar, vocabulary, and four key language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. It comes to the conclusion that a considerably positive consequence is the role of social media in improving student language skills. From the students' reports, it can be concluded that although writing (spelling particularly) has not improved to some extent, other language skills show significant enhancement in terms of listening, speaking skills and vocabulary enrichment with grammar point. Moreover, regarding reading skills, a mainly significant finding is the efficiency of practicing scanning skill while students read any text from the net. © 2020 JTUH, College of Education for Human Sciences, Tikrit University DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25130/jtuh.27.5.2020.23 لصاوتلا لئاسو ريثأت دا ركلاا بلاطلا ىدل ةيبنجا ةغمك ةيزيمكنلاا ةغملا ناقتا ىمع يعامتجلاا جمح نيژ اللهجبع نيما ةعماج/ نيجلا حلاص ةيمك/ ةيبختلا ةصلاخلا ىدأ مجقتلا يجهلهنكتلا ىلإ ةدايز دجع يمجختدم تنختنلإا نيب ثيح .بلاطلا بلاطلا مجختدي لئاسو لصاهتلا يعامتجلاا ةجعل ضا خغأ . جقل ناك تنختنلإل ةميسهك ايجهلهنكت ةمجقتم خيثأت لئاى ىمع ةغملا ةيديمجنلإا يف لقأ نم نيجقع نم نمدلا . عفاجلا يديئخلا كلحل هى ةيلاعف لارتلاا تنختنلإاب ةلهيسو لهصهلا ىلإ ةكبذلا ةيملاعلا . ةمئسلأا جحا نم ةيديئخلا يف تقهلا مب خضاحلا ا ةكبذلاب قمعتي ىجمو ةيعامتجلاا اىخيثأت ىمع ةيديمكنلاا ةغمل بلاطلا ناقتإ . مت ءا خجا خيثكلا نم ثاحبلأا ةفخعمل ةيفيك


The Statement of the Problem
Although innovative technologies were not previously designed for education, their existence has permitted their integration into the language classroom. The applicable usage of technologies, namely computers or smart Phones, for learning has been a vital topic of departure in various studies regarding language learning via new media. The Internet as a mean of advanced technology has had an enormous influence on the English language in less than two decades changing it to a substantial extent. The main purpose for this is the efficiency of the internet communication and easy convenience of the world wide net. Social networking such as Facebook and Twitter, etc... results in positive language learning. Thus, it is crucial to incorporate social Networking into learning process as tools for language learning. The activities through social media are very stimulating and it encourages learning easier in addition to assisting them develop their communication.

The Aims of the Study
The purpose of the present study is to explore the impact of social networks on Kurdish students' English language proficiency, seeking to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of the social media in language learning. Additionally, it determines the language skills that are mostly affected by social media.

Hypothesis
The purpose of the study supposed to be attained through confirming these hypotheses: 1. Exposing students to social networking can enhance students' language proficiency. 2. Using websites such as Twitter, Facebook has a positive effect of students' writing if they avoid using abbreviations while wiring of nets. 3. Using social networking has constructive influence on students' language skills and performance while they read on nets, writing and chatting with foreigners, and listening to English people.

Limits of the Study
EFL students studying at Salahaddin University, colleges of Education/ Basic education and Languages during the academic year 2018-2019 are the subject of the study.

Procedures
In order to achieve the aim of this study, a questionnaire was utilized as a tool to gather information. It was administered to EFL students from colleges of Education, Basic Education and Languages (see appendix A). To make the study more reliable, an interview was conducted to access students' perceptions, attitudes, feelings and definition of conditions of reality (See appendix B). It reveals what is in, and on the students' mind. Survey Monkey software was used to design the questionnaire, and then it was sent to the participants. After the data was collected, it was analyzed automatically through the Survey Monkey Software.
1.6 Definitions of Basic Terms 1. Social Media: They are procedures of electronic communication which enable interactive base on definite benefits. Kaplan and Helen (2010) demarcated Social Media as a collection of internet based application that permits the formation and interchange of user produced content 2. English Competence and Performance: This is the capacity to apply English grammar in communicative occasions.

