Journal of Applied Language Learning(JALL)
ISSN: 3068-1332 | DOI: 10.33140/JALL
Research Article - (2023) Volume 1, Issue 1
Instagram For English Language Learning Of University Students
Received Date: Dec 16, 2022 / Accepted Date: Dec 24, 2022 / Published Date: Jan 24, 2023
Copyright: ©©2022 Miss. Unsiyatun Masruuroh This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Laela Nisa Indriani, Daviq Rizal, Unsiyatun Masruuroh (2023). Instagram For English Language Learning Of University Studen. J App Lang Lea, 1(1), 01-06.
Abstract
This study aims to describe how Instagram is used in learning English as a foreign language for students. In this study using a qualitative descriptive method by distributing questionnaires, the author uses a close and open-ended questionnaire whose answers have been provided. This study uses non-statistical analysis techniques, namely, this analysis is not carried out with statistical calculations, this analysis activity is carried out by reading the data that has been processed. The findings of the study said that students are interested in using Instagram as a language learning media, they feel their language skills are sufficiently improved by learning through the content on Instagram. This research shows that by learning to use social media that is available anywhere and anytime, students are also able to adapt to the 4.0 era. The author believes that future research can examine in more detail how this Instagram media design is used in learning using different techniques and a larger sample size because this research is quite limited.
Keywords
EFL students; Instagram; Language learning;
Introduction
Today social media is a major part of our lives and a large number of people spend time on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all over the world. One of the social media that has many users is Instagram. Instagram emerged as a web-based service that provides visual, textual, and interactive information to its users, making it very popular all over the world and allowing the use of social media in the teaching and learning process. The use of Instagram has infiltrated the teaching and learning process at various levels of education. Many students and teachers use Instagram to share messages and communicate with each other (Background Discourse : latar belakang memilih topik tsb).
Instagram is a web portable photo-sharing and video-sharing. It is one of the social media instruments initially outlined for versatile utilization through an application. Instagram users can perform several capacities: post substance (pictures and 60-second recordings), include captions, tag clients, include areas, include hashtags, take after other clients, check nourishes, include comments, like substance, investigate other clients, collect substance online, and send coordinate messages. Data reveals that Indonesia is in the top five countries which most frequently use Instagram along with other countries such as the United States, Brazil, Russia, and the United Kingdom [1].
In her research examined the effect of using Instagram on junior high school students in writing classes [2]. This study reveals that Instagram promotes a better understanding for students who have high and low motivation. Another study was conducted by who used Instagram to develop students’ ability to write descriptive text [3]. The study shows that Instagram is an effective tool for developing students’ vocabulary reach and grammatical accuracy [4]. Conducted similar research using Instagram and demonstrated that Instagram is an effective tool for student interaction when discussing task-related content. Using Instagram develop their understanding of language structure and vocabulary [5, 6]. Analysis on the cognitive impact of social media used for learning a foreign language has attempted to outline the current research areas focus, as mirrored in Scopus and Web of Science databases indexed papers dedicated to the aforementioned topics, measuring the interest in the subject and exploiting the methods applied [7]. Revealed that both autonomous and dependent students had a positive attitude toward utilizing the Instagram Application. It is included that common traditional pedagogical (e.g. Classrooms, books, blackboards, etc.) will be replaced by mobile teaching methods as soon. In this line, it is essential for both educators, and students to become active mobile users and enhance their own language skills and strategies for choosing and managing mobile application materials [8]. Explain that the present study raises the possibility that Instagram should be used as a supportive tool in English language teaching and learning. Teachers can use Instagram to provide their students with interactive learning environments to enhance their motivation and performance in or outside classrooms [9]. Explain in her study that providing feedback to this number of users is extremely challenging. In addition, the commenters’ poor output quality might be a result of not being provided with input suitable to their language competence, since the Instagaram accounts that were included in the data pool were not managed by trained teachers. Therefore, controlling factors such as the commenters’ (learners’) level of proficiency and the posters’ (teachers’) language teaching training in the future is recommended. Claim that social media platforms and Instagram in particular for the purpose of this study, enable students to create a cooperative, collaborative and sharing atmosphere, supporting the formal classroom setting in addition to sharing class materials. One of the significant additional findings of our study which was also found in a number of other studies conducted for Twitter and Facebook is that the participants agreed Instagram could be used to support face-to-face learning.
