Pixel International Conferences

Jordan is an Arab country in which French is taught as a foreign language. Knowledge of French culture in Jordan is minimal and not widespread. This paper aims to study the role of social media in breaking or creating stereotypes among students who study French language at the University of Jordan. The paper begins by defining the concept of stereotypes, especially in relation to its diminishing, yet still prominent, role in teaching students about a culture different from their own.  Against the backdrop of these observations, the paper will compare and analyze the results of this study with a previous one conducted in 2010, in which a questionnaire was administered to third year students at the Department of French at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. The same questionnaire is repeated to third year students of the academic year 2018/2019 at the same department, with the introduction of a new variable, mainly the social media as a possible additional source of information about France and French culture. The number of students who participated in the study is 80. In this new questionnaire, we asked students to list the sources of information of their opinions and ideas in the subject. Results showed that social media has become the most important source of information followed by the television. New stereotypes were detected in comparison with the previous study such as French people are prone to protest (rebellious), and cities other than Paris appeared on their information about France for the first time including Annecy and Toulouse.

Keywords: Stereotypes, social media, culture;

References:

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