IAFOR Journal of Education: Language Learning in Education

Volume 10 – Issue 1 – 2022

Facebook as a Flexible Ubiquitous Learning Space for Developing
Speaking Skills
Svitlana Mykytiuk
Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
UkraineOlena Lysytska
Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
UkraineTetiana Melnikova
Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University
UkraineSerhii Mykytiuk
Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University
Ukraine109

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Abstract
The research studied the effectiveness of the integration of Facebook as a flexible ubiquitous
learning space into the educational process for speaking skills development of undergraduate
students learning English as a second language. For this purpose teaching was organised via a
specially created and moderated Facebook group where various media resources, uploaded
materials, links to different applications and other social networking opportunities wereaccumulated. It was designed to achieve the educational programme objectives and address the
specifics of digital age learning. A set of specially designed materials posted on the Facebook
platform for language input, structured output, and communicative output activities wasapplied in experimental teaching to develop talk as transition, talk as interaction and mediation,and talk as performance. The results of the quasi-experiment (students’ speaking performance)
were assessed in the form of the post-test with the data being analysed and interpreted basedon descriptive and inferential statistics (independent samples t-test) by means of SPSS. The
results revealed higher achievement scores of the experimental group in comparison to thecontrol group in terms of expanding vocabulary, increasing English grammar literacy,developing interactive skills, discourse management, and pronunciation. The survey
administered to find out the learners’ impressions of the successfulness of the FB-assisted
activities revealed their overall positive attitude to the new methodology and usefulness for thedevelopment of all speaking qualifications checked.
Keywords: Facebook, interactive communication, speaking skills development, ubiquitous
learning

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The COVID-19 pandemic that societies and members of the educational community haveexperienced blurred the lines between formal and informal education making educationalists
find productive ways of combining virtual and physical learning environments (Ng, 2021),
providing educational content that should be easily accessible for learners (Bygstad, Øvrelid,,
Ludvigsen, & Dæhlen, 2022), boosting students’ motivation and engagement and improving
their performance in the altered reality (Oberländer & Bipp, 2021; Wang, Cao, Gong, Wang,
Li, & Ai, 2022). Modern digital learners surrounded by digital communication technology thatthey use for social and entertainment purposes have developed new learning styles. They
actively use various devices to study and prefer engaging, interactive, on-demand learningmaterials accessible anytime and anywhere (Gallardo-Echenique, 2015). The fact that learningin the new digital age is conditioned socially and digitally by various technologies has
stimulated the researchers to consider students’ customary ways of life and information
perception. Special attention has been paid to popular social media providing numerous ways
to communicate, convey, share, and generate content. Their potentials to support collaborative
learning (Zheng, Niiya, & Warschauer 2015), provide learner-centred environments (Liburd
and Christensen, 2013), facilitate student engagement, boost students’ attention to content,
access outside resources, expose students to practice (Gruzd, Haythornthwaite, Paulin, Gilbert,& Del Valle, 2018) have also been studied. In addition, social media’s ability to make users
connected and how the ubiquitous nature of this type of media makes them valuable tools foreducation have been considered. In this context, the use of social networks in e-learning or
blended learning considering all the difficulties that arise nowadays in the learning
environment can help adapt to the changed conditions and devise innovative methodology.
The educational potential of social networking sites, namely Facebook, for foreign language
acquisition, has been analysed in numerous research studies (Lampe, Wohn, Vitak, Ellison &Wash, 2011; Kabilan & Zahar, 2016; Hamidah, 2017; Slisko, 2021). In this study, theresearchers investigated the effectiveness of the incorporation of the Facebook environment
into the educational process for speaking skills development. The researchers utilised Facebook
as a flexible ubiquitous learning space. First, Facebook was seen as a learning environment
employed for teaching and learning. Second, in alignment with the traditional understandingof ubiquitous learning, learning via the Facebook group was organised with the support ofmobile or embedded computers and wireless networks (Ogata, Matsuka, El-Bishouty & Yano,2009) to provide content and interaction anytime and anywhere (Hwang, Tsai, & Yang, 2008).
The following principles of ever-present learning such as permanent access to the target
material, the ability to find information immediately, interaction in the educational networkand practice in real-life situations have been exploited. Third, flexibility – the ability to adapt
the learning content to the programme objectives and students’ needs – was achieved by
employing various applications and multimedia materials and uploading specially generated or
carefully selected materials. All the mentioned materials and activities facilitated organisingtask-oriented and contextual activities and encouraged user-created content and peer feedback.
Thus, the research was designed to answer two research questions:
RQ1: Can the use of FB as a flexible ubiquitous learning space be an effective
technique for developing speaking skills of undergraduate students studying English asa second language?
RQ2: What are the learners’ impressions of the successfulness of the use of FB
activities for developing their speaking skills?

