ENGAGING THE INSTA-GENERATION: INSTAGRAMBASED ASSIGNMENTS FOR INDONESIAN TERTIARY EFL LEARNERS

Abstract

Principally motivated by how Instagram–a widespread social media platform among young users– may facilitate language learning, this paper explores the design and impact of using Instagrambased assignments in an introductory linguistics course at a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. Twenty-four students answered reflective questions through an online questionnaire, aiming at investigating the students’ perspectives on the assignments, specifically on how the assignments might or might not affect their motivation and any challenges they encountered while working on the assignments. The students’ responses generally informed that the Instagram-based assignments appealed to the students and could motivate them to work on the assignments. Besides, the students reported some personal and technical challenges. This paper should interest EFL teachers seeking to integrate Instagram into their language teaching practices.