Identifying the impact of using YouTube, Telegram and Instagram to learn English in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study aims to determine the impact of using YouTube, Telegram and Instagram to learn English in an informal setting. Three skills were evaluated in this study: speaking, reading, and writing. An additional aim was to determine whether social media (YouTube, Telegram and Instagram) are beneficial to learning English and their effectiveness in learning English. Moreover, the study looks to discover if there are any significant differences in the responses of the sample study towards the benefit and effectiveness of social media for learning English according to demographics. Additionally, it is hoped that the study helps explain how YouTube, Telegram and Instagram can be used effectively to learn English. Data were collected through an online survey using quantitative and qualitative methods. The respondents comprised 206 Saudi young people, male and female, from five different regions in Saudi Arabia. Quantitative techniques including mean and standard deviation, independent samples t-test, and analysis of variance were used to analyse the results. According to the study, YouTube is beneficial in increasing engagement, improving skills, and increasing Saudi young people motivation; this suggests that social media platforms do enable learning of the English language. The questionnaire revealed that most Saudi young people used Instagram for entertainment and the minority of the Saudi young people use Telegram for education purposes but tend to use YouTube for everything. The Saudi young people’ responses have shown that even though they use social media for other purposes, they also use it for educational purposes. The results showed that social media applications are used in Saudi Arabia for entertainment, communication, news, shopping, and learning. YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram help Saudi young people understand and improve their English. As indicated by the Saudi respondents’ perspective, social media impacts their lives, as noted in this appraisal. From the study, it is clear that young people from rural areas would benefit more from using social media for learning English. This study had some limitations since this study focused on only the social media usage on YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram, so other studies need to be done, to focus on identifying the patterns of social media usage in other social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn to identify whether there are similar trends. Also, there were time constraints associated with the study, and data collection was done over a short period. Therefore, there is a need to allow longitudinal snapshots between research at different times of the year.