Embracing the Selfie Craze: Exploring the Possible Use of Instagram as a Language mLearning Tool

Abstract

Although only introduced in late 2010, Instagram has quickly gained popularity and become one of the popular social media tools used around the world. This paper reports an action research attempt to integrate Instagram as an active learning tool in a language bridge program. Instagram was used as a production tool for a holiday project and two writing activities in two pre-intermediate/intermediate ESL classes. Results of the study suggest that although students weren’t enthusiastic with the initiative at first, they gradually welcomed the idea and were encouraged to be creative in completing their writing activities. A few teaching implications were concluded from this experiment for a better integration of Instagram as a learning tool in language classrooms. DOI: 10.2458/azu_itet_v2i2_ai-ali