STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES ON INSTAGRAM AS AN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE WRITING LEARNING TOOL

Nabilah Shahadan, Dr. Kew Si Na

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to investigate the students’ perceptions and attitudes on
Instagram as an English language writing learning tool. Instagram is a social media that is
used by people for all over the world as learning media. The features provided in Instagram
give English language learners the option to learn writing in the English language. This study
utilized the quantitative study design with the non-experimental method. The results collected
for the data analysis were from the final year of the undergraduate students in pure chemistry
and industrial chemistry courses of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). 100 students were
selected purposively as the participants of the study. The results from this study showed that
Instagram gives freedom to the students to convey their thoughts in written form, students
were satisfied with the services provided by Instagram because students can use the features
in Instagram for their needs in educational and Instagram is easy to access by the students
anywhere and anytime through their mobile devices. Hence, it is important to look at the
students’ perceptions and attitudes on Instagram as an English language writing learning tool
because students are the main users of Instagram.
Key words: Instagram, writing, higher education, language learning, social media

1. INTRODUCTION
Today’s world technologies such as iPad, tablets, cellular phones, smartphones, mp3
players, digital cameras and many more are turning into accessible among the young people
due to the rapid of development, (Liliia & Gulnara, 2016). It has also been proved that
technologies are an efficient tool to learn a language which provides the source of motivation
and room of authentic learning from educational websites or social networking sites, (Latisha
Asmaak & Rozilawati, 2019). Going through the educational setting in today’s system,
according to Aloraini (2018), to meet the demand of the current education and students who
are digital natives, educators need to use technologies as the teaching methodology because
traditional methods are no longer decent in this era. Besides that, technologies have the

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possibility to fix the pedagogical issues in the classroom as well as promote the process of
language learning in general. Meanwhile, writing is not only important for educational
purposes but also on targeting a reputable job after they graduated. The applications offered
through technologies such as computers and smartphones, allowed the students to access the
social media network and it can affect the students’ ability in writing. Students used social
media to connect with people, post photos or videos and some of them have started their
online business. That is why writing skills in English language is fundamental which can be
helped by social media to enhance their memory function.

To be a good writer, students should focus more on the grammatical rules, open up
their mind and good arrangement of sentence. However, the problem in writing among
students is these students have low self-esteem to apply this skill efficiently and effectively
because they are lacked in skills as well as knowledge. Most of the time students write
because the lecturer asked them to write but not because of their intended to write. Therefore,
advance learning is fundamental to expert these challenges, many advantages should be taken
and students want enhancement in learning, (Bakeer, 2018).

New technologies are transforming the way of learn among students. Technology is
used to improve efficiency, enhance creativity, gain confidence and independence in English
language among the students. Information and communications technology (ICT) allowed
students to apply English language in real purposes and contexts which can help them to
learn faster. Besides that, ICT helps students to increase their curiosity about how the English
language works, cognitive challenges and build the ability for them to learn the language
independently. The written word and understanding can be maximized. ICT such as social
media allowed them to communicate, edit, annotate and arrange the word in faster as well as
flexible ways, (Bakeer, 2018).

Therefore, nowadays students prefer to write in social medias such as Instagram

because students can find more interesting things in their writing that can help them to
become a better writer. Instagram is an application that was launched in October 2010 and
used by millions of active users coming from different ages, countries and backgrounds.
Instagram gives users to choose what to uploads such as audio, images, photos and videos
with a lot of effects, fun features as well as filters. Instagram allows users to write the caption
below the contents that they have uploaded and viewers can post the comments. It is a web-

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based technology intended for digital-storytelling and develops creativity among users,
(Latisha Asmaak & Rozilawati, 2019). Direct messages are also allowed for the users to
message each other privately. The users can share their accounts with people who they
choose to share such as family and friends because they can control their sharing through the
privacy options provided by Instagram, (Aloraini, 2018). There is where communication and
connection took place by changing their ideas and expressing feelings in their captions.

The educational purposes feel complacent through the electronic environment because
all the concentration is focused on the content and that is the reason for young people using
Instagram as the education tools, (Liliia & Gulnara, 2016). The best part is this application
only requires an email for registration and a WIFI internet connection from a mobile service
provider but it is available for free.Indeed, the present research shows declared that Instagram
is the most famous social media network for university students at the age of 18-24 years old
which is undergraduate students, (Wahyudin & Sari, 2018). The undergraduate students are
more participate in the learning process through the current technology because Instagram
generally encourages relax and spontaneous process of learning in the English language. It
also has the ability to enhance students’ interaction with each other and their overall learning
experience, as well as the pressure that they usually experience during real life interaction,
can be decreased. Students are free to share and post about their personal life every day that
they choose to share, express their ideas and view on the contents. Therefore, students can
learn and at the same time, they can entertain themselves for educational purposes.

