Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume16 (2025) Issue 1
Digital Storytelling on Social Media for Language Learning: Students’ Experiences and Perceptions
Minjie Xing (The University of Manchester, UK) & Amily Guenier (Lancaster University, UK)
Abstract
Inspired by the digital storytelling (DST) practices of social media influencers, this study examines how language learners create their own digital stories to practise the target language and engage in intercultural communication. In this context, students’ digital narratives, shared via social media platforms, attracted over 60,000 viewers, facilitating cross-cultural exchange. Data collected through classroom observations and in-depth interviews indicate that linguistic features such as wordplay, regional accents, dialects, idiomatic expressions, and context-dependent double meanings play a significant role in enhancing learners’ motivation. Multimodality emerges as an especially effective medium for language practice and intercultural engagement. Participants described the experience as both autonomous and enriching, offering practical exposure to everyday language use while fostering greater cultural awareness. These findings highlight the pedagogical potential of social media-based digital storytelling as a dynamic and engaging approach to language learning and the development of intercultural competence.
Keywords: Social media, digital storytelling, language learning, intercultural communication
1 Introduction
In the current digital world, technology, innovation, and active learning are among the top skills increasingly sought after by employers, as graduates are expected to demonstrate these competencies (World Economic Forum, 2020). For university students to become effective contributors in their future careers, it is essential to develop language, cultural, and technological competence. Therefore, students need to be trained not only as language learners but also as language users and social agents. This shift in focus expands the objectives of language teaching to include intercultural communication, transitioning from the acquisition of linguistic knowledge to using language for meaningful intercultural exchanges.
This evolution underscores the importance of communicative competence, which integrates the ability to use the target language effectively and situates it within an intercultural communicative context. To achieve this, students need opportunities to actively engage with the language, participate in diverse communicative scenarios, and work within authentic and multimodal contexts. By using the language in real-world settings and interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds, students develop not only the ability to communicate effectively in varied contexts but also the skills to engage meaningfully with people from other cultures.
Digital platforms have emerged as vital tools to facilitate language practice and intercultural communication exchanges. O’Dowd & O’Rourke (2019) insightfully point out that Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) is a pedagogical tool that connects people from diverse cultures, enabling them to exchange information and share common interests. This conceptualization of foreign language learning as communication and as a site for intercultural awareness development has positioned OIE as an appealing strategy in language education. Moreover, OIE provides a framework for students to develop not only language and cultural competencies but also a broad array of 21st century skills – often referred to as non-cognitive skills, soft skills, transferable skills, transversal competencies, life skills or social-emotional skills (GPE, 2020).
Within this context, this study adopts a Digital Storytelling (DST) approach on a multimodality platform to explore the aspects of social media influencers’ OIE that inspire language learning. It further examines how students’ creation of DST on social media can better prepare them for the demands of the modern workplace by cultivating essential 21st-century skills.
2 Literature Review
In this study, the literature will be reviewed from two aspects: the influence of social media celebrities on language learning and the role of DST with multimodality in language practice and intercultural communication.
2.1 Social Media For Language Learning
Social media has become an integral part of our lives (Gangwar, 2022), and social media celebrities – also known as internet influencers, internet celebrities, web celebrities, microcelebrities – are gaining significant popularity. Unlike movie stars who perform scripted roles, social media celebrities present themselves in natural and conversational ways, making their content relatable and accessible for language learners. Exposure to their speech patterns allows students to familiarise themselves with different dialects and accents, fostering a deeper understanding of the language. Additionally, these celebrities provide insights into the culture and lifestyle of the country they represent, making language learning a more immersive experience. By addressing current and youth-oriented topics, their content becomes a valuable resource for learners to engage with language and culture in meaningful ways. Moreover, the entertaining nature of social media content enhances learners’ enjoyment of the process.
The interactive nature of social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube further supports language learners in practising their language skills while engaging with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Ruth Page, the Perkins Prize winner in 2020, emphasises in her new book Narrative Online the significance of influencers’ storytelling as vivid examples of how social media can impact on everyday life. These stories, often rooted in personal experiences, enable viewers to relate them to their own lives, fostering a sense of connection. The interactive nature of social media, such as like buttons and comment sections, contribute to forming DST communities. These communities function as social groups with shared interests, fostering contextual affiliations that resonate with audiences.
Similarly, digital anthropologist and ethnographer Abidin (2018) contextualises the rise of social media celebrities in contemporary culture. Her analysis highlights how online fame, driven by participatory culture and shared identities, enhances audience engagement and the impact of social media celebrities.
Social media celebrities can also serve as role models for language learners. Their stories have great potential to support students' learning and development by providing an environment in which they can reflect critically on their experiences and engage in meaningful dialogue (Chang & Kabilan, 2024).
Influencers’ DTS can act as e-portfolios, enabling learners to practice their language skills while gaining cultural insights.
Popular digital platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow social media celebrities to interact with diverse audiences using multimodal and multilingual repertoires. Ho, (2022) highlights that such interaction often leads to spontaneous communication between individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
Tarigan et al. (2021) identified Instagram as a highly effective platform for language learning. Their research demonstrated that Instagram provides an innovative learning environment where students take ownership of their learning and ideas. The platform serves as an effective tool for showcasing learning while fostering creativity and engagement, and cooperative learning, positively impacting material exploration, motivation, academic satisfaction, and achievements.
Social media for language learning has been flourishing, attracting followers within the vast ecology of internet users. It has, among others, been used for English language learning, and for in-school and out-of-school literacy practices (Yeh & Mitric, 2023). However, scarcely any studies have been conducted to analyse the features of social media celebrities’ DST for learning and practising Chinese, a language spoken by 1.4 billion people in China, and this gap warrants investigation.
2.2 DST with multimodality for language practice and for intercultural communication
DST, a multi-media narrative technique, has been identified as a powerful tool for facilitating meaning-making processes (Rolbiecki et al., 2025). In language learning, DST integrates multimedia elements such as audio and video to enhance learners’ comprehension of vocabulary, phrases, and grammar structures. This method can also build learners’ confidence in using the language (Tecedor, 2023). By integrating these elements, DST further supports pronunciation and intonation. Writing narratives further supports vocabulary and grammar development, while visual aids like images and videos cater to diverse learning styles (Abdel et al., 2022).
DST is widely used in educational settings, from language classrooms to online and self-directed learning platforms. It promotes self-discovery and exploration of human experiences often absent in textbooks (Tecedor, 2023). By providing interactive and immersive learning experiences, DST serves as a bridge between language learning and intercultural communication.
Multimodality, the use of diverse modes – such as speech, writing, images, and gestures – to convey meaning, is central to DST. As Muntaha et al., (2023) explain, multimodal approaches to language teaching incorporate audio, visual, textual, gestural and spatial resources to facilitate language learning by fostering creativity and spontaneity. With the increasing adoption of educational technologies, multimodality has become a cornerstone of modern language teaching, enabling students to express themselves through diverse forms of communication (Dressman, 2020). Xie & Jiang (2024) further highlight how multimodality facilitates authentic and creative expressions in language learning.
In intercultural communication, multimodality enables the co-construction and negotiation of meanings across different modes of expression (Adami, 2023). A multimodal approach offers a holistic view of semiotic practices, illustrating how interlocutors use various resources to create and interpret meanings.
Although existing research has explored various multimodal approaches to intercultural communication, these studies have tended to focus on specific aspects. For instance, Shang et al. (2024) investigated the use of drama in developing intercultural communication skills. Other studies have examined live interpreting via multimedia and multimodal modes (Gamal, 2023) and written communication in electronic formats (Guo & Stapa, 2023). However, limited attention has been devoted to the potential of social media influencers' DST as a medium for language learning and cultural positioning. Furthermore, there is little research on students creating their own DST using multimodal resources. This study aims to address this gap by investigating how students can achieve cultural positioning and enhance intercultural communication competence through multimodal and multilingual DST. The following research questions drive this study:
3 Methodology
This empirical study investigates the potential of social media celebrities’ DST as a tool for enhancing language learning and intercultural communication skills through the analysis of social media celebrity videos, students’ DST performances, class observations, and in-depth interviews.
3.1 Social Media Celebrity Video Selection
Social media celebrities in this study include macro-influencers with over 100,000 followers (Tables 1 and 4), micro-influencers specialising in niche expertise with more than 10,000 followers (Table 3), semi-professional influencers with comparable followers (Table 2), and ordinary individuals recognised for their specialised knowledge. These categories allow for a broad exploration of DSTs that foster intimate and relatable engagement for language learners.
While follower count served as a selection criterion, the primary goal of the study was to evaluate the utility of DST for language learning and intercultural communication. Therefore, the research employed the three Vs of communication – verbal, vocal, and visual (Azer, et al., 2022) – as a framework, encompassing language accuracy, structural clarity, and physical effects. Detailed criteria include:
Language appropriateness with content suitable for language learners
Humorous style which enhances the enjoyment of learning; and
Popularity with a substantial viewership (over 10,000 views) to qualify as ‘celebrity’.
DSTs were excluded if they were advertisements, exhibited strong political biases, lacked a focus on language or culture, or if they were in languages other than Chinese.