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Literature Review
Connectivism Principles in the Digital Age
Connectivism, which in modern research is frequently associated with the use of social
networks for educational purposes, is a relatively new phenomenon that appeared as a responseto the intense use of technology in education. Although its position in science is disputable, as
Siemens (2005) introduced it as a new learning theory, while other scholars define it as thethird generation of pedagogy of distance education (Anderson & Dron, 2012), it addresses the
specifics of the new digital age learning that experienced the tectonic shift from internal,
individualised activity to the interaction of the individual on networks (Siemens, 2005).
According to connectivists, knowledge nowadays is distributed through a network ofconnections and requires the ability to construct and traverse those networks (Downes, 2012).
Modern learning is not a process that is completely under the control of the individual. It is notjust knowledge transferring, it requires active communication of learners through networks
with the learning sources (Kop, 2011). Al Dahdouh, Osórioand & Caires (2015) consider thatlearning today is what learners can reach in the external network: other people, organisations,
databases, and other artefacts. Learning is now not a self-directed process, it is a networkdirected one, and social media play a significant role in this process helping learners interact
and learn actively.
Connectivism outlines the four key principles for learning: autonomy, connectedness,diversity, and openness (Downes, 2010). Ally (2008) stressed the importance of the applicationof these ideas in the process of designing learning materials and instructions. The researcher
highlighted the significance of autonomous and independent learning for students. They shouldbe allowed to access and research information preferably in a networked learning environment.
The learners should update knowledge by active networked participation which means thatthey should be able to connect with each other and express and share information. Diversity ofsources for information obtaining and diversity of technology interfaces for informationdelivery should be provided. Authentic and experiential learning should be organised bycontinuous information finding and research.
E-learning and Speaking Skills Development
The effectiveness of e-learning and digital-language teaching is noted by various researchers,
especially in the era of the pandemic. Zakarneh (2018) considers an electronic platform more
acceptable than a traditional classroom not only for acquiring knowledge of vocabulary,grammar, reading and writing skills but also for developing speaking skills.
Some research investigates specifics of speaking skills development in the e-learning process(Rodrigues & Vethamani, 2015). Lamy & Hampel (2007) consider that online learning has
expanded in oral discourse. This communication can be established via the Internet between
learners and native speakers (Tudini, 2003) and between learners themselves (Yilmaz &Granena, 2010). Online communication gives the possibility to talk with expert speakers andallows shy students to express themselves more freely as there is less teacher control and moreauthentic tasks (Rodrigues & Vethamani, 2015; Holubnycha, 2019). Egbert (2005) explainsthat online communication provides learners with opportunities to communicate orally withother people in an environment that is conducive to learning. Abrams (2003) puts forward theidea that online communication enables language learners to have oral communication with112

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real audiences and provides them with authentic language experiences. Robin (2016)
emphasises the importance of digital storytelling as a special activity that may improve oral
proficiency. It involves telling stories using blended digital media elements which may include
text, pictures, audio narration, music and video. Ajayi (2008) also puts forward the idea thatthe use of e-learning facilities, which involves various tools and techniques from feedback
systems to video and audio conferencing, may increase opportunities for lifelong learning.
Challenges in the Development of Speaking Skills
An analysis of the studies on the issue of difficulties in teaching speaking displays several
factors which make a significant impact on learners’ speaking skills. Scholars commonly divide
the factors that contribute to speaking problems into two classes – linguistic and non-linguistic(Horwitz, 2001; Susilawati, 2017). Linguistic difficulties are connected with the lack ofvocabulary (Adam, 2016) as a significant component of foreign language proficiency (Cook,2013), grammar rules, poor knowledge, and incorrect pronunciation. Non-linguistic or
psychological problems are usually caused by a lack of learner’s confidence leading to fear of
making a mistake which results in learners’ low perception abilities and difficulties inprocessing language output (Susilawati, 2017). Hosni (2014) and Rahayu (2015) singled out
the factors which influence the problems in speaking activity, namely: 1) inhibition 2) nothing
to say 3) low participation 4) mother tongue use 5) low motivation 6) environment factors 7)
lack of confidence.
The term “inhibition”, regarding foreign language speaking performance, has recently become
an object of scholars’ concern and extensive research (Abedini & Chalak, 2017; Loan & Tuyen,2020). Inhibition is viewed as an obstacle for effective communication making learners
hesitant, anxious and passive during their speaking performance (Rumiyati & Seftika, 2018).
In addition, Megawati and Mandaran (2016) stress that low or uneven participation can be a
problem in a large speaking class when not every student can have enough time for speaking
and other students fear being heard by other communication participants, some of which may
tend to dominate.
Methodology
For the profound investigation of the research problem, the theoretical methods of conceptualand comparative analysis and synthesis were used while studying the systematic review ofsocial media integration for teaching speaking (John &Yunus, 2021). The works analyzed inthis and other research and the applied methods of quasi-experiment (Marleni & Asilestari ,2018; Saputra, 2018), pre-post testing (Minalla, 2018; AlSaleem, 2018), observation (Hamad,2017) and survey (Fowler, 2013; Nadeem, 2020; Quadi, 2021; Malik, 2021) made the authorsdevise their own research design and use the empirical methods such as testing, observation,
quasi-experiment and survey to investigate the impact of Facebook learning opportunities forspeaking skills development in the experimental group. The statistical methods, descriptive andinferential statistics as well as independent samples t-test, were utilised for the evaluation of
the quasi-experiment results.
Participants
The research was carried out during the first semester of the 2020-2021 academic year at
Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. The participants (N=116) were the first-year
undergraduate students who attended the compulsory academic course “Foreign Language”

