Exploring the Impact of Using Instagram to Develop Saudi EFL Learners' Vocabulary

The current paper aims to investigate the impact of using Instagram to develop vocabulary among Saudi EFL learners. With a descriptive research design, this paper filled a gap in the literature by examining the role of Instagram in building vocabulary among Saudi EFL learners. Therefore, quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. To collect data, the researcher used an online questionnaire and two different types of interviews. The online questionnaire included both closed-ended and open-ended questions, involving 217 Saudi EFL learners. Regarding the interviews, structured interviews were carried out with six Saudi EFL learners to collect detailed information. Additionally, to acquire more information, semi-structured interviews involved four English tutors on Instagram. As a result, the findings revealed that Instagram plays a key role in developing EFL learners' English vocabulary and can be used as a tool to expand their vocabulary. The findings of this study add to prior research in related fields and serve as a resource for researchers studying English language instruction and acquisition as well as EFL learners.


INTRODUCTION
Today, technology has integrated into people's daily lives.The necessity for technology has grown over the years.According to Khan (2018), the term technology "came from the Greek word techne, which means art and craft."Furthermore, Khan (2018) also stated that "it was first used to describe applied arts, but now it is used to describe the advancement and changes around us." Technology is increasingly used day after day by many different people for many different reasons, either for educational or non-educational purposes.
Technology affects most of the fields around us, including education.Van, Dang, Pham, Vo, and Pham (2021) conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of using technology in learning English, and they found that 68.8% of the participants indicated that they would rather use technology to learn English.As a result, it reveals that students are no longer hesitant about using technology to learn English.Furthermore, 96% of the participants agreed that technology aids learners in learning English.
Therefore, with the rapid growth of technology, social media is booming.Nowadays, social media plays a significant role.For example, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube.It clearly affects life in several fields, particularly education.According to Anankulladetch (2017), "social media has become a typical technologysupported learning tool for public and tutorial use" (as cited in Rao, 2019, p. 4).Thus, social media is considered an encouragement material to keep learners motivated.In fact, it is reasonable to conclude that English learners today are lucky to have a wide range of possibilities to employing while learning the language.Because with technology, many different strategies have been explored to enhance English skills, particularly vocabulary building.One of the current technologies that EFL learners can take advantage of is Instagram.
Instagram is considered one of the most widely popular platforms, especially among EFL learners.According to Erarslan (2019), he stressed that Instagram was the most widely used social media network among the study's participants.That is, Erarslan (2019) discovered that 92% of the participants had social media accounts, and the study revealed that 76.7% of the participants used social media platforms for educational purposes.Moreover, Agustin and Ayu (2021) investigated that due to all of its features, Instagram is the platform that many youngsters like the most.Agustin and Ayu (2021) also found that 80% of the students followed different English educational accounts on Instagram.Also, 95% of the students stated that Instagram plays an important role in developing their English vocabulary and improving their listening skills.
As reported by Putri (2022), Instagram can help students learn more vocabulary through its provided features, either through captions or videos.She also recognized from her research samples that captions are more useful than videos regarding learning vocabulary.Furthermore, Kamal (2019) explored that there was a development in the students' mean pre-test and post-test scores.Therefore, it implied that the student's vocabulary increased as a result of their using Instagram to learn .Kamal (2019) pointed out that "Instagram is growing not merely as a social media but also as a learning media" (p.8), which indicated the role of Instagram in developing English vocabulary.Based on Kamal's results (2019), he examined students' interests in developing their vocabulary through Instagram.According to Alshabeb and Almaqrn (2018), they stated that Saudi University students use social media platforms to improve their English language.They concluded that the majority of participants clearly agreed that it is fun to use social media to learn English and confirmed that they frequently search for or learn new words on Twitter or Instagram.
In accordance with learning English, it can be challenging to acquire a language without words because human interaction depends on words (Farrokh and Sharifi, 2019).Similarly, Surmanov and Azimova (2020) stated that "vocabulary learning is an essential part of foreign language learning" (p.144).Therefore, vocabulary is crucial to learn a language because, by learning an extensive vocabulary, EFL learners will enhance their listening, writing, speaking, and reading skills (Farrokh and Sharifi, 2019).
Yet, despite the fact that Instagram is quite popular among Saudi EFL students, there has been little research conducted in the Saudi context.As a result, this paper investigated the impact of using Instagram to develop English vocabulary among Saudi EFL learners to fill a literature gap.Therefore, it attempted to answer the following research questions: 1.How effective is the use of Instagram to develop vocabulary building for EFL learners in Saudi Arabic? 2. To what extent does the use of Instagram influence the development of EFL learners' vocabulary?

