This document summarizes research on informal language learning through engagement with digital media like YouTube. It discusses how YouTube allows for translanguaging practices in user-generated videos and comments. Research approaches described include longitudinal case studies and discourse analysis of video content. Evidence suggests YouTube enables microglobalization where individuals communicate across borders, and informal language learning in comment exchanges where users provide explanations and feedback.

1. Translanguaging and the
globalization of YouTube:
Implications for informal language learning and
learner development
(HK GRF-funded project RGC840211)
Phil Benson, Hong Kong Institute of Education
JALT LD-SIG 20th Anniversary Conference
23-24 November 2013

2. Background
• Autonomy – theoretical research
• Language learning beyond the classroom –
data-based research
– Narrative research on language learning histories
– Second language identity and study abroad
– Informal language learning through engagement
with popular culture and digital media

4. Background
• Autonomy – theoretical research
• Language learning beyond the classroom –
data-based research
– Narrative research on language learning histories
– Second language identity and study abroad
– Informal language learning through engagement
with popular culture and digital media (YouTube)

5. Terminology
• ‘entirely out-of-school noninstitutional realms
of freely chosen digital engagement’ (Thorne,
Black & Sykes, 2009)
• ‘independent CALL’, (Egbert, et al, 2011)
• ‘naturalistic CALL’ (Benson & Chik, 2011)

6. Approaches to research
Longitudinal
• Case study
• Ethnographic / narrative
• Tracking individuals using
and learning languages
through engagement with
popular culture and digital
media
• Murray (2008), Black
(2007), Chik (2012)
Cross-sectional
• Document based
• Content / discourse analysis
• Surveying popular culture/
digital text corpora for
evidence of individuals
using and learning
languages
• Lee and Barton(2012),
Benson and Chik (2011)

7. Macro/microglobalization
Macroglobalization
• Rapid, global growth of key
digital media services
(YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter, etc)
• Convergence of popular
culture and digital media
• Everything available
everywhere
• Global circulation of
language and culture
Microglobalization
• Global interconnectedness
at the level of the individual
• The impact of
macroglobalization on…
• user behaviour/networks
• multiauthored digital
media texts (e.g. a
Facebook page, a YouTube
page)

8. Macroglobalization - YouTube
“…YouTube provides a forum for people to
connect, inform, and inspire others across the
globe…”
– More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each
month
– 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
– YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61
languages
– In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or
around 140 views for every person on Earth
(YouTube, June 2013)

9. Microglobalization - YouTube
• Individuals communicating and producing text
across geographical/linguistic borders
• YouTube pages as local multicultural and
multilingual spaces
“multilingualism is not what individuals have and
don’t have, but what the environment, as structured
determinations and interactional emergence,
enables and disables”
(Blommaert, Collins and Slembrouck, 2005: 197)

10. Translanguaging
• Use of, or reference to, more than one
language in a communicative event
• On YouTube evidenced in…
– Translanguaging practices in videos
– Translanguaging practices in communicative
interaction in comments

11. Asian singers singing in English
• East Asian singers singing in
English – Utada Hikaru, Tata
Young
• Translanguaging in video
• Problematization of
language and culture in
comments
• Emergence of comments as
a multilingual, ‘Asian’ space
(Benson 2013)

12. Chinese song fansubbed in English
• Beijing welcomes
you – Olympic song
• Fansubbing
• Discussion of…
–
–
–
–
Translation
Language forms
Language and culture
Teaching and
learning
Benson & Chan (2010)

13. Upside down?

14. …or the right way up?
A: lol he put it upside down 3:44
B: it's done by purpose
the word is fu, which means good fortune /hapiness
when we put it upside down, we say it's
fudao
and dao=upside down
but there is a homonym dao(another dao that sounds the same, though
not written the same way and has a different meaning), that means to
happen/to come
so fudao=fu upside down= fu to happen, to come
so the meaning of put it upside down is actually to want the good fortune
to come into the house (we usually put the upside down fu on the main door)

15. Informal language learning in social media
environments: a YouTube-based case study
• 10 groups of videos involving translingual practice
• Research issues:
– How evidence of informal learning and teaching can be
identified;
– How contexts for learning are constructed on YouTube;
– The nature of learning and teaching practices;
– The features of YouTube discourse that may contribute to
learning.

