Exploring the Students' Perception and Uses of Facebook as an Academic Tool

This paper reports on the use of Facebook page created by 10post-graduate students for educational purposes. The study involves a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of data obtained from postings on the Facebook page and from a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The study aims at exploring students' usage patterns and perceptions of the value of this social networking tool and uncovering its potential role in an educational environment. The results showed that students, by creating this personal space and using it to connect with their peers and their teachers, not only have a strong sense of community involvement students have used a wide variety of communication tools to communicate with their peers, but also greater satisfaction of this medium as an effective tool in developing their socio-pragmatic competence via authentic linguistic interaction.