Edited by Yiming LU, Xuanxuan QI, Luyao ZHU, Zhijia ZHANG
Have you ever used social media platforms for language learning and using?
How do you write your posts?
Image from pixabay.com
Introduction
The development of the Internet makes it possible for learners to integrate social media platforms into language learning and using, and one of the important manifestations of this integration is digital writing which “is highly creative, a rich mix of linguistic and semiotic modes that reflects the reality of life in multilingual contexts” (Schreiber, 2015, p. 71).
Schreiber described a case study of multiple writing practices on social networking platforms. In her study, a Serbian ESL learner, Aleksandar, posted on Facebook by using multiple linguistic resources, his first language Serbian, second language English, and also hip-hop codes, constructing multilingual identities. Klimanova and Dembovskaya (2013) found that writing on social networking platforms allowed students to move past the identity of L2 learner placed on them in the classroom and into the identity of L2 user — one that much more closely resonates with their understandings of themselves.
Here we will illustrate what makes social networking platforms available for language learners to use languages, and how teachers can employ these spaces in classrooms.
Affordances of Social Media Platforms for Digital Writing
This part examines how trendy social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. afford learners opportunities to conduct writing practices in online spaces.
- Multimodality
On social media platforms, instead of being expressed purely in written words, learners’ thoughts and ideas can be presented and shared in diversified forms. They can flexibly orchestrate various semiotic resources, including pictures, videos, audio, external links, and also emoji to realize specific communicative purposes and make the writing contents more informative and entertaining.
- Inclusiveness
Inclusiveness is manifested in two ways. On the one hand, when posting messages on the Internet, there is no need to strictly stick to native speaker norms and emphasize the correctness of word choices and grammar. Aleksandar’s code-meshed writing (Schreiber, 2015) is a good example, showing the freedom of linguistic expressions provided by social media platforms. On the other hand, social media posts can cover a wide range of topics, thus the learners’ using language can be mainly driven by interests.
- Language environment
The users of social media platforms have different socio-cultural backgrounds, which can create a realistic language environment, providing learners with authentic language materials that can be used as a reference in their own digital writing.
Teaching Strategies
Social media platforms are regarded as potentially authentic learning spaces. Language learners spend more time writing prolifically online than at school (Galvin & Greenhow, 2019). This has prompted thinking about how these online spaces can be effectively utilized or integrated into writing instruction in the classroom. Some teaching strategies implementing social media used in the high school classroom have been summarized by Sarah Galvin and Christine Greenhow (2019):
- Deploy social media as online composition spaces for a formal classroom project: the final output of the assignment is presented on social media.
E.g. complete a semester-long task on a class blog to freely express opinions on targeted topics.
- Employ social media as supplemental tools within a larger writing project: instead of being used as the platform for the final output, social media plays a part in the composition process.
E.g. give peers feedback in English classes or engage in collaborative concept map design in a pre-writing activity on social media.
- Use social media to connect authentic contexts or to replicate real-world experiences.
E.g. use Facebook to hone online career skills involving writing and presenting a personal statement and building networks with others.
Image from freeimages.com
Pedagogical Challenges
However, there are still some challenges existing in actual teaching process as Galvin and Greenhow (2019) mentioned.
- Frustrate learning motivation
Students who have been accustomed to traditional teaching forms for years may lack interest in using social media to improve their writing skills. Also, there are students who do not know how to use online platforms, which may finally frustrate their motivation for language learning.
- Logistical issues: time-consuming / assessment
Teachers need to take into account the time and effort required to get students ready for digital writing. Meanwhile, it can also be time-consuming and tough for teachers to manage and assess the content students post on the platforms.
Discussion
- Do you think learning languages on social media is helpful? Why?
- What’s your experience of foreign language use on social media?
- If you were a teacher, would you use social media platforms to assist your own teaching practices? Why or why not?
1. I think learning a language on social media is helpful because when you use social media, you are not carrying the purpose of learning something. When you are relaxed about browsing social media, I think you can acquire knowledge unconsciously, just picking them up in your mind. You are not under tremendous study stress, and you can behave better in receiving language learning.
2. When I scan entertainment news or information through social media, I am interested in the knowledge and willing to remember related vocabulary and grammar points.
3. I would like to take it as assistance as a teacher because I wanna enable my students to study in a more relaxing and exciting way.
