Comprehensible Insta-put
Learning Language through social media, part 2
I began my blog post series about Instagram and language learning by describing my impression that social media, despite all the doom and gloom predictions for its destruction of society, held the potential for meaningful language learning in context. So, I’ve begun testing this by using an Instagram account for learning Russian. In this post I’ll consider its usefulness for one of the most popular approaches to language learning — comprehensible input.
The comprehensible input hypothesis was developed by Stephen Krashen, who argues that we acquire a language by being exposed to the language in a way that we can understand. If we can understand about 95% of what we’re hearing or reading, then our brains will be acquiring at least some of the other 5%. He argues that language acquisition is about understanding messages, not studying how the language works. I’ve used this approach extensively with Russian, and although I think it doesn’t capture everything that is happening in language acquisition, I have found it to be a far superior approach to the textbook/app approach of memorizing vocab lists and grammar charts.
To begin my Instagram language learning (or should I say “acquisition”?) adventure, I looked for research on the topic to spur some ideas. There are certainly studies of Instagram use in language learning. A variety of studies demonstrated that many successful language learners incorporate Instagram into their language learning (Al Arif, 2019; Alshabeb & Almaqrn, 2018; De Wilde, Brysbaert & Eyckmans, 2020; Gonulal, 2019). I followed lots of accounts of Russian teachers — and I was surprised to see that there are lots and lots of Russian language teachers on Instagram. Then I added a few accounts in Russian that I could generally understand.
But even with all this evidence of its usefulness and all the accounts to follow, Instagram just hasn’t been living up to my expectations. I’ve found the reading and listening to be lackluster. Additionally, the studies I mentioned above didn’t tend to treat Instagram as a source for input, leaving its usefulness for a comprehensible input approach less clear. So I decided to try a mini self-study to compare what I’m getting out of it versus what I’d get out of a more typical source for input. I spent 10 minutes focused on scrolling and reading posts. Then I spent around 10 minutes watching Instagram stories and listening. Using some screen capture technology and looking back over the posts, I counted about how many words in Russian I covered and estimated what percent I understood (based on my own perception of my understanding). To compare, I then watched a YouTube video by a Russian teacher (Russian with Max) who does entire videos in Russian at an upper beginner/lower intermediate level. I then read some A2 level (upper beginner) stories for another 10 minutes. This is the data I gathered:
Unsurprisingly, if I approach this from a pure efficiency lens I get way more “input” from watching videos on YouTube created specifically for Russian language learners (and I understand way more of the additional input I get) and I also get more input from reading stories created specifically for Russian language learners. Now, I think this efficiency lens is limited, so this isn’t the end of my analysis. But it remains an important point. If comprehensible input is going to work as a language acquisition approach, I need lots of it and I need it over and over again. Instagram didn’t deliver the same amount.
While I wasn’t getting as much input through Instagram, there were also challenges with comprehension. The video from Russian with Max had one topic, so he develops the topic over the course of 10 minutes and I can use this one context to understand all the various things he’s trying to communicate. Trying to watch Instagram stories results in constantly changing topics. For reading, I found much more fluency (I was reading with much more flow, closer to the way I would read in English) when I was reading the stories. While I understood a decent amount of the Instagram posts, it was very much stop and start. So while Instagram doesn’t deliver as much input, it also doesn’t deliver as much comprehension.
Another challenge that complicates this is the Instagram algorithm. I tried to collate a selection of Russian language teachers who post interesting things along with some accounts using Russian language that I could generally understand, but I don’t have control over what actually shows up in my feed and oftentimes Instagram obsesses over a particular account I follow and shows me more and more of that and I have to go digging into the other accounts I follow to find other things. And if I’m going to spend all that time searching for what I want to read and watch, I could be spending it searching for what I want to read and watch elsewhere online, such as YouTube where I can select something that I will understand more of (see data above).
Given all these complications, Instagram simply didn’t motivate me to come back the way I had expected it would. I wasn’t all that interested in the content I was seeing, perhaps because the algorithm is so unhelpful (it was probably helpful for their advertisers — although I didn’t search for a Russian wife as they’d suggested).
But Instagram also limited the effectiveness of what I think is the most important approach to language acquisition (especially if you’re doing an input-focused self study): finding content you are fascinated by and letting yourself get sucked in. On Instagram I tend to be the captive of whatever people have posted recently, and whatever the algorithm spits out (or foists on me). One of the studies I mentioned earlier by Dewildle, Brysbaert and Eyckmans, showed that social media use was correlated with better language skills for individuals who hadn’t taken language classes. And while Instagram was one of the social media platforms many of the participants used, YouTube was by far the most popular. Platforms like YouTube, blogs or podcasts offer a much better opportunity for finding a longer form video or written text (like I used in my “experiment” above) that is fascinating. If comprehensible input is your thing, I think YouTube is the better option. In my own experience with Russian this is true. I can find videos that are 10–20 minutes long and stay engaged throughout the entire video, following through on new words and concepts throughout, while Instagram just doesn’t offer that same support.
Something like Instagram is probably most useful to a more advanced learner of a language, who can follow whatever accounts they feel like and is more interested in using their broad and flexible language skills to simply use the language more without having to worry about finding people who use the language in a simple enough way for them to understand. A study by Erarslan (2019) showed clear improvement in student’s language use through Instagram activities, but these were students in a B2 (upper intermediate) level class. More on that study in my next post, but using language at an “intermediate” to “advanced” level may make the tool a lot more useful. In my main social media accounts I sometimes follow Spanish language accounts, not because I’m necessarily trying to study more Spanish, but simply because they interest me. But my Spanish language abilities are far superior to my Russian language abilities, and that perhaps makes the difference.
But finally, I’m not ready to write off Instagram as a language learning tool. As I mentioned, a variety of studies showed that successful language users incorporated Instagram into their language learning approach. I’m willing to trust them. But to use Instagram means going beyond pure “input” to a more communicative approach. More on that in my next blog post.
References
Al Arif, T.Z.Z. (2019). The Use of Social Media for English Language Learning: An Exploratory Study of EFL University Students. Metathesis: Journal of English Language Literature and Teaching, 3(2), 224–233.
Alshabeb, M.A. & Almaqrn, R.K. (2018). A Study of EFL Students’ Use of Mobile Social Media Applications for Learning. Arab World English Journal, Special Issue on CALL Number 4, 214–226.
De Wilde, V., Brysbaert, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2020). Learning English through out-of-school exposure. Which levels of language proficiency are attained and which types of input are important? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(1), 171–185. doi:10.1017/S1366728918001062
Erarslan, A. (2019). Instagram as an Education Platform for EFL Learners. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 18(3), 54–69.
Gonulal, T. (2019). The Use of Instagram as a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning Tool. Contemporary Educational Technology, 10(3), 309–323.
