The students' perspective on using Instagram as a tool for developing writing skills



The purpose of the study was to determine the attitude of students to the use of Instagram in education. In particular, it is supposed to determine the effectiveness of using this online platform as an additional tool in developing students' writing skills.The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-year students of the Faculty of Philology of the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University participated in the study. The total number of students who took part in the study was 40 people. The quantitative descriptive method was employed. The instrument used was a questionnaire to reveal their perceptionswith some necessary modifications. The modified questionnaire consists of 3 subscales and 14 items. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 software was used to analyze the questionnaire results. The analysis of the results obtained at the end of the study showed that the attitude of students to the use of Instagram as an additional tool in developing the skill of writing to students was positive, and also revealed a number of advantages in using it.

Keywords: Instagram, learning motivation, tool, writing skill.

Целью исследования было определить отношение студентов к использованию Instagram в образовании. В частности, предполагается определить эффективность использования данной онлайн-платформы в качестве дополнительного инструмента развития письменных навыков учащихся. В исследовании приняли участие студенты 1, 2, 3 и 4 курсов филологического факультета Международного казахско-турецкого университета имени Ходжи Ахмеда Ясави. Общее количество студентов, принявших участие в исследовании, составило 40 человек. Был использован количественный описательный метод. В качестве инструмента использовался опросник для выявления их представлений с некоторыми необходимыми изменениями. Модифицированный опросник состоит из 3 субшкал и 14 пунктов. Для анализа результатов анкетирования использовалось программное обеспечение «Статистический пакет для социальных наук» (SPSS) 23.0. Анализ полученных по итогам исследования результатов показал, что отношение студентов к использованию Инстаграм как дополнительного инструмента в развитии навыка письма у студентов было положительным, а также выявил ряд преимуществ в его использовании.

Ключевые слова: Instagram, мотивация обучения, инструмент, навык письма.

Currently, the technology is in the development stage, and its development has had its impact on the environment. These new technologies began to be used by people as tools, and people began to transmit their thoughts and ideas to each other through them. The use of new technologies is flourishing day by day. As technology is applied, the number of social media users is growing. Social media is seen as a large unified environment where people can switch between themselves for news and information. Using social media, we can keep in touch with friends and family regardless of the time. Social media is a medium in which users can switch between online data and communicate with everyone, as well as participate in online conferences.

Today, there are many applications that have become popular with all of us and are widely used in everyday social networks. Of these, the most popular applications are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. The use of these applications in the education system, coupled with their use in various fields, is increasing. This is a new integration and a new direction in the knowledge system. One of the most important factors that have made social media a part of the educational system is online learning. Nowadays, social networks play an additional role in education (Gikas& Grant, 2013) [3]. Instagram, a social media tool that is widely used for sharing photos and videos on social media and posting under that content. According to recent data, such features of Instagram show that older adults, starting with teenagers, have a positive outlook (Mao, 2014) [12]. Mansor and Rahim's (2017) [11] claim to use Instagram to increase students' interest in learning English is showing positive results as Instagram now plays the role of a medium in which teens build relationships with each other. They can read other people's posts on this app and share their thoughts on those posts.

Instagram is a medium in which people share unique features or changes and events that occur in their daily lives. You can create interesting content on Instagram using various filters (Febria Lina & Setiyanto, 2021) [9]. But Instagram is not just a social system where people share their lives, but there are people who use Instagram as a learning tool to increase their knowledge. Such people can develop their knowledge by linking their Instagram accounts to various educational accounts. Instagram has many accounts that motivate people and are meant to share proverbs. One such account is the English learning accounts, these accounts publish posts teaching the spelling and correct pronunciation of English words (Sari & Wahyudin, 2019) [16]. As everyone knows, a large number of Instagram users has a great influence on the growth of its popularity, so this social system is used in all areas of human life, used in trade, marketing, and also in the education system.

