Language teachers’ use of social media platforms and online tutoring platforms : a scoping review

Abstract

Around the world, language teachers use for-profit digital platforms to find and instruct students. Although a plethora of recent studies have addressed this emerging phenomenon, there has not yet been an attempt to synthesize the existing literature. In response, this scoping review provides an overview and synthesis of existing studies that explicitly focus on language teachers’ use of digital platforms in for-profit contexts (N = 39). Based on our review, we suggest a typology that distinguishes between the two types of platforms hitherto discussed in the extant literature: 1) online tutoring platforms (OTPs); and 2) social media platforms that host teachers (SMPTs). The article next discusses commonalities, differences, and areas of overlap in the research conducted on these two different types of platforms. The article concludes by outlining four key areas of future research on the topic that researchers are encouraged to explore.