A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Integrating Computer Assisted Language Learning Into A College Esl101Class From Perspective Of Social Constructivism

In the date, with the rapid popularity and progression of the Internet, an enormousamount of websites has been developed for educational institutions. Teaching and learningenvironments have used computer/mobile devices to demonstrate technological feasibility andpedagogical opportunity. Meanwhile, Computer--Assisted Language Learning (CALL)/Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) are experiencing an emerging trend of thefocus from that of teaching to that of learning and from an individualistic and objectivist viewof learning to a social constructivism view. According to social-constructivist approach,students play an active role in a learning context and teachers and students collaborate tofacilitate knowledge construction.Based on social constructivist approach, this article aims at finding whether SNSTumblr.com can create effective learning environments, which are learner-centered,knowledge-centered and community-centered, can provide access to the target culture, enablethem to become multi-literate, can facilitate collaborative learning and ultimately help them tobecome self-regulatory, self-mediated, self-aware language learners.In order to do this, the author designed and conducted a small-scale study of using socialnetworking website Tumblr.com in a US university ESL class with a total participants of70ofdifferent nationalities (Saudi Arabia, Korea, Japan, China, etc.) The study was consisted ofthree parts, a pre-test, the main research process, and a after-test. Both qualitative andquantitative techniques were used to collect the data. Using SPSS, the author analyzed thestatistic results. It can be concluded that, overall, the learners find Tumblr to be verybeneficial and their score have also shown a great improvement.The purpose of this study lies in hoping that more Chinese students can benefit from theusage of CALL/MALL especially, social networking websites like Tumblr.com in thelanguage class. By integrate the technological capabilities, language learners can be bettermotivated, can became multi-literate, develop socially and culturally appropriate languagewithin a broader range of discourse contexts, improve their collaborative skills, build deeperunderstanding of what they are learning.