Section Two: Literature Review 2.1 Social Media and Language Learning
Social media is considered as a new idea thenceforth nearly not one person heard or applies social media since the last 15-20 years. However, recently websites have reached more than one billion users and accounts for virtually 25% of Internet use. Regarding an article announced on Facebook, it indicates that the active users of monthly have gone beyond 800 million and the daily active users, surpasses four hundred million (Facebook a, 2012). Social media is a term used to label numerous websites or other kinds of technology where people are able to have a link with each other and share information. People react toward social media because they fulfill their basic desires: to contact new people and to reinforce present relationships. As Kaplan and Heinlein (2010:61) defined, 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". More than a hundred researchers dispute that the influence of social media depends on the point that they hire mobile and other technologies to generate extremely communicating platforms through which individuals and communities share, discuss, create, and adapt "user generated content" (Ahlqvist et al, 2008).
The cumulative dependence on and use of numerous technological tools has affected all aspect of peoples' lives, as well as language teaching and learning. Educators frequently integrate various tools (Thorne and Payne, 2005) to involve their students and provide them with opportunities to interact and cooperate with each other inside the classroom as well as outdoors. In specific, common social Media sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Edmodo, and LinkedIn provide students with numerous means to develop motivation and reinvigorate. Additionally, social media tools also offer opportunities for language learners to boost digital and multiliteracy skills, communicate using the target language, work collaboratively and increase their linguistic and pragmatic ability (Blattner and Fiori 2011;Mills 2011;Blattner and Lomicka 2012b;Lomicka and Lord 2012).
Recently, the usage of Social Media have been increases by students, and this reflects the convenience of the devices' accessibility that demands no effort such as smart phones, iPad iPhone, laptops and tablets that are linked to the web One of the key questions dealing with social Media is its power on students' language proficiency especially undergraduates. With the cumulative popularity of web 2.0 in peoples' lives, the employment of different educational equipment and also extensive use of information technology offer students prolonged occasions and benefits. Students acquire various resources and are ready to share via variety of social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and increase (Bicen, Sadıkoglu and Sadıkoglu, 2014). The famous linguist of the Modern Period, Crystal (2001) displays his point of view, mentioned: "When telephones arrived in the 19th century, people panicked because they thought it was going to destroy language. Then broadcasting came along in the 1920s and people panicked because they thought everybody's going to be brainwashed Same with the Internet. People panicked because they thought the Internet was going to do devastating things to language."(2)

Previous Studies
Various studies show that through the implement of social Media sites, individuals are encouraged to pursue pages depending on their needs and benefits .Furthermore, they are able to increase and utilize productive communication tools which results in indicating that social Media sites facilitate education in a variety of ways. Research studies display that social Medias can be aped for educational determinations and have a constructive impression on students ( Bicen & Uzunboylu, 2013;Kabilan et. al., 2010;Locker & Patterson, 2008;McLoughlin & Lee, 2007).
A number of researches have been executed to discover how social media impacts students' language, and in general, most of the cases results positively. Considering the findings of a research conducted by Bicen (2015) which focused on the impact of social Medias on university students learning foreign language, students have mentioned that there is a positive consequence of social Media sites on learning foreign languages. Students, further, indicated with the assistance of social Medias, they are able to follow professional foreign language teachers and diverse facilities applied to speaking so as to enhance their speaking skills. As the majority of countries, Kurdish students utilize social media namely Twitter, skype, Facebook, etc. With the development of technology, "Social Media" has turn out to be an activity that is done mainly on the Internet, with other sites for example Myspace, Skype, Facebook, etc. This specifies that social Media has already absorbed peoples' daily and academic life and particularly students devote a considerable amount of time on Media. Thus, it would create an incredible potential to improve the learning knowledge.

Section Three: Methodology
This section presents an overview of the research methodology. It includes a rationale of the methods and procedures used in this study, the selected participants, and data analysis.

