Domeniul educației, în special studiul limbii engleze ca limbă străină, a fost puternic influențat de progresele tehnologice. Internetul din secolul XXI le permite studenților să acceseze numeroase programe online pentru învățare sincronă și să interacționeze eficient cu oamenii pe diferite platforme, cum ar fi Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Telegram, WhatsApp, Padlet, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook și TikTok. Fiecare dintre aceste rețele de socializare are calități distinctive care afectează cât de bine se potrivesc obiectivelor educaționale. Cu ajutorul acestor programe și instrumente, elevii și profesorii au astăzi posibilitatea de a învăța o limbă de oriunde în lume și oricând doresc. Cu toate acestea, internetul, împreună cu toate programele, instrumentele și rețelele sociale de comunicare, oferă multe oportunități și modalități de a învăța și de a preda o limbă. Menirea acestei lucrări este să releve beneficiile și neajunsurile utilizării rețelelor de socializare în predarea limbii engleze ca limbă străină. Mai mult, autoarea își propune să analizeze rolul rețelelor de socializare în formarea competențelor lingvistice, comunicative, culturale etc.

According to Pushpanathan (2012), Internet Assisted Language Learning is a tool for learning and teaching a language using various tools, applications, and games. Internet Assisted Language Learning is considered to be one of the most effective pedagogical tools for language teaching and for improving teaching and learning. IALL offers a lot of online tools available that can help both students and teachers in language learning. As Internet-Assisted Language Learning is a tool for learning and teaching a language, applications, and games, it offers a lot of online apps available that can help both students and teachers in language learning. This paper aims to investigate the effect of using social networks and communication apps in language learning on students and which are the most used apps by students. Today’s social networks are a powerful educational tool that offers plenty of opportunities for teachers and students to learn a language and develop their language skills. According to Ahmadi (2018: 118), Social network sites and teaching methodology must be combined successfully to attract learners’ attention toward English language learning. Some of the most popular social networks are Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Viber. This study was conducted in order to analyze which are the most used social networks and communication apps that help students learn and practice English. For this study were chosen 8th and 9th grades from Ion Cojocaru Secondary School, Țiganca village. To answer the questionnaires, these two groups were chosen because students are more familiar with and use social networks and communication applications more often than students in other classes. 14 students from grade 8 and 12 students from grade 9 answered the questionnaire. A total of 26 students voluntarily answered the questionnaire. The following social networks were chosen for this study: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Viber, Snapchat, Twitter, and WhatsApp. The following social networks were chosen for this study because they are the most used networks in the 21st century, from children to grandparents. The following communication apps were also chosen: Duolingo, HelloTalk, Word Bit, and Preply, as these apps are some of the most popular and used apps, especially by students. In order to find out which of the above apps and social networks are most commonly used and effective for students, 3 questionnaires were proposed. The first questionnaire contains questions about which are the most used social networks and how often they are used by students. The second questionnaire contains questions about which are the most used communication apps by pupils, how often they are used and which language skills pupils have been able to develop with them. The third questionnaire contains questions about how effective social networks are, what atmosphere they create for learning English, and what opportunities they offer students. This experiment will last 15 minutes, 5 minutes will be given to each questionnaire. After the questionnaires the answers will be recorded and the percentage of answers will be compared. Results of the questionnaires: The questionnaires showed that students use social media and communication apps for learning English. So the results show that most of them use Facebook, the percentage is 23.1%. The next most frequently used social network by students is TikTok, with a percentage of 19.3%. The next networks are Instagram and Viber which have the same percentage of 15,4%. The least used are WhatsApp-11.5%, Twitter, and Snapchat which have the same percentage of 7.7%. Students also use communication apps for learning English. The most popular and used by them is the Duolingo app, which has a percentage of 44.4%. Another app used is HelloTalk, with only 11.1%. The survey also showed that students use other apps the most, to which question most students answered with a percentage of 55.6%. The third survey found out how effective social media and communication apps are for 8th and 9th graders. 50% of the students agree that these apps and social networks are effective and help them to acquire knowledge in a language, of which 20% disagree, 10% somewhat agree and 20% strongly agree. Nowadays Internet-Assisted Language Learning is an engine that has lots of applications and tools to help learners access them for the purpose of learning and developing language skills. Researchers found that students today use many social networks and even communication apps to help them learn a language outside the classroom.