The use of social media sites in acquiring second or foreign language can give many
opportunities for the students to further explore the target language especially
informal English. There have been many studies conducted to investigate whether
social media sites are useful for students in language learning but there are not many
studies have been done to explore whether social media sites are beneficial or not for
students‟ informal language, especially English. Henceforth, this paper aims to
explore students‟ perception towards social media as a platform to acquire English
informal language and the ways students‟ use social media to learn informal English
and language skills as well as the reasons they use social media sites to support their
informal learning. This study uses a qualitative approach, using interviews to collect
data from a sample of English undergraduate student. Data from interviews were
analysed using descriptive analysis approach. The results revealed that students have
positive perspective of the use social media as a medium to acquire English informal
language. They stated that social media provides various English language content
that helps improve their English language skills such as listening, reading, speaking,
and writing. Furthermore, they also gain a lot of new vocabulary and pronunciation
directly from native speakers. They can also learn English in many ways on TikTok
and Instagram, as they can choose interesting content that they like, making informal
English learning not boring. To conclude, social media sites are useful and could be
used as learning tool.
Keywords: Informal Language, Social Media, EFL Students.