ORIGINAL ARTICLE Gamers, Surfers, Social Media Users: Unpacking the role of interest in English Lisbeth M. Brevik Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Correspondence Lisbeth M. Brevik, Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1099 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway. Email: l.m.brevik@ils.uio.no Abstract Across stages of acquisition, second language (L2) competencies are contingent on the variation among individuals learning the language, in both informal and formal learning contexts. This study investigates a group of outliers whose extreme test scores serve as a foundation to examine them as individuals. The study addresses the outliers' characteristics as good L2 readers but poor first language (L1) readers. Combining quantitative (test results, survey, and language logs) and qualitative (focus groups and interviews) data among 21 adolescents in Norway (aged 16–17 years), the study identifies dimensions of individual language use in L1 Norwegian and L2 English. Findings revealed that they explained their English proficiency by the role of interest and their extensive use of English technology and tools outside school. In‐depth anal- ysis identified three profiles: the Gamer, who spends up to 8 hr daily playing online games while using English mainly; the Surfer, who spends hours on the Internet, searching for authentic language situations, commonly involving English; and the Social Media User, who produces and consumes information in English through social media. Additionally, the Gamers read printed novels voluntarily outside the classroom. This study offers unique perspectives and new directions for future L2 research. KEYWORDS audio, chats, games, multimedia, video, virtual/3D environments 1 | INTRODUCTION In an increasingly globalized world, English as a lingua franca is the number one language of communication (Crystal, 2012; Graddol, 2006), with nearly 2 billion English learners across the world (Educa- tion First, 2015). English is also the language of the Internet, providing individuals with opportunities to develop English proficiency as a first (L1) or second (L2) language, particularly in informal contexts. Approx- imately 52% of the 10 million most visited websites on the Internet are in English (Education First, 2017). Thus, Internet access provides exposure to the language, which builds English proficiency and facili- tates access to opportunities to improve language skills outside of for- mal schooling (Sykes, 2018). Ravenscroft, Warburton, Hatzipanagos, and Conole (2012) posited in a special issue editorial in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning that “one of the key ongoing agendas, across the European educational landscape in particular, is finding ways to capture meaningful informal learning experiences by explicitly linking these to formal structures” (p. 177), highlighting the potential of shaping social networking into social learning. Along the same lines, Barton and Potts (2013) stated that dis- cussions of adolescents' digital technology use offer good examples of how they “are getting on and learning language for themselves, and how they are actively participating in social contexts which provide opportunities to observe and negotiate language in use” (p. 815). Scholars have highlighted the importance of addressing how adoles- cents' language development relate to their interest outside school, Received: 10 November 2018 Revised: 3 March 2019 Accepted: 17 March 2019 DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12362 J Comput Assist Learn. 2019;1–12. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcal 1