16. Translanguaging in videos
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chinese speaker speaking English (TV interview)
English speaker speaking Chinese
Chinese speaker teaching English
English speaker teaching Chinese
Chinese speaker singing in English
English speaker singing in Chinese
English speaker talking about Chinese culture
Chinese song fansubbed in English
Chinese speaker making a mistake in English
Chinese speaker interviewed in English with interpreter

17. Findings
• High proportion of comments on language
and culture – 32% of total comments
• High proportion of interactional exchanges
within comments – 45% of language/culture
comments
• Interactional analysis shows evidence of
pedagogy and uptake of learning
– High proportion of inform/opine acts + uptake
– High proportion of stance markers

18. Cantonese word of the week
“Chok yeung”

19. Pedagogical exchange
act analysis
A: Chock is a verb man - Chock Yeung is a
term but we will never say why your
face is so Chock IT CANNOT BE AN
ADJ!!!!!! - otherwise IT will becomes 7
yeung but not chock yeung
inform +
expand
cool! thanks for the insight. i just try to
copy what I hear other kong kong'ers
saying :D
react + uptake
+ justify

20. Pedagogical exchanges
act analysis
Hey dude, do you play Street Fighter?
When you need to use special tactics
and u have to press those buttons
rapidly in a specific order, and that is
"Chok 招” . - Chok Yeung makes you
look better
cool! lots of people have been telling
me that lately. thanks! :D
alert + question
inform + expand
react + uptake +
thank

21. Jay Chou – Fa Ru Xue (Hair Like Snow)

22. An example of complex teaching and
learning interaction
A: Honestly can someone tell me the
meaning of this song. The English
subtitles is no help bc it makes no
sense at all. Great video n music
singing, but i am so confuse of the
music video n the lyrics. =)
B (replying to A): i think this song is
represented of eternal love since
then most of the lyrics talk about
being with the person
C (replying to B): well, going through
all these comments helped a little.
But thanks too. =)
A (replying to B): well, that explains
a little. Thanks!
D (replying to A): I'm not really sure
but i think he's trying to say that he'll
love her even if she turns old and her
hair is white as snow. like eternal
love
A (replying to D): Now that sounds a
little better; it explains about her
hair like snow. Lol Thanks

23. Cognitive stance marking
A: Honestly can someone tell me the
meaning of this song. The English
subtitles is no help bc it makes no
sense at all. Great video n music
singing, but i am so confuse of the
music video n the lyrics. =)
B (replying to A): i think this song is
represented of eternal love since
then most of the lyrics talk about
being with the person
C (replying to B): well, going through
all these comments helped a little.
But thanks too. =)
A (replying to B): well, that explains
a little. Thanks!
D (replying to A): I'm not really sure
but i think he's trying to say that he'll
love her even if she turns old and her
hair is white as snow. like eternal
love
A (replying to D): Now that sounds a
little better; it explains about her
hair like snow. Lol Thanks

24. The story of CarlosDouh

25. Thoughts
• The internet has opened up new opportunities for L2 learners
to use and develop their L2 knowledge and skills
–
–
–
–
What are the underlying technological, social, cultural processes?
What processes of learning are involved?
How do we identify and measure learning?
What are the implications for the relationship between classroom
learning and learning beyond the classroom?

26. References
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Benson, P. (2013). English and identity in East Asian Popular Music. Popular Music 32 (1), 2333.
Benson, P. and Chan, N. (2010). ‘TESOL after YouTube: Fansubbing and informal language
learning’. Taiwan Journal of TESOL, 7:2, 1–23.
Benson, P., Barkhuizen, G., Bodycott, P., and Brown, J. (2013). Second language identity in
narratives of study abroad. London: Palgrave.
Benson, P., and Chik, A. (2011). Towards a more naturalistic CALL: Video-gaming and
language learning. International Journal of Computer-assisted Language Learning. 1 (3), 1-13
(50%)
Benson, P., and Nunan, D. (Eds.) (2004). Learners’ stories: Difference and diversity in
language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (50%)
Benson, P., and Reinders, H. (Eds.) (2011). Beyond the language classroom. Basingstoke, UK:
Palgrave Macmillan. (50%)
Black, R. W. (2007). Digital design: English language learners and reader reviews in online
fiction. In M. Knobel and C. Lankshear (Eds.), A new literacies sampler (pp. 115-136). New
York, NY: Peter Lang.

27. References
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Blommaert, J., Collins, J. & Slembrouck, S. (2005). Spaces of Multilingualism. Language and
Communication, 25 (3): 197-216.
Chik, A. (2012). Digital gameplay for autonomous foreign language learning: Gamer’s and
language teachers’ perspectives. In H. Reinders (Ed.), Digital games in language learning and
teaching (pp. 95 – 114). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Egbert, J., Akasha, O., Huff, L, & Lee, H. (2011). Moving forward: Anecdotes and evidence
guiding the next generation of CALL. International Journal of Computer-assisted Language
Learning and Teaching, 1(1), 1-15.
Lee, C., and Barton, D. (2011). Constructing glocal identities through multilingual writing
practices on Flickr.com. International Multilingual Research Journal, 1:1, 1-13.
Murray, G. (2008). Pop culture and language learning: Learners’ stories informing EFL.
Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 2(1), 2-17.
Thorne, S. L., Black, R. W., & Sykes, J. L. (2009). Second language use, socialization, and
learning in Internet interest communities and online gaming. The Modern Language Journal,
93(s), 802-821.