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Description
The official transition from emphasizing linguistic knowledge to prioritizing communicative competence in the General Education English Curriculum marks a significant advancement in EFL education in Vietnam (MOET, 2018). Nevertheless, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that EFL instruction in Vietnam effectively aligns with this new approach (Tien et al.,2024; Tran et al., 2023). Research indicates that the predominant focus of vocabulary teaching in many EFL classrooms remains on form-focused instruction (Vu & Peters, 2021), which may not adequately support students in developing both lexical and communicative competence (Nation, 2017). With a view to balancing the meaning-focused beside language-focused activities for EFL students, this study investigates the efficacy of social media in incidental vocabulary learning and explores learners' attitudes towards this integration. Quantitative data, including participants’ scores of the Updated Vocabulary Level Test, pre-tests, post-tests and questionnaire responses were analyzed alongside qualitative data from transcriptions of semi-structured interviews. Results indicated that social media significantly contributes to L2 incidental vocabulary learning due to its multi-modality and tailored content. Additionally, learners exhibited positive attitudes, considering social media as valuable supplementary tools for language acquisition.