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(Introduction to Legal English). The permission to conduct the study was obtained from the
University. All the students were informed about the nature of the research and participatedvoluntarily.
Instruments and Research Procedure
The research was carried out in three main stages: pre-experimental stage, experimental
teaching and experimental assessment. During the pre-experimental stage, the researchers
made the sampling of participants. All the first-year students taking the course completed auniform English language proficiency test (pre-test) consisting of two parts: 1) assessing
language knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, reading, listening and writing and 2)
speaking skills. The approximate equality of all the developed general English skills applied atgroups selection was vitally essential for the accuracy of the quasi-experiment prospective
results assessment. Based on the test results, 6 academic groups with approximately equal
proficiency level were selected out of total 12. The selected 6 groups were randomly divided
into the control group (3 academic groups; N=58) and experimental group (3 academic groups;
N=58).
At the stage of experimental teaching, students of the experimental and control groups learnt
the same academic material and were to develop the same speaking competencies determinedin the syllabus of the academic course. The traditional education techniques were used to teachthe control group, while the students of the experimental group were exposed to the learningmaterials posted on the Facebook platform. The aim was to develop their skills in talk astransition, talk as interaction and mediation, and talk as performance. For this reason there wereno risks for students to participate in the experimental teaching. The materials were uploaded
on FB in advance and were previously selected and adapted. The quasi-experiment was focusedon four aspects of developing speaking skills: vocabulary and grammar, discourse
management, interactive communication, and pronunciation. That is why teaching via the
Facebook group was carried out during one semester, a four-month period, and sometimes
several activities were applied depending on the teaching goals. Some FB-related assignments
were given as home tasks. Thus, experimenters applied some principles of the flippedclassroom model. Understanding and remembering as the lowest level of Bloom’s taxonomy
at times took place before a lesson. For example, the introduction of new vocabulary as well
as exposure to the target material to boost students’ interest or make them find additional
information would be taught at the lower levels of the taxonomy. It resulted in the more
efficient upper level application and analysis during the lesson. Continuous assessment ofstudents’ speaking performance progress in various forms depending on the competencies andobjectives took place throughout the semester.
The experimental assessment consisted of several steps. 1) At the end of the semester after theexperimental treatment, the researchers assessed speaking performance of the experimentalgroup and control group students in the form of the post-test which included two sections:monologic and dialogic. The first section was taken individually and required a one-minutetalk on one of the programme topics, such as main modern legal systems and their basic
characteristics or responsibilities of legal professionals in the United States and the UK. The
second was performed in groups of three where students were to discuss some programmerelated controversial issues such as the use of capital punishment or false forced confession.
Cambridge English (B2) assessment scales divided into six bands from 0 to 5 for each criterion(vocabulary and grammar, discourse management, interactive communication, andpronunciation) and descriptors were applied by the researchers. The data was collected,

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analysed and interpreted based on descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation,and inferential statistics such as independent samples t-test by means of the Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS) The comparison between the post test results obtained in control
and experimental groups was made to answer the first research question (RQ1) and verify theauthors’ hypothesis that a Facebook group can be productively used as a ubiquitous learningspace for speaking skills development. 2) All students of the experimental group completed asurvey that was designed to answer the second research question (RQ2). An initialquestionnaire was created after reviewing relevant literature and based on the principles ofreliability (Fowler, 2013). Respondents were asked to answer 5 questions concerning theirgeneral perception and feelings about the use of FB for developing speaking (Q1), increasing
knowledge of legal vocabulary and grammar (Q2), more effective discourse management (Q3),
progressing interactive abilities (Q4), and improving pronunciation (Q5). All items included in
the questionnaire were compiled following the objectives of the research and adopted in similar
previous studies (Rajagopal & Shah, 2021; Qadi, 2021; Kojo, Agyekum & Arthur, 2018).
However, in this study, questioning items explored the five categories of speaking abilities andcertain questions were constructed to cover new opportunities of Facebook that had not been
included in previous research.
In designing and creating the questionnaire, the researchers used a model based on a 5-point
Likert type scale. A pilot testing was conducted on 10 participants to check the questionnaire’s
clarity. To obtain validity, the questionnaire was presented to a group of university professors
from the Department of Foreign Languages of Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University to
get their comments and suggestions. When the original questionnaire was amended and themodifications made, the final questionnaire was presented. The responses were obtained andanalysed, and the number of answers given to each statement was converted to percentages andpresented in the pie charts.
Research Material
To conduct the research the authors designed a set of learning materials aimed at speaking
skills development which included the development of talk as transition, talk as interaction
and mediation, and talk as performance. The new tendencies in EL teaching summarised in the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment –Companion volume (2020) were taken into account. Assignments for talk as transition practiceconcentrated on the ability to convey clear and accurate messages to others with the aim to
inform, describe, confirm, make suggestions, justify an opinion and so forth. Talk asinteraction was developed as a discourse co-constructed by two or more interlocutors aimed atfulfilling the interpersonal and evaluative functions. Among those functions were
understanding an interlocutor, information exchange, maintaining a topic-related conversation,
participation in formal/informal discussions, debates, interviews, and goal-oriented cooperations. The work with talk as mediation focused on the students’ abilities to mediate legal
concepts and texts. It involved the ability to construct new meanings, to adapt new or complex
notions and pass on information in an appropriate and comprehensible form as well as theability to mediate communication (to act as an intermediary in disagreements or facilitate oralinteraction in delicate situations). The tasks for talk as performance centred on the oral report,
presentation-making, and digital storytelling skills. The activities utilised for these objectives
were divided into three main groups.