Writing ability is the skills that students need to become more proficient but the
students stated that writing is the hardest skills to expert to be compared with reading,
speaking and listening. The difficulty in writing is the problem towards the students. Lack of
knowledge about grammar, diction and the number of vocabulary are the problems in writing
skills that students face, (Muwafiqi, 2017). However, as claimed by Akhiar, Mydin &
Kasuma (2017) the study about Instagram in many previous researches are very little and
narrow to be compared with Facebook and Twitter on English language learning. Facebook
and Twitter offered broad chances for the students to learn English language through
interactions with native speakers and authentic materials. That is why there are many studies
have been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter as tool in
English language learning. In this study, researcher would like to explore the practicability of

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Instagram as an informal, famous and fun medium as tool on writing skills of the English
language among undergraduate students.

Therefore, this study will investigate the students’ perception and their attitudes on
social media network Instagram as an English language writing learning tool. There are three
research questions that arise from the research objectives for this study. The research
questions are (1) what are the undergraduate students’ perceptions and attitudes on Instagram
as an English language writing learning tool? (2) What are the factors that contribute to the
use of Instagram as an English language writing learning too perceived by undergraduate
students? and (3) what are the usefulness of Instagram as an English language writing
learning tool perceived by the students?, On the other hand, this research paper is focused on
the writing skills of undergraduate students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).
Recommendations are suggested by the end of this research article for a wider perspective of
the use of Instagram in English language classroom of higher education.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Academic Writing in Higher Education
Academic writing in higher education is slightly different from high school writing.
As stated by Pineteh (2014), writing process relates with what the students as socially
situated do as the writers, the context based on the situation and culture. This process is not
simply about a set of conventions or disciplinary rules but also include culture and social
practice. Therefore, it involves thinking abilities, transferable skills and language proficiency.
Higher education students are assumed to use academic writing to enter the university
culture, understand disciplinary discourse as well as construct their identities, new generic
and discipline-specific knowledge. Writing is crucial to build the cognitive development of
students and to cope with university coursework.

To write, students have required a complete, active, struggling engagement with the
facts and principles of a discipline. Academic success can be obtained from the skills of
thinking of the students and it is fundamental. This includes the students’ capability in
maintaining arguments and producing ideas to write in English for academic purposes. That
is why writing is important to guarantee academic success to the students.

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 Besides that, according to Zaki & Yunus (2015). throughout the journey of degree,
higher education students are required to take academic writing as a subject to expose the
students the writing skill and prepare them for their dissertation papers. Even though this is a
challenge to the students in order to face the writing process but it is compulsory. Some of the
students are required to publish academic papers for some course assessment purposes. It can
become a problem to students who have a very limited number of knowledge relate to writing
skill. Their compositions are normally formatted wrongly, a lot of mistakes in grammatical
rules and spelling, lack of punctuations, incorrect sentence structures and their writing is not
arranged properly as well as lack of clarity. The reason to these writing problems among the
higher education students is because of their lack of ability in cognitive skills rather than
language skills. Students are demand to do a lot of exercise in order to enhance their thinking
ability which is very crucial for them to become a good writer.

In writing process, the ability to understand the logical steps before jumping to the
conclusion is a must to the students which is why logical thinking is important for the
students to join the ideas in their mind correctly and form the ideas in the written form. The
limitations when expressing ideas and thoughts set by the students is also one of the barriers
for the students to become a good writer. Students who are excel in oral might not excel in
producing good writing if they are not practicing. Another issue when the students have
insufficient time to learn on how to write in the classroom because of the limited period for
the English language subject. Therefore, the students must have other mechanisms outside the
classroom to enhance their writing skills, (Zaki & Yunus, 2015). According to (Type of
Academic Writing, 2019), There are four types of academic writing in higher education which
students require to do throughout the journey of their studies,
descriptive, analytical, persuasive and critical.

As mentioned by Churcher, K. (2014), Writing skills in the English language is the

most challenging skill in learning a second language. Writing skill requires students to have
the proper and strategic use of the English language with structural accuracy as well as
communicative potential. Another reason that writing skill is the most challenging skill
among other skills is that it involves a cognitive process in which test the students’ memory,
their thinking ability and verbal command. However, writing skill remains as an important
skill that needs to be master by the students because it is a mechanism for effective

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communication of ideas. Students also stated that they have a problem in writing at different
stages.

