Twitting for Language Education

The aim of this presentation is to introduce and reflect on ‘Twitter’; an online social networking and micro blogging tool along with its applications and widgets such as Twitpic and TweetDeck, to see educational uses of twitting. Twitter is used widely where you can update your status in maximum 140 words and follow other users of your choice and interest. First, Twitter will be described referring to a variety of authentic descriptions by its users. Twitter pages of 4 language teachers/ teacher trainers have been analyzed and coded considering their content. These users were asked to reflect on use of Twitter and its application for language teaching. The results of this content analysis and reflections will be presented on a PowerPoint Slideshow. Then, a few sample Twitter, Twitpic- for sharing pictures and TweetDeck- as a personal browser to follow and participate in social networking pages will be displayed including the presenter’s Twitter. The implications of using Twitter for educational purposes especially for second/foreign language teaching as well as professional development will then be explored. The presentation will end with the Question & Answer session.