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Language Input Activities
Due to the specific features of Legal English grammar and vocabulary, the researchers first
concentrated on the development of linguistic competence by employing form-oriented input
activities for both intentional and incidental vocabulary and grammar learning. Visual displaysof the vocabulary and grammar rules (ready-made or specially created charts, wordlists,
infographics as well as word clouds) were applied. In addition, quizzes, interactive tests, links
to online vocabulary games and different multimedia format materials were posted on the
Facebook group. A detailed description of this material and used applications was given by theauthors in the previous article (Mykytiuk, Lysytska, & Melnikova,, 2020).
Secondly, the attention was paid to the discourse competence which included: 1) the
development of knowledge and skills connected with the use of cohesion devices, 2) coherence
devices such as conjunctive adverbs and transitional expressions to show logical relationships,
or to contrast, to compare, to exemplify, to expand and 3) genres specifics like oral report,
lawyer-client interview. Sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence, for example, toencourage, to agree or disagree, to criticise) were also focused on. The researchers supposedthat information visualisation (charts, infographics, diagrams, descriptive texts) would help todeliver relevant material effectively to facilitate understanding, to perceive patterns easier, toimprove retention, and make the work faster and more productive.
Content-oriented input activities were utilised to introduce the new topic, to provide additional
information, to present opposite viewpoints and to give thought-provoking. Speaking activities
were organised with the posts on the FB group containing topic-related latest news, reference
information, fragments of articles as well as listening and video chunks. For example, a picture/infographic narrating activity. Several sequential pictures or infographics were typically used
for this activity. The teacher provided information on the ways of using the pictures/infographics to create a story, which could be posted as a comment to the post. This comment
could include the necessary vocabulary or grammar structures to use while narrating. The
screenshot of the infographic posted on the Facebook platform for the narrating activity isshown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
The Screenshot of the Infographic Posted on the Facebook Platform for the Infographic
Narrating Activity

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Special emphasis was put on the ready-made educational video materials taken from different
sources (Learn Business English, Study Legal English, engVid, Cambridge Law Studio and soforth). Some parts of TV programmes, lectures taken from a number of websites, including
YouTube, TED, Vimeo, Veritasium, as well as official promotional videos of international, EU
and European organisations were used to create interactive materials. Sometimes open-ended
or multiple-choice questions and comments on videos were embedded with the EdPuzzle tool.
They were productively exploited to present topic-related information and to send the video
assignments to students. It helped to provide asynchronous communication and assess theirunderstanding of the material or progress and finally to organise oral practice. The screenshotof the interactive video with the embedded test prepared on the EdPuzzle platform is shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 2
An Interactive Video with the Embedded Test Prepared on Edpuzzle Platform

To work with the topic related content and to practice pronunciation, word stress, intonation,rhythm, fluency and connected utterances the speech shadowing activity was organised withthe posted authentic short video and listening materials. This technique included active
listening to comprehend the speech and repeating what was heard in real-time. The researchers
supposed that this technique would be beneficial for developing listening comprehension, theability to produce speech, to learn new vocabulary, and practice metacognitive monitoringskills. It was employed both as an in-class and out-class assignment. Special attention wasgiven to it when practising talk as performance.
Structured Output Activities. These were partly authentic and partly artificial activities aimed
for the initial stage of spoken production development. The materials posted on the FB platform
provided access to forms or structures that students had to use to practice particular language
or terminology, to obtain missing information, to exchange necessary information and so on.
Primarily talk as transition was practised.
The researchers applied the information gap technique taking into consideration that a need formeaningful communication gives the learners a genuine motivation to speak which usually
results in learning the language more effectively. Information gap activity raised motivation