Research Aims
The aim of this study is to explore the effects of social media on students' language proficiency and to what extent they advantage from social Media sites while learning a foreign language.

Participants
The population of the study entails a hundred university students studying at Salahaddin University, Colleges of Education, Basic Education and Languages (see Figure 1 below). They are twenty-seven males and Seventy-three females (see figure 2 below). Their ages ranged from eighteen to twenty-five years old.

Tools and Procedures
In order to gather information for this study, a written questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection and was administered to EFL students from Colleges of Education, Basic Education and Languages (see appendix A). Taylor et al (2006) explains that questionnaires are a series of questions, which involve participants in answering prearranged order. There are several reasons behind implementing a questionnaire. One of which is its practicality. It can be fulfilled without the presence of the researcher. Furthermore, the data can be collected easily and punctually in a short period of time from a large sample (Bell, 2005). The questionnaire consists of four main sections. Each section asks a number of questions relating to a specific skill. For instance, section one items asks respondents about their vocabulary skills. Items relating to grammar are asked in section two. Section three presents items relating to listen and speaking skills. The last section entails writing and reading skills related items.
To make the study more reliable, an interview was conducted to access students' perceptions, attitudes, feelings and definition of conditions of reality (See appendix B). It reveals what is in, and on the students' mind (Patton, 2002).
Interview assists researchers to clarify, better understand, and discover research subjects' views, behavior, experiences, practices, etc. Interview questions are frequently open-ended questions because it leads to in-depth information will be collected. The questions designed for interview purposes aim at having better understanding of students' perceptions and feelings about social media effects on their language proficiency. Survey Monkey software was used to design the questionnaire, and then it was sent to the participants. After the data was collected, it was analyzed automatically through the Survey Monkey Software.

Section Four: Results and Discussion
From the sample of a hundred students, it is obvious that all the participants who answered the questionnaire are well exposed to the internet. The questionnaire involves four parts: vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking, reading and writing. The questionnaire was constructed to support the skills have been mentioned recently. The total number of the statements included in each section were 22 (see table 1 below).The students were from different colleges of Salahaddin University and they had to tick the column containing the proper response (strongly agree, agree, slightly agree, disagree) for the each statement.

Media Affects Vocabulary Knowledge
According to table 2 below, undergraduate students enrich their vocabulary learning through using social media. The results show that students are concerned with learning vocabulary, and they make use of their schemata and attempt to utilize as much vocabulary as they know while communicating and sharing their message with friends. As clarified in item 1, most of the students agreed on item 1 " I force myself to use as much vocabulary as I can when I share my message with the public" (65%). The students ought to use the amount of words they have learnt when they talk to and share with public and they are exposed to the situation where they are able to utilize their vocabulary knowledge. This result corresponds with Linse's point of view when she insists Language capability of learners will be developed overall by vocabulary improvement (2006).
Regarding item 2, (65%) of the participants reported that they acquire collocations and idioms that are common in modern English via using social media Medias. Sabater and Montero-Fleta (2015) identify social media to enable students to develop their confidence in implementing and using vocabulary appropriately. In addition to this, students are encouraged to apply lexical resources that are required in their discipline discourse (Peters & Fernández, 2013).

Sections Items
Vocabulary 7 Grammar 4 Listening and Speaking 6 Reading and Writing 5 Moreover, approximately more than 70% of the participants highlighted the significant of playing games in fostering vocabulary learning (item 3). As mentioned by Huyen and Nga (2003) vocabulary games promote students' use of English in a flexible, communicative way and bring them into real world context. In a study conducted by Zhao (1996) which focused on the role of Twitter in reinforcing communication, it was found that Twitter, as a social Media site, has an effective role in vocabulary acquisition by the students.
With respect to items 5&6, 43.75% agreed and 12.50% strongly agreed that they are enlightened in internet slangs. 53.68% of them agreed and 22.11 strongly agreed that they acquire collocations and idioms of modern English from internet sources. This shows the productive role of using social media in enhancing students' knowledge of collocations and idioms. Furthermore, social media Leads students to practice and learn multi-word expression while they are out of the class. As insists by Haghighi (2020) when he stated Movie clips are valuable resources for teaching idioms since they demonstrate colloquial English in real life circumstances rather than contrived ones. They offer students with opportunities to be exposed to various native speakers' accents, slangs, idioms, stress, reduced speeches, and dialects (Stempleski, 2000). As one of the interviewees mentioned:

"I usually chat with them, YES, I think it's useful and helpful because I am getting used to their slang language and the common expressions that they use for some situations, in formal language we don't use them much and idioms also" (Azad, 2020).
In general, as it can be seen in the table 2 below, social Media plays a pivotal role in developing students' vocabulary knowledge, and provides the learners with sufficient opportunities to retrieve their schemata of their vocabulary.  Table 3 below illustrates the view of participants about the usage of Social Media sources for learning grammar. It can be noticed that grammar learning, like other language points, is influenced by social media and students are truly engaged in their own grammar. Apparently student are aware of their grammar improvements while using Medias as it can be seen in item 1 (48.96% agreed and 21.88% strongly agreed). In addition, more than 70% of the students showed tendency to follow and pay attention to their grammar when they text their friends and read on the net (item 2).

Media Impacts on Improving Grammar Learning
According to a study produced by Lee (2002), the result showed the students' positive attitudes towards using Facebook as an operative medium of grammar learning since Facebook with its interactive principles offered students with convenient and helpful manner to contribute in discussions with their teachers and other users with better grammar knowledge. Hattem (2013) conducted a study and he concluded that Twitter could favor the acquirement of recent grammatical constructions particularly for learners because of its suitability of the topic choices and grammatical structure to their language proficiency (Borau et al., 2009). From the results, it can be pointed out that students' grammar knowledge is progressing because they focus on sentence structure while reading a text on net (item 3).
However, (17.20%) students (16 out of 100) surprisingly agreed that their grammar is not improved nor affected by using social Medias (item 4). This might be due to the fact that they ignore applying grammatical structures while communicating. Cabrera (2018) discusses that people do not check their grammar when they share or post something on net since their focus is on how fast they ought to be. English. As indicated in / item 1 below, 38.71 of the participants strongly agreed and 49.46% agreed. It is noticeable from the results that social Media helps in developing students listening skills. Furthermore, students spotlighted their progress in pronunciation. They notice that their pronunciation has been improved (see item 4 below). Sim and Pop (2014) remark that Media such as YouTube, a video sharing website, can be beneficial means in learning English as it comprises listening to the language implemented in the videos have been viewed. In relation to this, one of the interviewee stated: "through watching videos and listening to songs on YouTube and Instagram I have been familiarized with the way some words are pronounced that we do not usually use or even hear it and how, when we use some phrases and the differences between them for example (dirty and filthy)" (Layla, 2020).
Lawi (2020), who participated in the study as an interviewee, commented "Yes I do. At least, I learn new words from them. In the case of voice messages, we can learn to pronounce words like native speakers and knows our mistakes from them".
According to the speaking skills, it is a key used among people to communicate in the social context. It is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney and Burk, 1998, p. 13). The results obtained from this study demonstrates that respondents had positive attitude toward distinguishing American and British accent and imitating them while talking to their colleagues and making video call with public. Social Media sites extend far beyond the outdated purpose of communication and entertainment to encourage students' self-reliance in learning through sharing and more importantly, increase their speaking capabilities by means of online interaction (Namaziandost and Nasri, 2019). Mealman believes that "language learners would increase their abilities, selfknowledge, self-confidence, and lifelong learning while engaging with others through social Medias" (cited in Kabilan et al, 2010, p.185). As pointed out in item 6 below, 37.23% of the students strongly agree and 36.17% of them agreed that they acquire self-confidence when they communicate with native speaker. Borau et al."s research (2009) concluded that "Twitter tools lead students to actively produce language by giving them opportunities to express themselves and interact in the target language" (page 78). This corresponds with one of the interviewee's speech when he commented:

