Bridging Activities: Social Media for Connecting Language Learners' in-School and Out-of-School Literacy Practices

This study applied pedagogically-focused project design by using Instagram as a platform to investigate how the use of social media such as Instagram in a multimodal digital storytelling model could bridge the skills English language learners (ELLs) learn in the classroom to out-of-school literacy practices. The study applied the five learning objectives of the bridging-activities framework to investigate to what extent ELLs achieve these objectives. There were forty-two participants (female: n= 22; male: n= 17), international arts and media students. The study collected their main Instagram posts, questionnaires were given with a five-point Likert scale and open-ended questions, and individual follow-up interviews for content analysis. A cross-tabulation was conducted to investigate the relationships between ELLs' Instagram use and how they perceive Instagram as a meaningful way of communication for professional purposes. The findings revealed pedagogical practices of using Instagram as a tool for professional purposes and how ELLs achieved the bridging-activities learning outcomes.