Two researchers independently reviewed and rated DSTs on a scale of 1 to 10, based on the following criteria: Those digital stories whose ratings differed by two points or more (e.g. one was rated 5 and the other 7) were excluded from further discussion until an agreement was reached. Selected DSTs are summarised in Table 1, detailing influencer names, viewer counts, video characteristics, and links:
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Name
Number of Viewers
Characteristics
YouTube Link
1.1 Yang Bo
170k
One-liner (using one sentence to tell an interesting story)
1.2 Informal Talk
15k
Play with words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uf_IJLZusY&list=PLHe2fSFRIYqTgvAgmLMXe9K45Z60h3xfK&index=2
1.3 Kevin
411k
Interesting points made by comparison
1.4 Doudou
200k
Play with word order
Table 1: Social Media Influencer’ Youtube Videos
These DSTs humorously address contemporary social issues, stimulating audience interest. Subtitles were added to facilitate reflection on linguistic nuances and cultural humour, particularly for the students in this study who had recently returned from a year abroad study in China.
3.2 Participants
Participants were voluntarily recruited from final-year Chinese-majored students at a university in the United Kingdom. Ethical approval was obtained from the university. The cohort consisted of 36 students (21 female and 15 male students) aged 20-25, with varying Chinese proficiency levels: two students had passed HSK5 (equivalent to CEFR (European framework) C1, six students had passed HSK4 (equivalent to CEFR B2), and the others did not take an international Chinese test.
Students were informed that social media celebrities’ DSTs would be incorporated into their learning materials, and that they would produce their own DST as part of their coursework. Peer and tutor feedback on DST presentations was encouraged, alongside self-assessment and commentary on both professional and student-generated DSTs. At the end of the semester, six students, whose DST received the most comments, volunteered for follow-up interviews. To ensure anonymity, the real names of the interviewees were omitted.
Classes were automatically video-recorded by the university to accommodate students who were unable to attend classes and to support those with special needs.
3.3 Implementation
The study spanned twelve weeks in the first semester of 2023–2024:
Weeks 1 – 4: Students analysed Internet influencer-generated DSTs, focusing on language, humour, and cultural relevance.
Weeks 5 – 6: Students created their own DSTs using multimodal formats (e.g., videos, mini-plays) and uploaded them to social media for intercultural communication practice.
Weeks 7 – 9: Students presented their DSTs in class, received feedback from peers and tutor, and incorporated revisions into their final submissions.
Weeks 10 – 11: Students submitted their DST to the language tutor as supplementary materials for oral examinations.
Students had to compose DST in multimodality form and put their DST in social media to interact with the viewers for intercultural communication.
3.4 Data Collection and Analysis
Permission was obtained to use classroom recordings for research purposes. Focus-group interviews were conducted to enable dynamic discussions and encourage collective commentary on shared experiences. The semi-structured questions explored the following themes:
The interviews (30 to 45 minutes) were conducted in English and transcribed for thematic analysis. Open coding methods were employed to classify, tabulate, and combine evidence to answer the research questions. The themes were initially categorised into six areas based on keywords and the examples associated with them:
Playing with words making language learning enjoyable
Accents, dialects, and idioms arousing students’ curiosity
The function of sounds and gestures in conveying meanings
Double meanings of the same word used in different contexts
Understanding cultural differences, and
Intercultural communication
After discussions between the researchers and the language tutor, Themes 5 and 6 were merged to avoid overlap. The final coding schema is detailed in the Appendix.
To ensure consistency, the two researchers coded the transcripts independently and resolved any discrepancies through discussion with the language tutor. The rationale behind the coding rested on the study's exploratory nature and the nuanced, complex phenomena under investigation. Acknowledging the intrinsic variability in language learning experiences and outcomes, this research design leveraged the depth and richness of data gleaned from a carefully curated coding to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the utility of DSTs in this context. The researchers selected students’ comments, the language tutor’s observation notes, and video recordings related to research questions. This approach aligned with the principle that the selection should be intrinsically tied to the study's objectives, design, methodology, and pragmatic considerations. Indeed, in exploratory research contexts, well-selected materials for coding usually yield insightful, meaningful, and statistically significant outcomes.
The triangulation of data sources, including video recordings, class observations, student learning outcomes and interview transcripts, enhanced the reliability and depth of the analysis. The interview questions are available upon request.
The study adhered to strict ethical guidelines, including informed consent, confidentiality, and voluntary participation. Students’ privacy was protected, and all data were anonymised.
Learning outcomes were assessed via oral examination scores, measuring content, structure, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency. Intercultural communication competency was evaluated during interactive Q&A sessions with the tutor.
By triangulating multiple data sources, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of DST in language learning and intercultural communication.
