A case study that was conducted exploring Libya student teachers' views about using Facebook games in the English language classroom.

1. Facebook Games and English
Language Learners:
What Student-teachers Say?
Presented by:
Entisar Elsherif, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Fatma Dreid, University of Tripoli
Digital Literacies Symposium
Digital Literacies in and Beyond the L2 Classroom
Hosted by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy

2. Outline
 Introduction
 Facebook Games project
 Research Questions
 Research Design
 Results
 Conclusion
 References
 Photos of Facebook Games

3. Introduction
“The learning process should be interesting,
easy and it should be fun to learn. It also
should fit with an everyday task and the
working environment in order to achieve
optimum results”
(Pivac & Dziabenko, 2010, p. 1).

4. “Games are effective tools for learning
because they offer students a hypothetical
environment in which they can explore
alternative decisions without the risk of failure.
Thought and action combined into purposeful
behavior to accomplish a goal. Playing games
teaches us not to strategize, to consider
alternatives, and to think flexibly”
(Martinson & Chu, 2008, p. 478).

5. The idea of this study
came out of Dr Gian
Pagnucci’s class. In his
Technology & Literacy
course, Entisar and her
peers were asked to
play Facebook games
for a week, reflect on
the experience each
day of the week, and
post the reflections on
their research blogs.

6.  After that, we discussed the idea of conducting a
study on using Facebook games to explore our
student’s views about using games in the English
classroom.
 Since our students use Facebook for
communication why don’t we encourage them to
use games for game-based learning.

7. Facebook Games Project
 Students choose from a list of Facebook games
 They play Facebook games for a week then do the
following:
- prepare a PPT presentation
- present their game and their views about the game
- write reflections about the games and their experiences

8. Students chose from the following list of
Facebook games:
 Royal Story
 Words of Wonder
 Village Life
 Lucky Supermarket
 Hidden Chronicles
 Criminal Case
 Zoo World
 FarmVille
 Hay Day
 Threads of Mystery
 CityVille
Photos of the games are listed after the references.

9. Students prepare a presentation in which they
answer the following questions:
 Describe the game (Use pictures and illustrations).
Would you recommend the game? Why?/ Why not?
 Was there anything you didn’t know before playing the
game? What did you do to understand the tasks of the
game? What kind of knowledge did you gain while
playing?
 Reflect on your group work: what did you do as a group
to prepare the presentation? How did you find playing the
game together?
 As a future English language teacher: do you think that
Facebook Games might help English learners improve
their language proficiency? How? If not, why? How might
you use Facebook games to teach English?

10. Students write one-page reflections that
include:
 What do you think of this project?,
 Do you think games can be used as language learning
tools?,
 What would you recommend to improve this project in
future classes?, and
 Any other ideas or points of view you would like to share.

11. Research Questions
 What are the Libyan English language student teachers’
views about using Facebook games as a language
teaching tools?
 After playing Facebook games for a while, do they plan
to use Facebook games in their English language
classroom?

12. Research Design
 Methodology: Qualitative Case Study
 Study site: English language teacher education program at the
Faculty of Education at a Libyan university.
 Participants: 25 Libyan student-teachers taking the Eng214
Listening & Speaking 3 Course
 Data Collection sources: students’ presentations, students’
reflective journals, and interviews.
 Data Analysis: line-by-line reading and memoing, and then
coding.

13.  Since this project is still in progress, this presentation
details the results derived from the student teachers’
presentations and reflective journals.
 The following slides are some of the student teachers’
presentations and parts of their reflections.

14. Examples of Student Presentations
Criminal Case Hay Day

19. Results
 What are the Libyan English language student teachers’ views
about using Facebook games as a language teaching tools?
Data indicated that most of the student teachers found playing
Facebook games as beneficial to language learners. Only five
student thought that Facebook games were “waste of time”
and should not be used in the language English classroom.
 After playing Facebook games for a while, do they plan to
use Facebook games in their English language classroom?
Students who were in favor of using Facebook games in the
English language classroom plan to use these games to teach
vocabulary, reading, listening and speaking, and writing.

20.  Most of the student teachers’ comments were positive.
 Student teachers’ positive comments showed that they
enjoyed playing the games individually and in groups.
 Student teachers’ comments also showed that they
learned while playing.
 Student teachers’ comment showed that games-based
learning is motivating.

21. Student teachers thought that Facebook games:
 A great source for vocabulary learning.
 Teach how to follow instructions.
 Fun to learn while playing.
 Great for learning problem-solving strategies.
 Playing as a group enhances group work.
 Some games were suitable for various levels of
language proficiency.

22.  Student teachers preferred using Facebook games to teach
vocabulary since they found many new words. They also
thought that Facebook games gave them the chance to learn
words from context.
 Since they presented about the games, they reported the
benefits of using Facebook games as topics for classroom
discussion.
 Student teachers believed that reading the instructions or any
information s provided in the games help English learners
improve their reading skills.
 Student teachers stated that Facebook games could be used
for descriptive writing.

23. Some of them, however, thought that
Facebook games are waste of time and:
 Time consuming.
 Discouraging, because in some games, they
faced difficulties in getting the tasks done.
 Boring, because they were repeating the
same task everyday
 Not suitable for students with high levels of
language proficiency because they didn’t
enjoy them or they didn’t find any new
information.

24. Conclusion
 Facebook games are not only a source of entertainment, but also can
be used as source of learning. Properly designed activities that
include Facebook games can stimulate students language learning.
 Even though 5 student teachers thought that using games in the
English language classroom was not beneficial, 20 student teachers
found Facebook games motivating and effective in English language
teaching and learning.
 This is an exploratory study. So, our results can not be generalized.
However, these results can provide a platform for other studies and
can encourage language teachers to use Facebook games for games-based
learning.
 Further research is needed, a research design that includes a control
group and an experimental group might provide a more complete
picture about using Facebook games in the English language
classroom.

25. References
 Foreman, J. (2003). Next generation educational technology
versus lecture. Educause Review, July/August, 12 – 22.
 Pagnucci, G. (2014). Assignments.
http://www.english.iup.edu/pagnucci/courses/808/
assignmentdeadlines/assignments-2014fall.htm
 Martinson, B. & Chu, S. (2008). Impact of learning style on
achievement when using course content delivered via a game-based
learning object. In Ferdig, R. E. (ed.). Handbook of
research on effective electronic gaming in education (pp. 478 –
488). Pennsylvania: IGI Global.