Totally agree. Learning could be easier when we are more relaxed and less purposeful.
1. Absolutely Yes! we can learn a language with social media by following people who speak the language we’d like to learn. Whether that’s on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter…we can try the language we learned to interact with them.
2. The experience I can remember is when I use Youtube to watch my favorite singer’s songs and read the English comments on them. I had to figure out the meaning to know others’ feelings about these songs.
3. Yes. It a funny and interesting way to enhance my teaching, because it is more related to my students and therefore will interest my students more.
I had the same experience. Although we have been learning English for many years, there are still a lot of expressions that would confuse us when we read the comments and blogs posted on social media platforms. I think that’s exactly the reason why social media platforms can afford us opportunities to learn how to use foreign languages in real life context.
1. I believe that learning languages on social media can be helpful, as it provides an opportunity to interact with native speakers and learn from them in a more exciting fashion. So it motivates me to study proactively and pursue lifelong learning.
2. My experience of foreign language use on social media is chatting with people worldwide, including non-native English speakers. In this process, I have been able to practice my language skills and gain insight into the culture of the language I am learning, promoting me to be more open-minded to cultural differences.
3. As a teacher, I would use social media platforms to assist my teaching practices, as it can be a great way to engage students and provide them with additional resources to help them learn. However, I hope my students will not be exposed to unpleasant content.
Yep, it is important to choose social media platforms with pleasant content for our students.
Yes! I am agree with you! Using social media for learning languages will provide a vivid and real language context which is totally different from academic environment. As a teacher , using social media appropriately will help teachers find out the latest information and provide more interesting information for Ss.
1. Learning languages on social media I think is useful because, as mentioned in the blog, the multimodality nature of digital writing allows the thoughts and ideas of the publisher or learner to be presented or shared in multiple formats, which can make the learning process more self-directed and more interesting.
2. My experience with foreign languages on social media was once expressing my love for an American blogger’s video in English under a YouTube anime video he had edited.
3.If I were a teacher, I would definitely use social media platforms to assist my teaching. Because with the advancement of technology, online platforms and social media are very common and almost all young people (students) use such platforms to communicate or learn. Using social media platforms to assist in teaching and learning can make classroom activities richer and more engaging and interactive for students to improve learning efficiency and outcomes.
Agree with you. I also want to apply social media platforms to my teaching activities in the future, but there are still many difficulties to overcome. Hope we can find effective teaching strategies applicable to English education in mainland China.
1. I think learning the language on social media is helpful. First, social media provides a lot of input for language learning. For a variety of reasons, we love browsing social media. For example, we want to get information about idols. We want to browse for some short news. We want to know about others’ interest. By browsing through this information, we get a lot of language input. At the same time, we can also communicate with others on social media in the target language, which also provides us opportunities to have output.
2. I have a good experience using a foreign language on social media. First, we get the opportunity to communicate with others. We can discuss idols or social news together. This is what attracts my attention. Secondly, through social media, I have successfully used the language I have learned. I have a great sense of accomplishment.
3. If I were a teacher, I might use relatively formal social media platforms to assist teaching. For example, using such a blog link. Because mass social media information is diverse. Students tend to become addicted and unable to distinguish between true and false information. Second, social media dedicated to learning makes it easier for the communication between teachers and students or between students and students.
Agree with you. It also seems to me that formal digital platforms are much “safer”.
1. I agree that learning a language on social media could be beneficial for many people of different ages. As many people graduate from university or high school, they are given little chance to have systematic language classes. If they want to learn a language, they could definitely use different social media to help them enrich themselves. They could absorb knowledge by chatting with others on some social platforms like Youtube, Twitter, etc. In this way, their time and energy would be greatly saved.
2. I have experience using social media to learn a language is when I preparing for the IELTS examination. There is a popular social media app called Little Red Book in China. Each person who owns an account could post their learning or living experience on this platform. Therefore, many English teachers will share their teaching content with everyone without charge. I learned a lot from their postings which enabled me successfully pass the exam.
3. If I were a teacher, I would definitely use social media to assist my teaching. Probably I will also create a weblog and invite my students to come in and post their comments. I will try to get everyone involved in the sharing process and help them learn more about each other.
