12013

12013

General Session - Conference Presentation and Interactive Activity Only (40 minutes, no formal paper)

Reima Al-Jarf, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, reemasado@msn.com
 * Languages and Translation Student Club Groups on Facebook**

Students majoring in English, Arabic and translation at King Saud University, have created several Facebook groups for their clubs such as the Reading, English, Translators, Alumni and COLT groups. Both students and faculty are members of those clubs. The present study aims to examine those clubs to shed light on their activities, kinds of issues posted on the wall, linguistic features used and views on the significance of those clubs. It was found that Facebook is used as a means of communication and exchanging information among the group members. The students mainly announce monthly books, student presentations and workshops, organization websites, book exhibits, meetings, field tips and club committees. They ask questions about exams, contests, department activities such the Booking Recycling Week, Alumni Day, Dictionary Day, English & French Translation Contest, Annual Conference, Public lectures and the Monthly Book Discussion Group. Some post book titles with annotations, stories, poems, and quotes that they have read and like to share. The clubs have no academic content.

Students use both English and Arabic in their posts. Some posts are in English only, Standard Arabic only, a mixture of English and Arabic, transliterate Arabic words in Romanized script and colloquial, non-standard Arabic.

Students surveyed indicated that the Facebook serves as a bulletin board for following up the department news and activities in a quick and easy way. The can access it from their smart phones and use the Facebook instant chat to organize activities and post messages. Results will be reported in detail.

//Interactivity// I will use a PPT, analyze content, show samples of the Facebook pages and posts by members of 6 clubs, report statistics.

All Audiences Facebook, student clubs, group communication social networks translation groups langauge groups.