The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language

August 2019– Volume 24, Number 2

Voices to Be Heard: Using Social Media for Digital Storytelling to

Foster Language Learners’ Engagement
* * * On the Internet * * *
Ellen Yeh
Columbia College Chicago, U.S.A.
<[email protected]>

Svetlana Mitric
University of Illinois at Chicago, U.S.A.
<[email protected]>

Abstract

Many English language learners (ELLs) struggle to actively participate and claim their own voice
in the classroom, which hinders their success in American educational settings (Núñez et al., 2016).
This article draws on the second language (L2) motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009; Dörnyei
& Kubanyiova, 2014) and Dörnyei’s Model of Student Engagement (2018b) as a supporting
framework to suggest ways to incorporate Instagram as a multimodal digital storytelling tool in
order to foster the engagement of college-level ELLs. In conjunction with a pedagogically-focused
project design and implementation, Instagram could potentially be an effective tool for reflection
on deeper learning for language learners. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate
ways to incorporate Instagram as a multimodal digital storytelling tool to (1) foster college-level
ELLs’ motivation and engagement in language learning; (2) enhance ELLs’ oral and writing
proficiencies; and (3) help ELLs’ stories and voices to be heard.

Key Words: digital storytelling, engagement, English as a second language, English language
learners, Instagram, multimodality, motivation, social media

Introduction

The population of English language learners (ELLs) continues to increase in the United States. It
has been projected that by 2030, 40% of students in the United States will be ELLs (U.S.
Department of Education & National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2003).
However, many ELLs struggle to actively participate and claim their own voice in the classroom,
which hinders their success in American educational settings (Núñez, Rios-Aguilar, Kanno, &
Flores, 2016). Often, their stories are not being told and their voices are not being heard. Important
factors that prevent ELLs from participation are lack of opportunities and task implementations

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 1

offered in the classroom that do not motivate them to actively engage in conversations and group
projects (Dörnyei, 2001; Dörnyei, 2018a).

Christenson, Reschly, and Wylie define student engagement as “effortful learning through
interaction with the teacher and the classroom learning opportunities” (2012, p. vi). Sinatra, Heddy
& Lombardi identify engagement as “the holy grail of learning” (2015, p. 1). This is why studies
often report that students are not able to achieve their learning objectives due to negative attitudes
and emotions such as feeling distant, bored, distracted, and disengaged in their learning (Pekrun,
Goetz, Daniels, Stupnisky, & Perry, 2010; Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Schneider & Shernoff,
2003). This problem is not limited to ELLs; Gallup (2015) conducted a survey study of 900,000
public school students and the findings reveal that merely 50% of the students are engaged in their
classroom activities while 29% of the students are not engaged and 21% are actively disengaged.
The gap of disengagement and student learning has become a crucial issue for educators and school
administrators.

Digital storytelling is an approach that could enhance the motivation of ELLs and foster
engagement in not only academic activities but also social environments outside of the classroom
(Chan, Churchill, & Chiu, 2017; Hur & Suh, 2012; Robin, 2008; Sadik, 2008). This approach
allows ELLs to become creative storytellers and active participants in their learning, developing
learner autonomy by taking charge in selecting topics that interest them, conducting research on
the topic, writing a narrative, and claiming their own voice in their stories (Robin, 2008). In addition
to enhancing ELLs’ motivation and engagement in learning, digital storytelling can add meaning
to ELLs’ writing and help struggling writers improve their understanding of storylines, narrations,
and spelling (Dreon, Kerper, & Landis, 2011). Students also develop their writing skills by
negotiating meaning with their partners and enrich their experiences by communicating and
collaborating with their peers (Morgan, 2014). For anxious speakers, digital images and graphics
allow them to express themselves easily, especially with regard to the emotional aspects of a story.
However, limited research has investigated to what extent digital storytelling fosters the
engagement of ELLs in higher educational settings and how this approach can support their oral
and writing proficiency.

The present article aims to develop a multimodal model of digital storytelling through the use of
social media, particularly Instagram. The participants were international students from an arts and
media college pursuing careers in creative industries. This multimodal project encourages the ELLs
as young artists to acquire skills for telling their stories and promoting their work by branching out
to online contexts outside of their everyday classrooms. In conjunction with a pedagogically-
focused project design and implementation, Instagram could potentially be an effective tool for
reflection on deeper learning for language learners.

