Boosting Students’ Motivation in Learning Descriptive Writing through Instagram

Abstract

Throughout years of learning English as a second language in Malaysia, rural area students were still found to be incompetent in English, especially in writing. The major problem faced by the rural area primary students is the inability to generate ideas with the limited vocabulary they acquire. In this 21st century education, many studies have been carried out to improve students’ writing skills on Instagram, however, less research could be found focused on primary schools. Therefore, this research aims to investigate primary students’ perceptions on using Instagram as a motivation learning tool in descriptive writing. In this study, quantitative and qualitative research methods involved selecting 13 Year 4 students in Kahang, Johor using convenience sampling. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection method. The findings showed that students’ perceptions on Instagram were relatively high and they were interested and motivated to use it for writing outside the classroom. It is suggested that more interactive activities can be conducted on Instagram in the future to promote language learning among rural primary students.