Media Affects Reading and Writing Skills
Concerning the effects of social media on students' reading skills, Awford (2015) mentioned one of the David Crystal's quote in which he states "Youngsters are reading more than ever because they're glued to screens" and he continues by stating that it has a positive influence on their learning. As it can been perceived from table 5 below, which presents the students usage of social Media for language learning, 51.04% agreed and 28.13% strongly agreed about the statement "I tend to read and understand authentic (real) texts" (item 1). As Lara, an interviewee, indicated: " If my teacher asks us to read an article in social Media I think it's a great idea and students will try to get the Idea of the article and improve their English" (2020).
Regarding item 2, students get used to scan while reading texts from the net. Net offers students opportunities to read varied range of messages and texts that lead to learning and improving reading skills. Sim and Pop (2014) put forward the idea that students can increase reading skills when looking through the explanations shared in English, located underneath each video. However, merely 14.58% of the participants are not getting used to do rapid text scanning. From this result, it can be argued that social Media has a momentous role in enhancing students reading skills and motivate them to implement the reading skills, scanning as a sample.  As regards to writing skills, like other language skills have been mentioned previously, writing is, to a great extent, influenced by social Media. Approximately half of the students 28.13% agreed and 22.92% disagreed on item 3 " I try to avoid long sentences, using shorter expressions instead", while 22.92% disagreed (see table 5 above). However, 22.92% disagreed which is the same percentage as those who strongly agreed. Less than half of the respondents use internet abbreviations in their writing and claim that this situation gives its negative feedback. Respondents pointed out that they tend to make mistakes in spelling while using social Media (38.54% agreed and 9.38% strongly agreed). This might be due to the rapid writing which results in making repeated spelling errors. Craig (2003) affirms that while using social Medias students produce unwanted reading and writing habits because of the common use of abbreviations, so the students' formal literacy skills have been brought to the damage. Although the Crystal (2008) in his book "Texting: The Gr8 Db8" sheds light on students' writing skill, the more students write, the more they develop their writing skills. Consequently, its improved use rather strengthens the literacy of users, particularly the youth instead of harming it. As one of the interviews, Larin, had a positive view about the effects social Media has on writing skill: in social media we need to focus on writing to Express our feelings and messages among our hearts also to talk about politics or status quo in our world. So we must write in an academic way especially when we talk about formal situation" (2020)..
The result of the present study indicated the assumption that using more than one medium to practice English is more advantageous. Furthermore, it can positively be indicated that social Medias influence students' writing mostly compared to the other skills.

Section Five: Conclusion and Recommendation
As a general conclusion, the opportunity of venting the students' feelings and voicing their point of views are offered in this study. It facilitates an informal and fosters way of using social Media to practice the English language. This study addresses the social Media role in increasing students' vocabularies knowledge, practicing grammar points and enhancing communication skills. The overall outcomes confirmed the potential of social Media to support students' language improvement through involving them in practicing their language skills via a number of social programs namely, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.. Their positive affects exceed the negative ones. Positive effects are essentially confirmed in students' vocabulary enrichment, pronunciation development, scanning practice while reading a text from the net. The skill that is most critically influenced by social Media is writing.
To decrease the destructive consequence of Social Media on the students' English language proficiency, it is enormously significant to educate our students on vigorous information and communication technology usage, and reduction of abbreviations in their academic writings. The possible of social Media is growing continuously with new applications that may empower our research outdated in just a few years. Moreover, this study affords a starting point for additional research in the encouraging field of pedagogical and linguistic research on social Media. It is expected that the prototype community of learners participated in this study can lead to undertaking future investigation, for instance, producing research on social Media on students' writing skills. Furthermore, limitations of this study were initially, its implementation merely with the students of only one university (Salahaddin University). Any future study in this direction should emphasis on more than one University, and each skill mentioned in the study can be explored separately.