Linguistic, psychological, cognitive and pedagogical are the classification of the

writing problems faced by students in the writing skill. Incorrect sentence structures will
mess up the content and the comprehension of the text that the students choose to write.
Therefore, students who are lack in knowledge will have problems with the structural
components of the English language. Many students who are lack of proficiency in writing
the English language tend to have low self-esteem to writing in the English language. These
students are unable to deliver their ideas even if they have mastered syntactic, lexical as well
as grammatical rules. Despite of the low self-esteem that becomes the barrier for the students
to write in the English language, lack of teaching strategy by lecturers is also one of the
factors to the challenges in writing the English language. Poor of teaching strategy does not
prepare students to the learning styles and cultural background. Both lecturers and students
play an important role in the writing skill because lecturers with lack of relevant pedagogic
approach to teach the writing of the English language such as preparing prompt as well as a
constructive comment to the students will demotivated students to write in the English
language, (Churcher, K., 2014).

Other challenges reported by Churcher, K. (2014), of writing in the English language

are students’ lack of interest in reading to increase their sources to write, students’ interest to
write in the English language and students do not get a motivation to write. Hence, when the
students have these problems, they will have difficulty in delivering their thoughts to the
written form as writing also needs psychological, cognitive, social and linguistic skills. In the
classroom, students are lack of analytical and evaluative approach by lecturers. These are by
the reasons of a large class size that affects the communicative accuracy of the students’
writing because the learning environment is not peaceful and students cannot concentrate.
Large class sizes also can prolong the writing instruction given by the lecturers because there
is less communication between lecturers and students. Therefore, lack of time for teaching
writing in the classroom, improper teaching methodology in writing, overcrowded class size,
remain to traditional teaching styles and students’ who are lacked in academic are the
challenges of writing the English language that happened in the classroom. Instead of making

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sure the students are able to write successfully and correctly in the English language,
lecturers tend to promote English writing for the sake of exam-oriented. That is why most of
the students have the difficulty in collecting plentiful and relevant sources for their academic
writing in the English language.

When it comes to society, writing skill is not received much importance because
people tend to focus on speaking instead of writing. Writing skill remains ignored which lead
to students have never been given the ideas on how crucial writing skill. Another challenge is
students do not get the maximum instruction of writing because the examination system does
not encourage students to be creative in writing. Most of the time, lecturers encourage
students to memorize to copy and paste the sentences of the English language without the
students understand the knowledge of writing. Lecturers who are not trained well to teach
writing in the English language give ineffective teaching writing to the students. They use the
traditional teaching method in every class which is the number of receptive skills and writing
practice are not enough to meet the requirement set up by the university. Last but not least,
students’ writing anxiety is also considered to be an obstacle for the students to produce a
well-organized sentence because students tend to feel stress and pressure when they are not
able to write in the English language, (Churcher, K., 2014).

2.2 Instagram
The latest social media network that most popular among undergraduate students at
the age of 18-24 years old is Instagram and it is proved by a recent study, (Wahyudin & Sari,
2018). Instagram highly motivated the students to connect with people and affects the
students’ writing skills through photo sharing and social networks, (Mansor & Rahim, 2017).
Social Networking Services (SNS) such as Instagram allowed students to set up their public
profile, connect with people profile, view their and other user connections within the site and
shared their activities in daily life. It is an application that allowed students to capture and
share images or videos with people in Instagram. Students do not have to pay in order to
download it because it is a free application created by Kevin Systorm and Mike Krieger on
2010.

As stated by Al-Ali (2014), through its statistics, Instagram can be seen as the most
popular social media around the world. As shared on Instagram’s website that Instagram

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reached a million users after two months of launched. The total of 200 million active users.
20 billion photographs with an average of 60 million photos uploaded a day as well as 1.6
billion likes a day. The reason to this popularity is also because many public figures around
the world have their own active Instagram accounts such as Barack Obama (@barackobama),
Hamdan Bin Mohammed (@faz3), Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) and Opah Winfrey
(@oprah).

Linguistics intelligence are one of the benefits in Instagram and students can learn
spontaneously. That is why Instagram is a famous tool to learn the English language
especially in writing among higher education students. Instagram features such as “Instagram
story” and “Instagram live” enable the students to do the broadcast live along with another
user within 24 hours. After 24 hours, it will vanish and the viewer cannot view them
anymore, (Azkiya, 2019). Another features of Instagram besides upload pictures, write
captions, give feedback and comments, students are able to tag users after uploaded the
pictures, add location, add hashtags, follow other users, check feeds, explore other users and
collect content online. Therefore, the time engagement of university students with Instagram
appears to be higher to be compared to other users because they tend to spend hours
accessing Instagram. All these features are actually can attract students to access social
media, (Handayani, Cahyono & Widiati, 2018). Picture Strip Story on Instagram also can
enhance students’ writing skills. This is because the Picture Strip Story helps the students to
explore their imagination and express their ideas by describing the topic based on the pictures
posted, (Nurhayati & Suhartono, 2020).

