Abstract: This qualitative study investigates how Facebook operates as a meaningful digital learning space that shapes the academic writing literacy of university students in Bangladeshi higher education. Grounded in New Literacy Studies, Academic Literacies, and translanguaging theory, the research examines how students majoring in English, Economics, and Business utilise social media writing to negotiate voice, audience, identity, and disciplinary understanding. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with eighteen participants from three Dhaka-based private universities and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal five interrelated practices: using Facebook as a space for confidence-building and low-stakes rhetorical experimentation; engaging with authentic audiences and receiving immediate peer feedback; constructing semi-academic posts that blend disciplinary knowledge with everyday language; employing translanguaging to scaffold thinking and expression; and cultivating identity and visibility as emerging academic writers. These practices contrast sharply with the exam-driven, monolingual, and correctness-oriented writing pedagogies dominant in Bangladeshi tertiary institutions. The study argues that Facebook functions as a parallel literacy environment in which students rehearse analytical thinking, practise explanation, and develop academic voice in ways seldom afforded by formal coursework. The findings call for a reconceptualisation of academic writing literacy as a socially situated, technologically mediated, and multilingual process and highlight the need for pedagogical and policy reforms that recognise students’ digital literacies as valuable resources for academic development in the Global South.
Keywords: Digital literacies; academic writing literacy; translanguaging; social media writing; Bangladeshi higher education.