This study aims to explain how the use of Instagram in learning English as a foreign language for university students. Some of the problem formulations that will be discussed in this study include how Instagram can improve the English language skills of university students?.
Methods
In this study, a qualitative descriptive method was used to determine the use of Instagram in learning English among university students. Participants in this study were selected based on the criteria included in the EFL class. A total of 31 people involved in this study came from Walisongo State Islamic University Semarang and agreed to fill out the questionnaire. The authors followed ethical procedures while conducting this research and informed students of this which they followed voluntarily without coercion. Data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires, the authors used a closed questionnaire whose answers had been provided, but researchers also included open-ended questions to dig deeper into how Instagram is used by students to learn English. This study uses non-statistical analysis techniques, namely, this analysis is not carried out with statistical calculations, this analysis activity is carried out by reading the data that has been processed. This research method was chosen because it is considered to be able to provide a description or explanation that is quite efficient, besides that this method is quite simple considering the short research time. In this study, questions in the form of words, sentences, or paragraphs are in the form of descriptive narratives, using words.
Result
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows that 39 percent of participants already have experience learning English for more than 10 years. Meanwhile, 32 percent stated that they had studied English for 1-5 years and 29 percent had studied English for 6-10 years, and there were no participants who had no experience learning English for less than one year
Figure 2
Figure 2 explains which social media is mostly used by students’ universities, the diagram shows that the most used social media is WhatsApp with 47 percent and Instagram is in second place with 40 percent. Other social media ranks the same as TikTok, 10 percent, while Twitter and TikTok occupy the same rank.
Figure 3
The diagram above presents the data that as many as 57 percent of students often study English using English, 29 percent of students say they rarely learn to use Instagram to learn English, while 13 percent say they have studied English using English. With the data above, it can be concluded that students often learn English using Instagram
Figure 4
Figure 4 shows that most students use the Reels (38 percent) and Story (31 percent) features for learning English while others use the feed feature (24 percent). Not many people use highlights to learn English. From this, we can conclude that students prefer learning English with videos
Figure 5
Figure 5 presents data that as many as 87 percent of students stated that they felt that Instagram could improve their English skills, while the remaining 13 percent stated that Instagram could not improve their English skills. From this, we can conclude that most students agree that learning English using Instagram can improve their English skills.
Figure 6
Figure 6 states that the skills they learn the most when learning English using Instagram are speaking and reading as much as 36 percent. For listening skills as much as 19.4 percent and for writing skills as much as 10 percent. From the explanation of this data, we can see that most students prefer to use Instagram to improve their speaking and reading skills.
From the 3 open-ended questions we compiled, namely What do you like about learning English using Instagram? 2) What was your experience when learning English using Instagram? 3) What are the advantages of using Instagram in learning English? From the questions, we found that most participants like learning English through Instagram, For instance, many students (6 students) explained that learning to use Instagram was more interesting and fun. Students feel that learning using Instagram makes learning more fun because it is interspersed with videos and other interesting content related to learning English.
“I think learning English using Instagram is interesting, we can find a lot of new vocabulary with the pronunciation”
“It’s fun because it can reach anything and the content is more complete”
“What I like about learning English on Instagram is because it looks attractive and the material is packaged briefly, that way I can easily catch the material not boring”
“get into the brain quickly, because it uses interesting and funny videos”
“There are pictures and sounds so varied it’s not boring” “Many interesting contents about new vocabulary and expressions” Students can learn to listen, write, and even speak by maximizing existing features. Some of the participants even learned slang (slang), and new vocabulary, using Instagram
“I think learning English using Instagram is interesting, we can find a lot of new vocabulary with the pronunciation”
“I like it because the content is simpler, there’s not much writing, and I can choose according to the interests that I need.”
