WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS BY SOCIAL NETWORKS

BACKGROUND: Now almost every one of us is registered in at least one social network. Some go there rarely, while others hang out for all day. And both types of people complain that they don't have enough time to learn English. Having understood this, we decided to check how realistic it is to improve English skills using all the possibilities of social networks. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In the study, we considered and used various social networks (Facebook and Instagram), messengers (Telegram and Discord) and video hosting services (YouTube and TikTok). The keywords in our study were such words as "English", "study", "sounds and pronunciation", "conversation with native speakers" and "preparation for international exams". A survey was also conducted among peers, the purpose of which was to find out: “Do they use social media networks for learning English? ”, “What kind of social networks they prefer most? ” and “How would they point out the negative and positive aspects of the social networks used” RESULTS: As a result of the study, the following results were obtained: Discord - multifunctional and varied. Allows live communication with native speakers or people of your level. Quite comfortable and popular. Telegram is more suitable for searching scientific literature or improving the level of grammar with the help of various bots. Instagram - for the most part, a platform for finding offline classes, since there are practically no educational accounts there. YouTube - allows you to quickly improve the level of pronunciation and grammar, thanks to the huge number of videos in English, and also because most teachers, native speakers and ordinary users post their educational videos on this platform. TikTok - due to the specifics of a platform and its format, this social network is more suitable for repeating already learned material, or studying some minor topics. Also during the survey, the general advantages of social networks were identified, such as: No need for attachment to the place of study (school, home, place of the courses). For example, during a trip to a workout or a walk, you can repeat the rules of Future Simple or change into indirect speech. The flexibility of the schedule. You decide when you are going to study, how much time you need to spend on it and what exactly you want to learn. Not every course can allow you to do this. Accessibility of education. The use of social networks implies freedom of access and independence from the location. You can be in one part of the world, and the teacher - in another. All you need is your phone! However, there were some downsides as well: For example, most schools do not have any licenses. Due to the low competence of teachers, you can just waste your time. Will power. Whatever one may say, for online classes you need a certain concentration of attention, perseverance and strong motivation. It is not always easy to force yourself to study without a teacher. You may not believe me, but I learned this from my own experience. Lack of a personalized mentoring approach. The teacher applies an individual approach to each student, sensitively assesses his strengths and weaknesses, understands what kind of information, in what format and at what time it is necessary to present.