To date, teachers have started using Instagram in English lessons to develop students' creative skills. Teachers use Instagram as a tool that can attract the attention of students when teaching writing. According to the results of this study, the aim is to explore the contribution of Instagram in developing students' desire to perceive Instagram as a platform for learning English and write in English various posts related to the topic in English classes.

Several studies have been conducted to strengthen students' writing skills using Instagram. After analyzing the results of these studies, conclusions were drawn. A study was conducted (Zidny,2017) [19], his research was to determine what factors influence the strengthening of writing skills in students, and to determine the benefits of the Instagram application for the development of writing in English. In the course of working with teachers, students were motivated to write posts on Instagram. The interest of students in this activity has increased. This approach inspired students to post daily in English on Instagram.

A study by Anggraeni (2017) [1] looked at students' opinions about using Instagram apps in writing classes. The results of the study formed a positive opinion about the use of Instagram in writing lessons: it takes place in writing, develops creative thinking, does not take much time, does not analyze time and place, and improves writing skills. In the process of writing posts, there is an increase in students' confidence in writing. But the recording of the application did not remain without interference, there were interferences such as poor Internet or no signal.

A study conducted by Mansur and Rahim (2017) [11] gave its evidence that the use of Instagram as a tool to increase students' motivation and their interest in participating in lessons was positively assessed. Their findings in this regard show that the students were motivated and confident in writing a letter to another.

Shazali et al. (2019) [17] did research work believing that Instagram is a platform to strengthen students' writing skills with Instagram. After analyzing and identifying the results of the study, they used Instagram to teach new words and in the course of this activity increased students' motivation and strengthened their writing skills. It had a positive effect on the emergence of new ideas for writing letters on various topics, since the reason for the emergence of a new idea for students was the publication of letters from their friends in posts.

One of the most important skills in language learning is writing. Although writing skills cover the same structure, there are several considerations in this regard. When we look at the conclusion of Rivers (2018) [15], he considers writing to be a reasoned presentation of newly created information or ideas. According to the thought of Meyer (2005) [13], writing is a generalization, compilation and presentation of an idea that has arisen on paper, if it is necessary to change it and rewrite it. In addition, Wati (2019) [18] summarizes writing as follows: writing suggests that it is the formulation of a thought expressed, the fixation and presentation of this complete thought on paper. The thought that comes to the formulation of the expressed thoughts, the letter is a change, fixation, correction of the expressed thoughts and, ultimately, their presentation on paper or in writing through the screen.

A caption is a description of the content people post on Instagram (image, video, reels) that they share under that content. Thought cited in connection with Grayam's (2010) [5] finding, the caption is a short description that serves to convey an important detail of a photo posted on Instagram. Students can share things that come up on Instagram and write a description of the content they have shared under what they have shared, this post can be the full story of one story or it can be one artwork related to that content. Based on such notes, relationships between students are strengthened when students share their thoughts on this note (Gunantar&Transinata, 2019) [6]. Such situations lead to the use of Instagram in the educational process, the use of Instagram increases the motivation of students to write a message under the post or promote it. In its report, this reveals the student's interests in writing and increases competence (Delello et al., 2015) [2].

In formulating the above research findings, it appears that these studies did not address all aspects related to the subject. It is obviously necessary for English learners to do a detailed whole blood study to find out what they think about using Instagram to improve their writing skills. English language students will have special thoughts and perspectives on this study as for them English is an integral part of everyday life in language learning. Therefore, we decided to conduct a descriptive study for English learners to determine their attitudes towards using Instagram as a learning tool to improve their writing skills.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of university students on the use of Instagram as an additional tool in the development of writing skills.

Based on the purpose of the article, this study aims to address three research questions:

1) How do students perceive using Instagram to develop writing skills?

2) Are there differences between male and female in using Instagram to develop writing skills?

3) Are there any differences between 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students in using Instagram to develop writing skills?

During the study, answers were given to these research questions.

Methods and materials

In this study, we used a descriptive quantitative research method. Because this study examines the opinions, thoughts and perspectives of students on the use of Instagram in developing writing skills. In this way, participants' experiences and perceptions regarding the use of Instagram for creative writing in teaching English can be comprehensively explored.

In order to obtain a meaningful research result, we used a research tool designed to provide clear data in quantitative terms. During the study, we used a questionnaire compiled by Handayanietal.(2018) [7] to collect data.

The questionnaire consists of 2 demographic questions and 14 questions related to the research topic. 2 demographic questions consist of open-ended questions related to the students themselves (gender and education). The 14 questions underlying the study consist of 3 subscales. The 1st subscale is called «Writing Competence» and contains questions (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6) to determine the competence of students in writing. The second subscale is called «Interest» and includes questions (Q7, Q8, Q9, Q10) to determine the interests of students. The third subscale is called «Process of learning» and includes questions (Q11, Q12, Q13, Q14) related to the learning process of students.We tried to use the most appropriate way to collect data. We compiled an electronic version of the questionnaire on the Google Form Internet platform and sent this electronic format to university students. This activity of ours increased students' interest in taking our survey and allowed us to collect data in a short period of time.

To determine the degree of student involvement associated with the questionnaire, 5 answers are given for each question. Responses to questions were assessed on a Likert scale, ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). Answers to the positive questions used in the questionnaire were evaluated as follows: 5,4,3,2 and 1, and the negative data were located with opposite scores (Oppenheim, 2000) [14]. Positive statements were rated accordingly: 5 — «Strongly agree», 4 — «Agree», 3 — «Undecided», 2 — «Disagree» and 1 — «Strongly disagree». Consistently negative statements were given opposite weights: 5 for Strongly Disagree, 4 for Disagree, 3 for Undecided, 2 for Agree, and 1 for Strongly Agree. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 software was used to analyze the questionnaire results.

In this study, the selection group consists of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students of the Faculty of PHILOLOGY of the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University. The total number of students participating in the study was 40. The questionnaire was conducted in the fall semester of the 2022–2023 academic year. The study involved 1–1st year students, 27–2nd year students, 7–3rd year students and 5–4th year students. Of the 70 students who participated in the study, 34 students were female, and the remaining 6 students were male. The number of students who participated in the questionnaire differs depending on the level of their education, as we sent the survey in a random form, and students interested in this survey voluntarily answered the questions.

Results and Discussion

During the survey, the results obtained from the students of the PHILOLOGY faculty of the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University were analyzed and the corresponding conclusions were obtained. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 was used to determine the statistics of survey results in quantitative terms.

To find out the consistency of the questions used in the questionnaire, we determined the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, in our case, the reliability of the questionnaire for the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient showed a value of 0,919 for 14 items (Table 1).

Table 1

Reliability Statistics of the Questionnaire

Cronbach'sAlpha	N ofItems
,919	14

According to Gliem and Helmet (2003) [4], the results of Cronbach's Alpha coefficient show the consistency of the questionnaire, and the significance has its own explanation concerning the questionnaire. Values of 0.9 ≤ α show that the consistency of the questionnaire is Excellent, 0.8 ≤ α < 0.9 is Good, 0.7 ≤ α < 0.8 is Acceptable, 0.6 ≤ α < 0.7 is Doubtful, 0.5 ≤ α < 0.6 is Poor, α < 0.5 is Unacceptable. Given the above data, we can confidently say that the consistency of the questionnaire that we used in the study shows the results of the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient is “Excellent”.

The results of the survey used in the study were determined in terms of the degree of reliability, and the results of the survey were accepted as sufficient to draw conclusions. The results and conclusions related to the first research question are presented. The first research question included the question «How do students perceive using Instagram to develop writing skills?" and focused on identifying students' views on using Instagram to strengthen their English writing skills. In Table 2 you can see the descriptive statistics of the questionnaire.