“New vocabulary”
“What I like about learning English on Instagram is because it looks attractive and the material is packaged briefly, that way I can easily catch the material”
“Learning English using Instagram is like learning by doing, so I only read casually without any purpose of learning, and I’m statisfied with this kind of learning.”
“I think using instagram not just can improve our writing skill but also can improve our reading,listening, and so on”
“Vocabulary and slang”
Factors such as easy access, a variety of features, a variety of content, and the ease of learning anywhere and anytime using are some of the reasons why the participants liked learning to use Instagram.
simple, practice, I can study anywhere and anytime Not complicated, with easy access and an attractive apperance certainly doesn’t make me bored Practice and eficient can access and follow accounts related to English get into the brain quickly, because it uses interesting and funny video
Some students said that their experience of learning English with Instagram was fun and could improve their English skills, many of the students said learning to use Instagram could improve their speaking skills and add new vocabulary, and could learn slang words from Instagram. For instance, it is proven from the participant’s answers :
“learning English through Instagram is so fun, besides we get a new vocabulary we can also learn slang, which is currently trending. We can also use reels challenge or Instagram stories to improve our speaking skills.”
The students also said that learning to use Instagram was more interesting and really sufficient because we can learn through video reels and interesting pictures via the feed, so that easy to memorize the materials.
“I feel like more interested because the way of presented materials are funny and not bored, so, it is can easy to have memorable.”
“Feeling really suficient with many reels that explains about learning English.”
Some students learn through Instagram by exploring many accounts about English, watching video reels, and most of them learn through Instagram captions, some of the account owners they follow come from other countries so to know the caption about followers’ posts, students translate the caption, So they learn English this way, they learn without realizing it. Below are some answers from students :
“I usually read captoions, even if the caption in other languages, for example in korean, I can easily see the translation in English”.
“Watch English-language videos as well as content that can improve speaking skills”
“I like to see the sights of countries in the world and I like that and I’m curious about their languages, so I can briefly find out the info”.
“I use Instagram to learn English, usually on language and fadan class channels, in my opinion it is very helpful because the posts start with things that are easy to understand when learning English”
From several answers from students, we can conclude that students’ learning experiences with Instagram have a positive impact, the researcher only found one respondent who answered that learning Instagram was not compelling enough because there were not too many accounts or content that discussed learning English.
“I think not enough to add to learning English, because there is still little content that teaches learning English”
From the third question, what are the advantages of using Instagram in learning English? we found that most participants like learning English through Instagram because they get benefits such as learning feels more fun, students can find new vocabulary, improve their 4 English skills such as writing, listening, speaking, and reading. Students can also more freely explore various kinds of accounts that provide English learning content. Some students also feel that learning to use English through an account on Instagram can make it easier for them to understand when learning English. Learning using Instagram can also save students spending on learning because there is a lot of free content that can be accessed for free. Students can also communicate with native speakers, find out what the latest issues are trending, and use a variety of new mediums that can increase students’ curiosity when learning English using English.
“the advantage that I get from learning English on Instagram is that we can get knowledge without spending a lot of money and we can access it anywhere as long as we have suficient internet access”
“As the first finding based on the data collection, there were four advantages of Instagram to develop students’ English skills. Those were developing students’
listening skill, developing students’ speaking skill, developing students’ reading skill, and developing students’ writing skill”.
“In my personal opinion, there is no pressure when we learn English using Instagram,because usually we only follow people or account that we like. So whatever appeared in our feeds or explore is what we like the most, so there is no pressure in it.”
“can train the ability to writing,reading, listening, practice speaking”
“Interesting medium to learn”
“So many. We can learn vocabulary, new expression, etc. With interesting way or content many of them can interact or communicate with outsiders”
“Can add insight about English, especially speaking, pronunciation, grammar, idioms and others”
Discussion
In a comprehensive study, found that the level of interest in learning through Instagram was at a high level [10]. A high percentage of results indicates that students are interested in learning vocabulary through Instagram. Hasil penelitian kami juga menemukan bahwa beberapa siswa mengatakan belajar bahasa inggris melalui caption feed dan video reels dapat meningkatkan kosa kata baru mereka, students also get some slang word yang sebelumnya mereka belum mengetahui. Others research shows that students feel that using Instagram improves their understanding of language structure and vocabulary [11]. Gonulal discusses that Instagram offers a contextual text with visual data, so it can be a good platform for learning vocabulary. On the other hand, it was also revealed that participants preferred to use Instagram over other social media to interact with other people. Instagram is considered by students to make learning more interesting because they can learn through many media starting from pictures, and video reels, besides that there are many language learning accounts that they can access, and most of them said that Instagram vans improve English skills, starting from reading, writing, listening and speaking, for example, research conducted by stated that cartoon posts are liked because they provide funny content and the use of contextual vocabulary that makes vocabulary easy to remember [12]. Therefore, Instagram becomes an effective English learning environment, which in addition to English classes, especially as error correction and vocabulary input sources reaches a massive number of students with only one post.
The results of our research about what students like when learning to use Instagram when compared to previous research results are not too different, but there are some differences, as in previous research students tend to only use the photo upload feature and the comments column for discussion. Meanwhile, in our study, many students prefer to use video reels to learn to improve their listening and speaking skills. It’s not easy to redefine the use of Instagram in an EFL classroom. Fortunately, Instagram as one of the OSN tools can be used for posting pictures. Some students were asked to provide some comments on these achievements [13]. For the advantages, it explains that students experience an advantage when learning to use Instagram, such as increasing 4 students’ English skills such as speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Students also feel that their vocabulary grows when learning to use Instagram. When compared with previous research, there is a significant difference, because in this study students claim to feel the benefits of learning to use Instagram well, whereas in previous research students still need to get assistance because students have not collected all the assignments given on Instagram, students are also still not fully understand and requires a lot of explanation. During the implementation of Instagram, the student who had lower scores on the pre-test and post-test seemed to have low spirits. Out of all assignments that needed to be submitted through Instagram, the students submitted only some assignments. Besides, they never asked for more explanation concerning the material they did not understand. This indicates that the students had lower engagement during the implementation of Instagram. Therefore, motivation needed to be given during the teaching and learning process [14].
Conclusion
Students feel that learning English through Instagram makes learning more fun because it is interspersed with videos and other interesting content related to learning English. Students can find new vocabulary, learn slang, and improve their 4 English skills such as writing, listening, speaking, and reading. Learning using Instagram can also save students spending on learning because there is a lot of free content that can be accessed for free. Due to the relatively limited amount of research on Instagram, until now it was unknown how effective this social media platform would be for educational purposes, especially language learning. While the results of this study are compared to other social media-related studies, research conducted on Instagram for language learning also corroborates the findings of this study. In their research, Mansor and Rahim (2017) emphasized that Instagram provides students with educational opportunities for language learning because they feel relaxed and spontaneous; It is said to improve their ability, and reading and writing skills. Research has shown that Instagram can be used to support language learning for students because it provides opportunities to practice the language with peers and people around the world by exposing them to language content outside the classroom. It shows what you can do. In addition to improving language skills and language areas. Implications for further researches. This finding has implications for how the use of social media Instagram can help university students learn English and improve their ability to learn English. Among them are speaking, listening, reading, writing skills, and enriching students’ vocabulary. Thus, these findings imply that students of higher education institutions are also able to adjust to this 4.0 era by learning to use social media that is easy to access anywhere and anytime.
The findings show that research on this topic must be oriented towards how students can improve their 4 English skills, the role of the faculty in directing students to learn to use social media as a new learning medium, the role of students as executors as well as teaching targets, and the intersection between these three elements, relatively towards goals and meaning at the institutional, group, and individual student levels in learning to use social media, especially using Instagram. Considering that this research is very limited, for further research the authors hope to be able to explore more deeply how this Instagram media design is used in learning with other methods and more participants.
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