Foreign Language Learning Through Instagram: A Flipped Learning Approach

Social Networks And Language Learning

Online social networking platforms, which are normally used for socializing, sharing information such as videos or pictures, or meetings (Boyd, 2014), are visited mostly by young people (Counts & Fisher, 2010; Dunn, 2013). Moreover, although the majority of these platforms provide web and mobile versions, social media usage is shifting towards mobile devices (Statista, 2019), which may lead to an increase in users’ engagement levels as a consequence of a higher degree of accessibility. Thus, educators attempting to enhance learning through the use of social networks need to consider factors such as the type of learners and their accessibility to online contexts in order to develop successful learning environments. In this context, recent studies in the field, such as for example Andujar and Salaberri-Ramiro (2019), have demonstrated differences between the use of social networking tools in language learning from mobile and stationary devices.