Foreign Language Learning Through Social Media: A Review Study

Social media is an application that uses Web 2.0 technology and gives users the opportunity to produce materials in various forms such as text, audio, and video that can be shared with other users. So indirectly, it can be used in learning a foreign language. Therefore this study aims to critically analyze and synthesize the research trends of foreign language learning through social media. Thus the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database was used to find articles related to the objectives of the study from 2017 to 2021. The PRISMA model was used in this study to meet the objectives of the study. An article search using social media and foreign language keywords through the database has found a total of 39906 articles. However, only 14 articles met the requirements and were selected for further analysis. Overall, this study has the potential to be further developed by researchers who are interested in the study of aging language learning research trends through social media with a longer study period and may also involve other languages.


Introduction
Language according to Finocchioro, in Ramelan (1984) is defined as an arbitrary system of vowel symbols that allows a society or another person who studies the society system to communicate and interact. Whereas Ibn Jinni (1983) mentioned that language is a sound that is expressed by all groups of society to express their meaning. This shows that learning a foreign language allows a person to interact and in turn take advantage of the transfer of ideas more widely, especially in today's internet network age. Foreign languages according to Saville-Troike (2010) are languages that are not widely used by language learners because they are only used in travel, cross-cultural communication, or elective subjects in schools that are not directly applied.
Thus, a foreign language is a language that is not the mother tongue of a particular country, where students make a foreign language a second-choice language in school subjects and not used in everyday communication. Rombepajung (1988) defines learning as the acquisition of a subject or the acquisition of skill through the lesson, experience, or teaching. In today's internet age, language learning is also affected by the trend of online education that allows students to learn more flexibly with more and more diverse teacher choices than learning in a physical classroom. The current flood of social media platforms provides an alternative space for online language learning.
The main purpose of this study is to explore and review aspects related to the trend of publishing articles on foreign language learning through social media. Social media is a digital communication channel where users can share information, interact instantly, communicate two -way and send instant messages to multiple people at the same time. Social media is becoming a platform nowadays favored by all its users (Abdelhamid et al, 2016). Therefore, this systematic literature review is conducted to meet the objective of the study.

Study Objective
The objective of the study is to identify the trend of publishing articles on the effects of foreign language learning through social media in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database from 2016 to 2021.

Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages Through Social-Media
Now social media has become an important part of daily life in various aspects, and this also includes the aspect of education. This is because the integration of social media in language learning can help educators to attract students to the lessons and at the same time can also increase the creativity and innovation of educators in developing learning activities (Sukri et al., 2018;Yahaya et al., 2019). According to the Pew Research Center (2021), among the top social media in the world are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Moreover, statista.com also states that Facebook is the largest social media network worldwide with 2.89 billion monthly active users in the second quarter of 2021.
A study by Faryadi (2017) on the increase in language using Facebook shows that most students show that Facebook helps improve their language skills including critical thinking, comprehension skills, and motivation. Post-test results showed an improvement with 88.8% of students passing the test compared to only 66.6% passing the pre-test. One of the elements that had a big improvement in the post-test was critical thinking skills. The score increased from 26.6% on the pre-test to 51.2% on the post-test. This is in line with the response of 87.7% of students who indicated Facebook helped improve their critical thinking skills. A study by AlSaleem (2018) on oral communication skills using foreign languages using Facebook also showed positive progress. After going through learning using Facebook activities, the posttest results showed a significant improvement.
In the use of YouTube for foreign language learning, a study conducted by Kabooha & Elyas (2018) showed a significant increase in English vocabulary when they incorporated YouTube into the teaching environment. The results showed a mean of 22.8 pre-tests but increased to 42.7 post-test. From students 'perceptions, 96% of students agreed that YouTube helps enrich their vocabulary knowledge and 83% of students agreed that YouTube videos help them write better quality assignments using new vocabulary. Many students also agreed that YouTube makes learning foreign (English) vocabulary easier.
Many students also consider learning a foreign language using YouTube interesting and increase their confidence to use the language. A study by Chien et al (2020) on upper secondary EFL college students who focused on listening comprehension, also showed a similar trend. The post-test result showed a mean of 34.42 compared to the mean of the pretest result which was 31.97. Many students point out that YouTube makes learning more interesting and motivates them to learn. Abdelhamid et al., (2019) stated that motivating students can help them overcome the psychological barriers that cause a lack of confidence and fear of making mistakes.
In addition, among the platforms that are frequently used and preferred by students is the WhatsApp platform (Yensy, 2020). Aghajani & Adloo (2018) also found that students have a positive attitude toward learning through WhatsApp when compared to face-to-face methods. This opinion is also supported by Napratilora et al (2020), by saying WhatsApp is a more suitable application to use during teaching when compared to Zoom, Google Meet, and Facebook applications. Napratilora et al (2020) also stated that WhatsApp is a simpler and easier to use communication application for all ages and backgrounds. However, this study was limited to English language learning.
Based on the results of a research questionnaire conducted by Mahlan & Hamat (2020) found that, most students choose for lecturers to use WhatsApp by sharing teaching videos as an intermediary medium between students and lecturers with a percentage of 66%. While 17% of students choose to use the Zoom application. There are also students who choose for the lecturer to share slides or notes in the WhatsApp application, but the percentage is not high at 12% and only 5% of students choose to use the Google Classroom (GC) application.
Another platform used to learn the language is Instagram. Among the studies conducted on Instagram on its use for language learning, Mansor & Abd Rahim (2017) found that it is an effective platform as it encourages students to interact with their peers in performing tasks. In addition, Instagram can increase students 'motivation to learn and their participation in classroom activities (Purnama, 2017). Erarslan (2019) found from his study that the most popular social media platform among his study participants was Instagram followed by Twitter and another popular platform, Google+, ranked third. Many participants had Instagram accounts, and this was an important finding of the study. Apart from that, the TikTok application is also the focus of young people and the current generation. During the first quarter of 2018, TikTok made itself the most downloaded app with 45.8 million times. That figure beats other popular apps like YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram (Bohang, 2018).

Methodology
This study uses a systematic literature review method to identify and analyze article publication trends on the impact of foreign language learning through social media in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. This study only limits journal articles published in 2017 to 2021. It aims to obtain up-to-date information on the development and impact of foreign language learning through social media.
The researchers also found that the number of research articles related to the scope of foreign language learning through social media produced in the range of four years from 2017 to 2021 is sufficient.
The researchers used PRISMA model guidelines (Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes) for the process of handling and reporting the collected journal articles. This model was chosen as a guide because it can help researchers synthesize relevant journal articles and can help handle the required information step by step and at the same time can maintain the quality of highlights desired to be produced (Shaffril et al., 2019).
There are four steps in PRISMA which include identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. The first step begins with identification. See figure 1.

Identification
Initially, a search was conducted to find articles related to the trend of publishing articles on foreign language learning through social media. Article search was conducted based on the objectives of the study that have been set. Article search is through the electronic database of the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) by using several keywords such as "social media", "foreign language" and "foreign language learning through social media". The search results from the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) electronic database found a total of 39906 articles. The second step is continued by performing an inspection.

Screening
For the examination measure, the researcher placed the criteria for the selection of articles, among which the first is a journal-shaped article. Sources of articles consisting of other research writing such as unpublished books, reports or proceedings, theses, and dissertations are not included in this selection. The second selection criterion is that the articles selected should be of an open-access nature. This is intended to simplify the process of acquiring and downloading articles. In addition, the selected articles must also be written in either Malay or English only. In addition, the researcher limited the year of publication to the period of the last four years (2017-2021). Therefore, a total of 24070 were deducted from 39906 articles, and the remaining articles after the inspection was done were 15836 articles. Then, the researcher performs the next step which is 'qualification'.