Nice and feasible idea about the weblog task. Hope it will work 😊！
1. Yeah, I do find learning languages on social media helpful, as it allows learners to learn languages in a more relaxing and interactive way, which differs a lot from the traditional learning at school. On social media, students are driven by their own interest to learn, while at school studens are always under the stress of passing endless exams.
2.My experience of foreign language use on social media is that I commented on some videos talking about games that can be used in secondary school EFL classes. I learned more from the comments as there were plenty of comments from many front-line teachers.
3. If I were a teacher, I would make use of social media plat forms to assist my teaching so that students can be provided with authentic language learning contexts, which is beneficial to language learning.
It surprised me that front-line teachers commented on game videos. Did they try to find materials in game communities to draw their students’ attention😂? Whether how they would use these videos🤔.
Totally agree with you!!! Students need a variety of language exposure. Digital wilds such as social medias provide them with more entertaining and amusing language experience and interaction, which can be taken as a supplement of formal school learning.
1. I think learning languages on social media is not always helpful. Anyone can gather information anonymously and learn the knowledge shared by others in a relaxing way; but at the same time, it could be time-consuming and energy-consuming to filter the right information from advertisements and fake information.
2. My experience of using English to communicate on social media was the time I browsed fandom fiction with tags on a non-profit fan-run website. I saw a well-written piece that was really moving, so for the first time I created a special account to leave a comment under that work to encourage the author to continue the writing, then three days later the author replied with many thanks under my comment.
3. If I were a teacher, I would use social media to assist my teaching. I would use a weblog or a public account in Bilibili to invite my students to create something interesting so they can feel motivated to learn.
1. Yes absolutely, it is conducive to language learning as it provides a language context different from traditional in-class teaching, which is more flexible and freer for students to talk. But I got a question as well. Suppose teachers apply this way in language practices. Will it invade students’ daily relaxation, as it is often suggested by specialists that people should separate their work/ study from entertainment/relaxation, or we can’t get a balanced life and will keep anxious about not finishing the work?
2. I’ve never used social media with the explicit intention of learning a language. Still, when I was browsing through the comment areas, I practiced the language skills unintentionally because I’d like to interact with others or I’d like to understand what others are talking about, which is purely out of curiosity.
3. If I were, no. because I don’t trust students’ self-control ability. When applying this technique in class but without the right of monitoring their activity trajectories, I believe that the class will soon descend into chaos.
Overall, I do think that learning English on social media can be helpful considering that there are massive resources that can be utilized on social media including authentic communication context, updated Internet slang, approachable readers from different cohorts and so on.
But now I seldom apply digital writing in foreign languages on social media. Not only because I didn’t use foreign social media very often but also because I’m not the kind of person that will post updates on unfamiliar social media (maybe a bit introverted and passive).
Hope one day in the future, I can be brave enough to have a try.
Whether using social medial platforms or not hinges on the teaching context and targeted students. It is impractical to use this method during the compulsory education period (Grades 1-9) in mainland China. But it can be feasible when it comes to tertiary education and extracurricular tutoring. At least teachers can introduce this method for reference.
Hi Bree – maybe something that would work for you during the compulsory education period is a focus on independent learning? The teacher could introduce students to ways of exploiting online resources, including social media, for language learning.
Hi, Dr. Chritoph! Thanks for your suggestions. Actually, I didn’t mean that this method it’s not applicable during the compulsory education period. I mean as a teacher, I won’t assign homework related to writing on social media during compulsory education.
Here are several reasons below.
1. In mainland China, there are some restrictions on getting access to foreign social media. We may need to use VPN to get connected. And teaching students how to get on those platforms in public classes maybe is illicit.
2. Most primary schools and secondary schools forbid students from bringing electronic devices to schools. And some parents also restrict the time that children can use those devices. Assigning those kinds of homework maybe can cause problems like students may make use of these assignments to violate the school rules, break patents’ restrictions or just do anything else (e.g. play computer games, etc). That also can partly explain the importance of learner agency.
I do agree that teaching them how to exploit online resources during the compulsory education period can be helpful. But in what circumstances can we tell them needs much more consideration (National policy, school regulations, parental acceptance, and students’ agency). If possible, I am very willing to share more information on utilizing online resources to improve language learning with students.
I agree that teacher could introduce students to ways of digital writing and learning. For compulsory education, in addition to recommending students to engage in various digital writing contexts, teachers could also make use online platforms to design assignments for students. But the latter may be more appropriate for students living in cities since those who living in underdeveloped area may have no access to the Internet.