Table 2

Descriptive Statistics of the Questionnaire

	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
Writing Competence	40	2,00	5,00	3,4708	,81640
Interest	40	1,75	5,00	3,5188	,87227
ProcessofLearning	40	1,75	5,00	3,6687	,85182
Total	40	1,86	5,00	3,5411	,75383

In the table, you can see the results of the descriptive statistics relating to the subscales of the questionnaire and their total result. The descriptive statistical value of the «WritingCompetence» subscale is X=3,4708, the «Interest» subscale is X=3,5188, the «ProcessofLearning» subscale is X=3,6687and the subscale total is X=3,5411. The conclusion drawn from the results of all subscales is that there is not a very large difference in the results of the subscales, and the averages are above the standard, which means that the attitude of students towards using Instagram in developing writing skills is positive.

The second research question includes question «Are there differences between male and female in using Instagram to develop writing skills?" and is designed to identify differences in how men and women feel about improving students' writing skills using Instagram. To determine the difference between the two sexes, we applied the Mann-Whitney-W test to the data. Differences were analyzed by subscales of the questionnaire.

As reported by Karadimitriou et al (2018) [8], the Mann-Whitney U-test was used to determine analysis statistics and compare results characteristic of two independent groups obtained during the study, taking into account their own properties.

And we also used the Mann-Whitney U-test to determine the difference between males and females. The results are presented in Table 3.

Table 3

Mann-Whitney-U test results

	Gender	N	Mean Rank	U	p
Writing Competence	Male	6	30,17	44,000	,027*
	Female	34	18,79
Interest	Male	6	26,42	66,500	,176
	Female	34	19,46
Process of Learning	Male	6	28,75	52,500	,059
	Female	34	19,04
Total	Male	6	29,25	49,500	,046*
	Female	34	18,96

*p˂0,05

After analyzing the results, it turned out that there is a big difference between the attitudes of males and females towards using Instagram. It was found that the estimated volume of the overall result is lower than the standard Level (U = 49,5, p = 0,046). This result suggests that males use Instagram less often than females.

The results of the first subscale «WritingCompetence» give a value of (male=30,17, female=18,79, U=44, p=0,027), a difference of (X=11,38).The results of the second subscale «Interest» give a value of (male=26,42, female=19,46, U=66,5, p=0,176), a difference of (X=6,96). The results of the third subscale «ProcessofLearning» give a value of (male=28,75, female=19,04, U=52,5, p=0,059), a difference of (X=69,71). If we analyze the results of the first subscale, there is a difference between men and women in writing competence, since the result of the difference between them is (p=0.027), which is below the standard result. The reason for this may be the difference in the sex ratio among the students surveyed. The results of the second and third subscales are good, there is no difference in them. The conclusion that comes up shows that men and women have everything to do with their interest in using Instagram and their approach to the learning process.

The third research question was devoted to identifying the opinions of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students about the use of Instagram in developing writing skills. Within each subscale, the questionnaire revealed the difference between the students of this course according to the data given in accordance with the Instagram application. The result was obtained using the Kruskal-Wallis H test.

As identified by MacFarland and Yates (2016) [10],the Kruskal-Wallis H test is used to determine differences between two or more groups, independent of each other, as part of a questionnaire consisting of the same or different factors or measurements. May identify groups in the dominant index between these groups, or openly show large differences.

The results of the Kruskal-Wallis H test are revealed in Table 4.

Table 4

Kruskal-Wallis H-test results

	Grade_Level	N	Mean Rank	H	p
Writing Competence	1 st year students	1	26,00	,916	,822
	2 nd year students	27	19,61
	3 rd year students	7	20,43
	4 th year students	5	24,30
Interest	1 st year students	1	23,50	,624	,891
	2 nd year students	27	20,00
	3 rd year students	7	19,50
	4 th year students	5	24,00
Process of Learning	1 st year students	1	9,00	4,199	,241
	2 nd year students	27	19,22
	3 rd year students	7	20,79
	4 th year students	5	29,30
Total	1 styearstudents	1	21,50	,804	,849
	2 ndyearstudents	27	19,74
	3 rdyearstudents	7	20,21
	4 thyearstudents	5	24,80

The number of students surveyed varies by course. Among the participants, 1st year students are 1 student, 2nd year students are 27 students, 3rd year students are 7 students, and 4th year students are 5 students. When we presented the results we took advantage of such abbreviations (the mean rank of 1st-year students — 1st MR, the mean rank of 2nd-year students — 2nd MR and so the rest).