4 Results
The findings are categorised into the following five aspects:
Accents, dialects, and idioms used for sparking students’ curiosity (It#s the same here.)
Understanding cultural differences for intercultural communication.
Subsections 1 to 3 address Research Question 1. Findings 4 and 5 pertain to Research Question 2, i.e. how multimodality contributes to students' digital stories in terms of language and intercultural communication.
4.1 Playing with Words Making Language Learning More Enjoyable
Students found the playful use of language employed by social media celebrities in their DSTs engaging and fun. This playful use of language contrasted with the more traditional, textbook-based approach to language learning.
For instance, in the first DST (Table 1), the social media celebrity cleverly reversed the word order in 记录真实 ‘to record the truth’ and 真实记录 ‘to truthfully record’ to shift the meaning. In this video, the photographers wanted to make fun of the celebrity by filming him in an awkward position of getting into the water in a public bath with the excuse of ‘truthfully recording’. To avoid embarrassment, the celebrity reversed the word order, indicating that the photographers did not need to record everything, on the basis that what is photographed is true, so not everything that is true needs to be recorded.
This playful linguistic manipulation led to class discussions, where students explored other wordplay examples, such as: 朋友圈 (‘a circle of friends’), 圈朋友 (‘to gather friends into the circle’), 学生会 (‘student union’) 会学生 (‘meet students’), 鸡蛋 (‘egg’) 蛋鸡 (’chicken that can lay eggs’), 大学生 (‘university student’) and 升大学 (‘go up (from middle school) to university’).
Students also explored humorous idioms and slang, such as replacing 压力 (‘pressure’) with 鸭梨 (‘pear’), which has the same pronunciation, to reduce stress humorously. Another example was 程序员 (‘programmer’) transformed into 程序猿 (‘program monkey’), playfully depicting the work routines of programmers. Students also found adding new meanings to the existing words interesting, e.g., to replace 多行不义必自毙 (‘to do more things but not righteous is equivalent to killing yourself’) with 多行不疫必自毙 (‘to go out more during the pandemic is equivalent to killing yourself’). The former is a well-known idiom, but as the pronunciation of ‘not righteous’ is the same as ‘pandemic’ and to replace 义 with 疫, the idiom becomes more comprehensible and acceptable. As the original idiom is well known in China, changing one word for another with the same pronunciation makes everyone aware of the consequences of going out during the pandemic. Students enjoyed playing with words and they learned additional meanings associated with the words.
In the interviews, students highlighted their enjoyment of wordplay. Examples like 上课 (‘ to attend class’) vs 课上 (‘during the class’), and 一生爱你 (‘lifelong love for you’) vs 爱你一生 (‘love you forever’) sparked discussions about poetic nuances and romantic expressions in Chinese.
4.2 Accents, Dialects, And Idioms used for Sparking Students’ Curiosity)
Social media DSTs introduced students to diverse accents, dialects, and idiomatic expressions, fostering curiosity about regional linguistic and cultural differences:
In one example (Table 1), the celebrity demonstrates how difficult it is for people from other cities to find employment in Shanghai, the largest city in China. He recounts how he once attended a job interview in Shanghai where he could not understand the interviewer's accent. He asked if the interviewer could speak more clearly, suspecting that Shanghainese people deliberately used their accent to demonstrate their superiority over those from other regions. However, the interviewer responded, "I was speaking English", teasing the interviewee for his lack of English proficiency. The interviewee responded, 'But this is China,' indicating why he was showing off his English skills to Chinese people in China. The interviewer responded, 'The interview is to recruit an interpreter'.
The students understood the sarcasm in the dialogue and experienced the power of playing with accents and dialects. This DST sparked class discussions about regional accents and stereotypes.
Another DST explored idioms (Table 2). The Chinese idiom 吃醋 (‘eat vinegar’) means ‘jealousy’, which resonated with students’ personal experience:
One student linked this idiom to the tradition of drinking vinegar in the Shanxi 山西 region. In the old days, vinegar was more expensive than wine and was stored in barrels or jars rather than bottles. The number of vinegar barrels or jars a family had was an indication of their wealth. Even now, locals drink vinegar instead of soft drinks before meals. The student recalled that her language partner had taken her to Chinatown, where they had tasted vinegar in a Chinese restaurant before a meal. She described the vinegar drink as being a bit sour and a bit sweet, and said that it was tasty. She explained to the other students that, because the Chinese word for 'sour' has the same pronunciation as the word for 'jealousy', 'sour' also means 'jealousy' in Chinese, as well as meaning 'sour' in terms of taste.