2.3 The Application of Instagram in Students’ Writing Skills

Higher education students’ interest, motivation and enjoyment to learn writing skill
can be enriched by learning the skill through technology such as social media because
technology can promote metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies when the
students practically apply the writing process. Technology can reshape the students’ writing
patterns through broaden writing exercises in technology. Writing through the technology
involved physical and cognitive skills which require the students to control their expression
of linguistics and domain-specific knowledge while writing in technology medium of
communication, (Fareed, Ashraf & Bilal, 2016). To add on, social media can be an
interesting mechanism to practice and improve students’ writing skills. Most of the students
are agreed with the statement. The efficiency of social media can be seen from time and

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place, encouragement for learning in numerous contexts and the maintain of language
learning in daily activities. Students can install social media through their smartphones by
using the internet connection and browsing features are efficient for the students to cross the
boundaries between everyday life, entertainment and learning. (Dewi, 2020).

Currently, Instagram is the latest social media that has high number of users which
first introduced by iPhones in October 2010. As time passed by, the Android market was
welcomed into the Instagram community in April 2012. After that, Facebook bought
Instagram in September 2012 for one billion dollars. It also the beginning of raising the
Instagram rapidly than other social media. Instagram successfully reached a million users
after two months and 150 million photographs were uploaded to Instagram. Instagram
reached its global community of 800 million users, (Hilman, 2019). According to Avivi &
Megawati (2020) Instagram appears as a suitable social media in connecting, communicating
and sharing information that can support students to exercise their writing skills. Photos or
videos can be uploaded by the students into Instagram and they are able to write captions, tag
other accounts as well as enhance their cognitive skills by editing. The content uploaded by
the students must be coordinate with the captions in order for the readers to understand the
messages. Captions in Instagram help the students to improve their writing skills as they are
able to write 2200 characters as the maximum limit which considered 330 words.

Students are able to engage in synchronous and asynchronous communication. They

can message anyone privately through the “Direct message” provided in Instagram.
Therefore, this is one of the ways to improve students’ writing skills by Instagram. It
challenges students to write their caption to share their views and thoughts using specific
sentence types, different parts of speech, clauses, prepositional phrases and latest vocabulary
words. Besides that, they have to imagine the situation and the sentence to upload, (Hilman,
2019).

Other than Instagram is the easier platform for the students to access through the
smartphone, it has no limit to what kind of writing students may write. However, some of the
students may have a problem such as they have no idea to decide what to write or how to
begin the caption. Many believe that writing is not an easy skill for the students especially for

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those who are a non-native speaker of English language. Therefore, they need more time to
think of what to write in the caption or comment of Instagram, (Kurdi, 2017).

Research by Al-Tamimi, Al-Khawaldeh, Natsheh & Harazneh (2018), as the English

language is the second official language of Malaysia, this language is compulsory for
academic and career advancement demand. It is fundamental for students to master and learn
the language as it slowly becomes the basic language in business, technology and
entertainment. English language is the crucial language in several occupations and
educational. That is why the accuracy in writing of English language is important. Instagram
can be an effective system to attain progress and advancement in the accuracy of writing.
Students are able to learn through the experience in Instagram because it is not linear, it is
recursive and involved a number of sub-skills. A well-structured set of rules and regulations
concerning the choice of words, appropriate grammar and punctuation are the approached
consisted in writing skill. Therefore, based on students’ writing in Instagram profile, it
reflects of who they are and the way they express themselves between writing as well as
thinking. Writing includes the stages of training, instruction, practice, experience and
purposes then students can become good writers.

2.4 Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes in Technology

Research by Kutbi (2015) shows that based on the students’ perception, it proved
some students prefer to use social media as a learning tool because the students stated they
feel enjoy while using social media. Therefore, students reported they feel very satisfied and
satisfied when using social media as well as it helps them to improve their English language.
It will be good if social media can be applied in the learning session inside the classroom.
Through this research, a researcher will investigate more about the students’ perception
towards Instagram as a tool in writing process. Liton (2015) states that positive perception
from the students regarding to the use of technology in order to improve their learning in the
English language is very important for the technology adoption in education and its
effectiveness to implement. Technology is not only the backbone of the information but also
a crucial catalyst and tool for inducing educational reforms that change students into
productive knowledge workers. Motivation, instructional techniques and their abilities to use
technology influenced the students’ perception.