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present art students using Instagram as a model for how
to integrate popular social media practices in fields relevant to students’ future careers into the
English as a second language (ESL) curriculum. This model demonstrates ways to incorporate
Instagram as a multimodal digital storytelling tool to (1) foster the college-level ELLs’ motivation
and engagement in language learning; (2) enhance the ELLs’ oral and writing proficiencies; and
(3) help the ELLs’ stories and voices to be heard. This model could potentially be integrated into
disciplines other than creative industries.

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 2

Theoretical Frameworks

L2 Motivational Self System

As we have seen, the gap of disengagement and student learning has become a crucial issue for
educators and school administrators. This article draws on the framework of the second language
(L2) motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009) to explore ways social media enhances ELLs’
motivation and engagement in their language learning. This framework has been supported in the
past decade by empirical evidence suggesting that future self-guides and the ideal L2 self
predominantly serve as important factors for motivating language learners in a myriad of learning
contexts, regardless of their ages and educational levels (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015).

According to Dörnyei (2018a), the L2 motivational self system consists of three elements:

1. the ideal L2 self — meaning the ideal self-image that the language learners picture
themselves to be in the future;

2. the ought-to L2 self — meaning the traits and characteristics that language learners perceive
they need to obtain to meet the expectation or to prevent negative outcomes during their
language learning;

3. the L2 learning experience — emphasizing learners’ present experiences in their immediate

learning environment, namely, the teacher influence, the curriculum design, the peer
interaction, and the successful experience.

This framework strengthens the concept of future self-guides indicating “vision of what might
be” (Markus & Nurius, 1986, p. 59). Dörnyei and Kubanyiova (2014, p. 2) further claim that
“vision is one of the single most important factors within the domain of language learning: where
there is a vision, there is a way.”

Based on this concept of future self-guides, Dörnyei (2014) proposes motivational strategies which
focus on language learners’ future vision. In many circumstances, the desire to learn a target
language or develop identity in a foreign context professionally that have been motivated by future
self-images fails because they are not able to be transformed into action.

Thus, a six-phase visionary training approach is proposed by Dörnyei and Kubanyiova (2014)
which aims to enhance future self-guides to motivate action. The multimodal digital storytelling
project described here applies the motivational strategies and follows the six steps elaborated
below.

The first step is to assist language learners to develop deserved future selves. Learners construct
visions of who they could become as artists in the target language creative industry and of what
skills and knowledge they can add to their lives in their professional careers.

The second step is to strengthen each learners’ vision by helping them to see their desired L2 self
more clearly and lead to action. Learners start to practice ways to use hashtags to build networks
with other artists on Instagram and learn ways to present their artwork in the digital wilds.

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The third step is to sustain the vision which means learners should aim for their ideal L2 self-images
in realistic expectations. As young artists in a foreign country trying to work their way into the
professional creative industry, they need to understand the traits and trends of their fields and reach
out to other artists to understand what other artists have been working on in their fields. In their
digital storytelling projects, students are required to build networks with other artists through
Instagram, and also interview other artists in the same field.

The fourth step is transforming the vision into action. To achieve this goal, viewing others’ artwork
and sharing their current artworks allow them to reflect on the gap between their current stage and
their ideal self-image. Many of them talked in their final storytelling presentations about how they
had started to reflect on their blueprint of concrete pathways that would lead to their goals to be
successful as artists in the target language community.

The fifth step is to keep the vision alive which means that learners should achieve the vision
frequently, so that they have a sense of accomplishment which will lead to a greater experience of
success. The artworks learners shared on Instagram received many praises and compliments. Being
“liked” or commented on by other artists or peers encourages them to share more and enhances
their confidence in their work.

The last step is counterbalancing the vision, meaning that a desired future self is always
counterbalanced by a “feared self”. This feared self usually indicates a possibility of failure. The
majority of the audience in this project was their peers but their posts were also available for the
general public, particularly artists in their own creative fields. Therefore, learners were concerned
during the project that their work would be criticized or disapproved by their peers. They might see
this as a failure. How instructors help their learners to use this vision as a strength to help them
achieve the true desired future self is crucial.

