Aisah Apridayani <\/strong> Wanapon Sompuwet<\/strong> Despite growing interest in the role of digital media in language learning, limited research examined how teenagers in EFL contexts engage with social media as informal spaces for English development, particularly through the lens of cognitive, social, and critical literacies. This study explored how Thai teenagers majoring in English and Chinese use social media platforms to support their English language learning, the affordances they perceive, and the drawbacks they encounter. Anchored in the Digital Literacies Framework (DLF), the study employed an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with ten Thai teenagers who have studied English for over twelve years and possessed A2\u2013B1 CEFR proficiency. Thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke\u2019s six-phase procedure revealed that platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter were frequently used to enhance vocabulary, grammar, intercultural communication, and critical thinking, reflecting the development of technical, cognitive, and social literacies. However, participants also reported drawbacks, including distraction, overexposure to informal language, miscommunication due to faulty translations, and difficulties assessing content credibility\u2014highlighting gaps in critical digital literacy. The findings suggest that integrating digital literacy instruction into EFL curricula can help teenagers navigate online learning spaces more effectively and foster more purposeful and reflective language development.<\/p>\n Keywords<\/em><\/strong>: Digital Literacy, Drawbacks, Language Development, Social Media, Thai Teenagers<\/p>\n Social media has a significant effect on the language learning ecosystem, providing learners with exposure to real use of the language, spontaneous interaction chances, and exposure to language and cultural variance (Barrot, 2022). Sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are becoming more integral parts of the daily routines of students, both as sites of socialization and as unstructured sites for language acquisition (Bouvier & Machin, 2020; Cheung, 2010; Wang et al., 2024). Their affordances, from user-generated videos to real-time commenting, have been associated with increased student participation, communicative competency, and learning motivation in English (Abdalgane, 2022; Han, 2022; John & Yunus, 2021). Empirical evidence considering inclusiveness highlights the pedagogic value of the platforms in facilitating learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) more easily. Previous research demonstrated the potential of social media for vocabulary development, oral and written fluency, and collaborative and autonomous learning (Mohamad et al., 2023; Muftah, 2024; Rezaul Karim et al., 2022). Specifically, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have been identified as promoting creative language use and providing natural, culture-specific materials (Dincer, 2020; Lee, 2023; Liu et al., 2025). Students who consume English content on social media tend to show higher consciousness of the language, increased confidence, and the desire to speak (Hongsa et al., 2023; Rasyid et al., 2023).<\/p>\n English is taught in Thailand as a compulsory foreign language. However, it is disconnected from students’ daily lives, for which social media offers a viable gateway to bridging the gap. Teacher-led instruction in Thai classrooms continues to emphasize grammar-based approaches and exam performance (Khemkullanat & Khongput, 2023), limiting students’ exposure to English in authentic situations. Nevertheless, English and Chinese language learners in Thailand are very active in social media use and consumption of English-language media daily. Current studies in Thailand showed digital technology’s positive influence on speaking ability, intrinsic motivation, and total language performance (Kanoksilapatham, 2022; Poonounin et al., 2024; Ven Ye Teh & Thien, 2024; Waluyo, 2024). The results indicated the pedagogical potential of social media and its potential as a classroom learning supplement in the future. However, some aspects of this phenomenon remain underexplored. First, there are a few understandings of how learners themselves perceive their engagement with social media during language learning. Earlier studies often focused on language acquisition without taking into account the cognitive, affective, and social aspects of online interaction. Second, although earlier research has been justifying the uses of social media, issues encountered by students such as overexposure to informal language, misunderstanding by translation mistakes, online distractions, and the pervasive presence of dubious content have attracted less attention (Asafo-Adjei et al., 2023; Slim & Hafedh, 2019). These are not ancillary drawbacks. They are the necessity for students to acquire a wide range of digital literacies required to constructively and effectively move within online spaces.<\/p>\n This study addressed the gaps by exploring social media as a digital language learning ecosystem, focusing on how Thai teenagers develop their English skills through social media use. This focus is important because, while social media has become an integral part of young people’s lives globally, there is limited empirical understanding of how Thai teenagers in particular engage with these platforms as informal spaces for authentic language use and skill development. Given that traditional classroom instruction in Thailand often remains grammar-oriented and detached from everyday English use, examining social media\u2019s role as a self-directed, interactive, and culturally rich language environment offers critical insight into new patterns of English learning, learner autonomy, and the challenges specific to this context. By situating Thai teenagers\u2019 experiences at the center, this study highlights a group for whom social media use is not only frequent but also deeply integrated into their daily routines. Teenagers are typically early adopters of new digital platforms, using them extensively for both socialization and learning (Michikyan & Su\u00e1rez-Orozco, 2016; Reinhardt, 2019). It is essential to concentrate on this demographic, as adolescence represents a critical period for identity formation, peer engagement, and language acquisition in informal settings (Davydova, 2025; Jitsaeng et al., 2024). While social media engagement is also widespread among young adults and older learners, teenagers in Thailand represent a particularly underexplored cohort whose experiences can shed light on how emerging digital practices shape English learning in EFL contexts. In addition, this study adopted the Digital Literacies Framework (DLF) by Dudeney et al. (2013). This framework was chosen because it offers a comprehensive, multi-dimensional lens for analyzing not just the technical use of digital tools, but also the social interactions, cognitive strategies, and critical thinking skills essential for meaningful language learning in digital environments. By applying this framework, the study can holistically examine the complexities of language learning on social media and address both its affordances and drawbacks. The research investigates three main questions:<\/p>\n (1) Which platforms are most commonly used by learners? Dudeney et al.’s (2013) Digital Literacies Framework (DLF) was used as the conceptual frame of reference to guide this study, offering an integrative perspective to analyze how students engage with digital technologies in language learning contexts. The framework, as illustrated in Figure 1, identifies four principal areas\u2014technical, social, cognitive, and critical literacy, upon which the analysis of how students use social media platforms to facilitate English language development is based. Technical literacy is the capacity to use online environments, that is, navigate programs, create content, and interact using tools such as comments or chats. Social literacy has been identified as covering digital communication and collaboration skills, while cognitive literacy deals with the capacity for information handling, critically evaluating content, and harnessing linguistic capability. Critical literacy, on the other hand, entails understanding the ethical, cultural, and ideological aspects of web use, where learners are encouraged to challenge sources, motives, and consequences. In addition to Dudeney et al. (2013), broader definitions of digital literacy characterize it as a comprehensive skill that encompasses IT, media, visual, and information literacies (Martin, 2006). Increasingly, institutions have leveraged such frameworks to assist staff and students to acquire the digital literacies they need to teach, research, communicate, and govern academic work (Newland & Handley, 2016; Reyna et al., 2018). These indicate a growing appreciation that digital literacy entails more than functional abilities and involves contextual, pedagogical, and critical knowledge, especially in teaching environments characterized by relentless technology change.<\/p>\n The framework is particularly pertinent to this research, as it offers a theoretically robust and multi-faceted conceptual framework for elucidating how Thai adolescents utilize social media for English language acquisition beyond mere functional literacy. Through technical, social, cognitive, and critical literacies, the model enables a subtle analysis of digital engagement. Technical literacy involves more than just digital tool use; it involves the tactical use of platform affordances\u2014algorithmic suggestion, multimodal presentation, and interactivity\u2014to customize and broaden learning. Social literacy emphasizes the worth of online communities and intercultural communication, which all too readily dissolve classroom borders and coalesce global networks of communication. Cognitive literacy concerns the processes by which learners aggregate, process, and negotiate information across multiple digital genres to deepen understanding and linguistic flexibility. In addition, critical literacy is more important in an age of misinformation, altering language norms, and cultural complexity, calling students to assess content credibility, examine digital motives, and make informed engagement decisions. Empirical research has shown that digital literacy tasks have a strong positive effect on reading comprehension, learner autonomy, and effective communication (Dzekoe, 2020; Ngo & Pham, 2024), whereas social media and online forums provide specific affordances to personalized learning and enhanced cultural understanding (Talib, 2018). Nonetheless, issues such as restrictive policies in learning and the need for critical, reflective practice continue to hinder the successful embedding of digital literacies (Alvermann et al., 2012; Waemusa & Jongwattanapaiboon, 2023). Hence, using the DLF is not only crucial in interrogating what students are doing on the internet but also how and why such activities affect their English development\u2014thus, guiding research and pedagogy. It draws attention to the importance of a pedagogical shift that recognizes learners’ existing digital literacy competences and explicitly integrates digital literacies into EFL syllabuses to better fit the conditions of contemporary language learning.<\/p>\n In second and foreign language learning, studies continue to confirm that social media incorporation adds value to second language learning in the forms of authentic, context-specific, and socially embedded experiences (Wong et al., 2017). Through interacting with authentic audiences, learners acquire a variety of linguistic input and cultural activities that traditional classrooms cannot offer. Solmaz and Reinhardt (2024) discovered that Turkish language learners who received social media-enhanced instruction acquired more cultural knowledge and language skills by participating in interactive digital practices like tweeting and journaling. These practices illustrate how online contexts facilitate language learning through cooperation, imagination, and self-reflection. As Yeh and Swinehart (2022) similarly focused on social media literacy in managing user-generated content, Talib (2018) concentrated on critical digital literacy to assess the