REGULAR ARTICLE Participants’ Experiences and Interactions on Facebook Group in an EFL Course in Taiwan Vivien Lin 1 • Ya-Chen Kang 1 • Gi-Zen Liu 1 • Weiting Lin 2 Ó De La Salle University 2015 Abstract Educational practitioners have attempted to use online technology such as Facebook (FB) in recent years to incorporate learning into students’ daily social media usage. Past studies have explored FB affordances for in- formal learning, with a lack of investigations on interactive patterns among course participants, especially for learners in East Asian contexts. To fill the research gap, this study adopts the community of inquiry model (CoI) in an attempt to find out (1) how interactions on a FB Group facilitate the formation of an online learning community in Taiwan, and (2) students’ and teacher’s experiences of using FB Group for English learning. Content analysis of the group page through thematic coding, and Chi Square tests resulted in significant relations among interaction types, initiation type, and response type for the posts. Semi-structured in- terviews further yielded more positive than negative ex- periences associated with the FB usage. The results are discussed in relation to three elements of the CoI, with an indication of a strong teacher presence for fostering the online learning environment in this particular learning context. Keywords Social networking sites Á Facebook Á English learning Á East Asia Á Taiwan Introduction The use of ICT in higher education changes rapidly within a population of digital natives (Liu et al. 2014a; Liu and Hwang 2010; Lockley 2013; Lo et al. 2014; Loncar et al. 2014; Prensky 2011). In particular, the hybrid learning scheme of technology combined with classroom instruc- tion (Liu 2011; Liu et al. 2011, 2014b, c) outperforms fully online environments in terms of learning outcomes and satisfaction (Shea and Bidjerano 2013; Garrison and Kanuka 2004; Ruiz et al. 2006; Lee et al. 2009). How- ever, practical constraints of traditional learning manage- ment systems (LMSs) such as e-learning are now perceived as ‘‘serious,’’ ‘‘formal,’’ and ‘‘academic’’ in nature (Deng and Tavares 2013, p. 171), resulting in students favoring the use of frequently visited and easily operated social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook (FB) for stimulating interaction in hybrid learning schemes (Wang et al. 2012; Abdous and Yen 2010; Au- gustsson 2010). In English as a foreign language (EFL) education, Ka- bilan et al. (2010) has reported the success of using FB for creating more positive attitudes among Malaysian students toward English learning tasks, especially with respect to their confidence to read, write, and communicate in the target language. Leis (2014) also used FB for language learning with writing tasks and for instant communication among teachers and students. Less confident students be- came more motivated and a sense of community allowed them to foster better learning habits and cultural compe- tence (Leis 2014). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40299-015-0239-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Gi-Zen Liu gizen@mail.ncku.edu.tw 1 Department of Foreign Languages & Literature, National Cheng Kung University, 1, University Road, Tainan City 701, Taiwan 2 Center for English Language Teaching, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, 900 Mintsu 1st Road, Kaohsiung City 807, Taiwan 123 Asia-Pacific Edu Res DOI 10.1007/s40299-015-0239-0