Model of Student Engagement

The L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009) and a six-phase visionary training approach
(Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014) support Dörnyei’s forthcoming work on a model of student
engagement to explore ways social media enhances ELLs’ motivation and engagement in their
language learning. Here, Dörnyei outlines the relationship between antecedents and ecologies of
learner engagement (see Figure 1). This model adds value to the L2 motivational self system theory
and further elaborates the extent to which active student engagement in a wider context works
within multiple learning environments, such as the relationships between the six antecedents and
four ecologies.

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 Figure 1. Proposed model of student engagement. Reproduced from Dörnyei, 2018b, with
permission.

Antecedents refer to three facilitative conditions in terms of school and classroom culture, teacher-
student relationships, and the learner’s mindset. Ecologies of engagement include four components:
task, class, institution, and language. The model defines active student engagement as engaging
within multiple contexts: (1) school context, (2) foreign language environments, (3) course
materials and syllabi, (4) learning tasks, (5) peer relationships, and (6) teacher-student relationships
(Cambridge University Press ELT,2018).

These facilitative conditions and ecologies are also supported by the motivational strategies
framework (Dörnyei, 2001) that emphasizes the importance of (1) how teachers create basic
motivational conditions by developing a supportive teacher-student rapport and creating a
communicated group learning environment; (2) how teachers generate initial motivation by
building students’ confidence, sense of accomplishment, and positive attitudes towards learning;
(3) how teachers maintain and protect motivation by fostering students’ learner autonomy; and (4)
how teachers encourage positive retrospective self-evaluation by providing opportunities for
constructive and effective feedback, and enhancing self-esteem and satisfaction. In this study,
Dörnyei investigated the effects of motivational strategies on student motivation and revealed that
there was a strong relationship between motivational teaching practice and student engagement.
The findings showed that by applying different motivational techniques and strategies, students are
more inclined to pay attention in class, actively participate in discussions, and volunteer during
teacher-fronted oral activities.

Dörnyei (2018b) emphasized that “If a student is ‘engaged’, this means that he/she is not only
motivated, but that his/her motivational drive has succeeded in cutting through the multitude of
distractions and alternatives” (p. 3). The relationship of motivation and engagement is that
motivation is a crucial component of preparing the ‘deal’ and engagement is one of the most critical
factors of “sealing the ‘deal’” (p. 3). Therefore, he proposed the formula Engagement = Motivation
+ Implementation. Similarly to Dörnyei (2018b), Jang, Reeve and Deci (2010) claim that, “In
classroom settings, engagement is particularly important because it functions as a behavioral
pathway through which students’ motivational processes contribute to their subsequent learning
and development, including the skills they develop and the grades they make” (p. 1). Along with

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motivation, implementation is key to achieving engagement and active participation. Motivation
alone cannot help students become active learners throughout the entire language learning process
because students encounter constant distractions in the digital age. Thus, educators need to develop
practices and implementations that help learners fully and actively engage in their learning.

A primary challenge for educators in the 21st century is how to create learning environments that
trigger active, sustained engagement. The L2 motivational self system provides a framework for
this current multimodal digital storytelling project. Further, Dörnyei’s (2018b) Model of Student
Engagement also adds value to the L2 motivational self system theory and further elaborates how
active student engagement in a broader context as engaging within multiple areas including the six
antecedents and ecologies of task, class, institution, and language. Through the use of Instagram as
an implementation tool, this article emphasizes ways this model could enhance the ELLs’
motivation and lead to deeper and more meaningful learning that creates active and sustainable
engagement.

Multimodal Digital Storytelling Project

Instagram is changing the culture of the art world and has been commonly used for promoting and
showcasing artists’ artwork, telling stories about their art, networking, building professional
profiles, constructing their identity as an artist, and referencing art inspirations. The multimodal
digital storytelling project in this article was designed to explore ways Instagram could decrease
the ELLs’ language anxiety and enhance their motivation and active engagement.

Traditional paper-based reading and writing are not the only ways for communication and learning.
Learners in the current generation conduct meaning and express themselves through multiple
modes, such as written, oral, visual, aural, and other multimedia forms. With rapid changes brought
about by the digital age, easy access to various semiotic and online resources is a norm (Jewitt &
Kress, 2003). Educators should be aware that “knowledge is multimodal, co-constructed, and
performed or presented” (Miller, 2007, p. 65). Multimodal literacies in terms of the skills in
consuming, critically analyzing, and producing multimodal content have become one of the new
media literacies that should be emphasized for academic and social purposes (Choi & Yi, 2016;
Jewitt & Kress, 2003; Yi, 2014).

