Facebook has become popular with the people in every walk of life. Whether it can be used as a tool for teaching and learning languages or not is an important topic in education. The purpose of the study was to explore English teachers’ attitudes towards using social networking sites (SNS)--Facebook for English teaching in junior high schools. The researcher developed a questionnaire on the English Teachers’ Attitudes towards Using Social Networking Sites for English Teaching to examine the possibility of using social networking sites--Facebook for English teaching in junior high schools in Taichung City. A total number of 207 English teachers participated in the study by completing the questionnaire. The data collected from the questionnaire survey were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent-samples t test and the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis were used to investigate all the questions in the present study.
Based on the data analysis, some key findings are listed briefly as follows: 1. Facebook is not widely used for English teaching by teachers in junior high schools. 2. English teachers do not always have a good understanding of the use of Facebook. 3. English teachers’ teaching attitudes towards the use of Facebook are not significantly influenced by personal information except age and Facebook accounts. 4. English teachers who have Facebook accounts have more positive teaching attitudes towards the use of Facebook. 5. English teachers’ teaching practices through the use of Facebook are not influenced by gender, education level, teaching experience, school size, school location, grade level, time spending, and favorite website. 6. Age differences are an important factor influencing teachers’ teaching attitudes towards the use of Facebook and their teaching practices. 7. There are close correlations between teachers’ teaching attitudes and their teaching practices through the use of Facebook. 8. Many English teachers worry about students’ schoolwork addiction and privacy exposure because of the use of Facebook.
Finally, some suggestions were made for educational organizations, junior high schools, and English teachers for references.