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 Research by Singh, Goel & Islamia (2016), points to the fact that students’ attitudes
about technology can be one of the main barriers to effective technology integration in
education. Students attitude includes their viewpoint or deposition with affective, cognitive
and behavior as well as belief or knowledge about technology. The interaction between
students and the technology influence the attitude because it relates to the students’ belief or
behavior on how they use the technology. Either the students like or dislike technology as a
learning tool. It is nearly impossible to discuss about the opinions and view in social media
without considering students’ attitudes.

Factors affecting the students’ attitude towards social media is measured by the
attribution of the technology to the students. Besides that, cultural perception also influenced
students’ attitude of social media as English language learning tool. That is why the
acceptance of social media in cultural and social norms also determine the attitude of
students. This is because norms can be the barriers to the adoption of innovation, (Liu, 2009).

3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Participants
The researcher took the sample from the final year of undergraduate students in pure
chemistry and industrial chemistry courses of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The
total of the sample were 100 students. The students had the same characteristics of the
population. The students study at the same university in which Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
(UTM), the students were in the same semester which was the eight semesters of their degree
in pure chemistry and industrial chemistry and all of these students were undergraduate
students who were in chemistry courses.

3.2 The Instrument

The researcher provided the questionnaires to the target respondents to collect the data
of this study that related to the objectives. The questionnaires that had used by the researcher
consisted likert-scale and open-ended questions to measure as well as to assess the agreement
of the level of students’ perception and attitudes, factors contributed and usefulness of
Instagram. Likert-scale represented five responses such as “strongly disagree”, “disagree”,
“natural”, “agree” and “strongly agree”. From the multiple choice forms, the answers were
placed in different places. Open-ended questions allowed more comprehensive responses and

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 it explored reasons for closed-ended responses because it gave chance to respondents to give
answers beyond the options provided in the closed-ended questions. Therefore, the researcher
decided to implement both closed-ended and open-ended questions in the questionnaires.

3.3 Data Analysis

Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used by the researcher in this study
to analyze the collected data from the questionnaire distributed to the target respondents.
SPSS was developed by the IBM Corporation and broadly used by researchers or
academicians worldwide. The questionnaires were divided to four sections which are
demography, the perceptions and attitudes of the students on Instagram as a tool in English
language writing skills, factors that contributed to the use of Instagram as an English
language writing learning tool and the usefulness of Instagram as an English language writing
learning tool perceived by the undergraduate students. All these were the research questions
of this study. The researcher had needed to enter data from the questionnaires to conduct all
the analysis discussed in this study. SPSS authorized the frequencies, cross-tabulation,
measures of mean, median and mode, correlation and graphs at the click of a button. Before
the researcher transferred the data from the questionnaires to SPSS and began to analyze, the
researcher needed to compute the variables' names in number and code the data because in
SPSS, all data were in numbers. The first column in SPSS provided the variable name that the
researcher used for SPSS. In the next column, the researcher needs to compute the variables
of this study in numbers. Since all the data must be entered as numbers, that means that data
that was not collected as numbers such as demographic data like gender needed to be
converted into numbers. For example, the researcher needed to assign the number 1 for male
and 2 for female, (Greasley, 2007).

Table 3.1 Types of Analysis and Statistical Test Based on Research Questions.

Types of
No. Research Questions Statistical Test
Analysis
1. What are the undergraduate students’ Mean, Standard
perceptions and attitudes on Instagram as an Descriptive Deviation, Frequency,
English language writing learning tool? Percentage.

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 Independent T-Test, One-
Inferential way Independent
ANOVA.
What are the factors that contribute to the use
Mean, Standard
of Instagram as an English language writing
2. Descriptive Deviation, Frequency,
learning too perceived by undergraduate
Percentage.
students?
What are the usefulness of Instagram as an
Mean, Standard
English language writing learning tool
3. Descriptive Deviation, Frequency,
perceived by the students?
Percentage.

4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The criteria of the answers for the first research question was included the students’
perceptions and attitudes towards the use of Instagram as an English language writing
learning tool which was the first objective of this study. The second objective was
concentrated on the factors that contributed to the use of Instagram as an English language
writing learning tool. Then, the third objective of this study was focused on the usefulness of
Instagram as an English language writing learning tool that was perceived by the students.

Table 4.1 Students’ Perceptions on Instagram as an English Language Writing Learning Tool

Items Total Mean Standard

Score Deviation
Instagram gives me the freedom of thought in terms of 3.31 0.916
writing ability.
Instagram allows users to review or edit writings. 3.69 0.918
It is fun to give and get feedback in Instagram. 3.67 0.933
There are many rules that I need to follow to write in 2.73 1.024
Instagram.
Instagram is the best place to post and respond without 2.81 1.134
getting judge.