This project was developed at a liberal arts college specializing in arts and media disciplines in an
urban setting. With a significant population of ELLs at many universities, it is essential for
educators to scaffold experiences that enable these students to fully participate in not only language
classrooms but also their general classes and in the target culture outside of class. As ELLs often
feel embarrassed to speak up in a class, they are anxious or unwilling to participate in class activities
(Calderón,Slavin, & Sánchez, 2011). Understanding these students’ linguistic and cultural
backgrounds and the academic learning styles they were exposed to in their home countries helps
instructors better prepare curricula and materials that meet students’ needs. Some ELLs respond to
“individually-directed teacher solicitations,” rather than self-initiating responses in classroom
discussions (Sato, 1982). As a result, social media such as Instagram could lead to lowering
language anxiety and building confidence and motivation (Kabilan, Ahmad, & Abidin, 2010).
Thus, Instagram could improve participation and engagement beyond classroom settings and help
students venture into creative industry environments.

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 6

Procedure

This section illustrates ways an English as an Additional Language (EAL) program in an arts and
media university in the midwestern U.S. offers a practical framework for integrating meaningful
instruction through social media (in this case, Instagram) into its EAL curricula. The following are
the procedures of the project in the assignment guidelines.

Step one. The students chose a creative industry topic that interested them. They were encouraged
to select themes and issues that were relevant to their professional careers, such as film, acting,
dance performance, arts management, theatre, art institution, interior design, or music.

Step two. Instagram workshop: The students were required to register for a new Instagram account,
separate from any personal accounts. In this case, students were able to keep their private
information safe, and they were able to see all the posts from their classmates at once and not mixed
with their personal friends’ posts (Fornara, 2018). The students were instructed to follow their
instructor’s course Instagram account so that the instructor was able to track and evaluate their
postings. The students then submitted their Instagram username to the instructor.

Step three. The instructor then led a learner training workshop to familiarize the students with this
platform. The students conducted a genre analysis where they examined five to ten popular
accounts within their chosen field and made observations about the purpose, types of posts, and
intended audience. The students then identified the common keywords people use for hashtags in
the creative industry they selected. Groups of students with similar creative industries were formed
to talk about similarities and differences among their selected artist accounts, as well as common
hashtags. Having created their own accounts and examined the practices of other artists, students
then decided the purpose, target audience, and type of posts they will be sharing for their project.

Instagram tasks

Instagram task one. For each of the main tasks of this project, the students were required to post
an image on Instagram along with a short paragraph (50 words) that described the image or
information about their topic. The students used the hashtag indexing function to connect with other
artists, research other popular and relevant content, and discover who has been working in similar
fields. For this first task, the students identified an artist or posting that was in the same creative
industry field and reposted the image on their course Instagram forum. The paragraph for this first
task should tell the audience about (1) why this artist’s work was appealing or inspiring, or could
be a critique about the work, and (2) how the image they reposted relates to their own creative
industry work. When they posted their image, they were required to use the class hashtag and other
relevant hashtags so they could branch out to other networks.

Instagram task two. For the second task, the students explored neighborhoods and events in
Chicago related to their topic and documented these data through Instagram. The students were
required to submit one image or video with a description that told the audience the story behind the
image and how it connected with the creative industry they chose. The students were reminded of
how the visual images they posted help attract attention, but that being able to communicate clearly
through writing was how the students really “sell” their message.

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 7

Instagram task three. For the third task, the students developed survey questions based on their
creative industries and conducted field observations and interviews. The students chose an
interviewee that can represent the creative industry they selected. The interviewees could be other
artists, professors in the relevant field, people that work in that particular creative industry, or
participants in art events. The students documented their interview task by submitting at least one
image or video with a short narrative that describes the interviewee’s artwork or journey in the
industry.

Instagram task four. In their final Instagram task, the students posted an image of their own
artwork (e.g., performance, work in progress, studio, equipment, or film settings). The students
were required to submit at least one image or video with a short narrative that introduced their work
and how it represented them as an artist.

