Mixed Success on US.Cyworld: Reflections on Korean EFL College Student Efforts to Establish an L2 Presence on an American Social Networking Site

Social networking sites are finding pedagogical application, particularly in developing literacy skills. An intriguing extension of this is to second language acquisition (SLA). I set Hyejeon College freshmen the task of establishing individual homepages on the English-language US.Cyworld.com site, a sister site to the Hangeul Cyworld.com site used by most Korean students. Each student was required to decorate his/her minihome; post English-language content through writing a personal introduction, profile, photo captions, and journal; and establish neighborly links to other student homepages, developing text-based conversations. The intent was to improve second language (L2) Digital Literacy skills, which I have elsewhere identified as a critical issue in SLA of English. But the mixed success the task met with prompts a number of observations. While the L2 use of this social networking site appears well-suited to the more adept EFL student, its suitability for students of low L2 ability and/or motivation is questionable.