METHOD
This paper is a descriptive research design, in which the researcher attempted to describe and analyze how effective the use of Instagram is for developing vocabulary building among Saudi EFL learners.In this paper, the participants are divided into three groups: the questionnaire participants, EFL learners' interview participants, and Instagram teachers' interview participants (see Table 1).The participants in the questionnaire were 217 Saudi EFL learners, including 180 females and 37 males, who were selected by simple random sampling, which means that each person has an equal chance of being selected (Creswell, 2014).Moreover, there were six Saudi EFL learners in the structured interviews, particularly five females and one male.They were selected as a result of the fact that they typed their emails in the last questionnaire question, suggesting that they would be interested in taking part in the interview.In the Instagram teachers' interviews, participants were four English teachers who teach English on Instagram to thousands of learners.The teachers were one female and three males from different backgrounds.The teachers were identified based on some respondents who shared the teachers' accounts in response to question number 11 in the questionnaire.The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative data to benefit from each method's advantages as well as balance out any deficiencies.The researcher employed two instruments to address the research questions: an online Google forms questionnaire and structured and semi-structured interviews.In this paper, the research instruments are divided into three sub-sections: a questionnaire, structured interviews, and semi-structured interviews (see Table 2).

Questionnaire
First, the online questionnaire consisted of 11 questions (see Appendix A).The questionnaire included eight close-ended and three open-ended questions.The questionnaire was devised to measure the impact of using Instagram to develop English vocabulary among Saudi EFL learners.The questions were written in both Arabic and English to facilitate the questionnaire's reaching several EFL learners in Saudi Arabia.The responses were collected through several social media platforms, for example, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, and Snapchat.Questions numbers 2, 4, 5, and 7 were adapted from Agustin and Ayn's study (2021) with some modifications.Additionally, questions numbers 6 and 11 were adapted from Putri's study (2022) with some modifications.The purpose of both of these studies was to evaluate the effectiveness of using Instagram for vocabulary development, which made the questions valid to be re-used in this study.Moreover, the results of those questions demonstrated that employing them in this study was an appropriate way to collect data.The findings was analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 29 to show frequencies, percentages, valid percentages, and cumulative percentages.

Structured Interviews
Second, to gain a deep knowledge of learners' points of view, it was considered helpful to conduct interviews.Therefore, the researcher conducted structured interviews in which the questions were predetermined.The participants were six Saudi EFL learners, including five females and one male.They were selected because they submitted their emails in response to the questionnaire's final question, indicating that they were interested in participating in the interview.The interviews consisted of five open-ended questions (see Appendix B).
The researcher conducted the interviews online via audio.For more privacy, the researcher used Zoom audio calls because Zoom does not ask the participants to show their private numbers or information.The participants were contacted via email to provide them with the study's purpose and to sign a consent form.After the consent form was sent to the participants who agreed to be interviewed, the researcher asked them to select an appropriate time to conduct the interview.Then, the link to the audio call was sent to the participants via email.The participants joined the audio call on Zoom and discussed the questions.For the sake of giving some consistency to the themes and issues identified in this paper, the interview questions were created in advance and submitted to the participants before the interviews started.

