While it’s taking a fair amount of time, many educators are coming around to the idea that students can learn valuable skills from each other while interacting online, even in social networks.

The Economic Times reports that according to a new 6-month study by the University of Minnesota that watched the online behavior of students from 13 high schools in the Midwest, social network users were found to learn lessons in technology, creativity and “being open to new or diverse views and communication skills.”

How about that? Sharing ideas can encourage learning.

A student-empowerment movement is happening. Learners are becoming more reliant on their peers and less reliant on their teachers to disseminate information. Sure it’s valuable to have an English language teacher help correct grammatical mistakes, but it can be just as helpful when a friend shares that the most important phrase he learned on a recent budget trip to New York was “Where can I get some pizza?”

Teachers are an important educational resource but students often do a better job sharing real-world experiences. What sounds more engaging – memorizing how to ask directions or listening to a friend tell the story of how she misunderstood a bus driver and instead of riding to San Diego, she ended up in Las Vegas? A little bit of context goes a long way.

ESL students spend a lot of time online and it can be a great opportunity for them to meet native English speakers. I mean, 85% of American college students are on Facebook and the majority are active members. Our ESL/EFL students could be meeting a lot of Americans online.

But more than the obvious social benefits, social networking can improve students’ English. Just look around English, baby! and you can see how social networking lets learners experiment with language in a friendly, communicative setting. Still, not many people are convinced that social networking can or should be integrated into the classroom. It’s a nice extracurricular activity, but most teachers can’t see the teaching potential.

Well, the truth is social networking is great reading and writing practice! And I am going to take advantage of that in my ESL class. I am integrating social networking sites into a reading strategies lesson. One important reading strategy is inference. Inference means interpreting beyond what is actually written and making bigger conclusions. Look around any social networking site and you’ll find there is a lot to infer. People say one thing, but they mean another. My students are going to use this handout that I found online. The handout wasn’t developed to be used with social networking profiles, but it helps students separate what people say from what they mean. And it seems to fit perfectly with the activity. Students will write a few quotes from a profile and say what they think they mean on the handout. Then, they will write a paragraph about what they think about the person.

Here is an example of inference from lastbreath. His profile was the first one I read today. He says, “Things I Like: romantic dinner” He means, “I like romance. I want romance.” He says, “Favorite Movie: romantic and romantic comedy” He means, “I am a good boyfriend and I really want romance ,” and maybe, “I want a girlfriend.” You could even infer things from his screen name.

The point is that as teachers we need to monopolize on our students’ free time. They spend a lot of time online and an English social networking site will really help their English. It will improve their reading skills and maybe it will make it easier for them to make inferences.

This is just one idea. And we need to think of more ideas because online social networking is a great way for ESL students to practice reading and writing.