The Role of Social Media in Developing the Communicative Competence of Senior High School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the students’ perceptions of the role of social media in developing communicative competence of senior high school students. Qualitative research method is used to conduct the research wherein a set of structured interview questions is asked to the senior high school students of Cuenca Senior High School in Cuenca, Batangas. The structured interview questions that are used in the research help in covering different aspects of the study, including the roles of social media in developing communicative competence of the students, how social media affects the communicative competence of the students, and proposed activities to engage other students to use social media. The results show that students perceived the role of social media as very important, effective, and useful in developing the communicative competence of the students, as it serves as a tool in expressing one’s idea. It gives access to videos that motivate the students to improve their communicative skills. It easily catches the attention of the students to listen and watch for them to be good communicators. It exercises the speaking skills of the students as they learn to imitate the way people speak on their gadgets. This study also shows how the role of social media affects the development of communicative competence of students, as it enhances the speaking skills and gives the learners the desire to study. Lastly, students also conduct varied activities to engage other students in developing their communicative competence using social media. These includes like making video about your desired topic, recording an English song, creating a documentary using English language, making a commercial, recording an English speech, recording a short drama with your classmates, actual conversation with your classmate about English topic using social media, phone interview about job application using English language, voice recording to check if the English words are properly pronounced, video recording of a talk show, radio announcement of the current news, recording a video of variety show, recording a video of TV news reports, creating blogs, recording a video of hosting a beauty pageant, and calling your friend, recording a video about game show and recording your conversation using English language. By integrating these approaches, senior high school students conclude that other students will be motivated to improve their communication skills.