Semi-structured Interviews
Third, according to the Instagram teachers' interviews, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with four English teachers to gain a more in-depth insight into their perspectives.The teachers were selected based on some respondents in the questionnaire in which they mentioned their accounts in question number 11.They are well-known teachers on Instagram and have thousands of followers.
Although the interview consisted of two open-ended questions (see Appendix C), it was a semi-structured interview in which the researcher prepared the primary questions, and further questions were asked during the interview.
The researcher contacted three of them through their direct messages on Instagram, and the other was contacted via WhatsApp.Then, the researcher sent the consent form to all the teachers who agreed to be interviewed.As mentioned earlier, Zoom audio calls were chosen to conduct the interviews.The interview questions were prepared in advance and provided to the teachers before the interview to provide some consistency to the themes related to the study.Because ethics are significant before conducting any research, several ethics were taken into consideration before collecting data.Importantly, the researcher took the participants' permission.Consequently, it caused no harm to the participants.The researcher also gave a detailed description of the paper to all the participants and ensured the participants' privacy.The participants were given the chance to stop the interview at any time if they so wanted.All provided information is treated confidentially in this paper.

Questionnaire Findings
The results of the questionnaire were analyzed by separating the data into two sub-sections: close-ended and open-ended questions.Furthermore, the close-ended questions were analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program to show frequencies, percentages, valid percentages, and cumulative percentages.

Close-ended questions
In the questionnaire, the first question was a demographic question to explore participants' genders.According to Table 3, there were 217 questionnaire respondents, with 82.9% being female and 17.1% being male.In response to statement number three, with a five-point Likert-type scale, participants were asked if Instagram is widely used in Saudi Arabia.In fact, 43.3% of the respondents agreed that Instagram is used a lot in Saudi Arabia (see Table 5).Moreover, 41.9% of them strongly agreed with this statement.However, 11.5% of the respondents were neutral.While 1.8% strongly disagreed and 1.4% disagreed with the statement.In addition, according to the fourth statement, 44.2% of the participants strongly agreed that they followed accounts that often post quotations, captions (comments), photos, and videos in English (see Table 6).Similarly, 40.1% of them agreed with the statement.But 12% of respondents were neutral.While 2.3% of the respondents disagreed and 1.4% of the respondents strongly disagreed with the statement.In terms of the sixth statement, 40.6% of the respondents agreed that using Instagram influenced their vocabulary and listening skills, and 39.6% strongly agreed (see Table 8).Also, 13.4% were neutral on the statement.On the contrary, 4.6 disagreed and only 1.8% strongly disagreed with it.Furthermore, as illustrated in Table 9, 46.5% of the respondents agreed that Instagram helped them develop their English vocabulary, and 40.6% strongly agreed.In contrast, 10.1% of the participants were neutral.Also, 1.4% disagreed and 1.4% strongly disagreed with the statement.Open-ended questions Instagram Advantages.In question number nine, participants were asked to highlight some of the advantages of using Instagram to develop their English vocabulary.Some of the advantages are that Instagram conveys vocabulary in an easy, fun, wonderful, and creative way to learn.Instagram also helps with word memorization and gives learners a deep understanding of how the language is used by exposing them to several English stories or reels.
In addition, 24 participants stated that Instagram helps them follow English teachers and native speakers to learn how they speak and use the language.It also facilitates communicating with them.Furthermore, Instagram does not only improve a learner's vocabulary but also other language skills.Moreover, it aids in the improvement of their English pronunciation.Additionally, Instagram helps learners explore new expressions, common phrases, jokes, and idioms.Finally, Instagram is flexible because learners can simply read or learn at any moment for free.
Instagram Disadvantages.On the other hand, in terms of Instagram's disadvantages in the tenth question, 61 participants justified that they do not think there are disadvantages to using Instagram to develop English vocabulary, and they found it a great platform to use.
However, other respondents thought that while Instagram provided several teaching accounts, it also distracted users, wasted their time, and caused smartphone addiction.In addition, two participants reported that one of the Instagram disadvantages is that the learning process is considered random and there is no clear curriculum to follow.
According to cultures and beliefs, three participants mentioned that they sometimes face inappropriate content on Instagram that does not go with their religion and beliefs.Lastly, two respondents emphasized that the drawbacks of Instagram can vary depending on what users choose to follow, browse, or watch.
Accounts that Participants Follow on Instagram.Finally, in response to question number 11 in the questionnaire, participants were asked to list some of the accounts on Instagram that they often follow to increase their vocabulary.
According to the responses, 20 participants stated that they do not follow specific accounts on Instagram, but rather they follow random native speakers to learn from them.Moreover, 5 participants demonstrated that they do not follow English educational accounts, but they follow some English accounts in the fields that they are interested in.