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for speaking due to real communication and developed learners’ sub-skills such asparaphrasing and clarifying meaning. While performing this activity the learners activated theirprevious knowledge of the topical vocabulary, and acquired new lexical units which they
lacked while making questions. Hence, their speaking skills focused on communicationachievements rather developed.
Students were also asked to use posted tables, Freya models, grids or comparison charts to fillin the gaps basing on what was said by their group mates or read information. In addition, theycreated their charts using different applications (Visme, amCharts, Canva) and posted them on
the FB group for their group mates to complete. The screenshot of the comparison chart postedon the FB group is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3
A Comparison Chart Posted on the FB Group for the Information Gap Activity

The scriptorium technique closely related to the shadowing activity was also applied as classand home assignments. In addition to repeating the information heard from the posted video
and audio materials students were required to write it down. The researchers believed that theuse of more than one sensory organ would help to remember better the pronunciation and thestructure of sentences. Then students were asked to analyse, make a plan of the received
information and create their own reports/utterances following the written examples.
The posted messages, narrated stories, news bulletins, interviews and parts of documentaries
were used to organise such activities as note taking and summarising information orally.
Students indicated agreement or disagreement, responded, and evaluated the information using
provided structures or scales. In addition, they made a list of interview questions, and createda new one according to examples.
In jigsaw activities students could share their knowledge with groupmates. Firstly, students
were divided into small groups that discussed and studied the posted material on a particular
topic and then they were re-shuffled into new groups with representatives from each previous

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group where they shared the information of their original discussion. New groups had tosynthesise and present all the discussed ideas.
Communicative Output Activities
Talk as interaction, mediation and performance were practised using these activities which
helped to progress from reactive to proactive participation. Different communicative language
competences from linguistic to pragmatic and sociolinguistic were developed. Among them
the ability to take the discourse initiative, to intervene politely, to facilitate and manage
collaborative interaction were trained.
Brainstorming was one of these activities which is traditionally based on learners’ contributing
to the free flow of ideas and performed by each learner individually. The researchers posted adebatable topic Capital Punishment: Pros and Contras for brainstorming. It was important for
the researchers to be sure that every learner realised the essence of the topic so it was
accompanied with some prompts and explanations. The list of relevant lexical units was added.
This type of activity facilitated learners’ acquiring new vocabulary and information andactivating passive vocabulary. It provided a link between new and existing knowledge, making
intelligent guesses and motivated students to communicate by allowing them to express ideas
freely without the risk of being criticised, which formed a productive basis for further
discussion of the topic in class.
Expressing opinions / ideas activities were organised with the posted videos or texts oncontroversial topics. For example: Come out with your opinions on the following statement:“The incidence of crime is due to the general state of culture”. Sometimes students were
provided with a link to Pear Deck or Padlet where they could write their ideas and thencomment on them. The more complicated tasks related to this activity were perspective-taking.
Students were asked to support a standpoint even if it was different from their own. They used
the brainstormed ideas or posted materials, expressed a personal response to the posted texts
with controversial ideas as well as analysed and criticised argumentative texts. Social media
bubble analysis was also employed to explain a writer’s or speaker’s ideas or viewpoints.
The Facebook group provided the area to discuss and exchange ideas on topics of general andspecial interest. A discussion was held to conclude or just to summarise the existing ideas. The
researchers employed different in-class discussion activities from developmental discussion topanel discussion and Socratic seminars. The screenshot of the video unit “Prisoners during
Covid: There is not much hope” posted on the FB group for discussion activity is shown in
Figure 4. After viewing the video unit (as a home task assignment) students made the list of
the problems the prisoners mentioned, were asked to find any other problems in various
resources, in comments wrote possible solutions and discussed them in the class.

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Figure 4
A Screenshot of the Video Unit Posted on the FB Group for Discussion Activity

Role-play / interview activities were also utilised in the process of ubiquitous FB-mediatedlearning. A teacher provided a theme to students and with the help of a Facebook link they
were redirected to the quiz which presented the ideas and brief information with possible
questions to the interviewee. The link to the video sample of an interview with a famous
defence lawyer also helped the students to realise not only the content but the style, language,and life hacks they should use. Interview techniques allowed stimulating the students to be
active and communicate freely taking the roles of an interviewer and interviewee.
Story completion as a free-speaking and creative activity was organised by researchers byposting on the Facebook group a text on committing a certain crime. The text contained several
initial sentences aimed to picture the basic circumstances of an event. The individual pre-classtask for the learners was to predict the possible sequence of further events. Learners were topost the essential vocabulary of their story development in a group for everybody’s access.
Such actions gave other students a possibility to be acquainted with potentially unknown lexicalunits. Completing this task helped the learners enhance their speaking skills through activating
topical and new vocabulary. In addition, the students trained grammar patterns application, as
well as demonstrated creativity.
Digital story narrating was a group assignment when students were to write scripts and present
ideas orally in short video units. This activity not only improved students’ language andcommunicative competences but also helped to develop their digital literacy as they useddifferent film-making applications and posted their videos. It promoted autonomous learningand made education student-centred and collaborative. The best works participated in theannual digital story contest at the University. A screenshot about this event posted on the FB
group is shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 5
A Screenshot of the Post about the Digital Story Contest Posted on the FB Group

