Commenting to learn: Evidence of language and intercultural learning in YouTube comments

This presentation will report on an investigation that explored evidence of learning in comments on YouTube videos that problematize language and culture. Ten categories of videos were examined which each involve translinguistic practices in English and Chinese (for example, ‘Chinese songs fansubbed in English’, ‘Chinese speakers making mistakes in English’, ‘foreigners speaking Chinese’). Drawing on insights on discourse, interaction and learning from Computer-mediated Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Microgenetic analysis, the study analyzed approximately 2,800 viewers’ comments on these videos and found considerable evidence that commenting is a learning activity, in which acquisition of linguistic and intercultural knowledge are at issue. In the presentation, I will outline some of the evidence of learning that the study has unearthed as well as some of the methodological challenges of applying insights on interaction and learning that have been developed in the field of spoken discourse analysis to written comments on YouTube videos.