Language views on social networking sites for language learning: the case of Busuu

Social networking has compelled the area of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to expand its research palette and account for new virtual ecologies that afford language learning and socialization. This study focuses on Busuu, a social networking site for language learning (SNSLL), and analyzes the views of language that are enacted through the semiotic design of this participatory online environment. The study draws on methodological principles of multimodality to examine the website and data collected through auto-ethnographic accounts of the researcher, who participated as a member of the Busuu community for 10 weeks. Results indicate that Busuu is an ecological system composed of nested sub-systems that reflect structural, interactional, and ecological views of language that interweave in conflicting and complementary ways. Suggestions to improve SNSLLs concern the need to reach alignment in terms of the theoretical and pedagogical tenets that underscore the design of instructional materials. Implications pinpoint the potential of intersecting multimodality and CALL in the study of participatory online environments.