Using Instagram Photo Caption to Encourage Students to Write in English: Benefits and Obstacles

Elis Homsini Maolida, Yessy Purnamasari

2017

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.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Maolida E. and Purnamasari Y. (2017). Using Instagram Photo Caption to Encourage Students to Write in English: Benefits and Obstacles.In 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 - Volume 1: CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE, ISBN 978-989-758-332-2, pages 116-121. DOI: 10.5220/0007163001160121


in Bibtex Style

@conference{conaplin and icollite17,
author={Elis Homsini Maolida and Yessy Purnamasari},
title={Using Instagram Photo Caption to Encourage Students to Write in English: Benefits and Obstacles},
booktitle={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 - Volume 1: CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE,},
year={2017},
pages={116-121},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007163001160121},
isbn={978-989-758-332-2},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - 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 - Volume 1: CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE,
TI - Using Instagram Photo Caption to Encourage Students to Write in English: Benefits and Obstacles
SN - 978-989-758-332-2
AU - Maolida E.
AU - Purnamasari Y.
PY - 2017
SP - 116
EP - 121
DO - 10.5220/0007163001160121