ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Educational Psychology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1499584

This article is part of the Research TopicMotivation seen through the kaleidoscope of multi-disciplinarity and multi-scales: towards the emergence of new paradigms and perspectives favored by crossed looksView all 8 articles

"I Would Never Have Become an Interpreter Without Social Media ": Online Social Media's Motivational Dynamics in Self-Regulated Interpreting Learning

Provisionally accepted
Zhiyu  CaiZhiyu Cai1Shanshan  YangShanshan Yang2*
  • 1Beijing Foreign Studies University, Haidian District, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 2Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

In the Web 2.0 era, Self-regulated learning (SRL) through online social media (OSM) has become integral to language learning, particularly for Chinese interpreting learners preparing for postgraduate programs. Despite its growing role, the impact of OSM on interpreting learners' motivation and SRL outcomes remains underexplored. Grounded in Zimmerman's Cyclical Model of SRL, this study employed semi-structured interviews with 29 Chinese interpreting learners to examine OSMmediated motivational dynamics throughout the Self-regulated interpreting learning (SRIL) process.Our findings reveal that OSM acts as a double-edged sword. OSM significantly enhances learners' motivation, operating both as an end-state and an ongoing process, by providing accessible resources, emotional support, platforms for community engagement, increasing interpreter visibility, and offering learning affordances that translate initial motivations into actions. Meanwhile, OSM also acts as a deterrent and regulator of motivation due to its entertaining and social nature, which can introduce distractions, misinformation and increased anxiety among interpreting learners, potentially hindering the effective regulation of motivation. Our findings suggest that navigating OSM effectively requires the development of critical thinking skills. This research contributes to the understanding of OSM-mediated interpreting education and offers insights into how educators can help learners harness the benefits of OSM while mitigating drawbacks.

Keywords: motivation1, motivation regulation2, self-regulated learning3, online social media4, interpreting learners5

Received: 21 Sep 2024; Accepted: 28 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Cai and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Shanshan Yang, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

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