Social media has been widely used in EFL programs in higher education and they play an important role in transforming learning and teaching. This study investigated the use of social media in EFL learning and teaching in Afghanistan. Moreover, it explored the preference and the frequency of the use of social media in EFL learning and teaching. A survey questionnaire was administered to gather the data from 170 randomly chosen participants from Takhar University based in Taloqan City, a northeastern city in Afghanistan. The researchers used Statistical Package for Social Sciences to analyze the data. The study found that Facebook and WhatsApp were among the highly preferred social networking sites and they were frequently used in EFL learning and teaching in Afghanistan. The results of the study showed statistically significant differences in the frequency of the use of social media by the students’ gender, age and class. Female participants used social media more frequently than their male peers and senior and older students used social media more frequently than junior and younger students. The results of the study suggest that higher education leaders and policy-makers should encourage the use of social media and provide more technological facilities to improve students’ achievement and quality of education.

The study aims to investigate the cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes of Afghan students towards learning English. It also studies the differences in the attitudes of the students by their demographic profile, i.e., gender, age, first language, field of study, access to the Internet, and English learning experience in English language centers. The data were collected from 210 randomly selected students from Takhar University through a questionnaire with 30 close-ended items. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Descriptive statistics, sample T-test, and one-way ANOVA test were employed to answer the research questions. The findings show that the students have positive cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes towards learning English. The study also reveals that there is not a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of students by their gender, age, first language, and field of study. However, the attitude of students with access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers is more positive than that of the students without access to the Internet and English learning experience in English language centers.

Instructional materials are one of the areas in which gender inequality is very easily institutionalised. The study investigated gender representation in high school English textbooks in Afghanistan. High school English textbooks were used as the corpus of the study. A mixed content analysis approach was used to analyse the data. The frequency of items for each category was counted and tabulated. The findings showed that women were substantially underrepresented whereas men were significantly overrepresented in text and illustrations. Male characters were placed before female characters in all coordinated phrases, and none of the dialogues was initiated by female characters. Women were portrayed in a limited number of social roles while men occupied a wide range of them. Moreover, masculine generic forms were widely used to refer to both women and men. Thus, it is concluded that high school English textbooks promote and perpetuate gender inequality in Afghanistan.

The main goal of the study was to investigate the political participation of Afghan youths on Facebook. It explored their frequency of Facebook use as well as the impact of gender, age, and employment status on Afghan youths’ political participation and engagement in the 2019 presidential elections on Facebook. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Descriptive statistics, T-test, and One-Way ANOVA test were employed to answer the research questions. The findings showed that Afghan youths did not actively participate in political activities on Facebook although they spent at least half an hour on Facebook every day. They were engaged in low-cost and low-risk political activities, e.g., following Afghan politicians. Likewise, their engagement in the 2019 presidential elections was superficial; they were engaged in electoral activities on Facebook that required low efforts and commitment, e.g., following presidential candidates. Moreover, the gender, age, and employment status of the participants did not have any significant impact on their frequency of Facebook use, political participation, and engagement in the 2019 presidential elections on Facebook.

Gender differences on the acceptance of ICT in English language learning is a vital component of the successful implementation of ICT in education. In this respect, the present study aims at exploring the gender differences on the acceptance and barriers of ICT use in English language learning from students’ perspectives at Takhar University, Afghanistan. A quantitative research method was utilized and a total of 152 respondents answered the questionnaires. The findings of the study indicated that the participants held positive perceptions in terms of the use of ICT in learning the English language at Takhar University. In addition to that, the study revealed that the common barriers to the use of ICT are the inadequacies in many aspects including internet/Wi-Fi, electricity, technological devices, ICT infrastructures, time and confidence in using ICT, sufficient training and support. This study is useful for curriculum developers and policy makers to make decisions concerning the development and implementation of ICT in learning the English language, particularly from the perspectives of students which take gender differences into account.

The study examined EFL instructors' perceptions of English textbooks. It also investigated whether the instructors' gender and the type of textbooks they used had a significant impact on their responses. A survey questionnaire with 30 closed-ended items was utilized to collect the data from 60 randomly selected EFL instructors who were teaching English in higher education institutions and English language centers. SPSS version 26.0 was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that the instructors had positive perceptions about English textbooks. They also believed that four skills of English were equally represented in the textbooks, and they contained adequate listening, speaking, reading and writing activities. In addition, the textbooks were enriched with the cultural issues of the target language and that they were appropriate for the Afghan context. The results also showed that textbooks served various roles in EFL classrooms, for instance, as a source of assessment and assignment. There were not statistically significant differences between female and male instructors' responses. However, the type of textbooks they used significantly impacted their perceptions of English textbooks. EFL Programs are recommended to encourage and support their instructors to use other English learning resources to optimize their students’ learning.