The results of the first subscale «WritingCompetence» gives such results (1st MR = 26, 2nd MR = 19,61, 3rd MR = 20,43, 4th MR = 24,3, H = 0,916, p = 0,822), the writing competence of second and third year students is lower than that of first and fourth year students. The results of the second subscale «Interest» gives such results (1st MR = 23,5, 2nd MR = 20, 3rd MR = 19,5, 4th MR = 24, H = 0,624, p = 0,891), and in this subscale, the interests of second and third year students are lower than those of first and fourth year students.. The results of the third subscale «ProcessofLearning»gives such results (1st MR = 9, 2nd MR = 19,22, 3rd MR = 20,79, 4th MR = 29,30, H = 4,199, p = 0,241), but in this subscale, the learning process of the first-year students are very lower than those of the other courses, and the results show that the perceptions of the fourth-year students are greater than those of the other courses.If we look at the average results of each subscale, there is no noticeable difference, only the result of the 3rd subscale is less, but above the standard degree. But if you look at the internal results of the subscales, there are noticeable differences between the courses. However, in general, the indicator shows a positive indicator.

An analysis was made of the above results, and the conclusion to be drawn summarizing these results was as follows. Regarding the first research question, students' attitudes towards using Instagram as a tool for developing writing skills showed a positive result. The numerical value of the result (X = 3.5411), and this value is an indicator above the standard (average) level. For the second research question, the difference in Instagram usage between men and women was found overall, quantified (male = 29.25; female = 18.96). These results support the idea of using Instagram in the learning process that men are more dominant than women. The conclusion regarding the third research question is that the attitudes of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students towards using Instagram in developing writing skills are positive. But as for writing competencies, first-year students have a high indicator, as for interests, 4th year students have a high indicator, and as for the process of obtaining education, 4th year students have a high indicator in this direction. The overall score is higher than the standard (p = 0.849).

Thus, there is no doubt that the social network where students help share their ideas and creative work using their language skills is Instagram (Sari &Wahyudin, 2019) [16]. Interest in posts written under various content uploaded to Instagram provides motivation to develop writing skills (Lina &Setiyanto, 2021) [9]. Therefore, a positive attitude towards the ideas quoted will not be wrong if we say that Instagram is a social media platform that we use to develop writing in education, and more specifically in the teaching of English. Complements educational deficiencies in language learning.

The majority of students have a positive attitude towards using Instagram in the learning process, by analyzing the responses to each output used in the survey, we find that it is convenient for students to share various posts with their teachers and friends using Instagram, and the impact on feedback is huge. In addition, students were found to be interested in writing and messaging in English on Instagram (Anggraeni, 2017) [1].

Based on student responses to survey items that helped students improve their writing skills and increase interest in developing online media learning activities, this is Instagram, which is consistent with the finding made by Shazali et al. (2019) [17] in their study. Increasing students' writing competence results in them being better at articulating their ideas and properly organizing notes and thoughts appropriate to the topic. Encourage students to write better because they get feedback from other people on every post they write or publish. Teaching materials can be published by teachers through posts or links, which can be used not only by students of the same learning process, but also by other students. Instagram clearly shows the connection between students and students, as well as between teachers and students, and this shows that the relationship in the learning process is flourishing in the right direction.

Conclusion

The results of this study showed that students have a positive attitude towards the adoption of Instagram as an online platform for developing writing skills. With this application, they can take notes in English and share them, taking other people's thoughts about these notes and giving them feedback. The students expressed that they use Instagram not only during their studies, but also in their daily lives, and they claim that Instagram has more options that they provide when writing. The students said they share their opinions through daily posts and stories. In conclusion, using Instagram to write notes in English has a positive effect and allows students to enjoy English to the fullest.

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