Results
The Effectiveness of FB as a Flexible Ubiquitous Learning Space for Developing Speaking
Skills
The employed independent-samples t-test revealed the following results shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Independent-Samples T-Test Results of the Achievement Scores of the Experimental andControl Groups on the Speaking Post Test
Speaking assessment
criteria

EG Mean/SD(n=58)CG Mean/SD(n=58)

t-valuep-value

Vocabulary and grammar

4.241±0.709

3.793±0.744-3.324<0,001

Discourse management

4.086±0.732

3.638±0.693-3.385<0,001

Interactive
communication

4.224±0.702

3.776±0.702-3.439<0,001

Pronunciation

4.19±0.736

3.845±0.745-2.508<0,014

As it is represented in Table I, there is a significant difference between the test achievementscores of control and experimental groups according to all four checked criteria. According to
the “vocabulary and grammar knowledge” criterion t = -3.324, p <0,001; mean score of theexperimental group achievement (= 4.241) is higher than the control group’s achievement(=3.793) score. The outperformance of the experimental group could be attributed to thefrequent exposure to the target vocabulary and grammar rules and patterns in different contexts.
It contributed to intentional and incidental learning. The visual nature of material presentation
possibly was productive for information processing, retention, and retrieval. The uploaded
materials helped to organise real-life context interactional practice in which students were able
to generate the target material performing various assignments.

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According to “discourse management” criterion t = -3.385, p <0.001; mean score ofexperimental group achievement (= 4.086) is better than the control group’s achievement(=3.638) score. More effective discourse management of the experimental group supposedly
was achieved by explicit visualised teaching of cohesion and coherence devices andexemplified teaching of different genres specifics, conversational principles, paralinguisticfeatures, and linguistic means of conversational functions. Provision with a wide authentic
context could help expand knowledge on the topic, produce topic-related extended utterancesand practice accomplishment of various strategic and other functions important for talk astransition, interaction, mediation, and performance in organised guided and free speaking
activities.
According to “interactive communication” criterion t = -3 .439, p <0.001; mean score ofexperimental group achievement (= 4.224) is higher than the control group’s achievement(=3.776) score. It may be suggested that exposure to authentic and educational video and audio
conversations for both in-class and out-class activities might have resulted in better receptionof interaction patterns and subsequent more productive practice of interpersonal and evaluative
functions in talks as interaction and mediation by the experimental group.
According to “pronunciation” criterion t = -2.508, p <0.001; mean score of the experimentalgroup achievement (= 4.19) is better than the control group’s achievement (=3.845) score.
Listening to authentic English in posted real world audios and videos provided students withnatural sound pronunciation, word stress, intonation, and rhythm which they could imitate laterin oral practice. Probably it led to better achievement.
The researchers suppose that the method and materials applied in the quasi-experiment
facilitated the elimination of the usually emerging difficulties in teaching speaking. Speaking
activities organised with the posts on the FB group aimed to smooth the learners’ possible
speaking problems. Language input activities – form-oriented and content-oriented –concentrated on one of the main causes of speaking difficulties which is lack of grammar andvocabulary knowledge. Structured and communicative output activities were intended todevelop the learners’ skills to produce utterances and progress from reactive to proactive
discourse participation. As p-values according to all assessment criteria were less than the valueof probability (0.05), it could be stated that the treatment used on the experimental groupenhanced students’ achievement, which supports our hypothesis about the effectiveness of thesuggested methodology.
Learners’ Impressions of the Successfulness of the Use of FB Activities for Developing
Their Speaking Skills
The survey addressed to 58 students of the experimental group aimed at finding out the
impression of students about the effectiveness of FB work for shaping speaking skills showed
the following results. The first descriptive question (“Has Facebook activity helped to improveyour speaking skills?”) was asked about students’ general acceptance and perceptions on theuse of FB in developing speaking skills. The research demonstrates that a rather big quantityof students (60%: 40% ‒ Agree and 20% ‒ Strongly agree) considered that FB helped them toimprove speaking skills. Only 3% of students strongly rejected the benefits, 10% express
disagreement to the efficiency of FB work. 27% of respondents hesitated about the advantages
or disadvantages of FB activity for improving speaking skills.
The participants indicated that learning via FB is more motivating. One student commented,

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I liked the topic and the task we performed. It made me think and argue with the group.
(S1)
The students highlighted the convenience and easy access to materials, expressing the overall
positive impression of the learning by FB but some of them found the speed of the studying
process too high, stating “I tried to make notes of all unknown words, but I didn’t manage. It’sdifficult to watch the video, make notes, learn new words to perform the task.” (S2)
Figure 6
Has Facebook Activity Helped to Improve Your Speaking Skills?
3%
20%

