Language learners’ use of social media for informal language learning

Informal language learning often involves creative uses of resources designed for social and recreational purposes, rather than educational purposes. These resources include social media which language learners utilise to learn foreign languages or pursue interests through the languages they learn. Social media platforms are constantly developing, and technological advances adopted by popular applications have enabled online communication and networking to become more multimodal. Nonetheless, there is a lack of investigation on the ways in which online informal language learning is adapting to technological innovation in emerging image-based social media.

This research project investigates creative uses of image-based social media for informal language learning. It aims to examine: firstly, the new technological features employed on the platform and the current digital language learning experiences that these features support; secondly, the use of new technology by users to create and organise spaces for language learning; thirdly, the multimodal implications of social media on online language learning experiences; fourthly, digital language learning across diverse platforms and resources; and lastly, ways in which this digital learning fits into the everyday lives of those who pursue second or foreign language learning. Drawing on ecological perspectives of language learning and spatial understandings of digital technology and learning, the research reported in this thesis unpacks the use of social media and technology for language learning in everyday uses of space. The analysis involved two broad approaches: (a) content analysis of public online data of social media posts gathered from TikTok and Instagram, and (b) narrative and thematic analyses of student participants’ journal entries, stimulated recall interviews, and social media posts. These two approaches allowed for an identification of how language learning in social media is changing with technological innovations and being incorporated into learners’ everyday lives.

Five key findings emerged from the research.

(1) Language learning affordances depended on not only technological features of the platform but also users who articulated their usage for learning.

(2) The innovation of technology enabled learners to bring speakers of different languages into a shared space of interaction while mediating their learning interactions through the screen.

(3) Language learners utilised multimodal affordances particularly for vocabulary acquisition.

(4) Cross-platform learning experiences occurred in accordance with a particular range of social media platforms and features that individual learners orchestrated in alignment with personal interest and need.

(5) Language learners cultivated individual learning environments in the integration of digital learning with spaces of everyday life activities.

The findings contribute to our knowledge of the current phenomenon of language learning that is facilitated by visual and multimodal social networking. The spatial framework provides structure to the investigation of how language learning occurs in digital spaces as well as how learners organise digital learning and incorporate it into everyday life spaces. Incorporation of online social media and narrative data also supports the framework to obtain both rich and broadly-based understandings of informal learning. The findings of this research provide implications for future research and teaching to consider both digital and physical learning.