Elham Akbari

This study aims at understanding online social networks by a comparative analysis of a Facebook group and a face to face group of university students, both learning English as a second language with regard to three variables of the self-detonation theory. The selfdetermination theory (SDT) is a general theory of human motivation and personality, whichfocuses on the dialectical relationships between growth-oriented human beings and social contexts that facilitate or impede people’s motivation to actualize their potentials. This theory consists of the three main factors: autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which improve self-determination in the classroom. According to the SDT, an appropriate learning environment should be capable of creating a sense of curiosity, interest, and inclination to change the environment or to influence it through developing relatedness, autonomy and competence. The results indicated that all three variables predict motivation, in other words,the variables of relatedness, autonomy and competence respectively showed the largest influence on the motivation. An important point is also the result that from among the three basic factors, the variable of relatedness was found to be the strongest predictor of motivation. Moreover, the results showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of these three factors. The means of all of the variables improved more in the group using Facebook for the social networking than the face to face group.The resultsalso indicated that competence in English as a second language has developed in both groups. However, this competence development is larger in the group using Facebook than in the face to face group.

Online social networks, Facebook, teaching and learning, Motivation, Self Determination theory