According to a recent report, there are over 1.1 billion users of video streaming services
worldwide, with this number expected to grow to 1.3 billion by 2024 (Daniels, 2020). The
Note: This document is a pre-publication version of the article.
Dizon, G. (2021). Subscription video streaming for informal foreign language learning: Japanese
EFL students’ practices and perceptions. TESOL Journal, 12(2), e566.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.566
There may be minor formatting and editorial differences in the published version.
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growing popularity of video streaming is also evident in Japan, as a 2019 survey conducted in
the country indicated that more than 80% of the respondents used at least one type of video
streaming service (Statista, 2020). As these statistics demonstrate, video streaming is an
everyday part of many people’s lives; as a result, it is necessary to investigate these tools to
examine how learners’ social practices can be better connected with formal language teaching,
particularly in FL contexts where students may not be sufficiently exposed to the language and
culture being studied.
This study is informed by the language-as-a-social-practice approach to learning, which
centers on examining learners’ literacy and learning practices in the context of the social
practices of everyday life (Barton & Potts, 2013). As Barton and Potts (2013) point out,
learning in the language-as-a-social-practice approach is much broader compared to traditional
notions of language learning as a formal, ordered process. Instead, learning is dynamic and not
divorced from one’s daily social practices, including the usage of leisure entertainment such
video watching and online gaming. In contrast, most exploratory research in the field of CALL
has utilized teacher-led designs in which participants use a specific technology in order to
assess its effectiveness for language learning (Ohashi, 2019). While this may provide some
insight into what technologies can support language development, it overlooks the digital social
practices learners currently use in their daily lives. If these technologies were leveraged for
language learning, students would learn to become more autonomous and perhaps even more
proficient language learners. In fact, research by Cole and Vanderplank (2016) reflects the
power of autonomous, informal language learning. Their study compared self-instructed
language learners who made use of internet resources such as music, television, and other
English-based online environments with high-level, highly motivated classroom-trained
language learners. The participants in the study were made up of upper-intermediate to
advanced L2 English learners in Brazil who had similar socioeconomic and educational
backgrounds. According to the results of multiple tests including tasks related to reading,
lexical resource, grammatical accuracy, and grammatical judgement, those that primarily
studied the target language autonomously through online informal resources significantly
outperformed the classroom-based learners on all assessments. Studies like Cole and
Vanderplank (2016) indicate that the digital social practices of FL learners can have a positive
influence on the language learning process. While initial research on the use of video streaming
services for FL learning have yielded promising results (Alm, 2019; Dizon, 2018; Wang &
Chen, 2019), little is known about the practices and attitudes of FL learners when it comes to
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SVSSs. Therefore, the primary goal of this study is to understand university students’ practices
and perceptions of SVSSs for informal FL learning. 
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