10%
Strongly disagree
Disagree
27%

Neither agree nor
disagreeAgree

40%
Strongly agree

Questions 2-5 were aimed at investigating if separate English-speaking skills were successfully
developed via the use of FB, according to the students’ opinion. These English speaking skills
correspond to the basic speaking qualifications according to the CEFR and are the descriptorsof evaluation of students’ strengths and weaknesses in speaking activities.
Question 2 (Have you increased your knowledge and skills of using legal vocabulary on
familiar topics and specific grammar with the use of Facebook activity?) corresponded to theGrammar and Vocabulary Qualification. The result showed that 58 per cent of respondents(40% ‒ Agree and 18% ‒ Strongly agree) confirmed that they gained more knowledge in legal
terminology and its use. The answers concerning this question revealed that although most
students saw the benefits of FB use to achieve educational goals, 5% strongly disagreed to theincreasing knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, while 25% were not sure about it. One
participant commented that “during the class we had the opportunity to increase our
vocabulary with specific terms. If I didn’t’ know some expression I could immediately click on
the word and look it up, and when I heard it several times, I already knew it.” (S3). Anotherstated, “I heard and tried to learn some words, but after the lesson, I had to work on my own
to remember it. Otherwise, I forgot all of them.” (S4)123

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Figure 7
Have You Increased Your Knowledge and Skills of Using Legal Vocabulary on Familiar Topics
and Specific Grammar with the Use of Facebook Activity?

5%
18%

Strongly disagree

12%Disagree
Neither agree nor
disagree
25%

Agree

40%

Strongly agree

Question 3 (Can you more easily produce extended spoken texts and contribute new
information due to the use of FB activity? Can you more freely express your ideas?)corresponds to the Discourse Management Qualification. The rationale of this question was tofigure out if students benefit from FB activities for better discourse management. The findingsof this question revealed that 51% of the students approved that the FB tasks were likely to beefficient for developing production skills while 7% expressed the ineffectiveness. Fifteen % of
the respondents also disagreed that they gained new skills due to the use of FB.
Figure 8
Can You More Easily Produce Extended Spoken Texts and Contribute New Information due tothe Use of FB Activity?

7%

Strongly disagree

20%
15%

Disagree
Neither agree nor
disagree
Agree

31%

27%

Strongly agree124

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The interviewees expressed a preference of learning by means of FB, commenting that a morenatural language environment made them learn faster, comprehend and remember various
useful cohesion devices for more relevant and long speech, “I isolated some ideas, tried tomemorise the wording, and when I saw how I can comment and quickly respond to the replicas
of others, I felt like a part of the discussion! I did it» (S4)Question 4 (Can you receive and more easily exchange the information, communicate actively
with others with the constant use of FB activity? Can you participate in spontaneousconversations on specific topics?) corresponded to the Interactive Communication
Qualification. The results showed that 52% (34% ‒ Agree and 18% ‒ Strongly agree) believedthat FB had a big impact on the students’ level of speaking. As the results displayed, 25% (11%‒ Strongly disagree and 14% ‒ Disagree) of students indicated that FB activity had not helped
them in developing interactive speaking abilities. The remaining 26% were not certain about
the effectiveness of the work. The participants reported that they became more engaged, which
made them participate in communication more freely, “I found it really great to have theopportunity to discuss with friends about the topics that concern all of us. We use the net, we
can learn and chat at the same time.” (S5)
Figure 9
Can You Receive and More Easily Exchange the Information, Communicate Actively with
Others with the Constant Use of FB Activity? Can You Participate in Spontaneous
Conversations on Specific Topics?

15%

11%

14%

Strongly disagree
Disagree

34%

Neither agree nor
disagree
Agree

26%

Strongly agree

Question 5 (Have you improved your pronunciation using FB tasks?) corresponded to thePronunciation Qualification. It was designed to find out the students’ point of view about theconnection between FB work and the improvement of pronunciation. The research showed that
only 18% of the respondents definitely admitted the better results, 35% accepted the influence.
The answers concerning this question revealed that not so many respondents ‒ 7% strongly
rejected the improvement in their pronunciation while 30% of them were uncertain about the
impact.

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Figure 10
Have You Improved Your Pronunciation Using FB Tasks?