Discussions expanded to other idioms, as can be seen from the class observations:
A student from Ireland said “I heard a story that in the old days in China, a woman was having an affair with a man living at the other end of the village. When her husband left the village wearing a green hat, the man at the end of the village knew it was a hint from the woman, so he could come to the woman’s house. The idiom 戴绿帽子 (‘to wear a green hat’) means a wife or girlfriend is having an affair. In response, the student said, “I am Irish. Whenever we have a big festival, we wear big, green hats.”
Another student recalled that he had liked eating bean curd since his childhood, but people should not say eating bean curd because it symbolises the tenderness of a girl’s breasts, so ‘eat bean curd’ (吃豆腐) means to take advantage of a girl. When the student used this idiom in the live show If You Are the One (非诚勿扰), which had 106,000 viewers, the social media comments were “Wow, he even knows this”. “His Chinese is brilliant”. “His Chinese is unbelievably good”. The student said that he had never received comments like this before when using the Chinese he had learnt from textbooks.
The idiomatic and colloquial use of language is how people speak in everyday life, and this cannot be ignored. Once students are interested, they want to explore the different meanings of words and the idiomatic use of language. This enhances their language skills and cultural understanding.
4.3 Double Meanings of The Same Word in Different Contexts
The DSTs analysed revealed that words can have different meanings in different contexts, encouraging students to consider the nuances of language.
One of the digital stories demonstrated cultural differences in interpreting the same social phenomena (Table 3). The exaggeration makes DST entertaining, but once the audience has had a laugh, they realise that there is an element of truth to it: people from different cultures might see the same thing, but from different angles:
The third digital story shows that some Western people have learnt some classic and popular Chinese four-word idioms and think they have learnt a lot, but for Chinese people, there are many more similar idioms with subtle differences that can be used for precise descriptions.
This helps students realise that knowing the nuances of a language is important, as similar-looking words may have completely different meanings.
Students discussed contrasts more in-depth, as seen in the class observation that from some words that Chinese and Western people have different concepts:
Whether or not to educate preschool children, parents in both the East and West believe that children should read before going to sleep. Chinese parents tend to encourage their children to recognise characters and recite famous poems, while Western parents might read a story to their children before bedtime to help them sleep.
In another interview, a heritage student recalled that, when she was at school, she had to complete additional homework set by her mother, including reading, writing, history and geography. In order to complete this homework, she had to get up ‘early’ (早). To Chinese people, 'early' means 6 o'clock or before, whereas to her English peers, 'early' might mean 8 o'clock or later.
During the interviews, another heritage student recalled a family gathering where they had talked about her future. She said, “My dream is to become an interpreter in the United Nations. My grandparents gave me a black look. Later, my parents told me that a dream in the Chinese context is something unrealistic that you can never achieve, while in the Western context, it is a goal, your personal goal that you should follow”. Other students commented that linguistic and cultural connotations help us understand how language and culture intertwine.
The better students understand cultural differences, the better they can grasp why people speak the language the way they do and the connotations behind words. This experience emphasised the importance of understanding the linguistic and cultural nuances of language.
4.4 Understanding Cultural Differences for Intercultural Communication
The interplay between language and culture was evident in those DSTs, where words carried different meanings based on the context:
The word 老 (‘old’) can mean ‘old and useless’ when referring to iron and steel but ‘long-standing and reliable’ when describing friendships. The same is true of the word铁 (iron). In the context of iron and steel, it refers to the physical material itself. However, when used to refer to friends, it signifies that the friendship 老铁 (‘old iron’) is as strong as iron. Therefore, in Chinese culture, when the two words 老and 铁 are used together it means that the friendship between old friends is strong and solid.
The students went on to discuss other regional expressions, such as '大咖' (meaning 'big coffee' in the Minnan dialect, spoken by one of the minority groups in the south), which is used to describe influential figures. Over time, this term has become popular in formal contexts, demonstrating how dialectal expressions can evolve into the mainstream language.
An interesting phenomenon was highlighted during the interview. Nowadays, young people often use a mixture of codes when communicating on social media:
One student explained that the + sign means 'add' and U stands for 'you'. The pronunciation of U sounds like 油 ('petrol') in Chinese. Combining the two gives 加油 (‘add petrol’), which means 'cheer up' or 'keep going'. People often feel encouraged and uplifted after seeing these symbols.
Students are familiar with the meanings of symbols and often use them on social media. These examples show how cultural nuances and linguistic creativity can enhance communication.
4.5 The Role of Sounds and Gestures in Conveying Meaning
Sounds and gestures are often utilised in DST to enhance communication:
In one digital story, a celebrity mimicked the sound of a vacuum cleaner to comically depict poor service at a barbershop. The vacuum cleaner sounds made students feel as though they could see the barber moving the appliance around a customer’s head and neck to remove the hair after a haircut.
Students commented that sounds and gestures can sometimes convey meaning more effectively than words alone, and they started to incorporate them into their presentations. Indeed, these additional means enable students to convey their meaning more quickly, clearly and powerfully.
Inspired by this, students incorporated sounds and gestures into their own DSTs. In one case, a student used a low tone to imitate the drum rhythms of Shanxi 陕西province, captivating the class with a local rap performance. In the interview, he talked about how, when he first heard about it from his Chinese flatmate, he was fascinated by the local culture. Through social media, they saw how people live in an area full of bare mountains. Local people have to walk miles to get to school, the market, their animals, and so on. On the way, they had nothing else to do but sing in their local dialect, and their singing travelled far and wide. These multimodal elements enabled students to express their ideas more effectively, thereby encouraging creativity and engagement.
4.6 Students’ Own Digital Stories
Encouraged by social media celebrity DSTs, students created their own digital stories, incorporating wordplay, dialects, sounds, gestures, and multimodal elements. They were proud of what they produced, as these were their own products and thus, they felt they had a sense of achievement. Examples are shown in Table 2:
Table: 2 Students’ Own Digital stories
In the first DST (top left corner), the students explained that buying second-hand clothes is an eco-friendly choice because it reduces the demand for new clothing and the amount of waste generated in factories, thus reducing pollution. It is also cost-effective for students who want to keep up with the latest fashion trends but can't afford to buy new clothes all the time. Students enjoyed the experience of creating this digital story because they could express their concept of a second-hand sale by acting as models themselves. They showed their everyday life on campus, including the backgrounds, scenes, actions and words they spoke. All these elements came together to create a coherent and harmonious effect, which was just what they wanted to achieve.
The strong point in the second digital story (top right corner) is its clever use of words. The student's message is that VR can be used to see the world in the current digital context. The first character 微 means “micro”, the middle word 视 means ‘see’ when used alone, but when used together with the last word 界, the pronunciation can changes the meaning to 世界 ‘the world’. Thus, the three characters put together mean ‘to use micro glasses to see the world’, which is exactly the theme of her DST.
The third digital story (bottom left corner) is strengthened by a combination of graphs and Chinese characters. The student's idea is that, as people increasingly rely on mobile phones in their daily lives, a mobile charger has become essential. With a mobile charger, people no longer need to worry about their phone running out of battery. They can charge their phones at any time to avoid missing important calls or messages due to a low battery. This peace of mind is particularly useful for people who rely on their phones for work or other important activities. The character 电 looks like an electrical box with wires. The student connects one end of the wire to the charger device and the other end of the wire to a mobile phone. Playing with the word order 充足电 ‘to charge fully’ and 电充足 ‘fully charged’ makes the DST cute, and the combination of the graph and character perfectly illustrates the function of the charger.
The fourth video (bottom right corner) is notable for its visual impact. The mountainous background suggests outdoor activities, and the footprint indicates that the activity is walking. The characters walking and carrying a bar illustrate the walking route. People might have heard of 酒吧 ‘pub’, and 网吧 ‘internet hub’, but the character 吧 refers to a place where people gather for a 走 ‘walk’ and therefore, it is called 走吧 ‘a walking club’. This app shows who is available and the best walking routes. Click on the app to gather friends and go for a walk, which is especially useful when under academic pressure.
As a social phenomenon, language reflects what is happening in society. Advances in technology bring new words or new meanings to established words, reflecting new phenomena. It is encouraging to see students keeping up with technological advances, societal progress and modern language use.
The most obvious advantage of digital stories stems from their multimodal nature. In Digital Story 1, for example, students are shown proudly displaying their second-hand clothes on campus. By using accents from the north and south of England, for example, they demonstrate that people everywhere wear second-hand clothes, making the message much more vivid and realistic. In Digital Story 2, students used short videos of various regions of China as backgrounds, showcasing local cuisine, folk music, ethnic minority attire, and unique dialects. This combination of visual, verbal, and gestural elements transports the audience to China. In Digital Story 3, the student uses both vocal and visual means. As he talks about electricity chargers, he also shows images, which convey his message more powerfully than words alone. In Digital Story 4, the student uses images of footprints against a backdrop of mountains and rivers to suggest walking outdoors — a concept that is easier to understand and more appealing.
The dynamic interaction facilitated by multimodality was a key feature of the students' digital stories. The advent of multimedia, digital and communication technologies has ushered in a new era in terms of where, how and what stories are presented. Digital technology, particularly social media, has transformed how indigenous media is created, performed, experienced, distributed and received. The multimodal nature of students' digital stories provides a dynamic platform for language practice and intercultural communication, showcasing the transformative power of integrating digital tools into language learning.
