Informal English Language Teaching and Learning on Thai Facebook Pages: Affordances, Positioning, and Stance-Taking

Abstract

The present study explores informal English language teaching and learning (ELTL) on the social media platform of Facebook. In contrast to a formal second/foreign language (L2/FL) education setting which is institutionally sponsored and highly structured, the context of informal ELTL under investigation is "recreational" (Chik, 2015) in the sense that it is unconstrained by institutional structures and largely driven by personal interests and goals. With the unprecedented success of social media and social networking sites (SNSs), this new form of learning and teaching can be found in a variety of languages and discourses across diverse digital landscapes. This study pays particular attention to the context of Thai speakers in three ELTL communities formed on Facebook Pages (FPs). The aim is to describe the participants' SNS-mediated L2 literacy practices as informed by Thai culture, beliefs, and values. This research project is grounded in the concept of new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011) and the multimodal social semiotic approaches to analyzing digitally-mediated communication (Kress, 2010; Jewitt, 2009; Van Leeuwen, 2005). The analysis is also informed by the interpretative framework of positioning theory (Davies and Harré, 1990; Harré & van Langenhove, 1991) and sociolinguistic approaches to stances (Du Bois, 2007; Jaffe, 2009a). The integration of various theoretical and analytical models offers a holistic understanding of the participants' Facebook-based literacy practices from different perspectives. A mixed method approach that combines qualitative (e.g., multimodal analysis, online ethnographic observation) and quantitative (e.g., survey, user statistics) data analysis also helps describe the users’ semiotic productions and interactions from a diachronic point of view. While the purpose of the project is to examine contemporary L2 literacy engagement in an underexplored historical and cultural context, the analysis does not simply discuss the way Thai SNS users teach and/or learn English online. Rather, the findings also shed light on other important issues relating to digital literacies including multimodal production, identity construction, social relationship formation, stance-taking acts, and language ideology. These emerging literacy practices are presented in three separate but interrelated analysis chapters. They are comprised of: 1) the multimodal analysis of the interplay between Facebook affordances and the users' semiotic activities; 2) the investigation of the participants’ self- and other-positioning strategies; and 3) the discussion of the participants' stance-taking acts in various aspects relating to English language teaching, learning, and use in contemporary society. Altogether, the findings pinpoint the complex and interconnected relationships among digital media, self, community, and ideology as fundamental to meaningful learning experiences on SNSs. They also support the view of language learning as a social practice, which highlights the fact that meaning and knowledge are socially and culturally situated, shaped by contexts, and shared by members within particular communities (Gee, 2010; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Thorne, 2013). The dissertation, therefore, has implications for pedagogies and practice because it provides insights about how to design equitable learning materials and activities that address these contemporary social practices. Ultimately, the research suggests the use of a social media-enhanced ELTL site to develop meaningful interactions between learner, language, media, and community during the process of learning.