New Literacies and language learning

30 thoughts on “Raising Native Cultural Awareness through WeChat: a case study with Chinese EFL students By Junjie Gavin Wu & Lindsay Miller”

1. I once followed some accounts which provides information about IELTS. And actually, there are a lot of accounts providing language studies support, such as E-version Economics, and broadcasts for livestream consultation. For me, they offer many accesses to materials that are good for language learning. However, there are also limitations. For example, there will be much irrelevant information pop up in the preface of WeChat. Another limitation is that through conversation, the speakers could not see their gestures or facial expressions because language itself can convey illocutionary meanings sometimes.

   • Hi Sean! Thank you for your comment. You mentioned the limitations of pushing irrelevant information and delivering non-verbal communication. There are related to the technical problems, and I believe with the update of Wechat functions, the experience of conversation and using these official accounts will be improved. And now, some video accounts can deliver both verbal and non-verbal information simultaneously.

2. I follow some bloggers on TikTok who share different kinds of English-related knowledge. For example, some share the correct ways of pronunciation, some teach English idioms or daily expressions, and some may introduce English movies. I find this way useful for it allows me to pick up some English knowledge in my spare time.

   Sometimes I feel disappointed because people do not always reply to my message at once. Therefore I have to wait for a while until other people check their phones. I think this problem may hinder users’ enthusiasm for chatting with others if they wait for too long.

   • Yes, I agree with your disappointment, I still want to receive the feedback as soon as possible. But a lot of people will hide the notification that they can’t notice the message when they receive it. So we are looking for methods to stimulate their participation that they check the group chat regularly and give feedback in time.
     I still watch some short videos that are related to language learning. The bloggers are talking in a humorous way, so the learning process will be really fun.

3. At the beginning of this year, I have joined a WeChat group that involves different proficiency level English speakers and aims to provide an authentic environment for Chinese overseas students to practice English speaking skills. Having similar experiences, we often discuss various topics, from small matters of daily life to norms and values in society. In this process, I am able to get access to Native speakers from whom I could learn the appropriate expression. What’s more, it broadens my vision and develops my critical cultural thinking abilities by communicating with people from different backgrounds.
   One of the limitations is that some people sometimes talk in their first language in the WeChat group, which may have a negative effect on the community leading others to hesitate to speak in English. To address this problem, particular rules should be introduced when people are new to the community. In this way, group members will be more aware of the importance of a completely authentic language environment.

   • Thanks for sharing, Connie! It’s wonderful to know that you have the opportunity to communicate with native speakers in a Chinese mobile application. Some English native speakers may find it difficult to use WeChat, so it seems uncommon for them to get involved with WeChat groups and talk with Chinese overseas students. As for the limitation, some Chinese participants surely use their first language in the chat group, and your advice about setting some rules in the chat group is understandable. However, what if some second-language speakers don’t know how to express themselves in English? For some Chinese students, communicating purely in English might be an unachievable task.

4. Personally I follow some WeChat Public Accounts that provide up-to-date, authentic reading materials from the well known publications such as the Economist. One of these accounts is also an exchange platform for translators. They can apply to become official translators for the articles published and share their ideas about how they did the translation. Apart from that, I haven’t had much experience using social media for English learning, mostly because of the limited accessibility to those global media. Even if we have access, it is difficult to get involved in authentic communications in the English-speaking online communities. Using social media as a learner network has also been proven not very effective, probably because of the artificiality of the intended learning activities.

   • Hi, Felix! Thanks for suggesting the Public Account of the Economist on WeChat. I checked it out and was amazed to find that many of its articles were bilingually translated from English to Chinese. It was thoughtful how the translator took the time to identify and highlight useful words, phrases, expressions and idioms throughout the English text, and how he placed them in a separate learning table complete with definitions and sentence examples. As far as limited accessibility to global media goes, I can understand how popular western social media such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube may be heavily censored in some countries. Anyhow, you may want to try a free and moderated website called MyEnglishClub (EC) for worldwide learners and teachers of English. You can take part in EC’s ESL Blogs and discussion topics which range from English learning to quotes, food and politics, and join different groups for members sharing similar interests in particular literacy areas.

5. I believe social networks can provide a lot of ways to learn English. For example, Facebook is an excellent platform on which to find other learners and work together. The users can join an English-language learning group that allows them to lean on each other for support and ask questions to others who are in the process of learning English.

   • Hi Jaclyn! Thanks for sharing! Yes, Facebook is another great platform for language learning. Can you share more about its limitations or your experience of using Wechat?

