1 Social Networking Sites as Technology Enhanced Learning Communities towards autonomous language learning

As the social, political and economic structures of the world become more globally integrated, incorporating international experiences into higher education curricula becomes increasingly more desirable. Moreover, the concept of social computing has revitalised an interest in peer learning and collaboration, notions that have a longer history within the area of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Globalization and the information-technology revolution demand that students develop not only the intellectual skills but also the communicative skills to integrate in this different societal texture where English as a global language and websites, blogs or social networking sites (SNS), among others are employed by individuals and small groups around the world. Each of these technological innovations brings with it a need to master not only the technology but the new cultural codes which it engenders. English seems to have joined this list of basic skills and its function and place in the curriculum is not just that of a ‘foreign language’. A new model is being generated where English as a foreign language is not longer recognised around the hegemonic power of native English speakers but around a new dynamic model in what Mukherjee (2007:160) refers to “the ‘nativization ’ of English in outer-circle varieties”. In this post-moder