Literacy in the Facebook Era - Waray Dictionary and Language ...

Fullmer 12
the other blanks follow?). The telegraphic nature of communication on Facebook likewise forces our
students to decipher, to fill in the gaps, thus becoming better predictors of meaning. We can use this
knowledge to teach reading comprehension in the classroom.
3. English vocabulary is expanding given increased exposure to words. According to the
above survey, the average EVSU Facebook user spends an average of 9.3 hours on the site per
month. Contrast this to Thompson’s statement that all English language texts for four years of high
school can be read in 12 hours. And though the grammatical content and subject matter of
Facebook reading is far inferior to the texts students read in books, the potential for students'
exposure to new vocabulary is far superior. On Facebook, readers do not learn English vocabulary
by way of dictionary definitions. Instead, as in Examples 1, 2, and 5 students learn meaning of an
unknown word based on known words adjacent to it. For this reason I conclude that Taglish or
Waranglish can improve standard English vocabulary. We might use similar techniques to teach
vocabulary in the classroom.
4. Higher Order Thinking Skills may or may not improve due to Facebook communication.
As Nicholas Carr’s research suggests, the brevity of Facebook communication (Examples 1, 4, 5)
may counteract deep thinking. Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) such as Remembering,
Analysing, and Evaluating may atrophy as the Facebook user zips from one post to the next. For
instance, the responses in Example 5 show students understanding to the clever sideways text, but
demonstrate no real exploration or analysis. Despite this, we might note that, according to Bloom’s
Taxonomy, “Creating” is the highest of the HOTS, and Facebook’s architecture emphasizes active
creation: students shape their personal profiles, refine their online identities, apply information they
have found in one post to something they are sharing in another. It therefore is possible for teachers
to use the Facebook platform to develop students’ HOTS.
III. Recommendations
How should teachers adapt given these fundamental changes? As my fellow EVSU
instructor Mary Jessica Tiozon-Alalid points out to me, teachers can do little to change the reading
and writing practices of our students outside the classroom. We cannot require students to text
message in grammatical English. We cannot require them to evaluate and analyse Facebook posts.