Language learning affordances of Instagram and TikTok

This study examines creative uses of emerging image-based social media for informal language learning. Adopting the ecological concept of affordances, it investigates new technological features on Instagram and TikTok and how they are utilised as resources for language learning. Using public data of Instagram photo/video and TikTok video posts, the study is based on 200 posts from each application collected over two months. A qualitative content analysis was conducted based on four key dimensions of technological innovation: multimodality, mobility, instantaneous participation, and interactivity. The findings show how language learners’ use of the new technological features employed on the two platforms are related to these dimensions, and how they use agency and creativity to perceive affordances for language learning in features not originally designed for this purpose. The study contributes to understanding of the ways in which online informal language learning is adapting to technological innovation in new image-based social media.