Project presentations

The students used the information they collected from all their Instagram assignments and
composed a digital storytelling presentation. In this presentation, they were required to (1)
introduce the creative industry they chose; (2) talk about why they are interested in this field; (3)
demonstrate where they can find access to this creative industry around the city of Chicago; (4)
introduce what other artists’ works they found and connected with on Instagram; (5) introduce the
person they interviewed; and (6) introduce their own artwork. The students can use Instagram as
their visual aid to help create this digital story about their own creative industry career and thus
document their journey to becoming an artist.

Based on the theory of the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009; Dörnyei & Kubanyiova,
2014) and the Model of Student Engagement (Dörnyei, 2018b), the following section further
discusses how Instagram could be a powerful tool as an outlet for personal narratives that tell the
personal stories of ELLs and also to promote in-depth discussion and meaningful tasks that are
relevant to the students’ creative artwork and careers. This multimodal digital storytelling project
provided opportunities for students to demonstrate their ideal L2 self by picturing themselves in
their future creative industry careers, show their ought-to L2 self by obtaining the traits and skills
to meet the expectation, and experience their L2 learning.

Discussion

Multimodal Digital Storytelling in Model of Student Engagement

Using Instagram for ELLs to tell digital stories of their professional creative industry careers could
bring meaning to their learning and bridge in-class activities to the real world. The present
multimodal digital storytelling project aims to enhance future self-guides to motivate action and
encourage ELLs to engage their learning in diverse and multilayer contexts that are proposed in the
L2 motivational self system and the Model of Student Engagement. In order to achieve active
student engagement, students were required to engage with (1) school contexts, (2) foreign
language environments, (3) course materials and syllabi, (4) learning tasks, (5) peer relationships,
and (6) teacher-student relationships.

Regarding school context engagement, ELLs used Instagram to explore and understand the
academic culture and norms of the target language and their professional creative industry fields.

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 8

In Task 1, the students researched the ethos of other artists, the ways they presented themselves as
artists, and how they represented and introduced their artwork on Instagram. The students further
applied hashtag indexing functions to connect and build networks with other artists online. Such
engagement appeared to foster the motivation of the ELLs and enhanced their confidence towards
their academic literacy and professional careers.

As to the foreign language context, many of the ELLs learned their target language in an isolated
environment in which they often interacted and spent time with friends who shared the same first
language due to the lack of opportunities for them to branch out to people from other cultural
backgrounds when they first arrived in the U.S. This project met the needs of these ELLs and
allowed them to practice their target language in an authentic language environment beyond their
limited social and academic interactions. In tasks two and three, by using this multimodal writing
assignment, the ELLs were able to explore new environments and engage in conversations, using
terms and vocabulary in their professional fields, in order to interact with and interview other artists.
These students were guided to connect their professional interests with the real world and interact
with target language speakers. During this learning process, the ELLs could potentially develop
their target language identity and establish their identity as an artist inside and outside of the
classroom.

In addition to school and language contexts, course materials and content are crucial factors that
foster learner engagement. This digital storytelling project promoted learner autonomy, which
refers to “the ability to take charge of one’s learning” (Holec, 1981, p. 3). These ELLs developed
their goals in the beginning of the project and took charge of creating materials and postings on
Instagram. The ELLs worked in groups to analyze and discuss each other’s postings each week,
developing a sense of community and collaboration.

This digital storytelling project was developed through task-based language teaching methods and
encouraged ELLs to build their problem-solving skills through the main four Instagram tasks. For
instance, the ELLs on this project explored neighborhoods in Chicago or attended events related to
their professional creative industries. Figures 2-6 demonstrate ways these ELLs could relate their
own interests to this project and engage themselves with the environment around them.
Additionally, these figures show ways in which the ELLs were able to use Instagram to document
their stories and experiences.

Figure 2. Example of music theatre Instagram project.

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The example in figure 2, above, shows that the student was able to picture her ideal L2 self
performing in the famous Chicago theatre in the future.

Figure 3. Example of art design Instagram project.

Figure 3 shows that the student found this event to be very intriguing, which motivated her to learn
more about her field and enjoy the learning process.

Figure 4. Example of cinema art and science Instagram project.

Figures 4 (above) and 5 (below) showcase ways students were able to develop their ought-to L2
selves and understand what characteristics and skills that they will need to obtain in order to succeed
in both their language learning and creative industry careers.

