Social Media Tools for Informal Language Learning : A Comprehensive Theoretical Framework

This article offers a conceptual framework for social media applications that provides efficient support for a daily informal language learning experience. It proposes the multiple lenses of sociocultural theories as conceptual and interpretive tools, to capture the complexity and the fine-grained types of activities of these learner-users’ sociocultural experiences in informal English as a Second Language learning via social media at residential college of Malaysian universities. These theories focus not only on the development of individual language learner’s cognitive development but also on the overall development of learners. The proposed framework provides forward technology support for the successful design of the future language informal learning.


Introduction
In line with the Malaysian Government's Vision 2020 for education transformation, skills in technology using English have been foregrounded across Malaysian education institutions (Wan, 2013).Particularly with the availability and range of social media resources, and the dominance of English as global language, Malaysia aspires to meet international demands in order to be at the forefront of a globalisation.
At heart, residential college is increasingly recognised as an authentic environment for informal learning of English as a Second Language that empowers university students to discover knowledge and participate more effectively in daily life.Informal learning takes place through the activities that initiated by learners (through self-guidance) in informal settings that result in the development of their English knowledge and skills (Wan, 2013).Indeed, learners may empower their daily language learning through the use of a variety of social media widgets, such as Facebook, YouTube, Wikis, and blogs (Wan, Prain, & Collet, 2014).In the next section, the writer proposes on the theoretical appropriateness for Malaysian learners' practical application of emerging social media tools in their informal English as a second language learning, using activity theory frameworks.

Mediation in Sociocultural Theory
Activity theory studies of learning involve analyses of artefact-mediated activity, situated in cultural and historical contexts, with an emphasis on social mediation processes (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006;Lantolf & Thorne, 2006).Supporting this, the principle of mediation provides a lens for examining participants' ESL learning in corridors, cafeterias and beyond the classroom by suggesting that learner-users are active agents strategically appropriating social cultural tools of social media in social networking.Vygotsky's (1978) activity theory represents the basic relationship between a subject (individual or group) and a cultural artefact (a physical or cognitive tool) in order to transform an object (a goal, objective, purpose or problem) (Wan, 2013).However, Vygotsky's (1978) basic representation of activity does not fully account for the relationship between an individual and the environment.Therefore, the analytical framework of this study outlines and considers the key contributions made by Leontiev (1978) to activity theory in this domain.

Activity Theory: Leontiev and Engeström
This section will clarify two types of activity theory, namely Leontiev's (1978) and Engeström's (1987Engeström's ( , 1999)).Both theories focus on human cognition in context studies.Leontiev's (1978) activity theory highlights the motive, the goal and conditions of the activity within the cognition and context framework, while Engeström's (1987Engeström's ( , 1999Engeström's ( , 2001) )  d.An internal representation becomes externalized through speech, gesture, writing and manipulation of the material environment and vice versa, external processes become internalized.In order to understand individual learners' actions and interactions, one must know the context in which those actions are embedded, namely a clear and systematic picture of activity (Engeström, 1999).
Rules are rather loose conventions guiding the individual's actions and interactions within the system of activity.The rules or regulations in an activity system can consist of informal and implicit ways of doing things (Engeström, 1987).Community is included in an activity system to emphasize the communal nature of cognition and learning and subjects as constituents of the community.For learner-users at residential college, their social media communities are probably composed of lecturers, classmates, friends from other universities, virtual groups and family members.Division of labor is also referred to as "roles" describing the continuously negotiated distribution of powers and responsibilities among the social media participants (Wan, 2013).Learners can take on various roles such as collaborators, gamers, active and passive ESL learners.In the context of a social media activity system, community refers to the group of individual users of the social media activity system who are motivated by the same objective (learning ESL beyond the classroom) and demonstrate orientation to the same objective.As a result, the social media community shapes and directs the individual and the collective ESL activity at residential college, beyond the classroom.
It is important to note that the communication of these four mediators in informal learning activities at residential college should be perceived holistically as a collaborative knowledge construction process as each part in the activity system is in continuous interaction with the others.Activities are open systems and when a new element enters into the activity system from the outside (for example, the criticism and contradictory ideas from peers), a secondary contradiction (for example, the rules or new identity) appears between the elements.Such contradictions represent disturbances and conflicts in activity systems (Engeström, 1999(Engeström, , 2001)).In this way, Wenger (1998) confirms that "interrelations within the community did not always out of mutual support and interpersonal allegiance, but sometimes through conflict, disagreement, and challenge" (Mills, 2011, p. 364).In contrast, they can create novel attempts to change activities and be used as a catalyst for growth (Engeström, 2001, p. 137).Therefore, under the direction of this theory, the article should highlight on what way artefacts and contextual components mediate interactions, and also focus on how these mediators get expanded through interactions.
Overall, Engeström's activity theory is a theory of object-driven activity and it is important to identify the various mediating resources (social media tools and language) that contribute to the production of object (ESL learning) in activity.The process of enabling conversation among social media users to trigger deep reflection on the various possibilities for social media tools integration in informal ESL learning in Malaysia constitutes the focus of this study.By this, the use of mediating resources that influence the nature of external behaviour and also the mental functioning of individual learner-users will be revealed.

Conclusion
Technological advancement has allowed the writer to recognize the value of a sociocultural framework (Vygotsky, 1978(Vygotsky, , 1986)), Leontiev (1978) and Engeström (1987Engeström ( , 1999)), for understanding and considering learning in a social world and in the cultural contexts in which events occur.In this regard, the theoretical framework developed to explain the nature of the informal English as a second language learning experienced by the Malaysian university students based on the social media technologies at residential college (outside the classroom) has provided fresh insights.This framework reveals important aspects of the dynamic and complex ways in which social media functions to either enable authentic informal language learning or limit it, depending on the users' past experiences, preferences and abilities.This application of sociocultural theory, building on the work of Vygotsky (1978Vygotsky ( , 1986)), Leontiev (1978) and Engeström (1987Engeström ( , 1999)), highlights the links between individual learner motivation and communal practices in this context.

ct(S) on of labor (Rol
activity theory emphasizes the mediating resources and the community feature of the activity