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 The summarized findings of the analyzed data discussed the first research question of
this study. The analyzed data for the first research question included the perceptions and
attitudes on Instagram as an English language writing learning tool of the final year
undergraduate students from Faculty of Science in University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in
Science major. Among the evaluated items for the students’ perception, three items which
were (i.e. “Instagram gives freedom to the students to deliver their thought in term of writing
ability”, “Instagram allows students to review or edit writing” and “it is fun to give and get
feedback from Instagram”) as to be the highest answers given from majority of the students
and remaining two items which were (i.e. “too many rules that I need to follow on Instagram”
and “Instagram is the best place to post and respond without being judged”) as the lowest
answers from the majority of the students.

Table 4.2 Students’ attitude on Instagram as an English Language Writing Learning Tool

Items Total Mean Standard

Score Deviation
I am able to use appropriate spelling, punctuation and 3.60 0.921
capitalization in expressing ideas through Instagram.
I am satisfied with the services provided in Instagram. 3.65 0.833
I preferred using Instagram to improve my writing skill 2.66 1.085
in English language than face to face instruction.
I often use Instagram to practice my writing skills in 2.95 1.104
English language.
I am reluctant to write in English language because I 2.95 1.175
am afraid of negative feedback.
I dislike learning writing in English language through 2.71 1.076
Instagram because it does not help me in learning
process.

Meanwhile, for the students’ attitude data, the highest answers given from majority of
the students were these two items, (i.e. “I am able to use appropriate spelling, punctuation
and capitalization in expressing thought in Instagram” and “I am satisfied with the services
provided in Instagram”). The remaining four items as the lowest answers which were (i.e. “I

14
 am preferred using Instagram to improve my writing skills in English than face to face
situation”, “I often use Instagram to practice my writing skills in English language”, “I am
reluctant to write in English language because I am afraid of negative feedback” and “I
dislike learning writing in English language through Instagram because it does not help me in
learning process”).

Based on the analyzed data presented by the students in this study, it was important to
look at the students’ perceptions and attitudes on Instagram as an English language writing
learning tool as the students were the main users of the application. Most of the students were
pleased with Instagram as a tool in improving their English writing skills as there were many
interesting features in Instagram, students spent a lot of their leisure time on scrolling
Instagram, there was a communication happened and the chances to interact with a native
speaker in Instagram was higher than classroom situation.

Table 4.3 The Factors That Contribute to The Use of Instagram as an English Language
Writing Learning Tool Perceived by Undergraduate Students

Items Total Mean Standard

Score Deviation
Instagram is easy to access anywhere and anytime 4.25 0.936
through the smartphone.
The written interaction between students and people in 3.71 0.868
Instagram has improved.
Students feel connected to the world around me 3.71 0.935
through Instagram.
Instagram is the best based features and tool to perform 3.01 1.020
writing properly in English language.
Instagram helps students to score high marks in my 2.86 0.995
writing tasks.
Students understand how grammar works in English 3.05 1.038
language after writing in Instagram.

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 However, the analyzed data from the research question two showed that the highest
answers from the majority of the students for the factors that had contributed to the use of
Instagram as an English language writing learning too perceived by undergraduate students
were these three items (i.e. Instagram is easy to access anywhere and anytime through the
smartphone, the written interaction between students and people in Instagram has improved
and students feel connected to the world around me through Instagram) and the three
remaining items were the lowest answers (i.e. Instagram is the best based features and tool to
perform writing properly in English language, Instagram helps students to score high marks
in my writing tasks and students understand how grammar works in English language after
writing in Instagram).

Table 4.4 The Usefulness of Instagram as an English Language Writing Learning Tool
Perceived by Students

Items Total Mean Standard

Score Deviation
Through Instagram application, students can download 3.98 0.899
and create account for free.
Students can upload, post and evaluate the content 3.91 0.933
freely in Instagram application.
Instagram is a good place and easier for the students to 3.39 0.898
upload content as a writing assessment compared to
authentic assessment.
Instagram provides useful and relevant content for 3.40 0.932
writing.
Instagram increases the motivation to write in English 3.42 0.945
language among students.

The research question three of this study discussed the usefulness of Instagram as an
English language writing learning tool perceived by the students and the analyzed data
showed that the highest majority of the students gave answers were these two items (i.e.
through Instagram application, students can download and create account for free and

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students can upload, post and evaluate the content freely in Instagram application) and the
remaining three items were the answers with the lowest total of the students’ answers (i.e.
Instagram is a good place and easier for the students to upload content as a writing
assessment compared to authentic assessment, Instagram provides useful and relevant content
for writing and Instagram increases the motivation to write in English language among
students).

