Transformed framings on Facebook: Students’ diverse linguistic repertoires in the context of practicing English as a second language

The aim of this case study is to develop knowledge of social media as spaces for practicing mundane communication in a second language. A Facebook group was implemented, as part of English as a second language learning in secondary school classes, in Colombia, Finland and Sweden. Analytically, the study draws on sociocultural perspectives on learning, and adopts the concepts of framing and carnival. The results show that the students continuously re-frame the communication by using diverse linguistic repertoires. The students orient towards primary frameworks of second language learning but the framing of the communication is also transformed or keyed in line with their out-of-school social media vernacular into a kind of socialisation or carnivalesque mundane chatting. By reflecting on evolving social literacy practices and reconsidering traditional institutional language learning perspectives, social media interactions are considered to enable the students to practice a communication of their everyday vernacular in a second language.

"The results show that the students continuously re-frame the communication by using diverse linguistic repertoires. The students orient towards primary frameworks of second language learning but the framing of the communication is also transformed or keyed in line with their out-of-school social media vernacular into a kind of socialisation or carnivalesque mundane chatting. By reflecting on evolving social literacy practices and reconsidering traditional institutional language learning perspectives, social media interactions are considered to enable the students to practice a communication of their everyday vernacular in a second language." (Author, in Abstract)