6. 1. Nowadays, many foreigners live and work in different regions of China, making WeChat an increasingly popular social media with a large number of users speaking English. Communicating with my foreign teachers on WeChat did help me learn some colloquial expressions in English, which I hadn’t known even after studying English for ten years in school. Besides, my teachers liked sharing their personal lives on Moment, and I was happy to response. I think WeChat can be very useful for learning a language as long as we have some friends speaking the target language on it.

   2. The limitation of the group chat community is that learners can only be exposed to spoken genres, which are relatively simpler than formal written texts. To improve the effectiveness of language learning, we may prepare some topics for discussion, making the communication more formal.

   • I agree with you, the most useful function of language learning in WeChat will be communication, where users can learn a lot during the process. But this relies a lot on the person you talk with so if you what to practice your L2 in chatting, you have to select the object clearly.
     For the second question, formal topics in communication will make it more effective, and I still think that teachers should also participate in the formal topic chatting.

7. 1.I think comparing with WeChat, using instagram or Facebook may be a more motivated way to learn a language. Learners can follow the famous people they’re interested in and make comments to their postings and also observe what others are saying. By doing this, they can apply L2 in an authentic contexts and learn new expressions. Since various people can post their comments, it will not be limited by participants’ language levels and different topics.
   2.As I have said above, users may not get improved by each others’ limited levels. And without supervision, they may talk in an easy way or even forget to use target language. I think inviting teachers even foreigners to supervise and guide users is necessary.

   • Joyce, thanks for your ideas! Learning English in other social media enjoys multiple advantages such as unlimited topics, accessible online platforms, motivated attitudes, and closely related to students’ real-life experiences. Your concern about students maybe lack of supervision when they are using social media is a good point. Moreover, students may even dive into information that is posted on social media and forget their learning purposes on online platforms. Definitely, they need supervision in both school and at home, not just to help them focus on the language itself, but to monitor some misleading information such as pornographic texts, violent writing and even threatening comments.

8. I follow some WeChat account related to English or International publisher to learn some expression in English language. Besides, when I was communicating with my Japanese teacher in my undergraduate years, I use the translation function in WeChat. I also follow some interest groups on twitter to learn about international news and English language knowledge.

   As for the limitations, people stick to use L1 in WeChat group most of the time. Besides, since people cannot see each others’ expressions or comprehend the meaning completely according to language proficiency, misunderstandings may be caused.

   • Hi, Alex! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Personally, I think WeChat’s translation function is one of the best features built into the app. When my MAES 2020 cohort classmates added me to their group chat, I had trouble reading and understanding their Chinese text messages, because my Chinese proficiency is the equivalent of a P5 student’s level and I struggle to read simplified Chinese. Thanks to the translation feature, it saved my life and I was able to comprehend their messages without having to ask my classmates to rewrite them in English. So I definitely agree with your comment about the chat group’s limitation, because there is a likelihood that group members fall back on using L1 to increase understanding.

9. I find some Wechat public accounts that provide learners some resources or tips of English helpful. Some teachers may create the accounts and pose some tips of different skills or notes of some articles to earn some money. They list out the translation, pronunciation, grammatical knowledge, or vocabularies. And some of them provide some groups with monitors where learners can share their confusion or supervise each other’s learning process.

   I actually think the chat group in Wechat is quite convenient, because you can send voice messages, text messages and have a video meeting. It also provides the service of translation. I assume if it is inserted with the self-correcting function, it is conducive to the language progress.

   • Hi Kristy! Thanks for your reply. I agree with you that Official Accounts and group chats are beneficial for language learning. I also used these functions when I prepared for the language test. And I am looking forward to the self-correcting or evaluation function developed by Tencent.

10. 1. I will talk about my recommendation of learning four skills using WeChat. As for listening skills, we can listen to the audio files in WeChat Tweets or listen to the sounds of videos in video platform of WeChat. As for speaking skills, we can use audio function of WeChat and communicate with our friends in English. As for reading skills, we can read English news or articles in WeChat. As for writing skills, we can learn some authentic English expressions by reading English WeChat tweets and we can also create our own WeChat official account account and publish our works on it.

    2. The imitation of group chat community in WeChat is that we cannot share our screen when we use the group calling function. In this way, it is sometimes difficult to know what others talking about. As far as I am concerned, we can take screen shots when we use group calling function. By doing so, others can see the items we are talking about and we can make ourselves understood.

