Aprender línguas nas redes sociais: o que dizem os estudantes universitários?

Abstract

Mobile devices are increasingly present in the daily lives of people from all over the world and social networks are used for various reasons such as keeping in touch with family, working and as a leisure space. In addition, some people use these means to study numerous subjects, including learning a new language. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the influence of social networks for university students in the autonomous learning of additional languages. For this, the research was quantitative and had a set of standardized questions through the Free Online Survey Plataform. The questionnaire was sent to students from all campuses of the Federal University of Pampa (UNIPAMPA) through institutional e-mails and social networks. After data collection, the responses were analyzed using the Microsoft Excel® program, where graphs were generated for analysis. During the analysis of the results, it was possible to understand that the Spanish and English languages are the closest to the participants, and that, for the majority, the contact they had with them only as a school subject and when sought in other means, such as private courses, they are motivated by demands in the job market. It was possible to notice that many students never used social networks to study any subjects and that they see this means as a place of entertainment, pastime or socialization with family and friends. Students agree that social networks are a means to help in learning an additional language, but they do not access and do not share content in other languages on their personal profiles.