credibility, intention, and effect of online texts. The use of social media in language learning also includes its capacity to integrate digital and academic communication norms. Lantz-Andersson’s (2016) research involving secondary students from varied international backgrounds provided evidence of how students employed in closed Facebook groups could blend official education language and unofficial online language. These blended interactions not only illustrated communicative flexibility but also the way social media facilitates social affiliation and a sense of audience consciousness (Pratiwi & Waluyo, 2023), a fundamental component of social and critical literacy. Although prior research pointed to the pedagogical potential of social media, more robust pedagogical models and evidence-based research are necessary, particularly in adolescent settings. The informal, often unstructured way people use social media makes it essential for us to better understand how students perceive, interact with, and are constructed by social media in their own language acquisition.<\/p>\n There are significant studies that investigated the pedagogical potential of social media in English language learning and found its ability to support vocabulary acquisition, learner motivation, and communicative competence. For example, Abbas et al. (2019) investigated the impact of Facebook and YouTube on ESL learners’ vocabulary acquisition in Pakistan and concluded that both learners and instructors perceived these websites as suitable resources because they could maintain the learners’ attention. Desta et al. (2021) also found that social media usage was beneficial for Ethiopian medical students in English learning, especially in informal settings. These results complement wider trends focusing on digital engagement as a linguistic force for development. In addition, Abdullah et al. (2022) discovered that university students in Jordan benefited from reading abilities, vocabulary, and pronunciation using platforms, e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter, and testified to platform-based linguistic differences in learning. Rezaul Karim et al. (2022) also validated the role of social media among Indian undergraduates with advantages in all four language skills. Lai and Tai (2021) emphasized that various modes of involvement\u2014stretching from participatory consumption to participatory interaction\u2014influence learners’ motivation and performance, pointing to the position of learner agency in online environments. Recently, Liu et al. (2025) demonstrated that the digital migration of “TikTok refugees” can convert a domestic social media landscape into a dynamic setting for genuine language acquisition and intercultural interaction.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, pedagogical threats of excessive usage of social media are still a concern. Asafo-Adjei et al. (2023) warned that excessive use of informal content negatively impacts academic writing, which introduces non-standard patterns into formal writing among students. Similarly, in comparing Facebook-based instruction and conventional instruction among Saudi ESP learners, Slim and Hafedh (2019) confirmed that there was no significant difference in the acquisition of vocabulary despite learners reporting positive attitudes\u2014i.e., social media alone is not enough without aligned motivation in pedagogic principles. Regionally, most research has been built from the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, and comparatively less research has been identified in Southeast Asia, i.e., Thailand. Nonetheless, current research elucidates that Thai English language teaching (ELT) is going through a revolutionary change. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated computer-mediated communication, whose velocity accelerated the shift towards self-learning and transformed digital learning processes (Songmuang et al., 2025). As English remains the lingua franca of ASEAN (Associated States of Southeast Asia) (Kirkpatrick, 2003, 2020), scholars have noted the necessity to transform traditional ELT methodologies to conform to local environments. This approach incorporates digital technology and pedagogy that resonates with local cultures (Baker, 2008, 2016).<\/p>\n Thai language learners’ use of English is influenced by pedagogical, technological, and social contexts. Research underlined that they prefer facilitative, socially embedded approaches (Phothongsunan, 2006) and increasingly expect ELT courses to prepare them for intercultural communication instead of native-like production (Ambele & Boonsuk, 2021; Apridayani et al., 2024). Furthermore, the digital language usage among Asian students, particularly Thai learners, demonstrates a growing capacity for creative communication and critical management of sociolinguistic contexts (Sultana & Dovchin, 2021). Despite these developments, there has been relatively little empirical research on how Thai students specifically utilize social media to acquire English. Closing this research gap is central to comprehending the role that online interaction serves in regionally contextualized language development and pedagogically effective language learning.<\/p>\n This research used an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) design to investigate how Thai teenagers utilize social media to craft their English language learning. IPA is a qualitative approach grounded in phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography and is well suited to investigating how people make sense and interpret their everyday experience within distinctive cultural and social contexts (Smith et al., 2009). As opposed to generalizing between populations, IPA values depth, context, and participants’ individual subjective meaning-making processes, thus being best placed to examine learners’ digital language use, motivations, and challenges. For those moments of language acquisition and technology use\u2014when being active means being influenced by emotional, cognitive, and sociocultural processes\u2014IPA makes it possible to engage in a nuanced analysis beyond what can be observed to include internal thought and perception (Smith & Eatough, 2008).