Book Review of Lee (2025) Social Media and Language Learning. Using TikTok and Instagram.

Anastasia Pattemore

doi:10.21153/tesol2026vol35no1art2274

Authors

Anastasia Pattemore University of Barcelona https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2038-8017

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/tesol2026vol35no1art2274

Keywords:

digital language learning, informal language learning, social media

Abstract

Yeong-Ju Lee’s “Social Media and Language Learning Using TikTok and Instagram” investigates how informal language learning takes place within mobile social media spaces, focusing on multimodal content and learner agency. Using comparative content analysis of Instagram and TikTok language-learning posts and case studies of international students, Lee demonstrates that both platforms foster creative, autonomous, and multimodal language development, while offering distinct affordances for pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar learning. The book translates empirical findings into ready-to-use classroom strategies, bridging formal and informal learning, and provides directions for further research in mobile-assisted and multimodal language education.

Author Biography

Anastasia Pattemore, University of Barcelona

Dr Anastasia Pattemore is an Assistant Professor of English Didactics at the University of Barcelona (Spain), where she teaches courses on teaching methodologies and second language acquisition. Previously, she held a postdoctoral position at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). Her research focuses on exploring optimal viewing conditions for language learning, both inside and outside the classroom, including factors such as different types of subtitling, textual enhancement, viewing time distribution, cognitive individual differences, and attention and processing, as measured by eye-tracking.