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 10

Figure 5. Example of standup comedy Instagram project.

Figures 5 (above) and 6 (below) indicate that the students were able to compare and contrast the
differences between their home culture and norms with the target language culture. This learning
experience allows students to understand how different creative industry culture varies in different
contexts.

Figure 6. Example of music industry Instagram project.

The last two engagement contexts (peer relationships and teacher-student relations) were present
throughout the entire digital storytelling project. The ELLs practiced their communicative skills
and intercultural communicative competence by engaging with their peers in the social context
online during classroom discussions and in real world settings. They needed to build up these skills
in order to appropriately interact in the social context, and in the process learn about social
acceptance and norms of the target language environments. Another benefit of this project was that
the students attempted to connect with professionals, so that “peers” does not just mean their
classmates but established artists in their selected fields. The instructor played a role as a facilitator
in this project by monitoring the ELLs’ learning progress and providing scaffolding in terms of
technological workshop trainings, building connections between tasks, and problem-solving.

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 11

Implications and Limitations

The majority of participants in this project had been using Instagram for more than a year before
this project started and were therefore familiar with this tool. Since these students had been using
Instagram in their everyday lives for social purposes, they were able to navigate it easily in the
Instagram training workshop. Since many of them had already acquired these social media literacy
skills, they were able to transfer them for academic purposes. Therefore, this model suggests
instructors can embrace the skills students already possess and incorporate them into classroom
activities so that the ELLs are motivated and engaged in oral expression and writing in their target
language.

However, instructors should be aware that some students may not be familiar with popular social
media platforms, particularly with students from other cultures. Instructors should offer additional
support so that their students will not feel left behind. It will be helpful to conduct a pre-task survey
to understand their ELLs’ experiences using the tool in their target language environment. Based
on this information, instructors can better understand to what extent they should provide scaffolding
throughout their task assignments.

The students’ posts were graded based on the rubric introduced in the beginning of the project.
Three categories were evaluated: context relevance, content richness (depth of analysis of the
posts), and clarity and grammar. Based on these criteria, the students were made more aware of the
synergy between the content they created in the target language and the images they shared with
the audience.

Since many ELLs have used this tool in their private social lives, technological skills are not the
main issue for them to complete the tasks; language and sociopragmatics are the primary barriers
and challenges for them. In this project, the students showed their hesitation toward posting
comments and descriptions on Instagram and their insecurity of how other users will judge their
English grammar. Anggraeni (2017) suggests that ELLs refrain from posting in their target
language and prefer using their native languages to express ideas and thoughts online. For many
ELLs, their audience on social media are their friends and connections from their home countries
who speak their native language. Thus, it may feel unnatural for them to publish posts on Instagram
that their audience would neither appreciate nor understand. This is why we suggest that instructors
should require students to create a new account for classwork that is separate from their personal
account.

Despite these limitations, this project attempted to help ELLs break out of their comfort zone and
into the target language culture online. This allows students to be more comfortable with sharing
information on Instagram related to their professional interests and in the target language.

Future Research Directions

Empirical research into integrating social media as digital storytelling tools into ESL curricula is
limited. Future studies are needed to investigate:

• the characteristics and trends of ELLs’ using platforms like Instagram inside and outside of
classrooms;

TESL-EJ 23.2, August 2019 Yeh & Mitric 12

 • how these characteristics affect ELLs’ engagement when posting images and text on social
media as a digital storytelling tool;

• how posting images and text on a platform like Instagram can foster ELLs engagement in
writing;

• and what practices and strategies instructors could use to help ELLs participate on social
media platforms like Instagram.

The authors of this project hope that the model presented here can contribute to the research and
best practices regarding social media platforms like Instagram used as digital storytelling tools,
allowing ELLs to contribute their voices to the digital world around them.

Conclusion

This article contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating a multimodal digital storytelling
model that integrates social media, particularly Instagram, into ESL curricula in order to foster
college-level ELLs’ engagement in speaking and writing, and also engage them in an online
participatory culture related to their future professions. Students were encouraged to incorporate
their interests and future professions into their language development by branching out to contexts
outside of their everyday classrooms. The model presented in this article helps international
students claim their voice not only in classroom settings but also in making connections with wider
audiences in their professional fields and could potentially narrow the gap between ELLs in-school
and out-of-school literacy practices.

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