The Handbook of Informal Language Learning

24A Critical Review of Social Networks for Language Learning Beyond the Classroom

KATERINA ZOUROU

Over the last decade, social media has gone from being a dream of Silicon Valley technologists to a central part of contemporary digital life around the world.

(boyd 2015, p. 2)

Introduction

Computer‐assisted language learning(CALL) scholars have become increasingly interested in social media for language education, be it for the appeal of these technologies to specific groups of learners, or for the sense of intellectual curiosity regarding the pedagogical affordances of artifacts not explicitly designed for learning. Independently of the motive to inquire into the field, it is undeniable that social media have been generating enthusiasm, skepticism, expectations, and even illusions since 2004, when the term Web 2.0 was coined by Tim O'Reilly and his colleagues (Musser et al. 2007).

The scope of this chapter is twofold. First, it offers a state‐of‐the art review of current scholarship pertaining to social media in language education and draws parallels with other digitally enhanced language‐learning fields, such as mobile assisted language learning (MALL) and game‐based learning (GBL), and situates them within second language (L2) research themes on agency and openness. Second, it conveys an exploratory view on future possibilities and promising directions that merit further investigation. This risk‐taking exercise, due to the continuously evolving nature of the artifacts ...