Instagram as a teaching tool: introducing the passive voice in an EFL class

Abstract

[eng] Students always use new technologies, mobile phones and social media on a daily basis. In this sense, it would be interesting to know to what extent they influence on students’ attitudes and exam results while learning English as a Foreign Language at high school if these devices were introduced as a learning tool. Thus, a mixed-methods research has been conducted in order to test if students in a Spanish high school who use Instagram as a warm-up activity to learn the passive voice in English (experimental group) will have better results and will be more motivated than students who do not use this application (control group). The results reveal a clear evidence on an improvement in students’ motivation in the experimental group, and although students in this group have better results in the final exam, a generalisation cannot be done in all the cases. Finally, a didactic proposal will be designed with five lesson plans with activities using Instagram as a teaching tool.