Using Visual Social Media in Language Learning to Investigate the Role of Social Presence

Oct 15, 2026

This paper investigates the pedagogical value of visual social media platforms, focusing on Instagram, for developing online social presence in language classes. Intermediate university students in French and Italian used Instagram for six weeks to respond to instructor prompts, enabling interaction with peers. Mixed methods were applied: content analysis of Instagram post transcripts, visual analysis of representative posts, and voluntary pre-questionnaires for demographics and Instagram experience. Data analysis used social presence density measures and basic statistics, finding students built social presence that can support a community of inquiry (CoI).

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Research on Instagram Within Language Instruction

calico journal (online) issn 2056–9017 Article Using Visual Social Media in Language Learning to Investigate the Role of Social Presence Fabrizio Fornara 1 and Lara Lomicka2 Abstract In this paper, we attempt to investigate the pedagogical value of visual social media platforms, specifically Instagram, for the development of the online social presence of language classes. Students in intermediate university-level French and Italian classes used Instagram for a six-week period to reply to a series of questions prompted by the instructor as a way to engage in interaction with their own classmates. This research examines how students establish a community of inquiry (CoI) and investigates the development of social presence in students’posts. Using a mixed methods approach, we performed a content analysis of the transcripts of Instagram posts, coding for social presence. Given the visual nature of Instagram, we also conducted a visual analysis of representative posts to investigate the multimodal projection of social presence. Additionally, we administered voluntary pre-questionnaires to capture demographic data and students’ experience with Instagram. We analyzed the data using the social presence density calculation and performed basic statistical analyses. Findings indicate that students did build online social presence, which can promote the development of a CoI. Both language groups performed in similar ways, which may be a result of the tool rather than the language and context. This finding is consistent with the general use of visual social media as a tool for self-expression, self-identity, and community building. Keywords:social presence: community of inquiry: mobile learning: visual social media: Instagram. Affiliations 1University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. email: [fabrizio.fornara@supsi.ch](fabrizio.fornara@supsi.ch) [2](2University of South Carolina)[University of South Carolina](2University of South Carolina), USA. email: [lomicka@sc.edu](lomicka@sc.edu) calico journal vol 36.3 2019 184–203 [https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.37205](https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.37205) ©2019, equinox publishing Fabrizio Fornara and Lara Lomicka 185 Introduction In days of ubiquitous social media use and with the impact of visual content with today’s learners, language teachers and trainers must question whether the use of visual social media has benefits and positive outcomes in language classes. Visual social media are free platforms that allow users to create, manipulate, and instantly share visual and textual information. A popular type of visual social media, Instagram allows users’ to share photos and videos taken via mobile phone, either as a post or a story1 (Pew Research Center, 2018). Text and hashtags serve as the primary way to deliver content (Hochman & Manovich, 2013; Laestadius, 2017). According to Statista (2018), the number of active monthly Instagram users is one billion. These users commonly use the app to engage in visual communication (Laestadius, 2017; Marwick, 2015), to promote self-presentation and expression (Ibrahim, 2015; Marwick, 2015), to chronicle their surroundings (Hochman & Manovich, 2013), and to participate in online communities (Tiidenberg, 2015). Recent research argues that Instagram is increasingly popular in language education (e.g., Al-Ali, 2014; Barbosa, Bulhoes, Zhang, & Moreira, 2017; Hoy, 2016; Whiddon, 2016); one can find numerous project descriptions and suggestions for its use in the classroom. While these publications can shed light on how Instagram is being used to further language teaching and on student perceptions of these experiences, the literature to date does not offer much empirically-based research. The goal, then, of this project is to investigate the use of Instagram asa mobile pedagogical tool, with a focus on the categories and indicators of social presence in the captions and comments of Instagram posts, and on the feat

FAQs

What does the study investigate about Instagram in language learning?

It investigates Instagram’s pedagogical value for developing students’ online social presence and examines how learners establish a community of inquiry through their posts.

How were data collected in this research?

Students used Instagram for six weeks to answer instructor prompts. The study used mixed methods, including content analysis of post transcripts, visual analysis of representative posts, and voluntary pre-questionnaires for demographics and prior Instagram experience.

What were the main findings regarding social presence and CoI?

Findings indicate students built online social presence, which can promote development of a community of inquiry (CoI). Both language groups showed similar patterns, potentially due to the tool rather than language or context.

Oct 15, 2026

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