18%

7%
10%

Strongly disagree
Disagree35%30%

Neither agree nor
disagree
Agree
Strongly agree

The research showed that most students considered FB activity useful for the development of
all four speaking qualifications. The increasing vocabulary and grammar knowledge forcommunication was indicated by the majority of informants. The more uncertain respondents
were about the FB effectiveness for pronunciation. The students indicated that they could
imitate the pronunciation of speakers and remember the intonation, “It’s great to memorise thepronunciation when I hear it naturally in speech. I even can remember the voice!” (S6)
Discussion and Limitations
This experiment-based research contributes to ascertaining the hypothesis on the usefulness ofthe FB environment as a flexible ubiquitous learning space for foreign language speaking skills
development which is proved by the results. In this research, the authors are in alignment withthe results of the recent research conducted by a number of scholars who verified theadvantages of social media for ubiquitous learning mentioning that social media are “sociallyand participatory Web, in which users are not just content consumers but also content
generators, often in a collaborative manner” (Li et al., 2016). Social media together with mobile
learning provide learners with constant connectivity, foster collaborative learning, and enable
authentic learning on the move (Gikas & Grant, 2013). Hasnine et al. (2020) stated that smartly
generated learning contexts are significant for an intelligent ubiquitous learning environment.
The importance of adaptation of a ubiquitous learning space employing its “plasticity”(flexibility) capacity by content and application filtering, polymorphic presentation, andcontent ranking was underlined by Bomsdorf (2005).
The significance of the networked nature of learning for the modern generation when students
develop their personal learning network of human and academic resources stressed by the
supporters of connectivism was taken into account in this study. Montebello and Camilleri(2018) stated that social media give the opportunity to connect, communicate, participate, andbe productive and experience satisfaction from accomplishments in a highly accessible way.
In higher education, the experience and maturity of students help to take better advantage ofthese possibilities. The findings of this research are also consistent with the studies of thepositive effect of Facebook activities on enhancing oral communication skills by AlSaleem

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(2018) and Barbosa (2017). During the preparation for the study, a large number of scientificstudies were analysed that provided data on the effective use of Facebook for educational
purposes, but there are also some works that demonstrate the shortcomings of using thisplatform. The negative aspects of the use of FB are the addiction and distraction of students'
attention to the virtual content of social media. Some researchers also highlight the fact thatstudents and pupils spend more time in the virtual world, and this negatively affects bothlearning and health behaviour (Lau, 2017; Singh, 2014; Abbasi et al, 2021) Summarising thenegative impacts of Facebook use for education identified by various researchers, Nadeem(Nadeem, 2020) mentions Facebook addiction and lack of concentration in studies. The
shortcomings of Facebook as a learning tool found by the scholars, present mostly
psychological aspects, while only a few researches have been found to indicate thedisadvantages of FB use for developing speaking skills. Namely, Kabilan et al. (2010), Omer
et al. (2012), and Selwyn (2007) state that Facebook does not provide an acceptableenvironment for academic language teaching and learning, confusing those learners who are
not mature enough to be aware of the difference between formal and informal language.
Although some research cautions that students can employ unconventional language codesfrom Facebook (Nwala & Tamunobelema, 2019), this fact does not detract from the benefitsof using this platform to develop speaking skills, as the current study shows.
Notwithstanding the merits of this study, some limitations must be identified. This study islimited by the implementation period (one semester). The research was conducted on the firstyear students of the National Law University of Ukraine, thus the experiment does not present
the results of all the population of the University.
Recommendations
Promotion of using the Facebook social network for academic purposes and scientific research
can be useful in higher education. Educators should comprehend how students use social media
technologies and then integrate them into students’ lives concerning the matter of overcoming
educational anxiety and assisting students facing challenges. The use of FB provides a uniqueperspective for ubiquitous learning and teaching outside the classroom as well, but the role ofthe teacher remains necessary for continuous instruction, explanation, commenting, andratings. This issue should be further explained and investigated in terms of the amount of timenecessary for such a project and how reasonable another investigation might be. Furthermore,
the research could also be completed on how certain speaking activities could be performed
with the use of Facebook. Another potential research study could pertain to how the otherlanguage skills such as reading, listening, and writing might be gained with the use of
Facebook, and for which of them the use of social media is more beneficial. Future inquiry canalso focus on the relationship between Facebook use and blended learning during pandemics
and crises by applying the suggested model.
Conclusions
The present research shows that the Facebook group may be considered an effective learningspace for speaking skills development. The suggested technique which employs the form ofeducation that covers the principles of ubiquitous learning is quite efficacious, which is
confirmed by statistical data obtained during the quasi-experiment and the survey of students.
The achievement scores of the post-test assessing students’ speaking skills showed a greater
success of the experimental group in comparison with the control one in terms of expanding
vocabulary, increasing English language grammar literacy, developing interactive skills,

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discourse management and pronunciation. The authors suppose it can be explained by thepermanent and immediate access to a variety of contexts and resources enriching learners withlinguistic and contextual knowledge. Such a result can also be determined by a living authentic
environment that makes it possible to organise task-oriented and contextual activities that
stimulate students to research various problems, to express oneself more freely and creatively
and to encourage communication. Also, Facebook space is used as a flexible learning
environment that provides learners with different media resources, uploaded materials, links tovarious applications, and other social networking opportunities that help to correlate
educational programme objectives with digital age learners’ interests.

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Corresponding author: Svitlana Mykytiuk
Email: s.s.mykytyuk@nlu.edu.ua

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