AILA Review· 2026Q1
Selling language teacher identity on social media
- 2citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Self-styled language teachers on social media are increasingly monetizing their content, blurring lines between teaching, advertising, and entertainment.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Self-styled language teachers on social media are actively seeking to monetize their content.
- Monetization strategies are diverse and integrated into the teaching content.
- The practice raises questions about the pedagogical value of monetized instructional content.
- Monetization blurs the distinction between language teaching, advertising, and entertainment.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract 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.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. AILA Review, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Language and Linguistics
Language and LinguisticsArts and Humanities