Autonomous language learning on Twitter: Performing affiliation with target language users through #hashtags

aThe purpose of this study is to examine the potential of social networking sites for autonomous languagelearners, specifically the role of hashtag literacies in learners? affiliation performances with native speakers.Informed by ecological approach and guided by Zappavigna?s (2012) concepts of `searchable talk` and `ambientaffiliation`, the current study employs an autoethnographic approach by analyzing the researcher?s own Twitterexperiences in his target language, Spanish, over the period of a year. The participant?s journal, tweets andconversations, and both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the hashtags accompanying tweets show thatTwitter has potential to create a space for autonomous learners to enrich their language learning experiences. Thethematic analysis of the data further reveals that hashtags, which perform an affiliative function, enable thelearner to bond around particular values within authentic discourse communities in his target language. Themethodological and practical outcomes of this longitudinal study for second language learning and teachingcontexts are also discussed.