    • Thanks for your comments. WeChat provides several functions for us that we can use for language learning. And I think post articles on official accounts is a good suggestion to practice writing, they can post their daily life or something interested, and this might be fun.
      I have the same experience of unable to share the screen in our group meeting, it is complex to screen shot and share in the group chat, so finally we switched to the zoom.

11. I seldom use WeChat but I guess the practice of using WhatsApp is the same as WeChat. I did join different groups on language learning through WhatsApp and different professionals would share information and links for extensive language learning.

    I can think of the tone of the chatting in the group chat community is usually informal and the participants would use their L1 as the main language for interactions. Thus, the participants would have less chances to practise their L2.

    • Thanks for sharing, Florence! I think both WeChat and WhatsApp provide the basic functions that facilitate second language learning such as voice messages, text messages, and links. Your concern about the students may rely on casual L1 language interaction in online social media makes sense, and many classmates agree with your thought about limitations. It’s an unavoidable problem if teachers or parents do not help students use social media to learn the second language properly.

12. 1. I highly recommend language learners to follow some Official Accounts on WeChat to learn a language. Some Official Accounts such as MintReading provide many authentic reading materials, and some accounts such as LearnAndRecord and TuesMagique are created by advanced language learners, analyzing long and difficult sentences and sharing their language learning experience with readers. Most Official Accounts are updated on a daily basis, so learners have access to new resources everyday. Moreover, language learners can even create their own Official Accounts to record their learning.

    2. One limitation I can think of is that some learners may rely too much on the translation function of WeChat. They can understand the messages without looking up the dictionary. To avoid this potential problem, learners should be encouraged to send more voice messages.

    • Hi, Cindy! Thanks for suggesting the above resourceful Official Accounts. I realised I am a member of the LearnAndRecord account too, although I have not checked it out for some time. I am truly amazed at how advanced learners in these communities willingly contribute their efforts to enable less able English learners to sharpen their literacy skills via these authentic reading materials. As far as limitations go, I certainly agree with you. Even though the translation feature is very convenient, it may also lead to learners relying too much on translating L2 to L1, thus cutting down their chances of full English immersion and authentic L2 exchanges.

13. 1. Learning a language through social media can be a decent complimentary of formal learning of that language at school. While bottom-up learning can be more motivating, it seems that it lacks the pedagogical sequence of how a language should be learnt. However, it serves as a decent platform for language output.

    2. In most cases, discourse is mostly dominated by active users while passive users are merely recipient in interactions.

14. There are numerous WeChat public accounts, but not all are trustworthy. Generally, I will only follow some run by the official organizations and professional teams, such as China Daily, CATTI, 独霸上海的妖怪, etc. They will update postings almost every day, following current events and social hotspots. With these accounts, we can make good use of our breaks to keep up with the social trend easily while acquiring English unconsciously. And from my perspective, the limitations of WeChat group communities are also obvious. For example, conversations on WeChat are not always synchronous, thus, if someone cannot be replied immediately, he/she may lose interest quickly, and the whole conversation will end soon.

15. 1. I always watch videos via Bilibili to learn English. People can launch a bullet screen, which allows real-time comments from viewers to fly across the screen like bullets. People can share the explanation of words, their learning experience, and the number of days they have insisted on learning. When I read them, I feel like be accompanied by other people.
    2. If a group has so many members, there will be so much information to check. Some are useless, and it is difficult to find the message I need. Luckily these kinds of problems have been solved now. We can search for the chat history according to the speaker and time.

16. There are reading ‘camps’ or groups organized by some WeChat official accounts. Although you might need to pay a fee before you can join these groups, I’d say some of them are worth the money if the organizers are professionals and know what they are doing. This way it feels like you have a personal ‘trainer’ on reading and writing and you also get to meet with people who share similar interests.

17. Many Language Education official accounts on WeChat offer a range of helpful information from different aspects. Most of it is exciting and frequently used in our daily life. Such as expressions and small words from video clips, play scripts, lines from pop songs, and sitcoms.
    As a WeChat user, I often mute the group chats and ignore the majority because there might be too much meaningless content. If I am really interested in some topics, I will search the keywords in the history.

18. I suggest using Instagram, which includes pictures, videos, and texts, to learn English. We can interact with Instagram users via Instagram stories, comments on posts, and direct messages worldwide. It is a fun platform for learners to acquire English knowledge outside the classroom.

    I think Instagram is user-friendly. The limitation of the chatbox is whether learners are willing to communicate with other users actively or not. If they can be brave or confident to interact with other users in English, Instagram is an excellent tool for their language learning.

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