ABSTRACT

Starting from texts by from Riel and Polin (2004), Hewitt (2004), Stahl (2009; 2011), Rodríguez Illera (2007), Gros Salvat (2008) and Pochon-Berger (2011), the article reviews the interactions among high school students from a public school on Facebook as an extracurricular activity of the Spanish language class. As Social Medias are a constant presence in the lives of today’s students, especially regarding teens who are in High School, Facebook has emerged as a feasible option for teaching, since it integrates the life of the student to the school and not vice versa. Thus, this study analyzes interactions that happened on Facebook in 2013 from an experiment conducted with a group of 18 high school students of Spanish in their first contact with the foreign language during their first year. Such a reflection on the use of Facebook aims to understand the role of this tool in the learning process of the Spanish language as well as its function as a way to bring students and teachers closer. The questions to be answered are: 1) Can Facebook effectively organize a community of practice or knowledge building for language learning? Do students use Facebook when it becomes a school obligation? Do students prize this resource and do they publish on Facebook by their own free will? Are the students instructed for the Facebook activities at all times they are invited to participate? First, some studies about learning in online communities or virtual spaces are reviewed to, then, acknowledge specifically Facebook as a virtual learning resource of Spanish in a community.

Keywords:
Interaction, Facebook; Learning.