Selling language teacher identity on social media

Social media platforms host a range of free language learning content uploaded by self-styled language teachers. Like other content creators on social media, many of these language teachers seek to monetize their content. Despite growing recognition of this practice, little is known about the various monetization strategies adopted by self-styled language teachers on social media. Combining the walk-through method ( Light et al., 2018 ) with a multimodal perspective ( Jewitt, 2005 ; 2013 ), we identify and discuss the monetization avenues adopted by two self-styled language teachers on Douyin. We argue that monetization is a crucial but underexplored aspect of language-teaching content on social media. The monetization of instructional content in digital spaces prompts a range of thorny questions, including questions around pedagogical value, as well as questions about how monetization is contributing to blurring the lines between language teaching, advertising, and entertainment.