Learners should be definitely encouraged to learn languages on social media. They are able to utilize multimodal texts they are interested in and also create some multimodal compositions to share their ideas and participate in community activities. In such a context, learners are more relaxed and active, thus promoting learning efficiency.
I sometimes post on Ins to share my special moments and receive comments from my friends. I also comments on posts I like. It’s a good way of communication between friends and even strangers.
As a teacher, I would like to encourage students to write their diaries on social media with different modes, e.g. pictures, videos. Different from traditional diaries, such loosly-structured and multimodal tasks can be more attractive to students. Of course, I will give some instructions before they start composing.
I think it is really a nice idea that we write our own diaries with some elements different from traditional ones like comics, stickers, and so on. It makes diaries more pictorial and vivid, which renders writing diaries easier to stick with.
Learning languages on social media is of course helpful.
Well, in China, what we learn is quite not daily used. For instance, we learned an idiom “rain cats and dogs”, which means the heavy rain. But years later, I learned in an online IELTs teaching lesson that this idiom has been abandoned for a very long time. So I believe people can learn the update and more common used vocabulary or idioms rather than the solid sentences in the textbook on social media.
1. I absolutely agree! Seeing the different ways in which information is expressed in social media has increased my comprehension of digital writing and the transmission of information. I would say learning a language through social media was possible, but relying solely on the media was not feasible.
2. Ample social media platforms have given me a pretty nice learning experience, such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I see positive or negative comments about photos, videos, or events, I exclaim:” Wow! That’s how it can be expressed!” As you can imagine, this is a very different way to write an essay.
3. It depends. Students’ interest in learning can increase a lot if they can express their views by posting photos, articles and videos during the class. Also, having relevant games in the classroom helps to increase students’ competitiveness and performance. However, if students are given assignments through social media platforms. I think it would be more difficult to manage and a burden for some parents and students who do not know how to use online tools.
1. It is helpful to some extent. Although this learning process is not systematic, its starting point is from the perspective of the individual student. It starts from one’s own preferences. The learning motivation and learning enthusiasm will be more obvious. But the relative learning will be too one-sided and not comprehensive enough.
2. I signed up for Instagram to a large extent to follow stars, especially Thai stars. Although there is a translation function on this software, it is still inaccurate, which prompted me to learn some simple Thai by myself. Through the combination of self-study and social media, I learned more about the more daily usage of this language. Also, I learned some language features of this language, such as using invisible punctuation marks to segment sentences.
3. If I were a teacher with the teaching context in mainland China as the context, I would not choose to use social media to carry out teaching tasks. Because the content learned here is too routine and colloquial, which does not meet the needs of Chinese students for the exam. At the same time, it is difficult for me to guarantee that students will not encounter some bullies on social platforms.
Social media can be quite helpful in learning a language. Learners can access various language resources and practice their language skills anytime, anywhere. Moreover, instead of following teachers’ instructions to learn a language in class, they can immerse themselves in an authentic context and explore their interests.
My experience can also show the usefulness of social media. For instance, I enjoy watching some English vlogs, where vloggers will share their daily life and discuss interesting topics with the audience. By watching their videos, I can grasp some real-life English expressions and better understand foreign cultures.
If I were a teacher, I would use social media platforms to assist in teaching. Social media can provide more opportunities for teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction. Teachers can form groups or communities for students to ask questions, share ideas and do group work, by which a collaborative learning environment can be fostered. Some educational resources, such as articles and videos, will be shared as a content supplement to consolidate knowledge and increase students’ interest in English.
1. Yes, I think it is helpful. I think this way of learning English can be less stressful, and it is a good way for learners to learn language used for various situations, for academics, for work, for politics, or just for entertainment.
2. I will use INS or facebook to watch some videos or look through some information, and then I may check some comments to learn something about their language used in daily life, and sometimes I may join the discussion to practice my English.
3. I think I will use social media to assist my teaching, but I will not take it as a must for students to learn, I will take it as a choice for them. I don’t think students can only learn language through formal class, it is also important for them to reach different kinds of language and learn something about practical use of language, because I think language is a useful skill for life or work instead of just about the exam.
