THE IMPACT OF INSTAGRAM IN THE PROCESS OF IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARY AT “C” LEVELS

Abstract

The Internet revolution stems from a rapid development of Information Technology which considerably determines human`s lives. The necessity for new jobs appears, there is a demand for new life skills that might not have been developed in the past, people connect on global level, businesses are established and run in this virtual world, but the access to gaining knowledge is one of the Internet benefits as well. The result of this digital revolution is the creation of social media, initially invented for amusement. Little is known about how many benefits social networks can bring to the sense of learning foreign languages. The aim of this paper is to discover the impact of Instagram in improving English vocabulary at “C” levels on its users in 2022. Furthermore, it will also elaborate on the means used for improvement of, allegedly, the most demanding segment of English. The development of technology in 21st century and its discoveries revolutionised approach to education. While popularity of the Internet grew considerably, it commenced to predominantly affect society, in general. Nevertheless, at the same time, it offered such possibilities which enabled all the Internet population to do jobs or learn from their homes. Accordingly, this invention generated social media which has transcended traditional education in classrooms. The application that proved supremacy of this phenomenon is Instagram. The primary goal of this social network was entertainment; however, the fact that even students can learn English vocabulary, aimed at “C” levels in a spontaneous and natural way, transformed this application into the leading learning tool. As a result, it appears that the major purpose of social media nowadays, including Instagram, is educating. People tend to regard it as an extremely important discovery particularly in 2020 and 2021, when online learning was the only possible alternative to traditional classroom education due to COVID-19. In addition, even after the pandemic, students occupied this space for learning principally foreign languages, as classroom education was considered time-consuming. This paper will deal with the effects which Instagram has on advancing English vocabulary at “C” levels in 2022. Besides, it will also provide the examples of how posting on Instagram helps, explaining various options available for practising and mentioning skills that might be developed. The method used in the paper is quantitative and is associated with the previous research corresponding to the topic. Similarly, the corpus for this paper is based on the Instagram profile @english,exams.with.djukica. The questionnaire used in the research was created in the Instagram story on the aforementioned profile and it collected the votes from its followers. The insight into the results prove the theory that Instagram significantly influences enhancing English vocabulary at “C” levels. In the conclusion, the author recommends that offline English teachers should include social networks in their curriculum to complement the material in the form of extra resources. Not only will the social media be an exceptional asset to education, but it will connect students worldwide and encourage their communication in English.