This narrative inquiry accompanied one Chinese teacher as she reflected on her experience quitting her normal teaching job and participating full-time as a member of a language-teaching YouTuber team for a period of three years.
Compared with informal language learning that has become a heated line of CALL research, informal language teaching, such as that by practitioners who teach or provide informal learning content on YouTube, has received little research attention. This narrative inquiry accompanied one Chinese teacher as she reflected on her experience quitting her normal teaching job and participating full-time as a member of a language-teaching YouTuber team for a period of three years. Data collected included narratives, in-depth interviews, as well as video work. Drawing on Benson’s (2011) Dimensions of Language Learning and Teaching Beyond the Classroom (LBC), the analysis used formality to focus on perceived legitimacy and identity as a teacher on YouTube; pedagogy, her negotiated “teaching” practice; locus of control, her control as to what to teach and how to teach it; and location, contextual features of the YouTube that impacts informal teaching practice. The result shows that behind the LBC practice the prevailing view that YouTube does not offer serious learning is always lurking and creates ambivalence and identity tensions. It highlights the tension between formal and informal teaching communities, suggesting that teachers could be discouraged from engaging in emerging LBC practice because of widely perceived bias.