EFL Learners' Interviews Findings
Learner E shared her experience of using Instagram.She stated, "Instagram is one of the most interesting educational materials."Moreover, learner E believed that Instagram helped her develop vocabulary.She said, "Instagram adds a lot of words."According to her experience, she added, "I'm not an early learner, so when I talk to my students, they already have the extra vocabulary, which I never knew.It's nice to catch up on new vocabulary with the new generation." Speaking of discovering new words, learner C also believed, "Instagram is very helpful because nowadays there are a lot of words and trends coming up, and you can't read them all in the dictionary."In addition, learner D outlined, "I follow a variety of accounts that I'm interested in, which is a major reason why I have a wide range of vocabulary." During interviewing learner D, she highlighted, "in fact, I believe that using Instagram to learn is very effective."She also added, "on Instagram, you can learn what you want in a short amount of time."In addition, learner B shed some light on the impact of Instagram by saying, "with Instagram, you can learn with fun because it's not a classroom.So, I believe Instagram is a great way to learn any new skill." Learner F gave the reason for using Instagram by stating, "because when you browse different English accounts and communicate with native speakers, you will learn quickly and without feeling bored."Similarly, learner C concluded, "since I started following English native speakers on Instagram, my communication skills have improved."Further, "Instagram is better than the traditional ways," learner A compared Instagram to traditional classrooms.
On the other hand, learner E emphasized the importance of being attentive while using Instagram.Learner A also mentioned that learners need to use other materials besides Instagram to develop their vocabulary.

Instagram Teachers' Interviews Findings
"From my experience, I see Instagram as a valuable resource," teacher A said.Furthermore, he believed that Instagram could be an opportunity to introduce a lot of vocabulary and concepts.Teacher F also mentioned that most Instagram audiences are usually motivated to learn.They also interact and give feedback on the posts.
Based on teacher F, he described his experience of teaching on Instagram as an awesome experience.From his point of view, it's really amazing and incredible to connect with more students via Instagram.Moreover, teacher E expressed her opinion of using Instagram, and she added, "I love Instagram because it's very nice when I see feedback from people.I'm happy with the feedback, interactions, and comments." According to learners' interactions on Instagram, teacher B stated that comments are the most important thing to measure the success of the materials.Because if learners are commenting, it shows that they're engaging with the given information and content.Moreover, teacher B added that Instagram is improving day after day, so teachers can also use Instagram as a means to help or teach their students.
On the other hand, teacher A stated that learning a language should be accomplished as a part of a planned program, which Instagram does not support.Teacher F also added that one drawback of Instagram is that you have such a large following that you can't meet the needs of everyone's demands all the time.In addition, teacher E explained that short Instagram videos are not enough to learn from.
Finally, teacher F pointed out that Instagram was not created to teach English.However, it's considered a good supplemental material to help learners develop their vocabulary skills.Overall, Instagram is an amazing opportunity to learn and teach English.

Discussion
In light of the previous literature, this section discusses the results through three themes: questionnaire discussion, EFL learners' interviews, and Instagram teachers' interviews.In the end, it answers the researcher's research questions.

