Facebook in the Speaking Classroom: Activities, Student Attitudes, and Teacher Responsibilities - An Observational Reflection

Speaking English proficiently, and delivering structured oral presentations in particular, represents one of the most demanding communicative challenges for EFL learners in higher education. Conventional classroom settings rarely provide sufficient practice time or authentic audience interaction to enable systematic speaking development. This paper describes and reflects on a pedagogical approach in which Facebook was integrated into a university-level Public Speaking course in Vietnam, with the aim of extending students' presentation practice beyond class hours and fostering peer-mediated speaking development. A closed Facebook group was used throughout the semester as a complementary learning channel. Students posted short videos of themselves completing specific presentation tasks aligned with the syllabus, and classmates provided structured written commentary. The approach draws on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory and the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, positioning peer interaction as the primary mechanism of speaking development. Classroom observation indicated that the approach increased the frequency and quality of speaking practice, reduced students' reluctance to perform, and developed a shared metalanguage for evaluating presentation quality. Peer feedback proved particularly productive when modelled and scaffolded by the teacher. Facebook offers EFL teachers a practical, low-cost, and student-familiar platform for creating socially mediated speaking practice environments. Six structured activities are described with accompanying rationale, offering replicable models for teachers wishing to integrate social media into EFL speaking instruction.

Public speaking, higher education, Facebook, presentation skills, peer feedback, sociocultural theory, technology-enhanced language learning

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