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Description
As social media becomes an integral part of students’ daily lives, it is increasingly positioned as a space for informal English learning. However, how learners regulate their learning in these environments remains insufficiently understood. This study examines how Vietnamese EFL university students use social media for self-directed English learning. The research draws on Garrison’s (1997) Self-Directed Learning framework to examine their learning experiences across three main dimensions: motivation, self-management, and self-monitoring. Adopting a qualitative multiple-case study methodology, data are generated through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals to generate in-depth insights into learners’ lived experiences across diverse social media platforms. This analysis focuses on how students initiate learning, manage resources and activities, and self-evaluate their learning. Findings are expected to reveal that social media serves as an accessible and engaging learning environment for facilitating English language acquisition, particularly through authentic input and personalised content. Although students exhibit some motivation and self-management in selecting platforms and materials, their learning processes appear to lack structure and be experience-based. Specifically, self-monitoring techniques, including goal setting, reflection, and evaluation, still seem limited. More critically, algorithmically generated content is likely to influence learning, both enhancing exposure and reinforcing passive consumption, highlighting a tension between students’ autonomy and platform influence. This study underscores the need for pedagogical recommendations for fostering more intentional and reflective self-directed learning in the Vietnamese EFL context.
Keywords: self-directed English learning (SDL), social media in EFL, informal digital learning, Vietnamese EFL university students, higher education
Biography
Tran Le Phuong Anh is an EFL lecturer Danang Architecture University. With over 13 years of teaching experience in higher education, she has developed a strong interest in learner autonomy and technology-enhanced language learning. She is also an PhD students and her research focuses on self-directed learning in informal digital environments, particularly the role of social media in shaping students’ English learning practices.
Adopting qualitative research approaches, her work explores how learners regulate their learning through motivation, self-management, and self-monitoring. She is particularly interested in understanding the tension between learner autonomy and digitally mediated learning environments, with the aim of bridging students’ everyday digital practices and pedagogically meaningful learning.
Phuong Anh’s research would like to contribute to the development of contextually relevant teaching practices in Vietnam, offering practical implications for fostering more intentional, reflective, and sustainable English learning among university students.
| Affiliate type | University |
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