Questionnaire Discussion
This paper attempted to investigate the impact of using Instagram to develop English vocabulary among Saudi EFL learners.Generally, the study revealed that using Instagram had a positive impact on vocabulary development.This is consistent with Kamal's (2019) research, who discusses the fact that there was an improvement in the students' mean scores between the pre-test and post-test, which implies that after using Instagram, the students' vocabulary was enhanced.
Depending on the quantitative data, it revealed that 99.1% of the participants use Instagram, which indicated Instagram's popularity among them.This result is supported by Erarslan's (2019) claim, who states in his study that Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms among the study's participants, followed by Twitter.
Moreover, 44.2% of the participants strongly agreed that they prefer to follow accounts that post English quotations, captions, photos, and videos, and 40.1% of them agreed.It indicates that Instagram can be a tool to expand English vocabulary.This result goes in line with Agustin and Ayn's (2021) assumptions, who points out that 80% of the students who followed accounts often post quotations or captions and videos in English.
Additionally, the findings showed that 46.5% of the respondents agreed that Instagram helped them develop their English vocabulary, and 40.6% strongly agreed.This finding is completely in line with Erarslan's (2019) study, which illustrates that students think that social media platforms, particularly Instagram in this case, can be used for educational purposes.It is also entirely familiar with Kamal's (2019) research, in which the results indicates that students were mostly keen on vocabulary learning on Instagram.
As a result, even though Instagram was not designed as an educational tool, Saudi EFL learners benefit from Instagram to improve their English vocabulary, which is compatible with Alshabeb and Almaqrn's (2018) study.

EFL Learners' Interviews Discussion
The findings revealed that all six participants in the interview believed that Instagram was motivated to use, and this is consistent with Alshabeb and Almaqrn's (2018) findings, in which their study shows that using social media applications has enhanced learners' motivation.After interviewing learners, the researcher concluded that some reasons why learners prefer Instagram.As stated by learners E and C, Instagram keeps learners abreast of new vocabulary.It also offers learners the chance to expand their English vocabulary in a fun setting, as learners E, B, and C believed.This is consistent with Ariantini, Suwastini, Adnyani, Dantes, and Jayantinis' (2021) research, in which they discover that social media not only inspired enthusiasm and innovation, but also motivated EFL learners to use their language skills.
Similarly, Erarslan's (2019) study revealed that the survey respondents' responses indicated that they have favorable attitudes toward the usage of Instagram as a learning tool, with a mean score of 3.07.Moreover, according to learners B, C, and D, Instagram enables learners to improve their vocabulary in the fields that they are interested in.It also helps them learn the correct pronunciation of several words and phrases by exposing them to a variety of videos, stories, and reels, as learners D, B, F, C, and A discovered.Interactions with native speakers' accounts or English educational accounts also help learners enhance their English language skills based on learners E and D.
Learners A and C mentioned that Instagram allows them to take the opportunity to immerse themselves in the language and discover new cultures and individuals.This finding is consistent with Erarslan's (2019) study.He finds that Instagram provides an authentic platform for language practice and social interaction.Erarslan also adds that learners do not worry about making mistakes when participating in discussions or leaving comments.
Without a doubt, the use of Instagram presents both advantages as well as challenges.Instagram, on the other hand, has benefits, but there are also some disadvantages.It consumes time and takes attention away, as learner E revealed.In addition, using Instagram by itself is insufficient to reach high English proficiency levels.As a result, students should use other educational resources to learn as learners A and D stated.Finally, considering that Instagram has millions of users, users should be aware of the accounts they follow, as learner E believed.

Instagram Teachers' Interviews Discussion
The analysis of the teachers' interviews draws some conclusions in which learners can unconsciously become immersed in the language by using Instagram.Instagram can also motivate EFL learners and encourage them to learn, as well as give them a way to interact with others.This finding is compatible with Jae-Hyun's (2020) study, which states that English education content on social media can be described as gamification, snack culture, authenticity, and recommended content for further learning.
Furthermore, according to teacher E, Instagram is a great platform to teach on since it makes them closer to their students.As a result, the researcher found that all four teachers liked their experiences of using Instagram to teach English, and they also considered it an incredible experience.However, teachers F and A emphasized that students should never depend exclusively on Instagram.