1.I think social media can be beneficial to students’ language learning because it can connect students with resources from experts around the world, facilitate communication and collaboration between classmates. It effectively provide a platform for sharing information and ideas, which is very important for language studies.
2.Because I had studied in UK before, so I used Facebook very often back then. I texted with friends in UK there to talk about football, which was a valuable experience. I have had effective output when it comes to language studying and it helped me a lot in terms of having greater intimacy with my British friends. Also, we had a chat group for all of us in the same classroom. We posted jokes and shared our daily life using English.
3.If I were a teacher, I would use social media platforms to assist my own teaching practices because it allows students to use English to connect with others and, at the same, develops their communication skills. However, as a students, I will remind students to avoid using some bad words/ swearing words that they might learn from others.
I believe that learning the target language on social media is effective. In this context, people tend to prioritise their exposure to what interests them most and perceive it as a comfortable environment without pressure to learn, where language acquisition, consciously or unconsciously, is more efficient, which is related to interest and motivation to learn. However, when people’s interest in social media is limited to their native language environment, language acquisition may does not occur, which is very much a personal dependent factor.
In my personal case, I have had more experience of interacting with people from other countries on Twitter. I have learnt a lot of the current popular social content in English, including some memes and some interesting abbreviations. Meanwhile, on Bilibili (considered the Chinese YouTube), I sometimes watch streams by foreign streamers, which is an interesting experience as I need to listen carefully and understand what they are talking about, and respond promptly through chat interaction. Sometimes I even had to use English to explain some Chinese meaning or Chinese cultural knowledge to the streamer. I had a great deal of fun and a lot of language practice during this process.
Although I definitely enjoy learning foreign languages on social media, introducing this approach into the classroom requires thorough preparation. Which social media to choose? What kind of projects could be used to achieve effective language acquisition for students? Is there a need to provide students with prior technical guidance? How can student output be reasonably assessed when online writing tend to be multimodal? There are many practical issues that need to be addressed.
1. Language is a tool whose main purpose is to communicate and to serve the needs of everyday life. Just like Mandarin and any language, people use it to improve communication and understanding between each other, and social media platforms can provide a more real-life language environment, giving language learners a stronger sense of immersion.
2. When I was an undergraduate, my teachers would often have us practice our English writing using some online software where the whole class could see each other’s essays, but I think this practice carried a strong purpose, which was to write patterned, high-scoring essays for tests. It often has a theme decided by the teacher. Sometimes we are also asked to create simple public tweets in English, which can be relatively entertaining because we can choose the topics that interest us and the language is used more freely.
3. I would be very happy for my students to use social media to learn a language. Firstly, it gives them more freedom to use the language, and secondly, it makes them feel that language learning is not a boring and rigid process, but that it is relevant to our daily lives.
1&2. I totally agree with that. As a big fan of online gaming, I love to watch game videos posted by gamers on YouTube to learn game skills. It is also fun to communicate with other gamers in the comment section, during which I have learned new words or grammar to express my ideas correctly.
3. Despite the above, I won’t use social media platforms in my teaching. In mainland China, English teachers are required to follow the curriculum and teach what students need to pass exams. In other words, we should teach “standard English”, rather than the casual language on the Internet.
It is a definitely useful and efficient way to learn foreign languages by using online social platform. I totally resonate with the studies mentioned in the post. I used to be a huge fan of an American pop singer. I have followed all her public accounts in the social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Sina Weibo. Then I started to frequently interact with her and her fans by commenting or sharing my opinions towards her songs or the music videos. I got to learn a lot of online colloquialisms or popular “hashtags” by interacting and socialising in the fandom under the context of social media. Even my listening skills have been greatly enhanced because I spend a lot of time watching those Instagram live and trying to figure out every single word said by the singers. Thus, it seems that this interaction process helped to gradually and unconsciously improve my listening skills and enlarge my vocabularies.
1. Yes! It is really helpful. some L2 students think language learning in the classroom lacks authentic language environment. Now, social media platforms provide a authentic environment for students to interact with others in targeted language . On these platforms they can use diversified forms like video, pictures to share daily life. The experience of using their language to influence others on social platform encourages students to learn language harder.
2. I often follow some TV shows and short videos on Youtube and discuss plots with others.
3.If i were a teacher, I would use social media platforms to assist teaching process on class, so that my class can be more creative and enjoyable.