5 Discussion
In answer to Research Question 1, which asks what motivates learners to practise language in the DSTs of social media influencers, our findings reveal that wordplay, accents, dialects and idioms play a pivotal role in sparking students’ curiosity and making language learning enjoyable. The multimodal nature of social media platforms, where influencer DSTs are delivered, also enhances engagement and interaction, as discussed in Section 4.5.
5.1 Stimulating Factors to Boost Learners’ Interest
Of the factors identified, wordplay was found to be the most engaging for students. It sparked lively discussions and drew attention to linguistic and cultural nuances. Students noted that puns, rhymes and alliteration made vocabulary more memorable. Wordplay also aligns with Speech Act Theory (Ashraf et al., 2025), which emphasises engaging audiences through the use of language, humour, and performance. This theory highlights the dual purpose of language as a form of entertainment and a means of reflection. Consequently, wordplay emerges as a valuable tool for language tutors seeking to create engaging and memorable learning experiences.
Accents and dialects further enhance students’ understanding of the linguistic diversity and regional variations of Chinese. Northern accents, characterised by a strong 'er' sound, and southern accents, which often struggle with retroflex sounds such as 'zh' (知), 'ch' (吃) and 'sh' (诗), provide opportunities for exploration. During class presentations, students exaggerated these features, blending humour with sociolinguistic insight. This deepened their understanding of accents and sparked discussion about the social identities and cultural contexts associated with language use, as emphasised by Muqowwam et al. (2025). Language tutors can use these insights to facilitate discussions about the sociolinguistic dimensions of accents and dialects, helping students to connect linguistic features with broader cultural and societal identities: “Language is not merely a tool for communication; it is a reflection of complex social identities and cultural contexts” (Muqowwam et al., 2025: 513).
5.2 The Contribution of Multimodality to Students’ own Digital Storytelling
In response to Research Question 2, asking about the potential contribution of multimodality to students' DST when practising language and facilitating intercultural communication, the findings suggest that multimodal communication, incorporating visual, auditory, textual and kinaesthetic elements, fosters an enriching and engaging learning environment.
Students discovered that incorporating the three Vs of communication (verbal, vocal, and visual) into their digital stories added depth and creativity. For instance, the use of homophones and numeric substitutions, such as ‘888’ (fortune, fortune, fortune) and ‘518’ (I will make a fortune), not only entertained viewers but also provided cultural insights into Chinese linguistic traditions. These playful elements encouraged students to explore language in a low-pressure, dynamic manner, fostering creativity and engagement.
Double meanings in different contexts also reveal cultural nuances. Understanding cultural context can deepen students’ engagement with language as they learn to navigate these subtle differences. Creating presentations that take these factors into account fosters creativity, making learning feel less mechanical and more dynamic. Language tutors can give students creative tasks, such as inventing DST, which take these factors into account.
As noted by Kress & van Leeuwen (2010), multimodality integrates linguistic, auditory, visual and kinaesthetic resources to convey information. This approach considers the various modes through which people communicate and express themselves. In language education, it refers to the practice of using multiple modes of communication — such as visuals, audio, gestures, text and spatial elements — to enhance language acquisition. This is achieved by engaging learners through different sensory channels and learning styles, thereby creating a richer, more dynamic learning environment.
In language education, multimodality includes a verbal system comprising linguistic codes such as the printed word and speech, as well as a non-verbal system encapsulating the non-linguistic world of images, pictures, concrete objects or events. These systems symbolise the structural and functional properties of language and the non-linguistic world, respectively. As Guenier (2022) points out, a representation in one system can activate an associated link or connection in the other. The utilisation of a multimodal approach empowers educators to connect the various meanings of linguistic terms to specific contexts by structuring learning activities. This context-driven understanding can have a lasting impact on students, enhancing their comprehension through interactions involving multiple modes of communication and extending learning to other educational settings with a wider array of multimodal pedagogical tools, including films, TV series and Tmall (天猫) shopping Platform websites.
Rohi & Nurhayati (2024) also embraced this mode of learning, finding that it enhanced students' understanding and improved their retention of information. It also encouraged participation and motivation, and accommodated different learning styles. By broadening the options within a learning environment, multimodality enables students to share knowledge and experiences through multiple modes. Unlike learning a language through texts alone, multimodality integrates various resources to provide students with more opportunities to understand texts and express themselves. Visual aids can enhance understanding (Lim & Kessler, 2024), auditory activities with immersive language experiences can improve auditory competency (Harsa et al., 2020) and kinaesthetic activities involving gestures and physical movement can significantly enhance language learning (González-Carriedo et al., 2020).