Answers to the Research Questions
After analyzing the results, the researcher is able to answer the research questions using the questionnaire and interview findings.
Regarding the first research question, which was: How effective is the use of Instagram to develop vocabulary building for EFL learners in Saudi Arabic.It seems that Instagram plays a significant role in developing vocabulary.As illustrated earlier, the majority of Saudi EFL learners (99.1%) use Instagram, which may imply that Instagram is a popular platform among them.Furthermore, 44.2% of Saudi EFL learners strongly agreed that they follow accounts that post quotations, captions (comments), photos, and videos in English, and 40.1% of them agreed.This statement indicates that Saudi EFL learners use Instagram as a medium to help enhance their English.For instance, in the interviews, learner E stated that Instagram helps her expand her vocabulary and gives her access to the new and latest words and phrases.In addition, learners C and D believed that Instagram could present various words relevant to their interests attractively and enjoyably.
Regarding the second research question, which was: To what extent does the use of Instagram influence the development of EFL learners' vocabulary.It can be concluded from the findings that 46.5% of Saudi EFL learners agreed that Instagram helps them develop their English vocabulary, and 40.6% of them strongly agreed.Furthermore, based on statement number 8, 42.4% of Saudi EFL learners agreed that they think Instagram is a tool to develop their English vocabulary, and 35.9% strongly agreed.
Moreover, as reported by learners E, C, D, F, B, and A, Instagram influences them and enables them to increase their English vocabulary.In addition, learner D stated that Instagram has a ton of features, making it an excellent tool for learning.To conclude, using Instagram could be an effective tool for Saudi EFL learners to develop their English vocabulary.Instagram can also impact the development of vocabulary among EFL learners.s

CONCLUSION
In this era, the role of social media cannot be underestimated, particularly, Instagram.The use of Instagram as a material to develop learners' building vocabulary has been one of the most interesting areas to explore nowadays.In fact, EFL learners tend to use Instagram for various reasons.However, based on this paper's qualitative and quantitative findings, it can be concluded that Instagram can be an effective tool that Saudi EFL students can utilize to access authentic content, for example.It also clearly motivates learners and provides students with an opportunity to interact.
Hence, the findings positively presented the impact of the use of Instagram among EFL learners.Although this paper presented the fruitful role of Instagram, it also shed some light on its deficiencies.Interestingly, the results in the present paper were consistent with the other set of findings revealed by Alshabeb and Almaqrn (2018), Kamal (2019), Erarslan (2019), Agustin and Ayn (2021), Jae-Hyun (2020), and Ariantini, Suwastini, Adnyani, Dantes, and Jayantinis (2021).The findings of this paper can be used to provide some insights into Instagram's positive effects on developing English vocabulary.However, this paper has some limitations.The first limitation is the number of participants who took part in the interviews due to the researcher's short time to complete her paper.Second, this paper is limited to measuring the impact of using Instagram to develop vocabulary.For future research, researchers may consider using other instruments such as pretests and posttests to confirm the results of the paper.It is also recommended to examine the impact of using Instagram to develop reading, listening, and speaking skills.Finally, this paper encourages further research on vocabulary development among Saudi EFL learners using Twitter because, according to Alshabeb and Almaqrn's study (2018), Twitter is also the most widely utilized platform in Saudi Arabia.

Table 2
Summary of Research Instruments

Table 3
Distribution of Females and MalesIn the second question, participants were asked if they used Instagram or not.Based onTable 4, 99.1% of the participants use Instagram, while 0.9% do not use Instagram.

Table 5
Distribution of Responses to Statement Three

Table 6
Distribution of Responses to Statement FourAs illustrated in Table7, 41% of the participants agreed that they read English posts and comments on Instagram.Moreover, 35.9% of them strongly agreed.Despite this, 15.7% were neutral on the statement.Only 4.1% of the participants disagreed, and 3.2% strongly disagreed with it.

Table 7
Distribution of Responses to Statement Five

Table 8
Distribution of Responses to Statement Six

Table 9
Distribution of Responses to Statement SevenAccording to Table 10, 42.4% of the respondents agreed that Instagram is a tool to develop their English vocabulary; also, 35.9% strongly agreed.In fact, 15.7% were neutral on this statement.But 3.7% of them disagreed, and 2.3 strongly disagreed.

Table 10
Distribution of Responses to Statement Eight