Instagram as an English learning tool.

Learning a second language is never easy. Learning English as a second language is even less easy. Mainly if you are learning English in Malaysia where English isn’t our mother tongue. This may cause a lot of challenges. One of the common challenges students faces while learning English is students don’t take their studies seriously. This problem mainly is caused by society's perspective in studying English. Mostly, elders in Malaysia doesn’t have a thought that it is important to learn English as important as speaking our own mother language. It is still common that parent doesn’t give encouragement for their kid in studying English. In fact, they should encourage their student to learn English so that they can at least communicate in English.

However, because communication doesn't have to be grammatically correct in order to be intelligible, students don’t always abide by the rules they learned in school and therefore do not get fully educated and/or pass their tests. In most cases, students study English only in the classroom when the teacher is teaching. They don’t study pronunciation, they don’t study essay writing, and they don’t make an effort to learn new words. Most importantly they didn’t practice their English language skills. When learners make mistakes and are corrected, they often say “It is not my language after all.” This greatly affects their ability to learn English.

Instagram is a great tool to overcome this challenge. Despite it is the most famous social media in the world, it is also a great platform for students to learn English. As a teacher, it is important to use this opportunity to encourage their student in learning English. They can start as simple as interacting with people who speak English. Gain their confidence in interacting in English with their online friend in order to improve their way of speaking. Instagram also have plenty accounts for learning English other than an English teacher account such as Cambridge Assessment English and Oxford House Barcelona. These accounts provide a lot of fun activities for the student to learn English. The most effective way is to let students forget that they’re learning English and enjoy the content. Let them enjoyed reading articles, post and comments on Instagram for fun. Instagram is the perfect platform for this. They are in control of the content they see. Following accounts that are engaging and fun will help them get the right type of input so that they learn in a more natural way. Let this all happen naturally through massive input. Read, watch, laugh, enjoy, and make their Instagram experience as much fun as possible.