Furthermore, students' DST on social media fosters multiple literacies, including not only academic and linguistic literacy, but also technological and media literacy (Cheung & Shi, 2025), cultural awareness (Shi & Cheung, 2024) and a 'third space' in which students can share their stories, identities and cultures (Guenier & Ge, 2022). In this study, students' DST becomes a medium of self-expression and a means of communicating a human experience that is rarely portrayed in textbooks and other mainstream instructional materials. Moreover, producing their own DST helps students bridge the gap between university classes and their future professions, equipping them with the skills required in the digital era.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube offered students the ideal opportunity to share their digital stories and receive real-time feedback from viewers around the world. Interacting with diverse audiences in this way enriched students’ intercultural communication skills. This aligns with Tecedor's (2023) findings that DST is an effective way to engage viewers with content. Designing and developing DST requires many of the skills needed by 21st-century citizens, making it a significant instructional tool for incorporating a multiliteracies pedagogy into the classroom. Indeed, language learners need technology-enabled learning activities for real-life communication rather than for accessing learning materials in the form of a transition from paper to digital resources online. Therefore, language teaching needs to shift its focus beyond linguistic ability towards workplace- and academic-based literacy practices that integrate digital, visual, and multimodal information. Students need self-presentation skills and practices that include discursive competence and content production, as well as the ability to engage audiences through creativity and effectiveness. Content creators must build and nurture social relationships to foster a sense of friendship with their audience, making them appear sociable.
The students' own digital stories incorporated elements of multimodality, such as videos, images, audio, voices and gestures, into their mini-talks, making the learning experience more engaging and memorable. By juxtaposing different dialects, accents, discourses, styles and approaches, students substantially improved their metacognitive and metalinguistic abilities, as well as their ability to critically reflect on complex systems and their interactions. This suggests that multimodality can be a powerful tool for facilitating DST-based language learning.
The study results also emphasise the important role that social media plays in making language learning enjoyable. Students' use of social media encourages exploration not just of language, but also of the subtle cultural elements that shape communication. This finding is consistent with Abidin's (2020) concept that the current social media ecosystem is key to understanding communicative and visual practices, reflecting today's digital social media cultures.
Language tutors can encourage their students to use social media for language practice, leveraging it as a learning resource. Page's (2020) insights into shared stories emphasise the influence of social media on daily life, underlining its potential as a platform for interactive and meaningful language learning.
One practical implication of this study is that students are already familiar with social media in their daily lives. Leveraging this familiarity for language learning provides access to dynamic, up-to-date resources. Furthermore, interacting with a global audience provides invaluable opportunities for real-life intercultural communication. For instance, one participant's digital stories received over 60,000 views, showcasing the potential of DST to enrich language learning experiences and promote intercultural communication.
6 Limitations of the Study
This study was conducted with advanced students who had recently returned from studying abroad in China, giving them substantial cultural knowledge and experience. Future research could explore whether DST-based methods are equally effective for students with lower language proficiency. If successful, this approach could benefit a wider range of learners.
Another limitation of this study is that it is restricted to the Chinese language. It would be interesting to compare it with a Western language to see if the findings are similar. If not, it would be interesting to see in what ways the results differ.
Also, this study did not examine the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Students may have used such tools; however, the researchers did not consider this aspect as it would have widened the scope of the study and distracted from its main focus. Yet, it would be useful for future studies to explore which AI tools students find useful for creating digital stories.
7 Conclusions
This study investigated the factors influencing students’ language learning in social media celebrities’ digital stories and explored the role of multimodality in students’ own digital stories for language practice and intercultural communication. The findings highlight the significant contribution of elements such as wordplay, accents, dialects and idioms to students’ motivation to learn, practise and enjoy the language.
This study investigated the factors influencing students’ language learning through the DST of social media celebrities and explored the role of multimodality in students’ own DST for language practice and intercultural communication. The findings emphasise the important role that elements such as wordplay, accents, dialects and idioms play in motivating students to learn, practise and enjoy the language.
These findings address a gap in previous research by providing empirical evidence of the advantages for students of creating their own DST on social media. The study highlights how this approach allows students to develop and hone the essential multimodal skills required for effective communication in today's increasingly interconnected digital landscape.
Future research could explore integrating AI into DST to investigate its potential to enhance language practice and intercultural communication competence further. This approach offers exciting opportunities to leverage emerging technologies and enhance the impact of DST in language education.
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Authors:
Dr Minjie Xing
The University of Manchester
Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies
Manchester
United Kingdom
Email: Minjie.Xing@manchester.ac.uk
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8600-5405
Dr Amily Guenier
Lancaster University
Lecturer in Chinese Studies
Lancaster
United Kingdom
Email: a.guenier@lancaster.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0001-5583-944