A review of research on the effectiveness of instagram to enhance students’ learning of english language

The four language skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, are the most vital part to be mastered by ESL or EFL learners. However, speaking is to be said the most anxiety-provoking for the learners. Past studies on the use of Instagram agreed on using this platform as a potential platform to help students learn the English language. This study reviews the literature on using the Instagram application to support second language learners to learn English. As social media applications have become popular platforms of interactions among users, optimising these applications, such as Instagram, into pedagogy is a great way to assist learners in mastering the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Although relatively new, Instagram has gained billions of users worldwide. It appeals to younger generations, making it a platform with high potential to be integrated into the teaching of English as a second language in Malaysia. This review determines to investigate whether the integration of Instagram during English language classrooms is effective in helping students to lower their anxiety and perform better using the language. Past researches mainly focused on the primary and tertiary levels, and none has yet been done in secondary schools in Malaysia, thus creating a gap to be filled. A mixed-method study will later be conducted in a secondary school involving two Form 4 classes consisting of pupils whose language proficiency is intermediate. The experimental group will be exposed to weekly Instagram sessions over a time frame. In contrast, the control group will be taught with the traditional approach. At the end of the sessions, data will be collected via pre-test, post-tests, interviews, and questionnaires on students’ anxiety level, which will be analysed descriptively. The study’s findings are hoped to match the reviews’ suggestions that Instagram positively impacts learning the English language among learners of all age groups. The study aims to provide insights for integrating social media applications in the English language classroom curriculum for secondary schools so that learners of all ages will benefit from it.