<\/p>\n The selection of IPA as the methodological foundation for this study is particularly significant, as it foregrounds the lived, subjective experiences of Thai teenagers and provides an in-depth lens for examining how they interpret and navigate their engagement with social media as English language learners. Unlike approaches that limit analysis to observable behaviors or broad patterns, IPA is designed to illuminate the nuanced meaning-making processes that underpin learners\u2019 choices, emotional responses, and evolving identities within digital environments (Emery & Anderman, 2020; Larkin et al., 2006; Smith, 2011). This focus is especially relevant in the context of informal language learning on social media, where individual trajectories are shaped by personal histories, shifting social dynamics, and diverse cultural backgrounds. Existing research has demonstrated IPA\u2019s utility in revealing the complex interplay between personal agency, social influence, and cultural practice in second language acquisition and digital learning spaces (Kimura, 2019; Luo & Watts, 2024). Through this approach, the current study captures not only the diversity of students\u2019 perspectives but also the tensions, agentive practices, and emotional dimensions that define their digital literacy journeys, including issues of identity formation and motivation. By extending IPA into the domain of digital language learning, this research offers thorough insights into how teenagers actively construct and negotiate their linguistic development online, thereby providing a richer foundation for future pedagogical strategies and policy interventions attuned to the realities of contemporary EFL education.<\/p>\n The research design was also supplemented by the theoretical underpinning of the research in the DLF (Dudeney et al., 2013), wherein social, cognitive, technical, and critical literacies are determined as indicating dynamic learner-tech relations. In its casual yet powerful learning context, social media presents tensions that require interpretation rather than superficial explanation. IPA’s idiographic concern justifies a dense, case-based exploration of learners’ lives with resources like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which have the potential to diminish the boundary between enjoyment and learning. IPA has also been used by prior studies on applied linguistics and digital teaching to examine learners’ practice and identity in digitally mediated spaces (Kim, 2018). Therefore, IPA allowed this study to critically analyze how Thai learners reflect on, internalize, and act on the linguistic and cultural inputs they receive on the internet.<\/p>\n This research was carried out in the context of Thai tertiary education, in which English is taught as a topic at all levels of the national curriculum and increasingly prioritized because it is the working language of the ASEAN Economic Community (Jindapitak, 2019; Kirkpatrick, 2020). The research participants were Thai adolescents who were pursuing language-oriented undergraduate degree courses\u2014eight English majors and two Chinese majors\u2014at a Thai university. All of them engaged in learning English for no less than twelve years in the national school system, beginning with elementary (Prathom 1) and extending to secondary education (Mathayom 6), where English is generally taught for a minimum of three hours a week based on the policy of the Thai Office of the Basic Education Commission in 2017. At the time they arrive at the university, students are considered to have reached levels of A2 to B1 in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Waluyo, 2019), equivalent to the ability to understand colloquial expressions, participate in simple conversations, and receive information from simple texts. These students were thus well-placed to reflect on how informal digital practices, such as the use of social media, complemented or supplemented their official English learning.<\/p>\n All of them claimed to use social media tools like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube for frequent personal interactions and English content exposure on a regular basis, as presented in Table 1. All had studied English for more than 12 years. They had previously interacted with both native and non-native English speakers in schools and private language institutions, which provided them with diverse linguistic inputs and cultural insights. Participants were purposefully sampled, with initial selection on the basis of regular use of English-language social media material and availability for in-depth interviews. This procedure conforms to qualitative research guidelines based on information-rich cases, which provide a window into the phenomenon in question (Patton, 2014). The population consisted of six females and four males aged between 18 and 20. All the participants were briefed on the purpose of the study and ethics, and they were asked for consent before the data collection. Pseudonyms were employed for anonymity protection. This small group of students is a reasonably representative sample of Thai freshmen who have been subjected to a grammar-oriented English learning system focused on test preparation but are increasingly seeking new media for more naturalistic, interactive, and autonomous language learning experiences.<\/p>\n Table 1. Participant Demographics and Educational Background \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nWalailak University, Thailand
\n<apridayani.edu![\"atmark\"](\"http:\/\/www.tesl-ej.org\/atmark.png\")
gmail.com><\/p>\n
\nWalailak University, Thailand
\n<wanapon.somail.wu.ac.th><\/p>\nAbstract<\/h3>\n
\n(2) How do these platforms contribute to their English language learning?
\n(3) What drawbacks do they encounter?<\/p>\nTheoretical Underpinning<\/h3>\n
![\"Digital](\"https:\/\/tesl-ej.org\/ej116\/int3pix\/image1.png\")
\nFigure 1. Digital Literacies Framework (Dudeney et al., 2013)<\/strong><\/p>\nStudies on social media and English language learning<\/h4>\n
Methodology<\/h3>\n
Research design<\/h4>\n
Context and participants<\/h4>\n