Eligibility
A total of 15836 articles were re-screened. A review of articles at the qualification level is conducted in more detail. Article analysis is guided by article title, abstract, and keywords. The full text was searched and read for articles that met the selection criteria and objectives of the study.

Inclusion
In the end, a total of 14 articles related to the impact of foreign language learning through social media were selected and needed to produce this systematic literature highlight. The selection of the articles was made based on a group of inclusion and exclusion criteria as shown in Table 1.

Findings
To meet the objectives of the study, the selected articles will be analyzed descriptively using frequency analysis. The development of trends in the study of the impact of foreign language learning through social media will be analyzed through 14 articles found in this study. The stated objective analysis will be conducted based on the year of publication, country by publication, study design, and study instruments. Table 2 shows the analysis of the number of articles involving the year of publication between 2017 to 2021. The trend for the study of the impact of foreign language learning through social media is unbalanced. This is because the most studies done are in 2020 and 2021 which is 4 studies then followed by 2017 which is 3 studies. While a total of two studies in 2018 and 2019. The findings show that many studies regarding the effects of foreign language learning through social media are in 2020 and 2021. This indicates that many researchers are interested in making studies on the effects of foreign language learning through media social. Furthermore, more than 200 countries around the world are experiencing covid-19 pandemics and this condition is affecting aspects of life, including even education. Consequently, many countries have decided to close their schools and universities for teaching-learning activities (Contreras, 2020). Thus, social media is used as one of the teaching and learning approaches. See table 2.  Table 3 displays a total of 10 countries involved with the study that was conducted. The country with the most studies on the effects of foreign language learning through social media is Turkey with 5 studies, while Saudi Arabia has recorded 2 studies and the other countries only 1 study. See table 3.

Research Design
Based on Table 4, it is found that the quantitative research is the most widely used in studies that foster mathematical creativity, which is nine studies. In quantitative research based on empirical studies, most studies are conducted with experimental and quasi-experimental methods to collect data, and the selection of sample size is large. In addition, there are seven studies are in the form of qualitative research. While there are four studies in the form of combined research in which researchers use both quantitative and qualitative research to ensure that the information obtained is reasonable and useful.

Research Instruments
The instruments that have been used in the study have been shown in Table 5. Based on the analysis found that the test instruments are the most widely used in the study. The types of tests used in the study were pre-test and post-test, creativity test, and creativity scale test. The second instrument frequently used by researchers is interviews followed by questionnaires during the study. In addition, other instruments such as field note analysis, teacher lesson plans, and student assessment are also among the research instruments used in the study of mathematical creativity. This is because of the use of qualitative research as a method of collecting data such as interviews, observations, and document analysis.

Research Discussion
The studies analyzed have shown that learning a foreign language through social media does indeed bring a positive impact on learning. The development trend of the effects of foreign language learning can be seen through the analysis of research findings. Foreign language learning through social media is growing and this situation is in line with the changing world, especially in the increasingly developed Asian countries. Furthermore, teachers 'teaching styles in teaching and facilitation have begun to change by adopting a variety of teaching and approaches to foster creativity in language teaching. This can be seen through the analysis of research findings that the majority of studies have shown that teachers increase teaching style in fostering language teaching. This is supported by the study of Betty and Jamil (2017) that teacher knowledge will determine the effectiveness of teaching and facilitation. The learning activities selected by the appropriate teachers will contribute to improving the achievement, ability, and mastery of students in learning. Thus, it can be said that the use of social media can help students to learn foreign languages in a fun environment.

Conclusion
Overall, social media is one of the approaches that can be used in the teaching and learning of foreign languages, and this is evidenced by the analysis that has been done on articles published in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Academia, and ResearchGate databases. Consequently, the efforts made through this study can help researchers in social media studies related to foreign languages. This study also contributes to directing more attention to the study of social media and its role in learning foreign languages. In addition, a more detailed study is also needed to find out the impact of social media use on student behavior in foreign language teaching and learning.