It was undeniable that some students preferred to learn writing in the English
language inside the classroom but the main reason to this answer was the low self-esteem
among students who were afraid of getting judge by people. Therefore, lecturers should
encourage students to practice their writing in the English language by writing a caption,
comment and direct message in the English language as well as ignoring people who had
judged them by blocking those accounts. Students had the right to block any accounts and the
users would not know that they had been blocked. Instagram was a creative and interesting
platform for the students to learn writing in the English language.

As emphasized by Bakeer. (2018), Instagram was a social media in which easy for
young university level students as compared to books or other text materials while going to
the library and get books related to writing development. Students improved their writing
through Instagram by developing daily writing practice and regular habits. Therefore,
according to question one in the open-ended section, it depends on the students on which
Instagram accounts the students followed because this would affect the contents that they got
from Instagram. If the account that the students followed usually used to the casual English, it
would minimal the English language skills and students would learn the wrong way of
communicating in the English language. That was why parental guidance and lecturers’
guidance were very needed.

Real life communication gave satisfaction in learning the English language but due to
the modern era, educators especially lecturers need to be one step ahead of the previous
educators because students’ development on these days were advanced. Therefore, the use of
technology in the classroom was a must. Instagram was one of the tools that can spark
students’ enthusiasm to write in the English language. Using Instagram in the process of
learning English writing was worthy since now the twenty-first-century era where
technologies devices and social media networking sites become the basic needs of the

17
learners, (Nugroho & Atmojo, 2020). Moreover, students felt less stress because they could
learn to write in the English language through the casual way but this also can create anxiety
among students in terms of expressing their thought.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation in which students were not allowed to go
out from the campus and needed to follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as the
compound for not obeying to the rules is maximum RM10,000, (“Compound for violating
MCO SOP now set at RM10,000-IGP, 2021). Therefore, Instagram was the platform that
connected students with their peers who lived far to communicate. Instagram enhanced
students’ writing skills in structure, coherence and thematic development. Students stated that
they could exchange their ideas through the written form. This was students’ attitude towards
Instagram as a tool in English writing.

Students had mentioned the interesting things when they were using Instagram as a
tool for writing in the English language. The interaction between students and people in
Instagram especially with a native speaker of the English language, students were motivated
to write in the English language even though their English level was average. This was also
because the native speaker of the English language did not mock or judge them for their low
proficiency of the language. However, some students did not use Instagram to write out their
thoughts or ideas because they only clicked on the like button and viewed the contents.
Therefore, for those students, Instagram might not be helpful for them in improving their
writing skills. Another thing about the features of Instagram. There were many latest features
updated in Instagram such as Instagram live video, IGTV and stories that can turn to the
advertisement. These features attracted students to install this application and use Instagram
daily.

In using Instagram as a tool in English writing, there was the challenge that students
need to face such as misunderstanding between students and users in Instagram. People did
not understand and did not get the message that students tried to deliver because the
proficiency of the English language by the students were lacked. That was why enhancing
vocabulary and grammar knowledge were very crucial in order to become a good writer.
Lecturers could use this opportunity during the pandemic by using an online class in which
lecturers could use Instagram as on of the learning mechanism. However, this could be a

18
burden to the students who were not familiar with Instagram features and this also
demotivated them to learn. Therefore, lecturers could do the task by using Instagram as a
group activity.

5. CONCLUSIONS
This study was conducted by the researcher to answer these three research questions
and the three objectives of this study were accomplished to be fulfilled. Instagram has the
potential to be an effective tool for the higher education students in their writing skills of the
English language depends on the purpose of the students use Instagram. Writing has become
more transparent and meaningful to the students as they engaged with the process of writing
caption, sharing and commenting in Instagram. Through Instagram, students are motivated to
communicate in written form because of the appealing Instagram interface and fast access to
the internet connection. Based on the results of this study, the majority of the students
answered that Instagram helped them in their writing skills because Instagram provided
interesting content and easy to access. However, Instagram has advantages and
disadvantages. Instagram is a good communication platform, information resources and
supports the learning of writing but Instagram can be the reasons to the activity neglect, time-
consuming issues, the information provided is not filtered, cyberbullying and pornography.
Students need lecturers and parents’ guidance. Perhaps, this study will give input and
knowledge on Instagram as a tool in writing skills of the English language for higher
education students in the future.

6. IMPLICATIONS
The findings of this study showed that, there were number of implications that could be
beneficial to improve the writing skills among the higher education students by using
Instagram as a tool. Instagram had the potential to give a good achievement to the students in
their writing skills than the achievement from using the traditional teaching methods. That
means students were more motivated and active in the writing learning process by using
Instagram. Among the final year undergraduate students of in pure chemistry and industrial
chemistry courses of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Instagram was the applicable
tool to be applied in writing skills.

