Using Instagram Photo Caption to Encourage Students to Write in
English: Benefits and Obstacles
Elis Homsini Maolida and Yessy Purnamasari
English Education Study Program, FKIP, Suryakancana University, Cianjur, Indonesia
lisnida_ok@yahoo.com, yessy.purnamasari@ymail.com
Keywords: Instagram, photo caption, writing.
Abstract: Social media has been part of students’ life nowadays as the tool of communication. However, its use as
learning media, especially to improve their English writing skills, has not been optimized yet. This study is
aimed to analyze (1) the use of photo caption in Instagram as an effort to encourage student to write in English
(2) the benefits of using photo caption in Instagram to encourage students to write in English (3) students’
obstacles of writing Instagram photo caption in English. This study involves an English lecturer and 52
students in English Education Study Program in a university in Cianjur. A case study design was employed
and the data were obtained from observation of four weeks learning process by integrating Instagram,
questionnaire, and students’ interview. The data then were analyzed qualitatively. The findings reveal that the
use of photo caption in Instagram has benefited students in at least three aspects. In terms of writing stimulus,
the presence of followers or audiences has motivated students to write effective, interesting, and memorable
English caption. In addition, the presence of photo has aided the students in constructing their ideas in writing.
Furthermore, by reading and learning from their friend’s caption, the students admit that it can enrich their
vocabularies and diction as well as other language features. However, the students face several obstacles in
writing caption in English such as limited space of caption especially for high-achiever students, lack of
vocabulary and grammatical constraint.
1 INTRODUCTION
Many students admit that writing is much more
difficult than speaking. It is not only because they do
not yet have a good writing habit(Maolida&Nuraini,
2014) which likely results in poor writing fluency, but
also because they face several problems of writing
mechanics such as vocabulary and grammatical
constraint (Maolida, 2015) . Regarding this problem,
teachers make various efforts to encourage students
to write more, one of the efforts is through utilizing
social media.
Nowadays, when social media has been an
integral part of students’ daily interaction and
communication, there is a need for teachers to adjust
to the ways students learn.In this case, Blair&Serafini
(2014) state that today’s students tend to demand
more activities that are engaging so “as educators,
embracing technology and using socialmedia
networks to leverage engagement these applications
can improve the delivery of content and retention”
(p.4). This is expected to be an effective tool to
facilitate today’s students, digital natives, to learn
better. It is also hoped that by integrating technologies
in the learning process, students can be more active
and more engaged (Sarkar et.al, 2017).
Instagram is one of social media that is familiar
and widely used among university students in our
context. That was one of the reasons the lecturer
utilized Instagram for students in learning process.
Instagram is described as “a photo-sharing mobile
application that allows users to take pictures, apply
filters to them, and share them on the platform
itself.Instagram has over 400 million active monthly
users who shared over 40 billion pictures”(Alhabash
and Ma, 2017 in Anggraeni, 2017, p.68). With its one
of main features of photo sharing, Instagram can be
used to support the learning process of second and
foreign language writing by optimizing the image in
the form of photo. In this case, Whiddon (2016)
writes that role of image is supportive for L2 writing
learning and her research shows that students have
positive perception toward the effect of image on
their comprehension of their friends’ composition,
also their friends’ comprehension of their own
composition.
In Indonesia context, Instagram has been used by
teachers in various education levels, especially in
116
Maolida, E. and Purnamasari, Y.
Using Instagram Photo Caption to Encourage Students to Write in English: Benefits and Obstacles.
DOI: 10.5220/0007163001160121
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 116-121
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved