Learners’ perceptions of vocabulary improvement through social media engagement with global issues

Social media has become a dominant platform of informal learning, where students’ engagement with global issues significantly influences vocabulary development. This study investigates learners’ perceptions of vocabulary improvement through their interaction with social media discussions of current issues. A quantitative survey was administered to 129 diploma students from three faculties at UiTM Dungun, Terengganu. The questionnaire examined students’ preferred social media platforms, their awareness of global issues, and their recognition of vocabulary items frequently encountered online. The findings indicate that Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube were the most commonly used platforms and that students reported high awareness of global issues such as the Israel–Palestine conflict. Vocabulary recognition patterns demonstrate not only incidental learning but also learners’ ability to contextualize new terms within global discourses, echoing findings that informal digital spaces significantly foster incidental vocabulary growth. The study concludes that social media can be integrated as an informal but valuable complement to classroom vocabulary learning, while it stresses the importance of pedagogical strategies to bridge informal and formal learning environments.