Therefore, perhaps the use of Instagram as a writing tool in the English language provides
the best chances to the lecturers to apply social media within the English language classroom.

19
The use of Instagram in writing skills demonstrated that students’ motivation, the affective
writing learning process and positive learning environment could achieve to the higher level.
Other than the potential concerns around the students’ privacy, preceding studies also showed
that students already used Instagram for the communication purpose in written form outside
the classroom. Thus, Instagram did provide a better sense of learning writing in the English
language community. On the other hand, Instagram could be the easiest social media tool to
integrate into the English language classroom which was specifically for the purpose of
students’ engagement and collaboration in the learning writing process. The analyzed data
explained that students prefer to use Instagram outside the classroom for variety of functions
ranging from personal to professional.

Again the data showed that Instagram expands the students’ relationship beyond their
personal networks and maintains it. Thus, based on the educational perspective, the
implementation of Instagram in English language classroom for the purpose of writing
learning can contribute to higher levels of engagement and positively affect the learning
climate of the writing skills in the English language because Instagram functionality was
better to adapt with the relationship maintenance through the collaborative learning.

7. LIMITATIONS
Some limitations occurred and were identified in this study of the students’ perceptions
and attitudes on Instagram as an English language learning tool. It was important to take note
the limitations of study because it had influenced the results. The first limitation of study was
the Movement Control Order due to the pandemic COVID-19 that had been applied in
Malaysia. Thus, the collection data could not be done through face-to-face data collection
procedure. It was hard to gather students and to collect the data because the communication
was very limited. Therefore, online platform which was Google Form was used to collect the
data of this study but the discussion in the open-ended questions was not smooth as the face-
to-face data collection. The answers given by the students were many in general and some of
the students were not stated their explanation. 

Another limitation of the study was the understanding of the students towards the
questions in the questionnaire. Due to the targeted respondents were not the English major
students, the researcher received comments from the students that they need guidance from
the researcher on how to answer the questions. Some of the answers given by the students

20
had misspelling and incorrect sentence structures because they had admitted that they had
lacked proficiency in the English language. Despite all the limitations of the study, this study
provides awareness to the importance of social media in the current modern era especially
towards the students’ writing skills in the English language as students nowadays were into
the social media.

8. RECOMMENDATIONS
As this study is concluded from the preceding studies with some similarities and
differences to be compared to, a few suggestions can be made by the researcher for one step
ahead of the future studies. Students should take the opportunity to learn writing in the
English language in a better way by being active Instagram user. Besides that, students have
to do more practice in the English writing. Avoid from feeling scared of getting judge by
people when writing in the English language and to be precise, students can get help from
their peers in Instagram to write correctly in the English language as there are many native
speakers as Instagram users. The students have to enhance their competence in writing and be
confident to write in the English language even though they will meet difficulties because
practice makes perfect. Despite Instagram gives them a new experience that they have never
gotten before, Instagram can help them to have a better quality of the writing skills.

It is difficult for the lecturers to attract the students’ participation in the process of the
writing English language especially for the students who are not in English courses.
Therefore, as lecturers, they should implement variety of media in the English language
classroom for the writing learning such as Instagram which can be used as the appropriate
media as well as a method based on the current modern technology. The teaching and
learning process of writing in the English language can be done smoothly and run well dues
to the implementation of Instagram as a tool. However, in the English language classroom,
lecturers should be aware that all the students are active users of Instagram to make sure there
is no student is ostracized from the learning. Lectures have to create interesting content to
attract students to use Instagram. From this, lecturers can help students to achieve higher
marks in any assessment which can contribute to their Cumulative Grade Point Average
(CGPA) in semesters.

Lastly, for the future researchers, it is suggested to conduct research that focuses on the
social media as a tool in the writing of the English language due to any possible crisis happen

21
in the future. To add on, current education is more focusing on technology and it can see that
technology is slowly taking over the traditional teaching methods. For example, due to the
pandemic COVID-19, all learnings are done through the online platform such as Zoom,
Webex and Google Meet. The result from this study can be used as the additional resources
and as the reference for the same research with different variables. Future researchers can
come out with their other materials which are suitable for the learning process of the writing
in the English language. Future researchers should focus more to explore the effect of
Instagram in the aspects of writing skills that can bring significant pedagogical implications.
Further, similar studies with different levels of higher education students and language skills
are required to build a broad perspective of the use of Instagram in English language
classroom.

9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Kew Si Na as my supervisor who guided me
throughout this research article. I would also like to thank my friends and family who
supported me and offered deep insight into the study.

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